Nokia released the N-Gage in 2003 as a desperate attempt to merge a cell phone with a handheld gaming console, requiring users to completely remove the battery just to change the game cartridge.

A closer look

Nokia released the N-Gage in 2003 as a desperate attempt to merge a cell phone with a handheld gaming console, requiring users to completely remove the battery just to change the game cartridge. Even better, to use it as an actual telephone, you had to hold the device completely sideways against your head, quickly earning it the derogatory nickname of the taco phone among basically everyone who saw it. In the fast-paced race to corner the mobile entertainment market, a massive telecommunications titan genuinely believed the winning strategy was a piece of plastic that looked like a plastic tortilla and required a minor hardware teardown just to play a deeply inferior and horribly pixelated version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater