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Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

E3 - John Romero's Newest FPS, Via N-Gage 155

Posted by simoniker from the make-you-his-handysized-autodialling-itch dept.
It seems that Nokia's 'mobile game deck', the N-Gage has lured John Romero and his Monkeystone Games posse back from reliving their 2D shareware glory days with Hyperspace Delivery Boy, and onto his 3D shareware FPS glory days, with their own adaptation of THQ's first-person shooter Red Faction. Here are links to the new Red Faction N-Gage trailer in MPEG-4 and Quicktime.Update: 05/13 15:58 GMT by H : We had a story on N-Gage a couple months back.
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E3 - John Romero's Newest FPS, Via N-Gage More

E3 - John Romero's Newest FPS, Via N-Gage

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  • good thing for Nokia that Romero is doing an adaptation, we all know what happens when he decides to make something of his own [planetdaikatana.com]. :)

    Mike

  • This be what I'm excited about from E3 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ilsie ( 227381 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:02PM (#5948957)
    http://www.cube-europe.com/movies/mariokart2.wmv

    sorry about the format.
  • I would say "Let the Daikatana jokes commence!" but I see I'm too late. Is there any video game personality as hated or joked about as he is?

  • Ow (Score:5, Funny)

    by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:05PM (#5948977) Homepage
    This color hurts my eyes. Please stop.

    Oh wait, slashdot staff doesn't read comments. Right. My mistake.

    • You Insensitive Clod! (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I have no eyes!

      (after having read the last games.slashdot.org story).
    • Wrong. Games editor simoniker posts quite reguarly to -decent- questions/points.

      I happen to quite like the games section theme as well.

  • MS (Score:1)

    by r_arr ( 613036 )
    looks like billy and his boys are hear to play Has anyone seen the new footage of Halo2 and Doom III. My god they are freaking awesome. Halo 2 [ign.com] Doom III [ign.com]

  • Portable Playstation (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cpt_Kirks ( 37296 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:07PM (#5948994)
    Since it takes /. about a week to catch up (Really Old News For Nerds, Stuff that mattered last week) how about the newly announced Sony handheld thingy [com.com]?
    • Wow.

      This is amazing news. There's no reason why Sony can't capture the pocket videogame market. Nintendo is entrenched, but thats exactly where they were with the SNES; we all saw what happened there with the launch of the playstation.

      If anything, Nintendo is wiser now. They now know [cube-europe.com] that being the first to introduce a technology can make or break a platform.

      Will the cart-based gameboy SP be able to compare with 1.8GB disc Sony alternative? Will Nintendo ditch the newly released SP in favor of someth
    • > Since it takes /. about a week to catch up [...]

      Just in case you haven't noticed:

      Slashdot is *YOU*.

      *YOU* should have submitted the story a week ago, not waiting for others to catch up.

      Yes, it takes an effort to submit the story, to write ligible sentences and hook the corresponding links in there, but that's what *you* expect from others, don't you.

      Stop whining about slashdot "being behind". Submit the stories for our entertainment, worries, paranoia, outright laughter and senseless mind-boggling

      • Re:Portable Playstation (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        *YOU* should have submitted the story a week ago, not waiting for others to catch up.

        If you were able to peek at the story reject queue you'd probably spot at least one attempt to submit this story to the /. editors.

  • They taste like burning. (obligatory Simpsons quote)
  • Romero: Coding revolutionary games such wolfenstein, doom, and quake along side brilliant minds such as Jonah Carmack.

    Romero: Running his own company, into the ground. Release one horrible game that nobody plays. Romero laughs critics off as he deep conditions his hair.

    Romero: Teaching at game-coding schools

    Romero: Doing Contract work for handheld games producer n-gage (probably hopeless against the huge competition of the gameboy).

    Poor, poor, Romero. He should have stayed with ID software...
    • > Romero: Coding revolutionary games such wolfenstein, doom, and quake along side brilliant minds such as Jonah Carmack.

