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E3 - First Nintendo DS Pic
Ravi Hiranand writes "Steven Kent has a look at the Nintendo DS -- along with what appears to be the first picture of the unit (which doesn't look anything like any of the wild rumours suggested it might!). It's still unclear whether the game pictured (a Mario Kart title!) is really a DS game or whether the whole thing is just a render, but the image is credited to Nintendo, so it appears to be genuine..."
This thing has no chance of succeeding. It looks just as atrocious as I had imagined. Oh well, I'll buy it used in a couple a years for $20. Works for me.
I work as a consultant for several fortune 500 companies, and I think
I can shed a little light on the climate of the open source community
at the moment. I believe that part of the reason that open source
based startups are failing left and right is not an issue of marketing
as it's commonly believed but more of an issue of the underlying
technology.
I know that that's a strong statement to make, but I have evidence to
back it up! At one of the major corps(5000+ employees) that I consult
for, we wanted to integrate the shareware version of Linux into our
server pool. The allure of not having to pay any restrictive licensing
fees was too great to ignore. I reccomended the installation of
several boxes running the new 2.4.9 kernel, and my hopes were high
that it would perform up to snuff with the Windows 2k boxes which
were(and still are!) doing an AMAZING job at their respective tasks of
serving HTTP requests, DNS, and fileserving.
I consider myself to be very technically inclined having programmed in
VB for the last 8 years doing kernel level programming. I don't
believe in C programming because contrary to popular belief, VB can go
just as low level as C and the newest VB compiler generates code
that's every bit as fast. I took it upon myself to configure the
system from scratch and even used an optimised version of gcc 3.1 to
increase the execution speed of the binaries. I integrated the 3
machines I had configured into the server pool, and I'd have to say
the results were less than impressive... We all know that linux isn't
even close to being ready for the desktop, but I had heard that it was
supposed to perform decently as a "server" based operating system. The
3 machines all went into swap immediately, and it was obvious that
they weren't going to be able to handle the load in this "enterprise"
environment. After running for less than 24 hours, 2 of them had
experienced kernel panics caused by Bind and Apache crashing! Granted,
Apache is a volunteer based project written by weekend hackers in
their spare time while Microsft's IIS has an actual professional full
fledged development team devoted to it. Not to mention the fact that
the Linux kernel itself lacks any support for any type of journaled
filesystem, memory protection, SMP support, etc, but I thought that
since Linux is based on such "old" technology that it would run with
some level of stability. After several days of this type of behaviour,
we decided to reinstall windows 2k on the boxes to make sure it wasn't
a hardware problem that was causing things to go wrong. The machines
instantly shaped up and were seamlessly reintegrated into the server
pool with just one Win2K machine doing more work than all 3 of the
Linux boxes.
Needless to say, I won't be reccomending Linux/FSF to anymore of my
clients. I'm dissappointed that they won't be able to leverege the
free cost of Linux to their advantage, but in this case I suppose the
old adage stands true that, "you get what you pay for." I would have
also liked to have access to the source code of the applications that
we're running on our mission critical systems; however, from the looks
of it, the Microsoft "shared source" program seems to offer all of the
same freedoms as the GPL.
As things stand now, I can understand using Linux in academia to
compile simple "Hello World" style programs and learn C programming,
but I'm afraid that for anything more than a hobby OS, Windows
98/NT/2K are your only choices.
It looks kinda big... how's it going to stack up compared to my deliciously pocket size SP?
Best read in good ol' Monaco 9 point.
Now if only they still have that ear-piercing tone that nearly drove my parents insane, we're in business!
(better still have the alarm too!)
Looks like old school game and watch. Looks promising, i cannot wait to see what type of games they will have for it. Can anyone picture Bluetooth Mario Kart.
Cheers,
bbyybb.
Nintendo unveiling a new portable
... We want to do things that you could not do before. We are looking at the creative end."
By Steven Kent, Special forUSA TODAY
LOS ANGELES -- Video game giant Nintendo, facing increased competition in the market for handheld entertainment, will have a new portable out this fall with twin color screens, sharper graphics and the feel of a PDA. The Nintendo DS -- short for dual-screen -- will be unveiled Tuesday morning at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo game industry gathering.
