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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.
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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
...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.
it looks like NGage isn't going to be the king of handheld gaming for much longer...
lysergically yours
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
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Think of the SP as a Palm Pilot or the like, the DS as a laptop, and the GC as a desktop.
Applications of having two screens on simutaneously:
Metal Gear/Splinter Cell: You hack into a security camera and it constantly displays it on the second screen. Shit, it could even show a bank of security cameras in split screen.
Racing games: Primary screen shows normal driving view, secondary screen shows a bird's eye view so you could see potential overtakers coming from behind. Or red shells.
Football: Screen splits into four quadrants and shows your recievers.
Smash Bros: No more extreme zooming. One screen has your character, the other has a nice overview
RPGs/Stategy: Stats, inventory. I'm sure there's a more creative use I haven't thought of. Like a second party, or something.
Strategy, mainly Real Time: The second screen could keep an eye on your base, or you could coordinate two attacks.
Of course, there's the obvious application of a map/radar, inventory, objectives, health, etc, that could work for ANY game, even a port.
Now, I came up with all that in the space of 20 minutes, while distracted. I can't wait to see what Miyamoto is coming up with.
Also, I'm calling it. Pikmin 2 is moved to the DS. Think about it: There are two playable characters. I mean, really. Plus, they've been rather quiet about it lately.
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.
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