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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..."
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!)
Honestly, it doesn't look too dissimilar to the GBA SP, and that's one of the best selling consoles of all time.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
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...
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??
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) ?
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.
1) The article said there would be a separate
:)
cart slot for GBA games, dunno if they'll still
support GB/GBC games (there's no reason not too,
other than adding a Z80 somewhere...)
2) I would think that it would be around 10 hours
or so if they do it right. I for one liked the
SP scheme of recharging every once in a while
instead of having to find batteries (easier to
find an outlet).
3) If the leaked specs are to be believed, the
main processor will be an ARM9 (I forget the
speed, but much faster than the GBA's ARM7).
According to the same specs, there'll be a
ARM7 co-processor as well.
I can't wait to see it RE'd and homebrew tools
come out!
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
I am 23 and love my GBA SP. There are oodles of games that are not geared toward 5-12 years olds. I have Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Breath of Fire II, Tactics Ogre, Phantasy Star, etc. These games are definitely for adults. Especially BoFII, which deals heavily with organised religion. Both Metroids were classics, short, but classics. I have big hands and fingers, and the controls are just fine for me, the shoulder buttons are a little bit of a stretch, but you figure out how to hold it for maximum ease of use pretty quickly. And don't call me Shirley.
I hate sigs.
I think you fail to realise that handhelds and consoles are two different marketssegments alltogether.
Yes, the screen on my GBA is tiny comprared to me 30" WideScreen TV thats hooked up to my PS2. Yes, the graphics kinda sucs compared to the PS2 as well, beeign (roughtly) on the same level as most PC-games from a decade ago. Yes, the whole shebang is in a tiny package, making the controlls akward if you got huge hands.
BUT I can slip my GBA in my pocket and take it with me on long journey, and the batteries last all the way across the atlantic. Hard to do that with my PS2 and the widescreen tv, right?
You may not like them or be able to use them for recreation, but that do not mean they are useless. As for the agebracket... well, I'll admidt that my Pokemongame might be aimed (mostly) at kids around 10-12, but I can assure you thats there is plenty of games around that any adult might find fun too.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Sorry Guy, but you're not entirely correct there on the age spread... I bought my 30 year old gf one on the GB Advances and installed an afterburner kit in it. Its pretty sweet- she probably plays that more than she watches tv. (For some reason between the computers and the GB, the TV doesn't get much usage...;-)
I know a lot of college students who also own them. Turns out they're a decent waste of time if you have time to waste. And yes- I also know some 12 year olds who have them.
They make a LOT of different games for those things... And yes- a lot of em are aimed at the pre-teen crowd, but they also make a lot of classic games too. (I play Joust-)
Sig currently under construction. Mind the gap....
I think I'm still finding it hard to catch that freaking Pikachu.
Seriously, though, I'm a college student with a full time job at the moment, but I still love my SP dearly. Not just for the abundance of games, but for the compactability and portability. I can play it anywhere. Not that I have a lot of time now, but I still get a chance.
Sure, the screen is 'tiny' (bigger than most cellphones,) and it can't do amazingly wonderful graphics like the XBox or Gamecube. But, then, if I wanted to play XBox or Gamecube, I'd first of all own one, and then I'd get a portable screen for them and lug them around in a cooler.
One of the reasons Nintendo's 8-bit hand held stood above the colorful and vibrant competition was price. Price price and more price. That, and it didn't eat batteries like some... battery... eating... monster. Yeah. It's a reason Nintendo survived for some time (N64's pains were not because of price), and a reason they will still survive.
I mean, yeah. Handhelds are marketed towards the younger demographic. But will a parent be more willing to buy a $150 handheld with N64-like graphics or a $300 handheld with useless features that has PS1-like graphics when the kid doesn't really care?
Right next to the "Post Anonymously" checkbox, we need one for "Post Cliché Joke", like the subscriber asterisk. Then all of the folks who have nothing interesting to contribute except cracks about Beowulf clusters and BSODs in Soviet Russia (you insensitive clod) can have their fun, and I can set it to "-6" in my preferences.
;)
Who's with me?
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
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.
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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...
