A lot of the tech blogs have been buzzing about the Nintendo emulator that runs on the Sidekick. Here’s the real scoop. Yes, it exists and you can play Nintendo games on the Sidekick 3/LX/Slide as evidenced by the video above. It’s slow and more of a proof-of-concept sort of thing rather than a truly viable gaming application. It was basically taking an existing Java NES emulator (Vampant) and wrapping it for loading on the Sidekick since the Sidekick OS supports java. No, it is not going to make it into catalog unless T-Mobile gets real friendly with Nintendo and the license holders of all the roms that you would want to load. The application is a developer app that is only available to Sidekick developers. So basically if you don’t know how to write java, you’ll never get to load it on your Sidekick. When asked for comment, the developer simply stated “HOLLA!”

An anonymous tipster sent us a copy of this video to show what the Sidekick LX is capable of. Whether or not this will ever see the catalog is unknown as I’m sure it would take some lawyers and licensing. But regardless it’s a great example of what the Sidekick LX actually is capable of in the gaming arena.

Busy news day here at Hiptop3… Boy Genius Report has updated their initial look at the Sidekick LX with some new information, that’s somewhat saddening.

“A couple early findings from our Sidekick LX…all ringtones, games, and applications do not transfer over from a Sidekick 3. This mean you’ll need to repurchase everything again. There is a chance this might change as the device is not publicly available, but we doubt it. Also, at this point in time, the Sidekick LX’s Catalog is heavily lacking content…whether developers won’t need to, or haven’t recompiled the apps and games yet, there is only a short few available things to purchase currently in the Application and Games folders.”

They do not say whether it’s displaying that dialog that says something similar to “All your previous purchases will not transfer over to your Sidekick” or if they don’t transfer over simply because they are not yet updated for the Sidekick LX. …More information as it unfolds.

via Boy Genius Report

*update*
From phonemaverick’s “Downloading games & apps” YouTube’s video comments..

BGR is right… for an item to work on a new device, developers must essentially create a new app. So, they charge users to download it to new devices. This started with sidekick/hiptop3. If you download an app to a sk/ht3 and lose the device, you can get a new sk/ht3 and the apps will automatically redownload for FREE. BUT if you switch device types (e.g. sk/ht3 to lx or slide), you may need to pay for those apps to work on your new device.

The emails were sent out, SunCom will soon be selling the Hiptop 3. And as always, the SunCom customers luck out, as they will get discounts (33-50%) on apps and games that they already purchased for the Sidekick II. This discount does not apply towards ringtones though. Thanks to one of our readers for forwarding the full email:

On Thu, 14 Sep 2006 3:06, SunCom Wireless wrote:
>
> Be the first to get your hiptop3 so you can listen to music, surf the
> Web faster, take better photos, use Bluetooth headsets to make calls,
> and just look cooler with a brand new phone! The hiptop3 will be
> available from SunCom Wireless online at www.suncom.com and in stores
> on September 18, 2006 – just FIVE DAYS away!
>
> The hiptop3 is only $299.99 with a 2-year extension to your contract;
> or, you can get it for just $349.99 with a 1-year contract extension
> or $399.99 without an extension to your contract. Your SunCom
> Wireless Sales Associate can help determine your eligibility.
>
> And there’s more good news. You get a discount on the games and
> applications that you currently own on your hiptop2. The Catalog
> content you will see on your hiptop3 was updated to be compatible with
> the new device. So when you upgrade, you will need to purchase any
> content you wish to have on your hiptop3. But if you already have
> hiptop2 content, you’ll enjoy discounts* of 33% to 50% when you
> download hiptop3 games and applications that you currently own.
>
> Now, go on… hook up and get hip!
>
> -SunCom Wireless
> —————————-
> * Discounted pricing excludes ringtones. All prices and dates are
> subject to change.
>
> hiptop is a registered trademark of Danger, Inc. Bluetooth is a
> registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
>
> If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please visit
> http://www.suncom.com/privacy.shtml