The Nintendo DS -- short for dual-screen -- will be unveiled Tuesday morning at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo game industry gathering. The DS will sell alongside today's Game Boy Advance, not replace it, according to the company. Nintendo has not announced a release date or price, though analysts predict it may sell in the $150 range.
One of the two 3-inch screens is touch-sensitive and works with a stylus -- like Palms and Pocket PCs -- to control the action in some games. In one demo, players guide a toddler-age Mario as he falls from the sky by drawing clouds. Other games give multiple views of the action.
The DS also has Bluetooth wireless communication to connect with other units within range for cordless competition. DS has separate slots for current Game Boy Advance cartridges and new, smaller DS game cards.
DS is largely viewed as Nintendo's response to Sony's PlayStation Portable, or PSP, a new system that will play both movies and video games stored on mini DVD discs. Sony has announced plans to release PSP in Japan later this year and in the USA in 2005.
"I have not seen the PSP," says Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the famous Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong characters. "The screen, I believe, is bigger than a DS screen, and I am sure it will have excellent graphic quality." But, he adds, "the PSP will not be able to display anything that you cannot do on a current system.
The DS has slightly more processing power than the Nintendo 64 console released in 1996. While that's nowhere near today's top game-system graphical capabilities, two- and three-dimensional game images, when viewed on DS screens, are surprisingly crisp.
Sony's PSP, reported to be only slightly less powerful than the PlayStation 2, will have a higher-resolution screen and more graphics power. The price has not yet been announced, though estimates have ranged to $250 and up.
Having sold more than 168 million Game Boys worldwide since 1989, Nintendo dominates the handheld game market, even as it's losing market share in console systems to Sony and Microsoft. Over the past 15 years, such companies as Sega, NEC, SNK and most recently cell phone giant Nokia have launched nine competing portable game systems without much success.
And the image is here!
At least Nintendo finally decided to give their handheld four face buttons. I couldn't believe they chose to leave them out of the GBA design. Especially considering the mass amount of SNES ports it received.
Creator of the popular web game Proximity
This looks like a weird idea, but it could also be used to make a lot of really interesting games. The two displays have a lot of possibilities. In an RPG or something, one could display the dungeon map while another could contiunally montitor your characters' status, or give the player other useful information in some way. Is this idea really gimmicky? Sure. But it might lead to a couple of neat games...
It not only looks big, but also cheap. We can only hope that the photo is some early prototype or something. If the DS looks anything like that, and the PSP looks anything like the photos we've been seeing, the DS is gonna get crushed.
1. Is it compatible with GB, GBC and GBA games?
2. Battery life?
3. Did they fix any of the annoying problems from the GBA (more SRAM, wider data bus, faster cpu, larger screen pixel count)?
If all they did was tack on a touch sensitive screen to the GBA SP then we're gonna be stuck with the same SNES re-write lame-ass side scrolling games...
Sure PocketNES is fun er... I mean e-reader but I would love to be able to play quake or something on a portable [other than a 500$ PDA].
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
So, Nintendo is going to continue selling GBA's, claiming these two systems compliment each other instead of outright replacing the GBA? You know what that's going to cause: confusion in the marketplace. Let's not forget the rumour that there's a complete GBA replacement in the works for sometime next year.
Anybody remember the Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, 32x Extension, and CD-Drive extension? Nobody knew what to buy because nobody knew what games were going to be made for which combination of hardware. That along with the prices deep sixxed all of the above hardware.
Nintendo should make the DS 100% compatible with GB and GBA games, and stop selling GBAs. What they're doing now is simply confusing the market and giving Sony prime oppurtunity to come in and clean up their mistakes.
And the dual screen? It's a gimmick. Anything the Dual screen can do could also be done by a bigger or wider screen.
What is Nintendo thinking??
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those ! (had to be said)
The DS also has Bluetooth wireless communication to connect with other units within range for cordless competition. DS has separate slots for current Game Boy Advance cartridges and new, smaller DS game cards.
Backwards compatible and built in wireless? Where do I sign up for a pre order?
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
Is it just me, or does the mini-map of the race track look like a dinosaur (barney) that needs too pee (the crossed legs at the bottom) ?
I will never understand these handhelds. I have only ever used these devices when I was a small kid. The graphics are terrible and the screens tiny. Why do you want to use them.
