Exploring the Game Hub for the Galaxy Tab 2
Your Galaxy Tab 2 isn’t just a great tool for connecting with people and working on the road. When you want to take a break, the Tab 2 is a great device for playing games as well. Samsung makes it easy for you to find games you can download to your Tab 2 in the Game Hub app.
Getting Started
The Game Hub appears in the Apps screen, which you can access by tapping on the Apps icon in the upper-right corner of the Home screen and then tapping Game Hub in the Apps screen. The first time you open the Game Hub screen, you’ll see a Disclaimer screen that provides legal information about the app. When you finish reviewing the disclaimer, tap Confirm at the bottom of the screen.
This Disclaimer screen will appear every time you start the app, but if you don’t want to view this screen for the next 90 days, tap the Do not Show for 90 Days checkbox before you tap Confirm. After you tap Confirm, the Game Hub app home screen appears, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 The Game Hub app home screen appears after you tap Confirm in the confirmation screen.
The home screen is divided into four sections:
- The menu bar appears at the top of the page. This bar contains the app name on the left and the menu icon on the right. When you tap the menu icon, the drop-down menu gives you the option to uninstall the app and view legal notices.
- The green Social Games section appears in the upper-left area of the screen. Three featured games appear within this section. You can swipe from right to left within this section to view other featured games. You can open the featured game by tapping on the game tile. If you want to view more games, tap the More Games button.
- The yellow Premium Games section contains featured games that you may need to pay for before you purchase and download them onto your Tab 2. If you want to view more games in this section, tap the More Games button.
- The bottom of the window contains basic information about the app, including the order of games installed on your Tab 2. After you install a game, this section becomes the Installed Games section that contains tiles with the games you installed.
Social Games
When you tap the More games button in the Social Games area, the Samsung Apps app opens so you can view all the games that are available from the Mobage online gaming network, as shown in Figure 2. All the games are free to download and allow you to play either by yourself or with one or more other game players with whom you can connect through your Wi-Fi connection.
Figure 2 The Mobage screen contains tiles that show the name of the game, as well as the average rating from none (worst) to five (best) stars.
Tap a game tile to view more information about the app in the Details screen. For example, the Details screen for the Checkers app as shown in Figure 3 shows information about the game on the left side of the screen and a description and screenshots on the right side of the screen.
Figure 3 Tap the Get button in the left side of the screen to download the free Checkers app.
On the left side of the screen, you can swipe from bottom to top to view all the information about the app in the Detail Info section. You can also tap the Add to Wish List button to add the game to this list so you can consider downloading the game later. You’ll learn how to view your wish list later in this article.
On the right side of the screen, you can swipe from bottom to top to view the game description from the company that created the game, user reviews, any tags associated with the game, and related games that you may be interested in.
In the Description area header bar, tap the down arrow at the right side of the bar to view the entire description. In the user comments header bar, you can add a comment by tapping Add Comment in the bar; you can also tap More to view all the user comments about the game if there are more comments you want to read.
Tap the Get button on the left side of the screen to download the game, which is Checkers in this example. The Permission window appears and tells you what features on your Tab 2 will be used by the game. For example, the game will check the Wi-Fi connection to ensure that you’re connected to the Internet and thus play with other game users online. Tap the Accept and download button at the bottom of the window to download and install the game.
Once Samsung Apps installs the game, tap the Launch button to open the game on the screen. You’ll be asked to sign in to the Mobage online gaming service with your Facebook account, your email address, or your Mobage account information. Note that if the game is played with a certain screen orientation, the game will appear in that orientation. For example, the Checkers game is played in portrait mode only. After you close the game, the game’s Details screen appears.
You can switch back to the Game Hub app in the Task Manager. All installed games appear as a row of tiles within the Installed Games section at the bottom of the screen (see Figure 4). The tile for the game that was installed most recently appears at the right side of the row.
Figure 4 Samurai Cats is the most recent game that was installed because it's at the right side of the row of installed games.
Open and play the game by tapping the tile within the Installed Games section. If there are more games in this section that fit on the screen, swipe from left to right to view the rest of the games on your Tab 2. You can also open the games within the Apps screen.
Premium Games
You can access information about a featured game in the Premium Games section by tapping the tile that contains the game. The Samsung Apps app opens and displays the Details screen for the game. As of this writing, there were only two games in the Premium Games section and both are free, but the Game Hub app may have more games for you to choose from by the time you read this article.
Samsung has also teamed up with two online gaming companies to offer premium games: Gameloft and Com2uS. After you tap the More Games button in the Premium Games section, a window appears that asks you to tap Gameloft or Com2uS so you can shop for their games within the Samsung Apps app. In the example shown in Figure 5, when you tap Com2uS then you can shop for games in the Com2uS screen.
Figure 5 As of this writing, there is only one game available in the Com2uS store.
Tap the game tile to open the game’s Details screen. Within the Com2uS menu bar at the top of the screen, you’ll see four icons at the right of the bar. These icons, from left to right, include:
- Tap the Search icon to open the Search Samsung Apps box so you can type the search term(s) into the box, such as the name of a game you’re looking for. After you tap the Search button in the keyboard, search results appear in the Samsung Apps screen.
- Tap the My Page icon to view all the games you’ve downloaded in the Downloads list. You can play the game by tapping on the game tile in the list. On the left side of the screen, you can also tap Wish List to view all the games you may want to download within your wish list. Tap the game tile in your wish list to open the game’s Details screen.
- Tap the Sections icon to open a list of app sections within Samsung Apps on the right side of the screen. Scroll up and down the list to view all the sections you can view from Business to Weather. When you tap a section name, a list of apps in that section appears on the screen. Close the sections list by tapping on the Sections icon again.
- Tap the Settings icon to open the Settings drop-down menu that appears underneath the menu bar. Within the menu, tap Settings to change your general settings including how you receive notifications of new games as well as changes to the Samsung account you use to log in to Samsung Apps. You can also tap Help and Notices within the menu to view more information about Samsung Apps and get online support on the Samsung website.
When you finish installing the premium game on your system, it will appear in the Game Hub home screen as well as in your Apps screen.
Now that you know how to shop for and download games, enjoy using the Game Hub app…and start playing!