This guide was created by DirkDagger and published here with his permission to keep a copy and preserve all these information. More information will be added or update in the future with the work of DirkDagger and maybe also from Felisuco.
To contact DirkDagger:
vk.com/NokiaCollectors
Instagram.com/eskMaemo
[N-GAGE NFR (NOT FOR RESALE SALE) COMPLETE GUIDE UpDate: 11 December 2020].
Finally I decided to create one complete thread abt Nokia N-Gage/QD NotForSale (NFS/NFR) MMC games. I never saw any more or less complete pictures/photos of that type of N-Gage media. Process of collecting retail N-Gage games cool enough, for sure, but there are mostly nothing special in it – just check that U have some cash and go to eBay (or not «some», if to talk abt WH40K: GiD/ Atari MP 2/ AUGT 2/ MHP/ PtG II/ Sega Rally etc…). 
Here I’ll upload information abt all my complete N-Gage NFR sets, to other people who also still collecting this system understand what still could be found for it in the wild. Last my complete N-Gage NFR MMC photos were uploaded in 2010+-, and they still could be found in the web, but they are already heavily outdated. Also that will be more than good, if all who still have that type of NGE MMCs will upload here their own photo sets – in the thread, or contact me in PM to I update main post, especially if U have any MMCs that I still not shown at this my guide. That information will be useful for all, who still interesting in N-Gage collecting nowadays.
As for myself, I collects N-Gage eco-system from +- late 2003 – early 2004 and still very deep in all that related to this game console, as from SW to HW side. Sadly there are not to many N-Gage NFR collectors nowadays, due the rarity/cost of items. So, that will be very cool if here will appears some more enthusiasts who also dig N-Gage same or harder than I. My main goal is to save (and help to save) whole N-Gage HW and SW heritage.
Here’re my photos. I think they are more than exclusive, ‘cause I never saw same shots, where would be the most part of all existed NGE NFRs in alphabet order, but If anyone need them to use in any Social Media in personal non-commercial purposes – like VK/FB/YouTube/WiKi feel free to take them, just save the line with my nickname in their bottom and link to this OG thread. I deliberately didn’t put any complicated heavy watermarks, because I don’t see much point in this. As always, feel free to contact me with any N-Gage questions/offers via PM. I still enjoy the process of collecting N-Gage after more than 15 years, and will be very pleasure to talk abt all N-Gage related media, especially all that related to Proto/NFR HW and SW.
G1.5 MMC = ALPHA bUILD with RED Stripe:
Very early but stable enough Build of the game, usually strongly different from the retail Version. Alpha Builds of a game could often contain elements that were subsequently cut or changed in the final retail variant. For example, the Alpha Build could have a different logotype / name of the game, different game mechanics and levels which were later removed or strongly changed. Also, for natural reasons, Alpha Builds of the game don’t contain all the content planned for integration into the final product. These G1.5 MMCs were produced mostly for company (developer / publisher) internal submissions and tests. These MMCs much more rare than Beta / RC / GM Builds, due they were strictly limited in distribution – only inside Nokia or within (particular) game developer company.
G2.0 Build = BETA with ORANGE Stripe: Late stable build, sometimes also could have differences from the retail game, occasionally pretty much. Same to Alphas, these MMCs rare than Gold – they were mostly used inside Nokia, for internal submissions/tests purposes. But some of these MMCs also gone to Press for early reviews or GDC/E3 Kiosks as playable demos.
G2.5 Build = Release Candidate/RC with YELLOW Stripe. G3.0 Build = Gold Master/GM with YELLOW Stripe (Or sometimes with GREEN Stripe in Boxed Gold Master ReView Kits). Mostly complete games. If internal test teams at developer or Nokia side didn’t find any bugs, RC builds turned to GMs. GMs already same to normal retail N-Gage games, in case of game content. They are less rare in case of early gaming media, but still very valuable as N-Gage’s history pieces, and not really common in the wild too. G2.5 RCs quite rarely could be found in the wild, so these enough uncommon things. These MMCs mostly were produced for Press for final reviews or sometimes also for GDC/E3 Kiosks.
PROMO Build = Point of Sale/POS, Full Retail Game With NFR/NFS Mark And WHITE Stripe: Already full games that 1:1 matches boxed retail releases. Were produced for supply in N-Gage DEMO-Units/Kiosks at local game stores. Same to GMs, these MMCs are not so rare in case of unusual early game content, cause it was already 1:1 retail builds, but some of them not too often can be found on sale, so they are enough unique in case of collecting and N-Gage heritage preservation. Also here are near all Prototype-Promo MMCs. These are physical builds of 1st wave N-Gage games, mostly N-Gage «launch» titles. And in case of game content, they all are mostly Betas, but with totally different design then later accepted GX.X graded MMC media. As for Pathway To Glory PreView MMC – it’s excusive single mission demo-campaign, that was created to promote this title before it’s launch. This PreView also was available as official digital download via N-Gage Arena. And in case of content, it’s same to 1st mission of retail PtG but with some nice advertisement PtG materials inside the build.
