How to Install and Play N-Gage Games On S60v5 Handsets
Nokia N-Gage gaming is one of the most popular gaming environment that Symbian game lovers would always want. It was rather S60v3 which got full support from Nokia for N-Gage gaming. But With the evolution of touch screen phones, the S60V5 models only a few like the N97 got official N-Gage gaming support from Nokia. This Might be a bit disappointing fact for game lovers as most of the people now are possessing a touch screen phone and as a matter of fact there are very few good quality games in S60v5.
The reason for N-Gage not supporting touch screen phones are their requirement to have a physical keypad. V5 models available nowadays do not have that. Specially the ones that are commonly used such as 5800XM, 5230, 5233, 5235 etc. But now there is a way to Install N-Gage and play those games that you always wanted to. Here is a step by step guide on how to do this.
Install N-Gage
- First thing that you must do is hack your phone, If it is already hacked then proceed to the next step else hack your phone first reading this tutorial.
- Personally I have tested N-Gage application with Nokia 5235 hence this must also work on 5230, 5233 etc. Download N-Gage application for 5800XM and Download N-Gage application for 5235, 5230, 5233. I have preferred different installers because the installer for 5800 did not work on my 5235, it will just install in a second and no icons will appear in the application menu.
- It is a sis/sisx file, just copy it to your memory card and install it through the file manager.
- Once installed you can find it under application menu.
Installing Virtual Keyboard
As N-Gage games require keyboard support and we do not have that in our phones then the best and only option left is to emulate it. So we will use virtual Keyboard for this purpose. This installer will work on all S60V5 phones though on the download page it is written as virtual keyboard for 5800.
Once the virtual keyboard is installed there are few settings that you need to do with it.
- Open virtual keyboard from application menu.
- You will find that it is not in English font. So go to the first option where Default is selected. Tap on that menu and select 5800-ngage.
- Selecting 5800-ngage will bring a small V_K box at top of the screen. Tap this box and select N-Gage Controller.
- N-Gage controller bar will appear on the screen and will remain there though the main application in minimized.
- You can close the application for time being.
Installing N-Gage Games
You can visit N-Gage official website to download some trial games. Remember, not all games are compatible so download only for N97. Few games that I was successfully able to play are FIFA 2008, 2009, Asphault4 and Spores. Now there are 2ways in which you can install.
- By connecting to Pc with Nokia Pc Suit- Download the game and select it, it will be automatically transferred to phone and next time when you start N-Gage application the game will be installed.
- By copying the game to Memory Card- In the root of memory card you will find a folder named N-Gage. Copy the game installation files to this folder and then start N-Gage, the games will be installed.
Note: Keep the RomPatcher patches enabled while installing the games, else the games will not be installed and exit with an error.
Playing Games
First thing you should do before running the N-Gage application is to disable Rompatcher patches else this may be one of the reasons for the game to exit with a KERN EXEC 3 error. Now follow the steps.
- Run the Virtual Keyboard as told earlier.
- Then run the N-Gage application.
- Select any installed game and press OK to start it.
Some Common Problems in Playing N-Gage Games
Well, truly speaking there are many problems that you face while playing games on N-Gage. I have tried dozens of games but out of them only few worked well. KERN EXEC 3 is such an error that you will find while trying to start most of the games. For testing purpose I have tried cracked version of a game that did not run and exited giving error, but the trial version of same game downloaded from official site worked smoothly.
There is also an annoying problem with the Virtual Keyboard. Key pressed once in one direction tends to be kept pressed in that direction only, this is a real trouble while playing Asphault4, FIFA and specially Spores. In FIFA you will find yourself at key shortage, though the game runs fine. Some times even if the patches are enabled the game fails to install. There are times when the application runs out of memory and hence stops giving a warning message to close some of the applications first. In this situation I will recommend you to have a task manager at hand like the Handy Task Manager.
Note: Please DO NOT ask for links to cracked games here. These can be found easily by doing a simple Google search.
