Slashdot Mirror
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.
They can probably make it fold up in a way that a single big screen can't.
This sounds pretty cool. You could do some really interesting things with RPGs and strategy games.
as I do not see that going down my pocket, two screens and all.
but again pretty neat, but it feels like an other VR-google for the GameBoy.
This may lead to the idea of Picture in Picture for high end game consoles. Wouldn't it be nice to have a bigger, more detailed map on those games like zelda, or have a list of objectives?
:)
Maybe this will lead to lower prices on other handheld systems which would be nice, even if this system becomes a dud
Jeff
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. On the other hand, Nintendo's first party games are usually very good and without a credible competitor for the moment in the handheld department Nintendo could pull this off. Regardless it's a risky move.
How much is going to cost me for a second screen? How is this going to be laid out? Seems like a two screened GameBoy would be pretty akward. And the most important question, will there be a game that use the second screen in a unique enough manner to warrant buying this thing. Please Niintendo, I want to love you. Why must you keep coming up with these retarded ideas?
Very cool. My first thought was of the old Game&Watch games, some of which had two screens. So not only do we get to have games like that, but we can also have games that use the two screens in different ways. In RPGs you could constantly have your stats/inventory open. In other games you could have the top window be a map and the bottom the area where your working. If they put a few more buttons on, you could head to head on one unit with someone else on simple games. I think this will be VERY interesting to see what developers come up with for this. Puzzle games alone (with two perspectives) could be very intersting.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Um, wouldn't it be 128 megabytes, not kilobytes? That's not too terribly bad for a handheld. It's more memory than my old thinkpad 600 had when I got it.
I'm flipping over the idea of two screens, though. I assume they're going to be placed vertically, with the top screen as the "game play" screen, and the bottom screen as a menu/map/status reporter/whatever.
It would be neat if this thing had the ability to add extra peripherials, like a GPS with moving map or movie players.
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
Heh, reminds me of some of the old dual screen game and watch... ...well, better that than Virtual Boy!
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
they mentioned that this thing uses dual processors. Could these possibly be the long waited for cells? You would think they would have mentioned this in the article if that was the case.
A side note:
To me, the dual screen thing does make sense. Someone must have realized that you can't increase the screen size on a portable past what is is without making the form factor unreasonable and realized that a bottom part on a folded portable has more screen real estate. Personally I'm a little disapointed they didn't just increase the resolution, I was looking forward to playing certain snes games that need high res to look nice (Chrono Trigger) on future GB hardware.
So yeah. Maximum size of a GBA game is 256 Megabit, and that's PLENTY for a portable, considering what you can pack into a GBA rom already. *that* is what will really draw people to this console -- at that size you could easily fit any SNES game and if you re-did them, most PSX games.
psnxdc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Can you really focus on two screens at once? I can't. If you are going ot want to screens have a second video buffer and some button that swaps between the two. (Not anywhere your going to hit it by mistake to many times, or have a safety etc). You hit hte button secondary video buffer is displayed instead of the normal one. I dont' see how this would be almost as easy as looking at another screen. Plus this way your controls are mapped to only the current screen.
This seems like a solution that could be implemented with current hardware, (both L and R to swap or something). If they have to make new hardware don't tie the whle thing to a dumb idea (like many others have said virtual boy!). Just up hte video buffers and add more buttons. Buttons don't drain the battery etc.
-Mike
You'd think they'd learn from their Virtual Boy mistakes. While for the most part I'm agreeing with "What the hell", there are two things that I like about this, that were sparked by your mentioning innovation.
1) It's a break from the whole "Supremacy through system specs" scheme that Nintendo's never been a fan of (Gamecube's no hardware monster, just knows what it wants to do).
2) This is going to force game designers to be a little creative, unless the designers just reject it and the system bombs. Still, it's good to see some forward-thinking minds in an industry driven by sequels upon sequels.
I'll say it right now, I'm going to buy one of these. It's great having Nintendo around for reasons like this and though this looks like an obvious bomb, I want to support them all the way. It looks like they're carrying the torch that Sega dropped, and nobody looks fit to taken from Nintendo if they fall. Let's turn video games into an art medium, not a commercial playground
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
I had been hoping for either a portable Gamecube or possibly some sort of VR/holographic wonder thingy that Satoru Iwata was teasing us with. This is just confusing... maybe once I see an actual product, I'll understand.
Heck, I thought they were going to use the 8cm discs in thier newer products and for it to be a "de facto standard". Looks like they are sticking with solid state.
My first thoughts on the dual screens is so that the device can be closed with the screens touching, thus being protected. However, there may also be other reasons... observe:
* Playing Battleship the way it was meant to be played. One screen has your ships and the other has where you fired.
* Flip the screen around and use it for two player games. The unit may even have a second controller for this purpose.
* Hook up to special headgear that would position device right in front of eyes to recreate Virtual Boy experience. (my favorite)
* Plug two Pokemon cartridges (1 screen for each game) into device to trade Pokemon back and forth. It is all about the Pokemon after all.
