Nokia N-Gage
Image: Evan-Amos/Wikipedia

Correction: The original article stated that these press kits were previously undumped but @ThomasTheTankMouse and @felisuco_com have since brought it to our attention that they were actually made freely available over 10 years ago. We apologize for the error and have amended the article to reflect this.

A group of archivists has recently redumped a bunch of old press kits online for Nokia's ill-fated handheld, the N-Gage, and they're a fascinating reminder of the company's ill-fated entry into handheld gaming.

Vanessa Summers made the announcement on Twitter on June 21st, revealing that the group had dumped media review kits for the following games: Civilization, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Catan, Glimmerati, System Rush, Pathway to Glory: Ikusa Islands, Rifts: Promise of Power, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Mile-High Pinball, Asphalt 2, High Seize, One, and Glory in Death.

It appears contrary to Summer's claims in the tweet that states these kits were previously undumped, most of these have already been readily available online for years (including on archive.org). If nothing else, though, the announcement serves as a great reminder that they exist and that they are freely available for fans to flick through.

The Nokia N-Gage, for those who don't remember, was released back in October 2003 and combined the features of a mobile phone with that of a handheld gaming console. At the time, Nokia hoped that this would be enough to convince players to switch over from Nintendo's hugely popular Game Boy Advance, but the device featured a number of offputting design flaws (such as having to take out the battery every time you wanted to switch to a new retail release).

As a result, it was a commercial failure, selling far fewer units than Nokia had initially anticipated. Nokia tried to release a revised model, the Nokia N-Gage QD, in 2004 to generate some additional interest, but it did little to change the handheld's fortunes. Now, it is mostly remembered for its disastrous launch and for its surprising positive impact on the Finnish games industry (where studios like Sumea and Rovio benefitted from developing small Java-based apps for the platform).

You can take a look at the press kits here or on archive.org. Inside you'll find a bunch of company logos, videos, screenshots, and press releases that serve as a fascinating time capsule to the early to mid-2000s.

[source twitter.com]