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Open-source Symbian and Nokia N-Gage emulator "EKA2L1" releases on Android

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Taco phones are on the menu tonight. A new emulator called EKA2L1 has released on the Google Play Store, and is designed to emulate Symbian devices, as well as the Nokia N-Gage, the latter of which was a "gaming phone" released in 2003. Though it began development around two years ago, last week marked the first release of a stable Android build. EKA2L1 works primarily on 64-bit devices, though it does have limited "experimental" support for devices that use 32-bit architecture. Right now, it can emulate three different forms of Symbian: S60v1, S60v3, and S60v5, with high compatibility for the fair few N-Gage games that exist, like Sonic N, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Rayman 3, and others.

The emulator requires some setting up, meaning you'll need to acquire the right firmware files for your platform of choice, move them to your Android device, and into the right folder--fairly simple, if you know where to get them. EKA2L1 is also an open-source project, so if you're interested in seeing the finer details of the emulator, you can check it out on the project's GitHub page.

A EKA2 ROM (Symbian 8.2 or upper), is needed for this emulator to run game. You should see an access violation warning when launch an app/game without a ROM. EKA1 ROM can be loaded, but game can't be ran.

  • Dumping EKA1 ROM
    • Compile SDumper or get a compiled copy on Discord, and using it to dump the ROM
  • Dumping EKA2 ROM
    • Download ROMPatcher+.
    • Using Dump ROM option to dump the ROM.
  • Dumping ROFS+ROM to RPKG
    • EKA2L1 requires a Z drive archive, which consists of ROFS+ROM, for performance and system critical booting. To do this, first, download Dumber and install it..
    • Launch Dumberdore app in the menu. Choose Options/Dump RPKG and choose location.
After getting both of the ROM and the RPKG, use the installer in EKA2L1 UI to install them.
Click to expand...

:arrow: Source
 
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Sterophonick said:
If Sonic N is playable I'm down
Click to expand...

While I do applaud people being able to play it again for preservation's sake, Sonic N is just an awful port of Sonic Advance. There's no extra content or anything, it's just got compressed graphics in an awful aspect ratio that make it hard to see what's coming, tinny audio, worse physics, and a generally pretty bad reception among those who have played it.
 
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My last Nokia phone was the first and only Flagship I bought from them, the Nokia N96.
It was a sweet Smartphone for its time, and it had the best N-Gage capabilities Nokia ever released.
It also paired well to their line of Wireless Headsets, of which I bought the BH-604.

But that's about as far as I can force those rose-tinted glasses on myself.

Support for the OS ended a few months into 2009, barely a year after release and the N-Gage Library is a gimmick at best.
I mostly used the phone to watch YouTube, listen to MP3s, video-call and chat, all of which worked remarkably well and, with that metal body, felt the most comfortable out of all the Nokia line-up.

I still believe Symbian could be a viable OS in 2021 for standard Telephony, and I actually wouldn't mind owning a nice metal phone with this OS in the future, just focused on those core aspects. As for an N-Gage Emulator, as a former N-Gage User, I can appreciate its novelty, but not much else when there are Emulators of better Gaming peripherals.
 
Last edited by , , Reason: Nostalgia.
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Gronbar said:
What games would you recommend? FPS was bad for 3d games like in this trailer?
Click to expand...
Define "bad". Framerate was choppy in some 3D titles, but that didn't bother me at the time, plus you could overclock the phone-sole which solved most issues. The control scheme was fairly simplistic and some of the games look outdated, there's a good chance nostalgia glasses are in full effect here, but remember - this thing was pegged against the GBA. In that context, a lot of the early portable 3D games looked mindblowing - you couldn't play stuff like that on the go before. Since the phone-sole was fairly easy to find cracked games for, I've played nearly every major official release, and then some (there's lots of homebrew available, as well as some cancelled official releases that were pretty much 100% complete but remained unreleased due to poor sales). Out of the ones I've tried, I would consider these to be must-play/try ones:
  • Pathway to Glory + Pathway to Glory: Ikusa Islands
  • WH40K: Glory in Death
  • Call of Duty (shush, it's the good OG one)
  • Red Faction
  • Requiem of Hell
  • System Rush
  • TES Travels: Shadowkey
  • Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
  • Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
  • Tomb Raider
  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
  • Worms World Party
  • Asphalt 1 + 2
  • Pocket Kingdom: Own the World
  • Ashen
Some of those games were later released on the DS or other systems and they're better-played on those since the aspect ratio of the N-Gage is a little annoying, but that's the original releases. There was also a wealth of strictly Symbian OS 6 stuff, and lots of homebrew. I remember having a great time with it, and I sure do miss it.
Sterophonick said:
If Sonic N is playable I'm down
Click to expand...
Don't do it, don't do it! :lol:

One thing I will say, Sonic N is a waste of time - just play Sonic Advance instead, it's the same game, but with better aspect ratio (and curiously better performance) on Nintendo's system.
 
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I've waiting for this so long. Finally an n-gage emulator.

But I didn't understand one thing from the video (I watched without sound, at work atm): is it emulating n-gage phone (I mean symbian 6-8) or n-gage 2.0 software platform (symbian 9 and up) or both? From the trailer it looks like both, but this are very different systems.

Anyways, there are good games on both of them. On n-gage I remember SSX Out of Bounds was amazing (this is a cut-down but full 3d version of SSX 3, much better than GBA version), Ashen (3d fps), pocket kingdom (rpg), mile high pinball - all this were exclusive, Asphalt urban gt 2 (best version port of this game imo), the sims bustin' out (very different from other sims games, more like an rpg with a story), sonic N and Colin McRae Rally were good ports too. There are also a couple of good strategy games, like Pathway to Glory 1 and 2, and The elder Scrolls Shadowkey, but I hadn't played them (but judjing by forum post of the time this were good games). Oh, and Worms World Party, but it has lost its appeal (ok port, but had local and online multiplayer back in the day).