I can never use them even if on a journey. They are annoyingly small and the controls are flimsy. They don't stand up to the likes of the XBox and PS2. I understand that those are two different types of products, but these machines seem useless.
Surely these devices are aimed mainly at the 5-12 age bracket. Anyone older would need something more stimulating than these. What does everyone else think?
It looks like those old dual-screen Game and Watches. This is pretty exciting, I want to see what kind of games are planned for this. It's kind of like most seafood dishes: it has the potential to be really good or really bad, but nothing in between.
The DS has slightly more processing power than the Nintendo 64 console released in 1996.
with 4 buttons... and a left right it has the same number of buttons as the snes... now if it only had a analog stick and z button on the bottom... then add a small mini dvd reader on the back a few more buttons here and their and voila...
It would still be as ugly as ever
It looks very Nintendo. It sounds like Nintendo has no plans into getting into a computing power/graphics race with Sony, but intends to focus on their dominance in innovative game design. Consider this is the company whose original low-resolution original black&white GameBoy stomped color portable systems into the ground, I wouldn't dismiss it. A Zelda or Metroid game with N64 quality graphics on one screen and a map display on the other would be very appealing.
It's worth pointing out that the DS is expected to be more powerful than the nintendo 64. That means 3d becomes not only a possibility, but a reality for this system.
Goldeneye on the tube via bluetooth anyone?
Wathch out.. the early eighties are back, at least as far as casedesign is considered...
Mind you, there isn't too many ways to pack dual screens into a handheld unit in - and the clamshell will help protect the screens, unlike on my GBA.
As for wether it'll flaot or sink... it depends on many factors, not least price and avilability of games that require two screens.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Best System EVER!
I googled after some specs for nintendo DS
[...] the system will have two processors, with an ARM-9 CPU running at 67MHz and an ARM-7 unit running at 33MHz. Retail DS devices will have 4Mb of main RAM (while debug development units will have double that), with additional chunks of cache and shared RAM for the processors and 656Kb of video RAM. [...] The system will possess decent 2D capabilities, but it also has a 3D graphics system which, the spec. claims, is capable of drawing 120,000 polygons per second, representing a fill-rate of 30 million pixels per second. [...] Wi-Fi [802.11] and, touch panel input device.
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
#
Yay, X and Y buttons.
...where are the shoulder buttons?
... homebrew software is developed for it :D (*cough* SNES emulator~@#~@#$!@#$)
...but...
Damn.
This thing does look pretty sweet, though. I wonder how long it'll be before some type of
</delurk>
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Being a techie and a geek for a very long time I have to say I'm buying into this overall-consitency thing Nintendo and Apple like to emphasise.
I bought a GB SP earlier this year and just got a new iBook the other week. And their overall desing and feeling makes the extra money worthwhile. And that's a former Linux-only user saying this!
This dual screen thing seemed stupid, but now I understand what they where talking. It's not about a screen but about coping with the lack of GB buttons!!! That's why the bottom one is a touchscreen. And a touchscreen where you can change the writing size and amount of buttons instantly is the next best thing to a mechanical keyboard. IMHO this has all the chances of becoming a neat engineering/solution stunt.
For my part I can say that I'm sold. I'll definitely check this gadget out when it hits the shelves. I hope it has enough ooomph and controlability to get some neat RTS and FPS games on it. Duke Nukem GBA is neat but not really stunning.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
a BSD box (a PIII steadily fucking big picture. What as one of th%e
take a look at what Nintendo puts out on their consoles: stuff about Mickey Mouse or Zelda. It's a far cry from GTA: Vice City or Halo. /important/ things to spend money on. However, if i did it would not be beacuse i want to play Quake. It's a fun game, admittdly, but it's not in Nintendo's market.
Their market is not to people wanting to play Quake. Personally, I think side-scrolling games were great. I'll probably not buy this thing, because i have
Some would say the same of Linux.
I wonder how long before someone ports Linux to it and turns it into a webserver?
e r.shtml
Someone has already ported linux to a dead badger - http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badg
60 percent of the time, my comments are right everytime.
This is a very interesting gamble for Nintendo. On one hand, the GB advance really does not need a replacement yet. It is still the top selling handheld. With Sony's handheld at/above $200, it clearly is not going to take the market by storm. Most people are either at work, or at home. If I am at home, I have several game systems to choose from, and then I have to screw around on the internet and play games on my pc too. I really am not interested in a console "replacement" for "on the go" gaming.
