If you're familiar with the emulation scene (and let's be honest, you are reading Engadget), then you know the name ZodTTD -- the brain behind some of the best jailbroken emus for the iPhone, including variations on the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and most importantly... the TurboGrafx-16. Now the master-hacker has brought his goods to the Pre, cooking up a version of psx4all on the Palm device, with the aforementioned GBA and TG16 ports on the way! Interestingly, he reports that the performance on the Pre is actually better than that of the iPhone 3GS, and of course he's hacked access to the keyboard, allowing for (more) proper control of games. There are still kinks that are being worked out (sound emulation, screen scaling, etc.), but it looks like we can expect big things in the near future. We at Engadget know everyone will rest a bit easier tonight knowing that real gaming on the Pre is at hand. We'll hopefully be getting our hands on a version soon, but for now hit the read link for more info, and check out the full video after the break!

As recently as May Sony has itself stated that a PSP phone "could happen," and now a report from Nikkei business daily states that Sony is planning on putting together a team as early as next month to build product that would act as a combination of a PSP and a Sony Ericsson handset. It makes plenty of sense, both as a differentiation from Nintendo and as a confrontation of the looming iPhone threat -- and hey, it might also act as a decent salve over the lukewarm reception of the pricey PSPgo. Unfortunately, if Sony is just about to get started on this, we likely wouldn't be looking at any resulting product for a while to come. Sony declined comment according to Reuters, which doesn't mean a whole lot, but it's worth keeping in mind that we've been hearing this sort of rumoring since back when the N-Gage (as a product) was still almost relevant.

[Via Mac Rumors]

A final iPhone 3GS jailbreak hasn't been released yet, but that isn't stopping enterprising hackers from trying to get at all that extra horsepower, and some of the first notable hacks we've seen are these updated PlayStation 1 and Game Boy Advance emulator ports, which run way faster than the versions for the original and 3G. The revved up hardware in Apple's latest is apparently capable of running either of these at 150 - 225fps with zero frameskipping, which is pretty impressive. Of course, we'll be way more impressed when the Dev Team releases a 3GS jailbreak and we can hit these up ourselves, but in the meantime there are plenty of videos to with which to while away the time at the read links.

Read - Emulator videos
Read - ZoTTD blog post with more info

Quick, what's easier to find: an E52 or a game that'll run on it? You'd think this is an egregious case of putting the cart before the horse, but you've got to give the N-Gage team credit for being well-prepared -- they're already listing Nokia's new mega-thin business candybar as being compatible with the service. Also on board is the just-released (and still hard to find in many parts of the world) N86 8MP and -- perhaps most notably -- the N97, making the beastly handset Nokia's first S60 5th Edition phone with N-Gage support. How's the experience sans keys? Let us know your thoughts in comments.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

If you've been desperately searching for a way to motion-control your brand new N97, look no further -- Zeemote's got your back. The company's JS1 controller has just added drivers for every S60 3rd and 5th Edition device on the market -- N97 and 5800 XpressMusic included -- plus a whole host of S60-based LGs and Samsungs like the INNOV8 and the KT770. Of course, that doesn't solve the whole issue of N-Gage incompatibility with many of these, but the JS1 can also be used for nifty parlor tricks like web browsing; combine that with the 5800's included desk stand and you've got the couch potato's ultimate mobile setup. [Warning: PDF link]

Nokia's Ovi Store duplicates one of N-Gage's main lots in life -- to serve as an over-the-air distribution channel of paid and trial apps -- and in the long term, it certainly seems to make sense that Espoo would be looking to merge the two initiatives into one. The company hasn't announced anything to the effect just yet (and even if it did, it'd have to find some creative way to duplicate N-Gage's social aspect), but it's now taken one small step by porting game trials over to the Ovi Store. If you want the full game you'll still need to buy it using the N-Gage app, so the maddening duality of Nokia's software strategy still basically continues as-is for the time being -- let's just hope this is a promising sign of things to come.

