Proposed gaming improvements
 

How to raise the sales of the next version by 50% or more, by attracting a gaming audience -- get as far down this list as can be afforded:

1. Where the N800 logo is now, put two (raised) buttons;
2. As above, but four buttons, in a diamond arrangement;
3. As 2, but also add shoulder buttons;
4. As any of the above, but also add tilt/rotation sensors, as per the Sony PS3 controller;
5. Add hardware 3D acceleration

It's bizarre to me that there aren't at least a couple of buttons over on the right hand side. These would be useful in all kinds of software, but would particularly suit games. Doing this surely would not have added significantly to the cost of the thing, but would have opened up an entirely new and popular way of using the device.

Nokia wouldn't have to do any game development themselves (other than add suitable API hooks for the new hardware).

It boggles the mind to contemplate a development process that didn't at least consider whether a couple of damn buttons for gaming wouldn't have been a good idea. And then, having contemplated it, decided that the device was better without them.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

Given that it has a touchscreen, the suggestions made in other posts here to add virtual buttons makes sense to me.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

Nonononono! Any kind of action game requires you be able to feel the buttons. You'll be too busy watching the bad guys dive bombing you to locate any of four spots on the right hand side of the screen.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

I understand. For now though we're stuck with tactile buttons only on the left. At the very least I hope the next model has a scroll wheel/button/etc on the right.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

They'd better implement complete screen rotation first. Just try it: Turn your N800 upside-down; it makes a ton of difference, game-control-wise.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

You could keep the same hardware configuration and move the 3 buttons on the left to the right side (or the directional pad, take your pick), make them a little larger/more durable and implement screen rotation. Heck, you could even split up the +/- keys on the top left/right edges and make for some additional gaming buttons.

Screen rotation would be great even if it was a simple screen button to switch from landscape to portrait (or inverted landscape).

Most of all, I want a scroll wheel. My screen protector has a nice clean worn-out vertical line from all the stylus scrolling I've been doing. At least on the browser you can grab the page instead of just the scroll bar.

You can get to a point where you're trying to be everything to everyone and not be good at anything. I'd be fine with streamlining it to be an improved Internet Tablet and stick with mouse/stylus games.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

All good ideas. But four buttons + two shoulder buttons has obvious "backward compatibility" advantages, as well as being just a sensible layout.

Four buttons could be used as Home/Menu/Back/Forward in the Nokia applications, and then become ABXY in games. Shoulder buttons could double as back/forward, or be treated as control-shift.

Now, I understand that the tilt sensors in the likes of the Sixaxis controller have actually become cheap and tiny. If so, it would be amazing to contemplate having this in a N900, and being among other things able to treat it as a joystick. We could have almost any type of game with that set of controls.

I'm convinced if Nokia included all of those things (4 buttons, shoulder buttons, tilt controller, 3D accelerator) that they would sell at least twice as many N900s.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

That's software though. Easy fix.

Another remote possibility is a sleeved device that fits over the N800, much like accessories for gameboy. A built-in dongle could plug into the usb port to connect. It could even contain tilt sensors.

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

The hardware for N800 is clearly more powerful than the GP2X (Linux open source gaming device). Nonetheless, the developers for the GP2X have created a great number of emulators and games for the machine in a period of 14 months. Imagine what could have been accomplished or designed if the N800 had the right gaming buttons. I, too, hope that Nokia would add gaming buttons on N900. It would be the ultimate gadget!

Re: Proposed gaming improvements
 

Probably. So why hasn't Nokia done it yet? It's not as if it hasn't been asked before.

But you can't plug it into the N800 without the support sticking out or, failing that, major surgery on your N800.