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
It has bluetooth. That means you can connect it to the internet via a bluetooth cell phone. That means you can play game on it against anyone on the internet. That means I can play advance wars with people in cars in CA while I'm in a car in NY. If Nintendo makes a move on that technology they'll be the first to have multiplayer online gaming that is also portable. If they emphasize this feature they will rock the house. Two screens only helps this out. Put the score and the chat on one screen with the action on the other. I'm buying this no matter what, poo poo to all you naysayers.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
The article did not mention whether Nintendo plans to continue to maintain backward compatibility in the GameBoy line. This would be a very strong selling point.
Is this the day for bad karma ? Both Nintendo and Sony put out new products that, I think, are actually aesthetically backwards design steps.
Koei To Bring Dynasty Warriors To The DS.
Those of you who've played Dynasty Warriors on the Playstation 2 will know just how useful the map is (much more so than having a screen for Mario Kart's map.). It not only shows you troop movements, but which troops are fighting (losing/winning), where your body guards are, and where key events are occurring. Getting lost is easy considering the huge maps--trying to get anywhere without a horse is frustrating.
I made my choice and its ashame cuase Im a hudge Nintendo fan. I have all there consoles and Gameboys.
Like most /.ers, I think we've all been following this story about the DS for sometime. I was skeptical at first, but now that I've had the opportunity to see the device, I am really not that overly impressed with the design. It looks like an old Compaq Pocket PC!
This format just gives game developers opportunities to make more gimmicks into their games. It's a new paradigm, and so the games will fundamentally change to accomodate this. I bet you only 25% of the games that come out in the first year will use those two screens effectively. Let's look at the numbers the other way. That means my estimate is 75% of the games that come out in the first year for the DS will get the dual screen WRONG. It's a new platform, a new paradigm. I hope for the best, but I expect the worst. And I am not even going to shell out any money for this gimmick device.
I think that if they wanted a shot at attracting an older market, they should have made a screen that was like 4"-5" wide and have built in APIs to split the screen side by side into 2"-2.5" halves. Give gamers the opportunity to see handheld games in a wider format. Maybe use a 16:9 ratio, and give your device half a chance of succeeding outside of Japan...
Honestly, I smell another Virtual Boy on the horizon...
What will happen in 10 or so years when this system dies? Will the games, obviously designed with dual screens in mind, be able to be emulated on any future hardware? Or will the games that appear on this system be lost forever once the system gets superceded!
That's 96Kb plus the size of DirectX, just slightly more than 4Mb...
BLuetooth! Thats gonna spawn some games i predict... A whole new world opens up!
Guy 1: Hey Mark, when did you start carrying a purse?
Guy 2: Oh. I bought the new Game Boy. This is the battery.
The government's moral compass is controlled by GPS.
In times of crises, they alter it to suit their needs.
Wonder what the original poster was reading? They already said it was a flip open unit with 2 screens that are ontop.
Great. I've already lost my Dr. Mario, which was a "big" GB cart; the GBA carts are even smaller, and now we're getting even smaller cards? They're going to make a killing selling new games to people that lose their old ones!
There will be no 'crushing' because they are not in competition. Sony says they wont compete with the Gameboy line, Nintendo says they wont compete with the portable media player (PSP) line. They're all good.
Why isn't it designed to draw power from a GC when they're connected?
Nintendo doesn't seem to realize that The #1 annoyance of mobile devices is having to take care of batteries. (NO, in this case, a separate power supply is not a solution)
This falls right in line with my favorite myth that
"Machine X is more powerful than machine Y...therefore machine Y sucks"
First, it does play GBA games. If you would have read the article they mention this. Second, it was designed to play entirely different types of games with bluetooth multiplayer in mind. Something two screens is not a gimmick for. Third, Nintendo is not giving Sony any prime spots to take their market share - Sony has said many times before that the PSP is not going to compete in their market, they're going multimedia with the PSP .. PDA, Movies, MP3s etc .. People who strictly want to play games will stick with Gameboys. But guess what, instead on OMG confusion OMG, you have CHOICES.
