Originally Posted by insert_nick

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

Originally Posted by reiperts

Check out http://www.gamoku.com

Originally Posted by insert_nick (Post 33556)

Thanks, nice resource. The games are not optimized for 770/N800 screen, but they're coded in order to let portable platforms to run them without trouble. The zoom works, but I need to refresh the game page before zooming otherwise the flash applet zooms in its content without zooming the frame.

Best would be something similar, but more targeted to 770 and N800 users. Let's see if something pops out ;)

Originally Posted by ArnimS (Post 40112)

Games in flash are a perverse idea. Flash wasn't designed for gaming. Flash designers are graphic artists with no clue about resource usage, since flash hides everything from the developer. This is one reason you see so many (terrible) flash games created by people who couldn't code a 'hello world' program to save their life.

Flash has _terrible_ performance. Scrolling a full screen with a couple of layers can bring a pentium 400 to its knees. Flash was not designed for games.

These unalterable facts make flash games with any significant animation a no-go. Hence, the idea for a flash games centric portal is a no-go, as is this thread.

Originally Posted by =DC= (Post 45745)

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. I've been toying around with some ideas for Flash targeted at the tablets, and there's much that can be done with both the d-pad and touchscreen as it relates to games. Sure, there are a lot of Flash games that run slow as molasses (especially on the 770), but there are some games that work just fine. I'll have some demos up soon to show off some input meathods that could work well for Flash games for the nice 800 x 480 screens.