In the clip, 49 of the 56 possible N-Gage 'hardware' launches are shown (Martin appeals for anyone who can help complete the set.... Ewan?), plus you get a peek at one of the original N-Gage titles being played on the N-Gage 'classic' - a terrific little phone that I used and loved for a while (it had everything - for its time, including radio and line-in audio recording!).

Here's the video, you've got to admire a collector this dedicated(!):

If you can help Martin, drop him a line here.

Editor's note (Rafe):

I'd like to offer my apologies to anyone who was misinformed by the original story and/or related links on the social web. We strive to be as accurate as possible in all our reporting, but we are not infallible.

The current Ovi Store statistics, as publicy stated by Nokia, can be found on this Forum Nokia page.

We will be offering a more detailed look at Ovi Store statistics, based on our own tracking, in due course. 

If you’ve already purchased Seasons for your phone, hit the update button on the right of the opening screen to open the web browser. This will check for the latest version and offer the SISX file for you to download. Head to File manager and you can install the app direct from the SISx file. Not perfect, but manageable.

And congratulations to Rovio for continuing to support this, rather than have three different “specials” for each holiday at one euro each.

If you haven't already downloaded Angry Birds Seasons, it's still in the Ovi Store at £1.50 (in the UK).

The video “proves” very little in terms of fine game control, comfort, accuracy and such like, but it does show one thing. The relative speeds of the game on both devices is pretty much identical (or at least down to the driver), the graphics are thrown around the screen in a similar style. If this was a strict test, I’m sure colours could be balanced for the actual view, but the point has been made.

Are the N8 and Symbian^3 suited to gaming as much as other platforms? I think the answer is yes.

"To play Angry Birds, you must use a catapult to lob little birds at structures in the hope of knocking them down on pigs. It's the verb "lob" that intrigues me. There is something much more satisfactory about an object tracing a parabolic ballistic trajectory through space towards its target than either following a straight line or propelling itself."

"Predicting parabolas is something humans just seem to find intriguing. How else do you explain golf? Or the awe in which we hold good quarterbacks in football and good spin bowlers in cricket? Our bodies are uniquely good at throwing things at targets. The trajectory must be prefigured in the brain before the projectile leaves the fingers. Our shoulders rotate, our scapulas slide, our pelvises pivot, our arms flex and our fingers extend."

"Until 10,000 years ago, most or even all human beings relied on this talent for gathering at least some of their food—by killing it at a distance. With the arrow, the spear thrower, the blowpipe, the boomerang, the sling, the harpoon and the thrown rock, we were killing prey from fish to birds to mammoths. Not to mention each other."

It makes perfect sense that we're all hard wired to appreciate the parabola. Back in the day that we lived on the plains in hunter-gatherer groups, there would have been something of a Darwinian pressure favouring those who had the best throwing arm. Being the best hunters meant they could feed themselves and their offspring the best.

It doesn't quite apply to our lives these days, as the most hunting you'll probably be doing is on the Ovi Store for games like Angry Birds! Although, this parabolic pleasure seeking is something you might want to think about when you remember asking yourself at school if you'd ever use any of that quadratic equation stuff in real life. You might not be number crunching, but every time you toss something across the room to the rubbish bin (or is that just me?) or play games like Angry Birds, you're subconsciously solving the roots of a quadratic equation!

David Gilson for All About Symbian, 21st January 2011.

So what do we have? It's little more than a list of the top ten games on the Ovi Store, ranked by downloads. Notably, all the titles are free to download, and the big brand names of Need for Speed and Angry Birds are at the top. With no disrespect to the three games at the foot of the list, Cube Touch, Air Hockey and Soccer Bounce would not be the first games that spring to mind if I wanted to show off the Symbian^3 platform. It’s surprising that they are this far up the list (or perhaps there’s a really big drop-off after the first three titles).

They’ve also stressed that this is the list of free titles, and mentioned the top selling game (the full version of Angry Birds) but have left everything else in the 'paid for' category to speculation.

In the vicious smartphone world, Nokia can’t actually win. When they don’t release the numbers, they get called out for meaningless relative comparisons (ahem, see above). At some point, numbers are going to come out, and they’ll be pored over to find statistical (comparative) “facts” that may well be negatively 'spun'.

So they’re in a lose-lose situation. Given that choice, I’d probably be using the same approach that they are, but have a couple of high profile stories loaded in the cannon and ready to go, with one goal in mind.

When it’s time, Nokia need to be ready to show developers where the money is. Maybe they’re holding that back for an big splash at MWC?

-- Ewan Spence, Jan 2011.

Multi-tasking, able to have different conversations, not having to look at the screen… lots of things you hear from people who text and drive, but impaired judgement and concentration is a hallmark of texting as well as drink driving.