D'you think this system will be fast enough to run a DOS emulator that can play older games? That'd be sweet.
Judging by the layout it looks like Nitendo got inspiration from its old 'Game & Watch' game systems. For Nintendo the concept of a dual screen game system is certainly nothing new, though this time you aren't limited to one game. I see it as a fusion of Gambeboy and 'Game and Watch'.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
For those who didn't RTFA yes, it has slots for supporting old GBA games.
TruePunk | Games
I can see where these two handhelds could coexist. The GBA is small and I can carry it in my pocket anywhere. The DS would be nice for longer trips when I have a backpack or something to carry it in. I'm really looking forward to some N64 ports also.
Apple and Nintendo seem to have fallen into the same hole. Both make excellent and fun to use hardware. Both are very innovative. Both make things we may not like at first, but grow to love. And both share the same competition. Microsoft and Sony are both making products to shut down Apple and Nintendo. I can think a hundred examples where Apple comes up with an idea, and Sony and Microsoft use that idea to make more money than Apple. You can almost say the same for Nintendo.
Now why don't these two companies merge? Think of the great ideas that would come out of such a merger! The iPod would be even more kick ass because it would have a GBA cartridge slot and you could play games on it (and maybe copy them to the iPod's hard drive?). The next Nintendo console would look so cool that everyone would have to have one, and the Apple guys would be smart enough to make it play DVDs or whatever new media is out at the time (Nintendo foolishly made their game Gamecube discs mini-dvd, so you cannot play movies on it).
I may not be the first person to think of this, but I feel like it almost doesn't make sense as to why this hasn't happened already.
geek n performer who performs morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken
Won't matter how quickly emulators get developed, any game using the touchscreen simply won't run properly.
Seems to me that Nintendo's biggest competitor in the handheld game space is themselves. Why not release a system to compete with the GBA at a higher price point?
My vocabulary is so huge it's enormous. if only I could think of a word bigger than enormous, like huge.
It's more powerful than a N64. That's the coolest part of the whole thing. Mario 64 on the go, Waverace 64 on the go, Zelda Ocarina of Time on the go. That's gonna be sweet and I'll be more likely to pay 150 dollars than the 250 or more for the PSP.
If someone posted this already I apologize. There's just too many posts to read. :)
After looking at that pic for the past hour (not constantly, but off and on) it just looks like a digital mockup of a possible design. There's no Nintendo logo, the black space in the middle looks off, and if those are speaker holes at the bottom, it must be a joke. Perhaps Nintendo leaked a fake pic on purpose to get people talking about how lame the design is, then they'll unveil the real thing and blow our socks off.
The DS design might have its own upsides, but for me a widescreen GBA SP (GBA SPWS!) would make much more sense. Think about it, It's like the difference between a single widescreen TV and two smaller regular TVs stacked on top of each other. With the DS we can have neat touchscreen menus, maps and all sorts of other wacky crap, but what happens with games that wouldn't really make much use of it? Having a single wide screen might not be as adult and PDA-ish but I'm pretty sure that it could display just as much information as two smaller screens would, plus it would less limit the way said information is displayed. Every game would benefit.
I guess this means that I have to start crossing my fingers so that rumours of a vanilla gameboy successor will come true.
% mkdir
% ls -dF
Well, it looks nice and all, but can it run linux? ;)
"Over the past 15 years, such companies as Sega, NEC, SNK and most recently cell phone giant Nokia have launched nine competing portable game systems without much success."
Game Gear, Nomad; Turbo Express; Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color; NGage.
What other systems are they counting here? Or are they just leaving out a few companies? In which case the the only US-released system I can think of, of any note, is the Tiger Game.Com. I suppose the Wonder Swan and Wonder Swan color (no US release, correct?) would bring it to 9, but if we're going to count those three, what about the GP32?
Am I forgetting anything?
Huh? I don't know what gaming sites Ravi (the poster) was reading, but this thing looks just about like I've seen predicted. Not that there are that many ways to arrange such a thing... Maybe he was reading sites that said it'd come in give iColors rather than just grey?
Anywho, this is just about how I envisioned it- but maybe with some more curves ala the GBA.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Yes, because we all know that how a console looks is the most important thing.