These are just a few unique gaming concepts I can think of at the moment. Anyone else care to speculate?
Yeah this was the first thing I thought when I heard it would have two screens.
:)
The quirkiness of this sounds pretty cool although I am getting visions of the Virtual Boy again...
My main concern is how powerful it is, the Playstation Portable is allegedly nearly as powerful as a PS2, so will the DS be able to compete? Historically, the B&W GB beat machines like the Atari Lynx, so it will be fun to see if Nintendo can do it again!
It is hard to give your full attention to two screens at once. For most games, the second screen on the DS will probably end up being more of an information window that you occasionaly glance at. It seems rather unnecessary on a portable.
Nintendo does this kind of gimmicky stuff all the time. They come out with something truely innovative and clever but ultimately useless and neglected. See also ROB, SuperScope, SuperGameboy, VirtualBoy, e-Reader, 64DD, and GBA-GC link.
I just wanted to ad this if any one was looking for the info
ARM9 Family:
32-bit RISC processor core with ARM(R) and Thumb(R) instruction sets
5-stage integer pipeline achieves 1.1 MIPS/MHz
Up to 300 MIPS (Dhrystone 2.1) in a typical 0.13m process
Single 32-bit AMBA bus interface
MMU supporting Windows CE, Symbian OS, Linux, Palm OS (ARM920T and ARM922T)
Memory Protection Unit (MPU) supporting a range of Real Time Operating Systems including VxWorks (ARM940T)
Integrated instruction and data caches
Excellent debug support for SoC designers, including ETM interface
8-entry write buffer -- avoids stalling the processor when writes to external memory are performed
Portable to latest 0.18m, 0.15m, 0.13m silicon processes.
Related links:
The ARM7 family:
Established, high-volume 32-bit RISC architecture
Up to 130 MIPs (Dhrystone 2.1) performance on a typical 0.13m process
Small die size and very low power consumption
High code density, comparable to 16-bit microcontroller
Wide operating system and RTOS support - including Windows CE, Palm OS, Symbian OS, Linux and market-leading RTOS
Wide choice of development tools
Simulation models for leading EDA environments
Excellent debug support for SoC designers, including ETM interface
Multiple sourcing from industry-leading silicon vendors
Availability in 0.25m, 0.18m and 0.13m processes
Migration and support across new process technologies
Code is forward-compatible to ARM9, ARM9E and ARM10 processors as well as Intel's XScale technology
The very first thing I thought of with dual screens was Nintendo's Arcade Punchout, Super Punchout, and Arm Wrestling game. I'm almost betting that the dual screens will be vertical, ie. stacked right on top of each other... with the controls to the left and right of the bottom one (exactly like the "Game&Watch"). Unique concept, IMHO.... but I think taking advantage of the dual screens will be difficult. My guess will be that the extra screen won't be taken advantage of by most game developers because they are simply not original enough, and there's only so much you can do with it. It will probably be typically used for a "status" display, scoring or radar in most games.
The other question I beg to ask, is will it be backwards compatible with GBA? If so, what will happen with the other screen? I'm hoping it won't turn on, and drain the batteries.
Worked excellent.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I can see this being fantastic for something like SOCOM(one third person view, one first person or map or whatever), but I'll be interested to see what they use it for in a portable.
"Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
Excellent point.
I've gotten used to 2-screen gaming (GCN w/GBA, DC w/VMU, 2 monitors on my computer). It has great potential.
Actually, all of the above were launched for strategic reasons.
The ROB was released to get the NES out of department stores and into electronics stores, and at that it succeeded admirably (they never intended to support it, sadly). The GBA-GC link was an attempt to use the success of the GBA to drive sales of their new system. The SuperGameboy took some of the edge out of the criticism that the Game Boy was not actually a color device, during a time when it was under a very real attack from the Lynx, the Game Gear, and the TurboExpress. It also attempted to leverage the success of the GB to the SNES, in the same way that the GBA-GC link would later fail to do. The 64-DD was an experiment in optical re-writable technologies, as a response to criticisms of the storage capacity of cartridges and the then obvious future for networked gaming. The e-Reader sold and still sells well in Japan. Selling barcodes for 5 bucks sounds like a good idea to me. The SuperScope was Nintendo's attempt to make and promote a gun to shed their kiddy image, but to make is so laughably non gun-like (and ergonomically challenged) as to not offend parents. Gunpei Yokoi, who helped found Nintendo's interactive ambitions with light gun shooting galleries and created the original zapper, was responsible for the SuperScope. He also (ill)concieved the VirtualBoy was during a time where JaguarVR and the Genesis/SegaCD/32X VR system was perceived as a threat.
You did miss a few, though. There was the Power Pad, the Game Boy Camera, the Game Boy Printer, the Super Mouse, the Play Choice 10, the Nintendo Super System, the entire Wizard movie, Killer Instinct for the SNES, the years-too-late mini NES. Some of them, like the RAM expansion pack, or the Satellite, were handled surprisingly well overall. Most of them were just swept under the rug.
I think we can all guess what the fate of this system will likely be.
The ______ Agenda