[Via Phone Arena and ZOMG its CJ]

If you were holding off on buying a Pre until it had some great games, start warming up that credit card. We knew homebrewers were already at work and one of those, a bloke who goes by the name Sargun, has managed to get the iconic Doom running on the phone -- or the open-source PRDoom, anyway, which is close enough for us. Sargun re-built the game to use the DirectFB graphics library to pipe all the two-barreled action to the Pre's framebuffer, and said getting the whole thing up and running was "actually fairly trivial." Your mileage may vary depending on your compiler skills, but with any luck someone will host up some binaries to save us all the trouble. Video proof of this great achievement after the break.

Where's the fail whale when you need it, right? Early yesterday morning, Nokia flipped the switch on its Ovi Store, claiming that it's app market would potentially reach some 50 million users around the world. Unfortunately for Nokia, it seems as if all 50 million attempted to check things out at the same time. Web-wide, users were griping that things just weren't working out, and we're not talking about small packets of flustered users. In fact, Nokia was forced to admit that "shortly after launching, it began experiencing extraordinarily high spikes of traffic that resulted in some performance issues," and judging by reactions, we'd say "some" is now a front-runner for understatement of the year. Have things smoothed over for you today? Are you even bothering to check?

Update: Nokia has apologized for the gaff and has reportedly added server capacity to handle the demand. Question is: is the fix working?

We've spent a week now fiddling with the LG Versa game pad module. How does the phone's first premium attachment fare? Does it amp up the gaming cred or join the ranks of ultimately forgettable peripherals? Unfortunately, we're inclined to think it falls in the latter category. Read on for full impressions.

If you've been getting bored of your Versa's QWERTY module, boy, have we got some splendid news for you: as promised, the snap-on game pad is now available. It slides along the back of the phone's body for storage (unlike the QWERTY, which requires that polarizingly-designed brown pleather wallet) and features an 8-way directional pad, four dedicated SNES-style gaming buttons, and the envy of absolutely everyone you've ever known. Grab it now for $29.99 -- you wouldn't want to be that one chump Versa owner who doesn't buy it, would you?

[Thanks, Daniel]

The last time we saw the Pre's Classic Palm OS emulator in action, we had a few lingering questions in our mind, chief among them being how well can it game? From the looks of this latest video, released by Motion Apps to answer that very question, pretty well so far. In addition to confirming sound support for the latest build, we also get a brief glimpse of the software handling 3D driver GTS World Racer. Of course, seeing this makes us even more curious about the gaming potential for the native webOS, but alas, we're in the cold there. In the meantime, check out some classic 3D racing in the video after the break.

We've already seen the Zeemote JS1 bring wireless nunchuck gaming action (and its vaguely copyright-infringing name) to Sony Ericsson and Nokia handsets. Now it seems the device is leaving those corporate ventures behind, going open source and syncing up with HTC's G1 as shown in the video below. The game the demonstrator is playing doesn't look like much fun (surely some sort of abstract re-imagining of Cosmic Ark), but more entertaining games will likely be showing up in the Android Market soon -- assuming they don't do anything with tethering.

Tough news for N73, N93 and N93i owners -- a respected N-Gage Arena Forum moderator has just stepped forward to let the world know that the aforesaid phones will not be N-Gage compatible. For folks who've moved on to newer, more powerful handsets, we're sure this tidbit means nothing; for those who've held tight to prior promises to bring the N-Gage experience to this trio, it's far more detrimental. We're told that Nokia tried for months on end to make it all work, but in the end they simply weren't satisfied with the experience on these aged devices. No need to tear up though, it's just the perfect excuse to line up for that N97 you've been eying.

[Via All About Symbian]

At this point, the Versa is little more than a glorified Glyde when it's in its QWERTY wallet (okay, that was harsh) -- but it looks like at least one other module is still on track for release. phoneArena has documentation suggesting that the game pad will go on sale for the rumored $29, which should help make the phone a formidable little entertainment device. Interestingly, rumor has it the pad isn't made by LG -- which leads us to wonder whether the company has made the Versa's interface specification available to third parties, which further leads us to wonder whether we'll see other devices using the same connector. Anyhow, unlike the keyboard, the game pad conveniently slides away when not in use, which is kinda nice, and it should be available around the first of April.