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.
This is just weird. Is this the next Virtual Boy? Will it fit in a pocket? I guess we'll get to see.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Well, this wasn't what I expected - a mid-level console - more portable than a Gamecube, but still, by the description of it, probably not going to fit into my coat pocket like my GBA does and still leave room for my iPod.
Still, in the end I have to take a deep breath and say that Nintendo still has many of the best game designers in the industry, and that they've made some damn fine use of some pretty strange toys before. (I mean, who knew GBA connectivity would lead to something as cool as Pac-Man vs? Or that the e-Reader would lead to neat things like the Super Mario Brothers 3 level cards?) It certainly sounds like an idea that could be really cool. And I have no doubt that Nintendo can carry it off.
Still... huh.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Two screens, huh? Cool!
Two screens, huh? Cool!
--riney
I dunno - this sounds like this came from the same team that thought Virtua Boy would sell. Why would you spend such a large portion of you design and cost budget on a second screen? So we can play a 100% accurate version of the arcade 'Punch Out' game?
Today, since every game seems destined for porting to multiple platforms, this feature will make this system an ugly duckling. Either you won't use the screen because none of the other platforms have it, or your games that use the second screen won't port over well.
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?
One 6 inch screen is as big as four 3 inch screen, so this is probably not the right comparison.
Actually it the area of a screen is related to the diagonal and the height/width ratio. So a 6" screen may or may not be the equivalent of 4 3" screens if it's height/width ration is not the same as the 3" screen.