I mean, how can you possibly be expected to play great games on a great system if it doesn't have an uber 31337 blue LED winking all the time?? You can't honestly want to own something that is isn't stainless steel and makes the Quake door opening door everytime you turn it on can you??
I mean games are one thing, but you can't pull the chix with that thing!
We all know women just melt at the sight of a good looking gaming system. It's only a matter of time until they come storming into your mom's basement looking for some action!
This picture appeared on a site months ago:
http://www.gamed.nl/view.php?id=2282
for sure
"DS has separate slots for current Game Boy Advance cartridges and new, smaller DS game cards."
Here Nintendo goes again. The PSP is supposedly going to use mini-DVDs, and the DS is going to use these new game cards? Just how much space will these cards be able to sport? I'm sure it's not as much as a mini-DVD...
Nintendo has made this mistake repeatedly. The Nintendo 64 was catridge based when everybody else had moved on to CDs. When everybody had moved on to DVDs, Nintendo makes the GameCube use mini-DVDs (which is probably the most common gripe about the GameCube that I hear). Will they ever learn?
I purchased by GBA SP full of joy that I would at last be able to play some decent games on the road. But what a big disappointment it was!!! the GBA SP is way too small, the buttons are too small, the screen is too small, and the games quality is that of SuperNes!!! I expected something better than outdated 16-bit graphics. It was a great disappointment.
Now on to DS: Is Nintendo sure that DS will succeed ? I really doubt it. Why should there be a 2nd screen ? it would not be for the stats, because it would be a problem in fast games (racing, for example) to take your eyes from the main screen. Another camera, perhaps ? but will the 2 simultaneous cameras assist the player ? or will he/she be confused from going back and forth ? players would need very good spatial perception if they are to handle two cameras at the same time.
Nintendo's double-screen Game&Watch games simply used the 2nd screen for extending the playfield, not for simultaneous action. The DS is something that has never been attempted before, but I smell another Virtual Boy.
I was looking at the design for the DS and I noticed that there's a big design flaw for me and my tenth of the population. If the stylus is going to be in our left hands, how is a left hander supposed to use the D-Pad that is on the left side?
This comment was thought up very late at night and does not necessarily reflect my views at a more reasonable hour.
Surely, this is to fend off the advancing might of the game.com, the fist (and so far only) Internet-enabled portable gaming unit?
Anyway, hurrah to Nintendo for catching up with 1996.
Talk about innovative design on behalf of Nintendo....NOT!
I used to own this hardware...17 years ago...sure it only played Donkey Kong, but there's no denying that the layout/design is identical to the old Nintendo Game & Watch:
Nintendo Game & Watch on Ebay
...but I think Nintendo should just design a portable system around the original SNES controller. It's fairly comfortable and quite versatile for its rather simple design. Just widen and thicken it a little and stick a LCD and cartridge slot in it. Fuck the squareness of the DS! The ultimate portable, however, would be incorporated into the PS2 dual analog controller. That is, quite possibly, the best controller ever.
This couldn't an image of the real DS.
Take a look at the D pad, the ends of it all all rounded. Nintendo has had the same classic d-pad design on all of their consoles, it is their signature, I just can't see them changing that.
redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
If Nintendo said "The DS will replace the GBA" the sales of GBA's would drop to the floor in anticpation of the GBA.
For better or worse, precision-wise and fingerprint-wise, I'm thinking the touch screen will be finger/thumb-touched instead of (or in addition to?) pen-touched. Juggling a stylus then putting your thumbs back on the buttons wouldn't be very natural, and if there's one thing Nintendo knows it's intuitive, comfortable controls.
I don't see any stylus clip on the unit, though I suppose it could be buried in the dark black area or inside the hinges. Plus it would be terribly easy to lose a tiny little pen. Nintendo might be doing their best to start appealing to an older crowd, but they're not going to also start ignoring pokemon-aged kids!
I'm right-handed, but could easily use either hand to point at stuff. I started out really skeptical about this thing, but warm up to it a little more with each tidbit of news.
I love the design of the new DS (I dont think every game will keep up with the quality of Mario Kart but still this promises to be a great device) However lets start calling it by its name this is the new GBA it has a 3d card and its backwards compatible. If you think nintendo is going to keep pumping games for the GBA OR is workign in another GBA next year, you have another thing coming.
