[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] to Nokia: simple method to gain a gamingaudience on 770/800

[From: Jakub.Pavelek at nokia.com]

>I'd like to advance a proposal, mainly to Nokia's Tableteer 
>site developers.
>
>There's no need to explain why a better gaming experience on 
>the internet tablets could boost user-base: of course, for a 
>"high-level" portable gaming experience we'll buy a 
>GBA/DS/PSP/GP2X etc.; I know 770/800 is not a gaming platform, 
>but if we have a 770/800 in our pocket, and we're in gaming 
>mood, and we have no money for a new good game for our GBA 
>these times, why not benefit of our ITB's (Internet Tablet) 
>nice display and touch screen?
>
>Let me soon underline that I'm not going to ask for a better 
>hardware for games, or a better button pad, etc.: nothing 
>needs to be changed, but gaming experience on ITB can be 
>*extremely* boosted with a relatively simple initiative, 
>better if supported by Nokia itself for its success - let me 
>explain it, I hope I succeed in making you see its potential 
>how I do, and take action.
>
>You all know how the Nintendo Wii has gained poularity, and 
>sells. With this nice console in their living room, plenty of 
>users have access to the Internet in a very straightforward 
>way, just like the ITB does on the go (incidentally, this 
>reminds me the main current trends of Microsoft and
>Apple: Microsoft at home, Apple on the go).
>
>The Nintendo Wii can be considered, imho, a great alley for 
>Nokia Internet Tablets sells and popularity: can you see why?
>I own a Nokia 770: let me say that gaming experience, out of 
>the box, is very poor. Tak has done a very good job with 
>emulators porting, but this cannot be considered a solution: 
>first, most users don't own so much arcade boards and nes 
>cartridges in order to legally play their favourite games 
>through emulators; second, the hardware keys simply cannot be 
>used for a smooth gameplay; third, the average user will not 
>easily find and follow the route to emugaming on its tablet.
>
>So, why the Wii can be an alley? Because you can see that lots 
>of Flash developers are creating plenty of very nice and 
>enjoyable games... with Wii in mind. As the Opera browser can 
>display Flash content, they adapt their old games or create 
>new ones scaling down needed resources, fitting a TV display, 
>and - above all - making them playable *with just the mouse*. 
>This is the real point: just-mouse games!
>
>Wait: this means not that I'm going to propose we should use 
>those games on the ITB (even if some of those work almost 
>perfectly on my 770, if I set "quality: low" for Flash content 
>display). My suggestion really is:
>
>--->>> steal the "wiicade.com" idea! [1] <<<---
>
>It is a site collecting Flash games adapted to be used on the 
>Nintendo Wii console; there's also a voting system, top-rated 
>list, newest ones list, search by name field, etc.; developers 
>can submit games (to promote their sites, or whatever) and the 
>games are free to use, and easy to find. No installation 
>required, no repository in the Application catalogue needed, 
>no dependencies, nothing: want to play? click and enjoy! Are 
>you bored?  
>Close your browser, or browse back and try another one ;)
>
>I hate Flash sites. But when it comes to games, a Flash plugin 
>can really turn a web browser in a simple yet powerful 
>sandbox-embedded-gaming-platform. So, we already have built-in 
>in our tablets this nice web browser and this popular 
>"embedded-game-platform"  
>plugin: and they're the same choice made by Nintendo, one of 
>the best gaming companies of the world, for their newest 
>console; they're some versions older on ITBs, though, but they 
>are not that bad (and sometimes "old" means "faster" too).
>
>As many "mouse-only concept" free Flash games are popping out 
>following the Wii trend, Nokia should take advantage of that 
>and gain some popularity from those users who could enjoy a 
>portable device capable of providing access to plenty of 
>*free* nice games (have I underlined the word "free" enough? 
>;) Not only free, but easy to "install" (well, no installation 
>is required at all), easy to "uninstall" (well, no 
>uninstallation is required at all), easy to store and load 
>when offline (they are just swf files, the built-in file 
>manager can access them from a memory card just like a mame 
>frontend does on zipped roms archives), easy to adapt for 
>developers (it's Flash after all).
>
>So, if still you have no idea of what is my proposal, here it 
>is finally:
>
>The default main page in the browser on ITB is the Tableteer: 
>we already have a big link to the "Fun for Kids" section, 
>where some games are linked to be downloaded and installed. 
>Good, let's share the "Fun for Kids"  
>label, even if we all know those "kids" can eventually be more 
>than 30 years old sometimes ;) There, I can see fitting the 
>link for a service similar to wiicade.com, where developers 
>can submit their games, specifically adapted for use on the 
>Internet Tablets. Of course, there will be a clear separation 
>between "Nokia 770" games and "Nokia N800" games, where 770 
>ones will be Flash 6 compatible, scaled down with simple gfx 
>and optimizations for better performance on the slow 770 CPU, 
>loaded with Flash in low-quality mode (no
>antialias) by default, adjusted for absolute mouse positions 
>(as the touchscreen requires), and eventually better fitting 
>the display size. I suspect these are not so difficult tasks 
>for good Flash developers, but I could be wrong: by the way, 
>even if difficult, it could be worth (increase audience).
>
>Besides, Wii and ITB owners could play the very same games in 
>their living-room, and on the go: so the ITB could be a must 
>for Wii owners and extreme gamers who love to play some free 
>games when they can't access their Wii :)  I'm thinking here 
>to games where a code makes the player jump to some level of 
>the game, or games where training is never enough.
>
>
>So that's all folks: I hope this long message can convey my 
>idea to the right readers. Here are some notes and the links following.
>
>Note: wiicade.com is not the only site offering Wii-wise 
>games, e.g.: [2].
>
>Note 2: as an example of a Wii-wise game working nice on the 
>770 you can browse to [3] (put Flash in low-quality mode for 
>best performance).
>
>
>[1] http://wiicade.com
>[2] http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/wii/
>[3] http://www.wiicade.com/playGame.aspx?gameID=68
>
>--
>Antonio

Hi,

Now if only we could get a better performance from the Flash plugin. I
actually play quite much content from e.g. www.rofl.name/flash, some
games work just fine. I used the yetisports lite to test the Input
Methods iteraction with Flash content :) (call it "testing").

Br,

--jakub