Mile High Pinball - First Gen N-Gage - Official Trailer Video

Mile High Pinball is yet another one of those excellent and well-reviewed original gen N-Gage games which was totally overlooked because it came so late in the N-Gage's lifetime. However, a revamped high resolution version has been made for Nokia's upcoming next Gen N-Gage platform, so it looks like Mile High Pinball will get a second chance after all.

Released in 2005, the game involves climbing up a vertical set of pinball tables with the aim of going from ground level all the way into space (hence the name of the game). This is an extremely clever idea for a mobile phone game as it makes perfect sense on a device with a vertical screen. Although some people claim horizontal screens are always better for gaming, MHP proves them wrong, as it would actually be much poorer on a horizontal screen. If a game is designed entirely for a particular platform, the chances are that it will work better on that platform than any other, and MHP was designed from the ground up as a phone game.

Gamers and game designers are so used to horizontal screens on consoles and computers, they often don't think in terms of vertical games, but they are possible. Many of the very earliest coin-operated video arcade machines actually had vertical screens, and the games were designed with a vertical layout in mind. It was when gaming moved into the home through cheap computers and consoles that the horizontal layout of television sets became the accepted norm, and the introduction of widescreen TVs made games even more horizontal. This may not always be the case though.

Mobile phones are now becoming more common than televisions, consoles and computers put together. It's possible that in 10 or 20 years time mobile gaming will become the dominant form of gaming, and if that happens game designers may start thinking more vertically than horizontally.

Where to get Mile High Pinball

If you want the original first gen N-Gage game, you'll find it quite difficult to get hold of. The game came out near the end of the original gen N-Gage's life, very few shops stocked N-Gage games at that point, and Nokia didn't make very many copies either. Ebay had no copies at all at the time of posting.

Until recently Nokia also sold their first party original N-Gage games as downloads, but that service has now been shut down.

However, if you want the updated Next Gen N-Gage release of Mile High Pinball, that should be considerably easier as the Next Gen N-Gage platform is about to launch some time over the next few weeks. When it launches, you will be able to buy a copy of the game as a download straight onto any compatible phone, and it should cost about 6 to 10 euros (plus any local taxes). To find out more about the Next Gen N-Gage platform including the latest list of compatible phones, visit the Next Gen N-Gage FAQ over on All About N-Gage.