That doesnt make the GBA a doorstep theres hundreds of games for it and is considerably cheaper actually (at least for a while) the biggest library of games for the DS is going to be the GBA games available now.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
"Run faster, damn you! Faster! FASTER!"
*CRACK*
Congrats! Nintendo found another way to make you buy their handhelds more than once!
Just want to point out that this was, according to my girlfriend, on the front page of the dead tree version.
Glad to see the world is finally sorting out its priorities to my satisfaction.
The only thing that is wrong with the GBA SP is the screen size. I wish it were a little larger and it would be perfect. It looks like the DS isn't going to have any larger of a screen either which is unfortunate.
and it's also cheaper. You wouldn't be paying $150 a pop if they used a 640x240 resolution screen. If they had gone with a single screen they would have had to manufacture a non standard screen resolution LCD panel and games would have had to support it. If they had put the screens side by side there would be an unavoidable and annoying dark slice between the two. You'd be constantly distracted by the action on one screen while you're trying to pay attention to the other. If the game tried to be wide screen, you'd have that annoying slice. The system would also need to be taller than it is.
As it is, it makes sense, you can glance down to see various information and back up to keep playing.
It could definitly be used as a gimmic but it has far more potential than that since it's also a touch screen.
Also, since they have two video screens, it would be really nice if they had two video outs so you could attach 3D glasses to it. There will no doubt be games that support a camera that can follow the player so you can have on screen looking in front of you and the other, looking behind.
A video in would be nice to be able to hook up a portable DVD player to it. Or any other device like a TV tuner or VCR.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
If you looked at the image in the article you can see the screen is sporting a 3D racing game.
So yes, it does have 3D capabilities and "more powerful than the N64" does mean it will be able to support any game that the N64 could handle and then a bit more.
Each GameBoy release is intended to be as good as the previous console. The GBC got the GameBoy up to NES quality, the GBA got it up to SNES quality and now the DS will get it up to N64 quality. This allows Nintendo to rerelease their old classics again for the portable system and get some more cash out of them.
Considering that the GameCube is practically portable already it wouldn't be much of a surprise if they next major GB release in a few years was as powerful as the GameCube.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
The LCD screen is not lighting the base (I doubt they forgot about backlitting again) so the screen could be in fact in fact turned off.
The perspective of the top LCD screen is slightly moved if you look at it carefully you will notice is an screenshot plastered on top.
Both screens are slightly pixelated on the sides.
Theres a lot of wasted space on the sides of the TOP lcd screen if you notice the GBA design they used all the space they could on the top is unlikely they didnt noticed that. (unless the speakers are there.)
The image is too small is unlikely a press announcement will be followed by an image of such low resolution.
Look at it again. it looks like a medium quality 3d rendered image with 2 screenshots plastered on top.
Maybe the image is a prototype render, definetily is not a real picture.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
I would *hope* the programmers are smart enough to figure out that you can't get good gameplay by requiring players to swap control systems in the middle of fast action.
Come on. 'Fess up. That was a really, really, REALLY lame example.
+++ATH0
I said this when the Gamecube was announced. It has the IBM PPC chip in it, just like the Macs. It has the ATI nVidia GFX-card in it, just like the Macs. Both had cube form factors. Ironic, isn't it?
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
http://www.evilavatar.com/modules.php?op=modload&n ame=News&file=article&sid=4253&mode=thread&order=0 &thold=0
Its simply has two processors to power two screens, so its going to be more or less the same as the as the GBA (one processor/screen combo is exactly like the GBA), so don't expect N64 graphics (I know that they have a GameCube screenshot in the mockup... but think about it...)
Think a slightly more powerful GBA, not a portable N64
Other have tried with devices far better and with excellent looks, hell anything looks good to the game boy, and all have failed totally. Looks don't matter.
The only thing I find odd about this device is the size of the top screen. Wouldn't there be space for a slightly larger screen? Add maybe 10-20 dollars to the price tag and give peoples eye a break.
The old GBA stood alone but this one is going to be compared the PSP and who likes a small a screen.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Gamespy just released an article detailing a hands-on with DS. You can check it out here. Also, it seems like every freaking video game website on the net is slow as anything. In fact, Nintendo's own website appears to be down. Ouch! I wish I could find some free videos of today's press conferences, since I am too cheap to pay for accounts to video game websites.