And on the n-gage 2.0 we have the one and only Reset Generation - this is a very good game and a must play for any gaming fan. Seriously, please play it.
 
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ClickCLK said:
I've waiting for this so long. Finally an n-gage emulator.

But I didn't understand one thing from the video (I watched without sound, at work atm): is it emulating n-gage phone (I mean symbian 6-8) or n-gage 2.0 software platform (symbian 9 and up) or both? From the trailer it looks like both, but this are very different systems.

Anyways, there are good games on both of them. On n-gage I remember SSX Out of Bounds was amazing (this is a cut-down but full 3d version of SSX 3, much better than GBA version), Ashen (3d fps), pocket kingdom (rpg), mile high pinball - all this were exclusive, Asphalt urban gt 2 (best version port of this game imo), the sims bustin' out (very different from other sims games, more like an rpg with a story), sonic N and Colin McRae Rally were good ports too. There are also a couple of good strategy games, like Pathway to Glory 1 and 2, and The elder Scrolls Shadowkey, but I hadn't played them (but judjing by forum post of the time this were good games). Oh, and Worms World Party, but it has lost its appeal (ok port, but had local and online multiplayer back in the day).

And on the n-gage 2.0 we have the one and only Reset Generation - this is a very good game and a must play for any gaming fan. Seriously, please play it.
Click to expand...
The software lock on the N-Gage ecosystem was completely artificial - there were always ways to run "N-Gage-specific" games on other compatible phones. Symbian in general runs sis/sisx and jad/jar (the latter being J2ME), and as long as the hardware is compatible, it won't complain (much). This seems to emulate the OS without any restrictions, so in theory it should run any Symbian executable. I think support for later Symbian revisions is coming in the future, but for now it seems to have pretty wide coverage.
 
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ClickCLK said:
I've waiting for this so long. Finally an n-gage emulator.

But I didn't understand one thing from the video (I watched without sound, at work atm): is it emulating n-gage phone (I mean symbian 6-8) or n-gage 2.0 software platform (symbian 9 and up) or both? From the trailer it looks like both, but this are very different systems.

Anyways, there are good games on both of them. On n-gage I remember SSX Out of Bounds was amazing (this is a cut-down but full 3d version of SSX 3, much better than GBA version), Ashen (3d fps), pocket kingdom (rpg), mile high pinball - all this were exclusive, Asphalt urban gt 2 (best version port of this game imo), the sims bustin' out (very different from other sims games, more like an rpg with a story), sonic N and Colin McRae Rally were good ports too. There are also a couple of good strategy games, like Pathway to Glory 1 and 2, and The elder Scrolls Shadowkey, but I hadn't played them (but judjing by forum post of the time this were good games). Oh, and Worms World Party, but it has lost its appeal (ok port, but had local and online multiplayer back in the day).

And on the n-gage 2.0 we have the one and only Reset Generation - this is a very good game and a must play for any gaming fan. Seriously, please play it.
Click to expand...

I love reading good post with a person who have love for a niche device! :yay:
 
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Foxi4 said:
The software lock on the N-Gage ecosystem was completely artificial - there were always ways to run "N-Gage-specific" games on other compatible phones. Symbian in general runs sis/sisx and jad/jar (the latter being J2ME), and as long as the hardware is compatible, it won't complain (much). This seems to emulate the OS without any restrictions, so in theory it should run any Symbian executable. I think support for later Symbian revisions is coming in the future, but for now it seems to have pretty wide coverage.
Click to expand...

As I wrote earlier, n-gage and n-gage 2.0 was very different systems. The n-gage and n-gage qd (phones) runs on symbia 6.1 as i remember, and symbian software was backwards compatible up to symbian 8 (I think there was some problems on later symbian 8 versions, but I'm not sure, this was so long ago), but symbian 9 and up is NOT compatible with symbian 6-8 apps, and n-gage 2.0 was a software platform for symbian 9 phones. I do know that most original n-gage games woked on other symbian 6-8 phones (albeit with some problems, but there were patches), but n-gage phones and n-gage 2.0 platform are very different things (there never were n-gage 2.0 phone, only software platform). Even online services (n-gage arena) were incompatible.
 
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ClickCLK said:
As I wrote earlier, n-gage and n-gage 2.0 was very different systems. The n-gage and n-gage qd (phones) runs on symbia 6.1 as i remember, and symbian software was backwards compatible up to symbian 8 (I think there was some problems on later symbian 8 versions, but I'm not sure, this was so long ago), but symbian 9 and up is NOT compatible with symbian 6-8 apps, and n-gage 2.0 was a software platform for symbian 9 phones. I do know that most original n-gage games woked on other symbian 6-8 phones (albeit with some problems, but there were patches), but n-gage phones and n-gage 2.0 platform are very different things (there never were n-gage 2.0 phone, only software platform). Even online services (n-gage arena) were incompatible.
Click to expand...
Well yes, N-Gage 2.0 was just a software distribution platform, not an actual phone, and older games are not binary-compatible with later revisions of the OS, or vice versa. I thought you meant that N-Gage 1.0 games were somehow specific to the N-Gage/N-Gage QD phones or the N-Gage 2.0 games were restricted to N-Gage 2.0-compatible phones, which isn't the case. Other than that, yes, S60v3 and onwards is different to first and second edition.
 
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