With gaming becoming a core model in mobile phones (just look at the repackaged Nokia N-Gage platform), there is still an unadmitted obtrusion to the entire gaming experience turned miniature: phones aren’t really made to play games.

Zeeto’s Zeemote concept might change that as the Bluetooth enabled controller that resembles the Wii nunchuck finally received funding worth $6.9 million.

Was sitting in at a panel discussion last night for an informal eCommerce thing in Manila, Philippines. My co-panelist JC Medina of Level-Up Philippines was talking about a new Level-Up Gamer SIM card. For those not in the loop, Level-Up is probably the brand name of gaming in Asia as they hold the franchise of RF Online, Ragnarok and here in the Philippines – over 80%-90% of the gaming industry.
So back home, where we have the most awesome and crazy cellular network offers, Level-Up launches the LU Gamer SIM card. What it does is offer value added services for LU …read more

Perhaps one of the most surprising and enlightening announcements today from the Go Play event was the rebranding of the Nokia N-Gage from a hardware product to a service. The once hardware-centric brand is now a software and service that will be available throughout the Nokia phone platform. What this means is that anyone will be able to experience gaming across the board on all Nokia phones via download from the PC or over the air (OTA) direct download to almost any Nokia phone.

I’m in Singapore! Although the Nokia Go Play event ended several hours ago (we took a post event trip to Equinox, a bar located at the highest peak of Singapore), there are a lot more things happening tomorrow. In the meantime let me give an overview of what took place today as Nokia launched several new products and services.

That’s how things should be done – mobile phones need some retro loving. They have a footprint small enough to convert to java plus the nostalgia of such games reach mobile phone owners who have purchasing power. Yup, we’re talking about retro gamers who were discovering gaming in the early 90’s.
Take a look at Sonic 2 for the Panasonic P902iS cellphone.

[Read all about it here]

Emulation gods Vampent has released vNes, the portable emulation software for your mobile phone.
The app works for J2ME as well as the S60 platform. I’m prolly gonna install this on my N-Gage QD later today. Funny – coz I have more fun playing third party emulations rather than the N-Gage games themselves.
But more on that later.
You can download a free trial or buy it for $9.90.
[Jonic, from Re:Retro]

I’ve been anticipating the release of eSoft Interactive’s Arcade Challenge for the Palm OS and Windows Mobile platform. From the guys who brought you Tower Mogul and Word Challege comes ARCADE CHALLENGE!
Yarr! 10 games in one great package! Buy it now for $9.95!
It’s so cheap! Think of it as a dollar for each game.

There’s a preview up on 1Up.com on Mark Ecko’s Getting Up for mobile phones. The popular console game that throws creative artist (i.e. vandal) Trane into a dull and gray urban world will soon be ready for release. For a mobile platform game, Getting Up has successfully utilized a wide environment of side scrolling platform jumping that is usually hard to port into the mobile’s small screen. I my self am curious to how this game will turn out.
So let’s all wait for its release set officially at November 13 2005.
[...] Getting Up instead imparts inertia to the player’s …read more

There’s really no room to negotiate when a Needler is pressed onto your head. This is exactly what Microsoft did to IN-FUSIO, leading mobile applications developer for phones. Of course, they had very little choice but to say yes. Well, there’s also that hefty sum of money involved but again, who could say no to the Master Chief?
There’s a lot to be said about mobile gaming – as in portable console gaming. But there’s not much on mobile gaming for your phone. The Nokia N-Gage is by far the only dedicated gaming device that also doubles as a cellular phone. …read more

By my time (GMT +800) its Friday geek dinner night. Today a friend brought along what I consider to be the ultimate Sony PSP carrying solution. Now the real product is called the s-bracket case from Capdase. But combined with another s-bracket, you get the Twins Case.
The s-bracket is pretty unique compared to the other ones available in the market. Other cases get stumped when you want to swap UMD’s. You have to remove the PSP from its case and turn it over to release the disk holder. The s-bracket, however thinks beyond borders and allows the PSP to hinge …read more