SIGFAULT
first thing, judging from this, i don't like square shape. i personally found the GBA SP a PITA to control for my big mitts. though this might be big enough. the GBA SP was too damn small and closely packed for me.
second thing. they are jetisoning the classic gameboy games from this unless an addapter is release (it better be or i'm gonna be pissed as i have a BIG collection of GB and GBC games and i don't really wanna carry round a GBA and this new one)
the bluetooth addition is something i have been waiting years for. no more damn gamelink cable!
the power should be plently and they will be able to bring out some of the best games that were made for da N64. Smash bros. in my pocket! fun, especully with multiplayer!
we'll see...
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Gamespot has an article about the Nintendo DS, and the reporter actually played on prototypes.
After reading it, I am really excited about it. But playing WarioWare on it arises a serious question...how durable will be he ouch screen?
My brain instantly said, "Update Punch-Out!!!". Such fond memories of that game and it's stacked screens.
Spelling, grammar, punctuation? We need something that checks logic.
http://www.usatoday.com/
Hey guys, I can't find this posted anywhere, but this is *good stuff*, DS Screenshots and renderings. Enjoy.
WarioWare. In one game you had to keep rubbing the screen as if you were applying charcoal on paper to reveal an image. One quickie had four objects on screen that required you to draw a line between the matching pairs. Another had you drawing a line between a boy and a girl to bring them together.
Ýes it also took ten full minutes for someone to code each of those games, for some reason Im not terribly excited to rub out the touch screen with those.
OK Im not a Warioware fan, so I thought I should check the rest of the launch titles:
Super Mario 64 X 4 -- This four-player game showed off both the wireless and dual-screen facets of the system.
Now couldnt at least changed the title ? Mario 64? x4? the scheme finally was revealed the GBA played a bunch of re-releases from SNES now the DS is set for re-releases from N64!!! (and not even the best ones like mario,banjo and conker)
Metroid Prime: Hunter -- From a technical standpoint, this was the most impressive DS title I saw. This first-person shooter looked incredible. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a Nintendo 64 FPS that looked as good as this game.
Hmm now I have to admit this one sounds yummy, after all the reason why I have my gba is because of metroid prime, if I get convinced to get a DS any day it will probably because of this one (wheres the castlevanias too?) however could the reviewer be a bit less obvious about the n64 nature of the DS?
Oh yeah and the rest:
Pac-Pix (pacman)
Pac 'n Roll (pacman)
Air Hockey(!)
If that amazing list didnt got your heart pounding with excitement! is because no human could care for any of those! the following should interest you a bit more! (I like to use exclamation marks and say wow! for no immediate reason!):
I also got to play demos featuring Sonic, Square characters, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Gundam, Pikachu, and Bomberman. They weren't as memorable as some of the others
Oh man! now that's a memorable moment! the guy at gamespy who literally gets payed to talk wonders about this games prefered not to talk about the later! WOW! now that should give you a small hint at what sort of masterpieces they must be! WOW!
In resume:
there you have it: the DS is basically a portable N64 with wireless networking a stylus (which is EXTREMELY used in wario ware) a touch screen and is going to cost around $150 we still dont know what is final name would be but it wont be "DS".
The launch library is 95% crap and theres not even a mario 64 at sight, however is GBA compatible and some of its launch titles like mario kart (although Mario dash would been much better), warioware (featuring a bunch of games made during lunch break) and metroid look like a lot of fun specially in 4 player wireless connection. Not even the reviewer wanted to talk about the others. (and he is a guy who got excited about rubbing the back of wario with a stylus)
Theres no info about battery consumption and considering nintendo likes to cut corners and they are too quiet about it chances are it will really, really suck. So prepare to play a lot while connected to a power outlet, or carry around a battery charger everywhere.
In my own personal humble opinnion? portable N64 vs portable PS2? sorry nintendo you just lost a costumer. But thats just me, a lot of nintendo fans will be really happy with this one.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
DS article
According to the above referenced article the new DS also has Voice recognition and its DS card can hold almost a Gigabyte of information. I noticed that this wasn't really referenced in the USA Today Article.
"Sonic's rate of speed was dependent upon how fast you could move the stylus (or your finger) back and forth across the bottom screen."