Nowadays, when it comes to smartphone software, especially games, we are spoilt for choice. The official repository of leading mobile phones contains hundreds of thousands of games, and sideloading adds unlimited possibilities. If you were lucky enough to use a Nokia phone in the late 1990s, you might have all three games to choose from (only one is really interesting). [Janus Cycle] Explore the steps required Firmware modification of your old Nokia phone, And how to expand that trivial game library.
Fanatics have been modifying their Nokia phones since the 2000s, and now they need the same tools as they were then. Nokia 5110 and 6110 (shown in the video below) use proprietary cables and connectors to communicate with PCs and other devices. Nokia’s official serial cable has opened up many possibilities for phone repair, including access to RAM and switching monitoring modes. The cable only interfaces with the phone’s fast FBUS protocol, but the firmware update is performed using the slower MBUS protocol through a single-wire bidirectional pin.
The phone expects that both serial ports will be available during the firmware update. [Janus Cycle] Demonstrate how to build a custom wiring harness that connects two serial ports to the parallel port of a PC. At this point, the flashing process is relatively simple, especially if you have a suitable old computer to run the old flashing software.
Nokia users may fondly remember to change the network name on the home screen to various inappropriate graphics, but with the right technology and expertise, more functions can be achieved. If soft modifications were used more widely during the reign of the Nokia 5110 and similar products, it would be interesting to consider what might happen.
[Many thanks to the anonymous tipster for submitting this story]