The Last Text, by AT&T. Find a few minutes to watch this.

Checkers Touch

Unlike Offscreen's Chess game, Checkers includes a one player version, playing against the phone. I presume that this is because Checkers is a far simpler game to write a 'playing intelligence' for. The version here won't win a world championship but it's enough to get your grey matter working as you try to remember the strategies that worked for you when you were learning this as an eight year old...

Checkers Touch in the Ovi Store

Solo Noble

This is the classic peg solitaire, where you have to jump one over the other, removing the one in the middle, working things such that only one peg remains. There's a timer going too, in case you simply want to beat your previous best score. As any peg solitairist (I'm sure that's the right term) will tell you, it's actually frustratingly hard to get down to one, never mind the score. Or maybe I've expended too many brain cells writing AAS editorials....

Solo Noble in the Ovi Store

Freecell Touch

The famous card solitaire originally shipped with Windows, this is a full functioning touch interpretation, playing in landscape mode. The touch sensitivity is beautifully done and it's easy to enough to drag around specific sub-stacks of cards, in the hunt to find a workable deck-clearing solution. With tens of thousands of possible deals, this is a card solitaire that should give you fabulous amounts of brain-busting gameplay.

Freecell Touch in the Ovi Store

Bagatelle Touch

You'll probably be too young to remember Bagatelle, but think of it as pinball from the early 1900s.... Some wood, some nails and a few metal balls, all led to an addictive game, trying to beat your high score. And oh, the frustration when a ball gets bounced out of the 100 hole - again!

Bagatelle Touch in the Ovi Store

Fridge Magnets 2

Here's a novel novelty - if you see what I mean. In this little app, you shuffle letter tiles on a virtual fridge - that is shared by the rest of the world, on the Internet. So you can see what they're assembling/writing and they can see what you're up to? Chaos, or a neat idea? The jury's out, but you can have a go anyway, it's free (again). We had lots of fun trying it from different rooms, stealing each other's letters...!

Fridge Magnets 2 in the Ovi Store

Video Poker Touch

There are few faster ways to watch your money disappearing in front of your eyes than playing this simulated video poker machine. It's a barely competent little game though, with no animating of the cards or money registers - this is very bare-bones. Still, it's titles like this that fund Offscreen producing all the freebies, so I'd still recommend it. Fair's fair etc. Mind you, Offscreen, if you're reading this, sort out a bit of pizzazz, please? We need Las Vegas here in the sun, not Margate in the winter....

Video Poker Touch in the Ovi Store

PS. In addition to the Offscreen titles just mentioned, and along very similar lines - i.e. traditional and board games, note that Zingmagic's well respected stable of commercial board games are now all available officially in the Ovi Store for Symbian^3 phones. Including Reversi Pro II, Four in a Line Pro and Chess Pro II, screenshotted below. All recommended.

In fact, add up the gameplay hours for all the titles mentioned in this piece and, well, basically, that's your life gone - and you still wouldn't have gotten to Angry Birds! 8-)

Steve Litchfield, AAS

The titles now available for free are:

• Big Roll in Paradise (our review here)
• Climate Mission
• Exclusion (our review here)
• Ovi Maps Racing (our review here)
• Space Impact: Meteor Shower

These titles sit alongside the newest titles, Bounce Boing Battle and Ovi Maps Challenge (our review here) but do note that not all the titles are available for every handset  - I'm looking at you, Big Roll in Paradise! All titles can be found online in the Ovi Store.

The rest of the short details are on the Ovi Blog.

Read on

Read on - MicroPinball Casino

Read on - Color Master

Let's Golf Review:

  

It's true that I'm fussy when it comes to golf games - but hopefully rightly so, in the context of filtering through the wannabes in search of the ultimate pinnacle of playability. Let's Golf! is a cross-platform franchise, characterised by impeccable physics and playability, though with cartoon-like (think Nintendo Wii) characters and scenery rather than photo-realism.

Read on for more.

Read on

BoxIt2 Review:

Sometimes I love finding a new concept in puzzle games, sometimes the best titles are the ones that just about manage to find a new idea but come up slightly short; and sometimes all I want is a well implemented version of a classic genre.

BoxIt2 is the latter, and being honest, it’s been a while since I’ve had a Sokobahn game to review. The mix of fresh style and an old friend, with all the elements working, means I’m enjoying BoxIt2.

Available for S60 5th Edition devices from the Ovi Store, BoxIt2 is a straightforward implementation of Sokobahn. The box pushing game gives you a 'not-that-complicated' maze, with various heavy objects that you push towards some highlighted target squares. In BoxIt2, these are Inca statues, which need to be placed in specific spots to pass the level.

 

Read on for more.