      /me looks at screen shot of Daikatana. Then Hyperspace Delivery Boy. Then Daikatana. Then HDB. What the fuck? What the fucking fuck fuck?

      > Poor, poor, Romero. He should have stayed with ID software...

      Evil-sounding voice: "oremoR nhoJ ,em llik tsrif tsum uoy emag eht etelpmoc oT"

      Space Marine: "Yeah, Bahpomet, if I had that thing in my closet, I'd call in the Space Marines

    • Romero: Running his own company, into the ground. Release one horrible game that nobody plays. Romero laughs critics off as he deep conditions his hair.

      I thought Romero's company is ion storm, and other then daikatana, they released deux Ex, 2002(?) game of the year. Also they are making a sequel and thief 3. Hardly a company that has ran into the ground.

      • Ion Storm was [is?] divided into two offices, Dallas and Austin. The Austin office did all that good stuff. Dallas did Daikatana and I think Anachronax. Guess which office Romero ran?
    • Poor, poor, Romero. He should have stayed with ID software...

      He would of stayed with id if Carmack and McGee didn't fire his ass for being an egotistical, bullheaded dick

  • the MP4 trailer (Score:4, Informative)

    by zephc ( 225327 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:13PM (#5949047)
    is in fact NOT MP4 (or its some bastardization thereof), but is in truth some form of ASF that my OS X Windows Media Player can't handle.
    • Actually, it appears to be "MP43 - Microsoft MPEG-4 V3"... whatever that is.

      If it makes you feel any better, I'm going to have to track the codec down myself. And I've got Windows Media Player 9 running on WinXP.
    • Final breakdown.

      Video: Microsoft MPEG-4 Video Codec V3

      Audio: Voxware MetaSound ACS96V2 96.1 kbps, 44 kHz, Stereo
      • Final breakdown.

        And all wrapped in ASF file format. Oh dear.

        Why do people slap the 'mpeg 4' name on any file which may have once been near a codec that was mentioned in a bar round the corner from some guy who was sacked by a company that was formerly a member MPEG consortium?

        And here's a start when you make MP4s: try using the mpeg 4 format. ASF - nope. AVI - ugh, and nope. It's really simple. These guys [sourceforge.net] make something that will get you started.

        Sorry - little bug bear of mine. I'll be quiet now :-)
    • Do yourself a favor and get MPlayer2 for OSX [sourceforge.net]. It's much better than WMP for OSX.
    • runs it just fine.

  • Lemme get this straight... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WegianWarrior ( 649800 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:16PM (#5949074) Journal

    Having just skimmed the bit about the N-gage.. It is a phone.. with a small gameboy-like device built into it. or possible a hand held gameconsolle with a phone inside - same difference.

    So, either some bastard will call me just as I'm about to beat the highscore... or the batteries will be dead from me playing to much games, so I'll miss that vital call. Neitehr sounds like a deal to me.

    I may be old skool here, but I much prefer my handheld game to be seperate from my phone, and both to be seperate from my PDA (even thought I do play some games on the later). That way, I'll never miss my calls or have to end my game to take the phone.. and as every old skool nerd knows; the more gadgets, the better. Still, I can see how this may go down well with those who gets a device just because it is new and thus cool - and it looks pretty neat too. Have anyone here one of these and can give some info on how it is in actuall use?

    • little info (Score:5, Informative)

      by GunFodder ( 208805 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:45PM (#5949318)
      The N-Gage hasn't been released yet, but it has the same processor, OS, screen resolution and basic buttons as the 3650/7650. The main differences will be:

      1. Uses removable media cards for games
      2. Buttons are laid out like a handheld game system

      I have played some games on my Nokia 3650 and it is a very capable gaming platform. The battery lasts for several hours while gameplaying. The screen is bright and clear, and the controls are reasonable if not exceptional.

      If you want a perfect device for every possible function then more power to you. I found that my Palm PDA stayed in my bag because it was too large to carry in my pocket. I would rather have a slightly less functional device that I can (and do) carry with me all the time. I don't care for the idea of a batbelt for a separate phone, portable game machine, PDA, camera, etc.
      • The N-Gage hasn't been released yet, but it has the same processor, OS, screen resolution and basic buttons as the 3650/7650.