All Existed (At Least From Known) Media PreView / Gold Master ReView Kits.
Media PreView = Work in Progress Kit With Orange Beta Build (G2.0) + MiniDVD with media abt the game.
Gold Master ReView Kit = Already Gold Master Build (G3.0) + MiniDVD with media abt the game.
All these Kits were intended for Press/Media (Game-review magazines, and game-review oriented sites).
One interesting moment:
SCCT [Pre]View Kit is same to Glimmerati = there is G2.0 Beta build of game inside the box.
SCCT [Re]View Kit is same to all other GM Kits = there is G3.0 GM build of game inside the box.
Content of each SCCT Kit (MMC/MiniDVD) is unique.
Front:
Back:
Also here are two cancelled boxed games from Sega:
- Alien Front with original Display Cover: (As I know) Cancelled on G2.0 Beta Stage. Very low quantity of MMCs exist. Сount goes on single units. Same to VirtuaCop that also could be found on my G2.0 Beta MMCs photo above.
- Sega Rally: Cancelled as full retail release. Small amount of retail boxes was sold in AU-Oceania (OFLC) region, but most of the cartridges were recalled and destroyed. Just +- few hundreds alive, as I know. Maybe less, nowadays, especially if talk abt sealed ones.
Development MMCs = Various Types Of Special MMCs which were supplied with N-Gage Development/Test Kits. All these MMCs were used for N-Gage games development and could be overwritten unlike permanent Retail or GX.X MMCs. Ultra Rare. Almost impossible to find anywhere in the wild. To be short, the difference from the usual 3rd party blank MMCs was that N-Gage SDK included special certificates for HWiD of all these cards, so any test builds of N-Gage games could be launched on them via N-Gage Dev or Test Kit, w/o final Nokia certification. Here are on these my Dev MMCs are placed some early builds of released N-Gage games incl. some unreleased, and undiscovered official N-Gage games that were cancelled on various stages of development. Also here U can seen very rare Prototype N-Gage Development MiniSD that was used in development of NGI (So called N-Gage 2.0) games.
(Close To) All Existed N-Gage «Physical» J2ME Games From U-Play. These J2ME games were produced by Gameloft (and some that not shown here – by Atari) and published by U-Play in 2002 – early 2003. All of these releases could be named predecessors of official retail N-Gage games produced by Nokia later in 2003. There’s no any MMC/MiniCD with game inside, unlike in official N-Gage games, only code (expired for sure) for digital game download. But this «physical» J2ME releases very valuable in case of N-Gage history preservation. Not much of these boxes were produced, so nowadays they can be found not too often and cost high enough. Also, all they have really cool cover arts.
Front:
Back:
N-Gage GX.X Graded Games Explanation Of Official Internal Abbreviations.
* The first line of any N-Gage GX.X MMC denotes to the game name. G1.5 sometimes has game codename. G2.0 and above already comes with retail game name.
** The second line points to the game build. Usually the game version or the game build/date that’s written in MM-DD-Y (Month/Day/Year) encoding.
*** The third line is GX.X Build – Alpha/Beta/RC/GM Development Stage.
- MSK mark means that MMC was produced to be launched on retail N-Gage/QD;
- DSK mark means that MMC was produced to be launched on N-Gage Dev/Test Kit with special Dev/Test FW;
- Next two numbers points to the MMC capacity in MB – 16/32/64. As I remember 8MB capacity had only retail MMCs. GX.X/Dev started from 16MB and end at 64MB.
**** The fourth line points to the build burning (recording) to the physical MMC media date in the same MM-DD-Y (Month/Day/Year) encoding.
Next symbols are the MMC serial, they are also linked to the people for whom they were intended. Each GX.X MMC content (even of same game version) is unique,
‘cause includes MMC serial inside some game files. That means that preserving of two same N-Gage GX.X MMCs with different serials eventually will give two unique dumps.
That’s all at the moment. This guide will be updated as soon as any really valuable N-Gage media or information that still not mentioned here will be found. So, anyone could feel free to contact me here in PM with information related to N-Gage NFS/NFR media collecting to do that guide better. I will be fine to chat or buy/exchange N-Gage media I still not recovered and save.
P.S. Using of all my information above in personal non-commercial purposes is free to anyone, but only in case of saving original author nickname (DirkDagger/eskMaemo) and link to this my ObscureGamers thread.
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