At 25, I still enjoy portable games on occasion. The problem is that the GBA's screen is way too small for me, and requires a damn floodlamp to be able to see the screen. The GBA SP fixed the light issue, but I've been waiting until the "Nes version" is released in a month or so.
I finished playing Golden Sun a few days ago and wanted to transfer my character data to Golden Sun 2, but the silly 6-page password wouldn't work. It takes about 20 minutes to type the thing in. So, I killed two birds with one stone and picked up a Gameboy Player for my Gamecube. Now I can play my games on a 32" screen, and it supported the link cable which allowed me to link Golden Sun to Golden Sun: The Lost Age to transfer my character data.
Let's just say that I am very happy with my purchase of the GameBoy Advance Player. Graphics are largely on-par with the SNES and Genesis of old. They might be, perhaps, a bit blockier in some respects, since they are games that are designed for a portable, but it's entirely possible that I am just used to flashy 3D graphics these days.
The graphics aren't the issue though. These recent GBA games are some of the most enjoyable games that are being released on any system. Graphics can't change that. There is something special about the games of the SNES era. They were generally quite fine. A lot of that is lost today, when companies try way to hard to make games as glitzy as possible on game consoles.
If you base your game buying decisons solely on the quality of the graphics, you are missing out on a lot of great games. It's your loss though, not mine.
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!
Errr, yes it did:
"DS has separate slots for current Game Boy Advance cartridges and new, smaller DS game cards."
RTFA, always RTFA.
I'm not cool enough to have a
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.
In this case, the ARM 7 is the GBA's processor (with some slight modifications to serve as a stripped-down Z80 for GB/GBC compatibility, IIRC). When running GB/GBC/GBA titles, it'll be doing all the work. And when running DS titles, it'll serve as a co-processor for a little extra oomph.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Wonder what the original poster was reading? They already said it was a flip open unit with 2 screens that are ontop.
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.
Seriously... Most consoles are boring looking as all get out. If you base your console purchases on the "look" of the system, you are the perfect Phantom customer...
I know that the "looks" of devices have hurt sales in the past (E.g. the toy-look of the GC), however, any reasonable gamer knows that:
Success == Good Games == High User Base = Developer Support = More Variety (*).
Think about this:
* N64-like capabilites in a small form factor
* 4 face buttons
* Bluetooth
* Backwards compatibility (games are available NOW!)
* MSRP of $150 ($100 less than PSP) (everyone knows that the target pricepoint is $99-$75 for handhelds - clever manufacturing, economies of scale and semiconductor improvements will make this possible in a couple of years)
* Innovative interface
This is a pretty good deal to me even if it doesn't look cool or hip. The only big if is the choice of storage (Maybe it's N64 all over again...BUT... again... portable optical media on a handeld is a big gamble too... big risks == big payoff)
I'd love the PSP to be good competition to the DS/GBA, bc it benefits all gamers!
But let's just make better judgement calls before announcing that some product is going to get crushed.
On the business side...
At 95% Nintendo's market share on the handheld market can only go down, but, it's time to make sound decisions.
* Minimize loss on main console
(Sony is coming in and it's going to be willing to take a loss to gain market share agressively)
* Focus on quality games
* Keep 3rd parties happy
* Clever marketing
Oh well... this is going to be an interesting week... happy speculation....
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
A lot of us find the small size of the GBA SP to be one of its best advantages. As for the games' qualities, if you're talking just graphics, then yes, they're SNES quality. If you're talking gameplay value, well, a big chunk of the games have original NES quality gameplay, because they're almost direct ports. And you know what, that's a great thing, because there were a lot of really great NES games. There's also some excellent SNES ports, as well as plenty of other original games.
Will two screens be all that useful for a racing game, maybe not. Is a computer mouse the an ideal steering mechanism for a racing game? Not really, but that doesn't mean mice are a bad idea. Just because two screens won't necessarily make everything better doesn't mean they have no value. And also, these two screens are fairly small, so I question how hard it will be to monitor both of them (if the game's interface is designed well, naturally). Sweeping my eyes up and down across both DS screens should take less time than looking across my 19" computer monitor.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
"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.
Hey guys, I can't find this posted anywhere, but this is *good stuff*, DS Screenshots and renderings. Enjoy.