        Ummmm.... No. 3650 or 7650 do not have 104MHz ARM processor in 'em
      • I don't care for the idea of a batbelt for a separate phone, portable game machine, PDA, camera, etc.

        If I may ask, where do you keep your grappling hook, Batarang, Bat-phone, Bat-pager, Bat-fire-extinguisher, Bat-bat, and Bat-kitchen-sink?
    • I'm imagining that you can probably pause your game to take any phone calls that come in. God forbid you should screw up your quest for the high score.

      And frankly, I feel that the fewer gadgets I've got to tote around, keep track of, remember to recharge, etc... the better. As long as the few gadgets perform all their functions as well or better then the many, I'll be happy to ditch the extraneous ones.

  • They won't get a cent out of me (Score:4, Funny)

    by B3ryllium ( 571199 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:17PM (#5949079) Homepage
    I don't plan on giving John Romero any of my money.

    He told me, via ads in PC Gamer, to "Suck it down" ..

    No, Mr. Romero, *you* suck it down.
  • Mr. Romero, will you make me your bitch?
  • Yeah, because compressing allready-compressed video is such a productive use of one's time...

  • I know its an N-Gage (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Obiwan Kenobi ( 32807 ) * <(evan) (at) (misterorange.com)> on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:23PM (#5949132) Homepage
    But this looks awful.

    Not since Rise of the Triad on a 386 have I seen such a terrible resolution and absolute mess of pixels.

    Did you see the shot where you looked down the hall and it was all a blur of brown and green/blue? Yeah, that's the whole game for you. "Did that blob move? Shoot it!"

    And deathmatch? Don't make me laugh.

    What little gameplay this will provide will be VERY SMALL roomed deathmatch with awful looking weapons on a very small screen.

    I'm all for FPS on N-Gage if it can look better than this. And hell, if you're going to go, why not just port Doom 2? Its still a great game and you won't have to make a fool of yourself trying to make it look "as good" as the original.

    I say go for fighting games on the N-Gage. Something like Samurai Showdown, which has an active zoom-out feature, would work great because of the screen width limitation.

    The phone should've been longer, or the resolution should've been better, because this "hype" trailer just makes me glad I haven't through twice about buying an N-Gage.

    Good job Romero! Once again you've underwhelmed everyone.
    • Actually Doom has already been ported to the Series 60 platform. It looks kinda like the video for the Red Faction port. It may not look very impressive running on a modern PC but when you see it on a phone it looks pretty cool. The real problem with the game is the controls.
    • "Not since Rise of the Triad on a 386 have I seen such a terrible resolution and absolute mess of pixels."

      standard response: IT'S A CELLPHONE!

      "blah blah blah...on a very small screen."

      standard response: IT'S A CELLPHONE!
      The screen's 35*41.5mm [newlc.com], so no shit it's a "very small screen".

      "The phone should've been longer, or the resolution should've been better, because this "hype" trailer just makes me glad I haven't through twice about buying an N-Gage."

      Any longer and it'd be one of those old 80's b

  • I'm surprised this hasn't been posted yet, but Romero has recently announced at E3 that Daikatana's source code will be released in 3 weeks. As you can imagine, everyone is very excited, because we can bring the advanced AI "buddy bots" from Daikatana to our favorite games, like Half Life, or maybe even the upcoming Doom3. Nothing will be better than having Superfly Johnson behind you helping you frag a cyberdemon.

  • Good lord, it's getting slow...
    Try here [nmt.edu] for those files. It'll be a few minutes before the MP4 one is downloaded, but it'll be there. QT is there already.

  • I've got to say, I'm a little underwhelmed by it. It looks a bit crisper than the typical GBA FPS game, but it didn't look nearly as impressive as I was expecting. The narrow gamescreen seems a little annoying too, but outside of that, the graphics just don't seem all that impressive. - Tom

  • Wow--it's Doom on Mars! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by writertype ( 541679 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:36PM (#5949244)
    Geez, look at the video--crates, ramps, all the old standbys. It seriously looks like Doom with mouselook, sans demons.

