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Nintendo's Mystery DS Portable Revealed
Thanks to GameSpy for its story revealing the first information on the dual-screened, portable Nintendo DS, the previously rumored 'mystery console' that's been lacking any concrete details up to now. According to the piece, the DS "features two separate 3" TFT LCD display panels, separate processors, and semiconductor memory of up to 1 Gigabit. It's scheduled to launch worldwide before the end of 2004." The article further explains: "Players can look forward to being able to simultaneously manage their game progress from two different perspectives, enhancing both the speed and strategy of the challenge. For example, players will no longer be forced to interrupt game play to shift perspective, such as moving from a wide shot to a close up, or alternating between a character's ongoing battle and a map of their environment." A concurrently released official Nintendo press release confirms this information.
Why not just a wider screen that the game can split into two??
if(!cool) exit(-1);
Can you say Game and Watch? Hopefully the graphics will be a little better.
On the one hand, that's my first response: What the Hell is Nintendo thinking? A portable system with two screens? I mean - what?
But on the other hand, I can look at this and say "Well, but - maybe." The idea itself is nothing new compared to playing, say, Descent, Quake, or Baldur's Gate with 2 monitors the way I've always wanted to play them - a menu or map on one side, and the "gameplay" on the other.
The screens sound about the size of a Gameboy Advance screen. Remember, Nintendo - back light, please Lord backlight. It will require a different kind of thinking for developers.
Nintendo isn't crash proof (Virtual Boy, anyone?) but this product is certainly interesting, and has some potential for RPG's, strategy games, maybe FPS kind of games. If nothing else, it certainly can give the PSP some interesting introductory challenges to face.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
...hows the power consumption?
2 screens & 2 processors - thats gotta chew up the batteries pretty quick relative to a standard GameBoy...
Also how useful will the second screen be in a fast paced game where 'glancing at the second screen' = painful death?
Two 3 inch screens are less expensive than one 6 inch screen. And they probably have a large backstock of them from the GBA.
There's not even a PICUTRE of it yet...don't you think you're jumping to a conclusion or two here?
Why don't you wait until there's just a little more information and then make your judgement.
Also, why does everyone keep comparing it to the Virtual Boy?...it's NOT the Virtual Boy, and how ever it turns out, it still wont be the Virtual Boy, so the fate of the Virtual Boy is irrelevant when looking at this.
Advanced users are users too!
I haven't seen this asked yet. I see shock and confusion, and speculations of Nintendo's demise. It would be good to remember that Nintendo has had only one unprofitable quarter in the last 30 years. Microsoft has pissed $2bns down the drain to become a viable competitor in the home console arena. Sony is upset that the biggest threat to their games division is GBA, and wants to compete on that front with their PSP. Nintendo knows what it's doing better than you do. Let it do what it does best, and reap the happy gaming benefit that is your due as a fan. Or not. But if you're one of Iwata's 'Ten percent', make it known.
"As much as I applaud Nintendo for being innovative and taking a risk, I can't help but feel that this move will alienate 3rd party developers. "
It'll alienate the ones that aren't serious about making good games. Not so horrible in a saturated market.
"Derp de derp."
they'll look at this thing, see they need a whole gameplay design, along with significant code re-work to support that design, and they'll really have to wonder whether it's worth the effort.
True, but I think you over-trivialize the entire idea of a port from the GC or PS2 to any handheld - Sure, they can possibly used similarly-themed games, but keep in mind that while the PS2 performs comparably to a mid-range PC with high-end graphics, the GBA has only slightly more powerful hardware than the original SNES, a 13-year old console with a 16-bit CPU.
Nothing that runs on the PS2 or GC will directly port to the GBA (or this new 2-screen model), other than cheezy puzzle games (and even them only with 99% of the special effects cut out). The GBA has carved out a niche for itself in classic-style RPG games for a reason - They don't take too much CPU power to have a great storyline, and they don't require 90% of the development costs go toward eye-candy. That wouldn't work on the PS2, nor would FFX2 work on the GBA.
For that specific market, those who really enjoy console RPGs, a second screen for things like zoomed-out maps or party status, a second screen sounds like an amazingly good idea. Even for numerous other games, I can think of endless uses... I don't care for sports games, but imagine having each screen show one side of the field/court/rink/whatever. For platform games, the zoomed-out map idea still works well. Same for action (FPS?) games, with the addition of status and weapons not taking up the main view. Really, this seems like a great, innovative idea that makes me wonder why no one thought of it before (So it would take two TVs - A 19" tv costs under $100 (easily $25 used), about the same as two games). And imagine the boost to two-player games, each having their own screen!
So, regarding ports, it wouldn't surprise me to see ports go the other way, with the next gen of non-handheld consoles supporting more than one TV (or at the very least, a standardized split-screen mode for 16:9 TVs).
The single best reason for Dual screens, info panes.
I'm guessing most of you who are trouncing this idea are PC game players or people who have never used a hand held game system. In any game with a large amount of information, say every RPG or RTS there is a lot of time spent bring up extra menus or pausing the game to hit a sub menu system. With two screens, one probably located directly below the other near the controls, now you just have to glance down to grab additional info. The LCD screens being used here don't have very high resolution to keep the costs reasonable so a second screen is an easy way to add much more feedback to the game player.
This console sounds like it is a direct result of the GC-GBA link system. When done right (see Zelda, Final Fantasy Chronicles) it is an amazing thing. The GBA link actually gives us what Sega promised with the dreamcast VMU except in colour and with a lot more than just basic, bland static information.
Sheesh just imagine a RTS game like Advance Wars where the secondary display shows a zoomed out map area and other random stats but automatically changes over to an info pane when you move your selector over one of your own or an enemy unit. That's not cool?
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