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.
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
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.
...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.
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.
I work for a discount retailer and the nintendo representative said May as a projected release date.
it looks like NGage isn't going to be the king of handheld gaming for much longer...
lysergically yours
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
Here's a novel idea - have a different perspective on each screen, hold the unit three inches from your face and go crosseyed! Instant 3D! :-)
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.
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?
Here's some conecpt art thanks to ign
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
2nd equal in home consoles and an iron grasp monopoly in the handheld market. When will dim witted morons like you get a clue and realise Nintendo is doing what is does best? Making games and gaming hardware. And they're making a pretty penny out of it too.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
Worked excellent.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
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?
--- I do not moderate.
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