    Earth to Romero--we've moved on.

  • If so, where can I download a demo? If not, why
    is this story on Slashdot.

  • No story on Sony's new handheld? (Score:3)

    by smd4985 ( 203677 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @05:56PM (#5949394) Homepage
    Much bigger news is the story that Sony will be releasing a portable to compete with Nintendo's Game Boy series. They are calling it the PSP (PlayStation Portable) and it should have graphical quality akin go to the PS1. No firm release date but they said 'late next year' (why the freaking wait!?!?!?).

    To oust Nintendo, they better allow it to play PS1 games though it apparently uses a proprietary media format.
  • I'm getting really tired of only hearing about Romero just because he's louder. In my mind Tom Hall is a far more admirable figure who cofounded monkeystone and is just as worthy of mention.
  • Hey dudes,

    A few days ago I did a mockup of a slightly altered version of Slashdot's Games Dept theme that is a little more pleasing to the eyes. You can see it here [reflectionsoldiers.com]. It recieved some good response, however the topic only got a few views. Just wanted to post it one more time in a busier thread and see if people like it enough for me to submit to the editors.

    (I know, it's OT. At least I put some work into fixing the problem that's being complained about!)
  • Does anybody seriously think he can have another hit like Daikatana again?
  • Well that seems appropriate new project, since Red Faction was one of the worst FPS games I've ever played -- the only notably worse exception being Gore.
  • but i can't leave with out my buddy, SUPERFLY!

    I am so bad...
    • Superfly is a character Romero made in his previous game, Diakatana or whatever. Superfly was an anoying side kick that everyone hated as you had to keep him alive while playing or the game was over, and his AI was poor so he always got himself into trouble.

      The parent post to this one should be marked Funny: 1, not Offtopic: 1.

      It is a funny comment! Where is Superfly in the latest game? :P

      • And if you can, find a song called 'Superfly's Johnson' by The Laziest Men on Mars. They took various sound clips from Daikatana, set them to a porn movie song (I think it's called Shafted) and, dammit, it works. It's funny as hell.

  • This game freaking looks like doom on a 386. Uber blocky, and slow as hell. Complete waste of time -- get a GBA or something else instead.

  • N-Gage - facts (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I worked on the N-Gage briefly so here's some 'insider' info :)
    • It's a phone running Symbian 6.1 which is shaped like a GBA (original, not SP) without shoulder buttons.
    • The screen is 208x176. Yes, the screen is portrait, great for vertical space shooters, crap for anything else. It's really bright and really crisp, but much, much too small. It can do 4096 colours (RGB444) which is fine IMHO.
    • It's got Bluetooth, no IR and GSM/GPRS.
    • You can get games on Flash cards which it has a built-in reader for BUT the
  • it's hard to believe a site hosting a directly-linked file on slashdot's front page is still around.
    props to nokia.

  • Legacy of Kain: Defiance (Score:3, Informative)

    by blincoln ( 592401 ) on Tuesday May 13, 2003 @07:57PM (#5950369) Homepage Journal
    Defiance [eidosinteractive.com] was revealed at the last minute along with Eidos other offerings.

    There's some other cool-looking products at this year's E3, but I know what *I'm* pre-ordering as soon as it's available =).

  • Nokia makes trains? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I prefer the larger gauges, but N gauge is pretty cool if you have limited space.
  • From 'Eurogamer.net':-
    "...a newly shorn John Romero nervously took the stage, looking uncannily like a short version of Huey from the Fun Loving Criminals. But after a spectacularly unconvincing demo of the jerkathon that is Red Faction, Romero managed to inspire one of the longest periods of silence in gaming history. It was as if at the point of applause, the audience went into a stunned state of mourning, suddenly recalling the travesty that was Daikatana. Sometimes past sins are just too unforgivable. R

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