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Nintendo DS Gets Sleeker Final Design, Same Name
Ravi Hiranand writes "Nintendo has announced the final name of their Nintendo DS handheld, and it will be called... Nintendo DS. The final design of the system is viewable on their official site (screenshot) - looks sleeker and far less chunky, but still a bit awkward. There's also an English-language press release full of waffly language, but the only things you need to know are that there are 120 DS games in development (20 from Nintendo) and that the price, release date and launch lineup will be announced later."
...dang, that is hot.
I WANT ONE.
You probably shouldn't click this.
...the feature set.
The one thing I'm dying to know that I haven't been able to discover is if this thing will be able to function as a GBA connected to a GameCube. Does it have the connector the Cube uses to connect to a GBA? Can it download code over that port and execute it as the GBA does?
If so, I'll probably buy one. I was going to buy a second GBA just for when people come over to play Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. If this thing can serve that niche as well as do everything else they say it'll do, I'll buy one of these and delegate "backup GBA controller" status to my current GBA SP.
Its a good job Microsoft project code names don't get taken through to release. XP is easier to type the Whistler.
Any one else know of any products being released with their code names?
I know not all products have code names etc. I'm just interested.
Avontech | Play dirty! They started it!
one thing i noticed was that button above the d-pad. i hope that is just the power and not like a regular button.. it would suck to have to move your thumb to use that one.
http://www.foowack.net/
Let me just say that I want to be one of the first to start doing some homebrew coding on this. I imagine it would work wonderfully as a double-function PDA/Gameboy. What with the Wifi, Blutooth, touch screen, and the ability to scroll a web page across the two screens, I can't wait to get at it...
I find that battery life has been a big deal with new handhelds from nintendo, the gba and gba had excellent battery life, I hope I can expect more of the same out of the DS. I'm concerned that with higher performance will come lower battery life, which greatly limits the portability of the devices.
I've been held back from buying portable systems for the last few years because of past problems. My first portable was the Atari Lynx(which came out just after the gameboy, and had a colour screen), within a few months of paying the big cash it took to buy, games became very hard to find, and stopped being produced. After this, instead of buying a gameboy, as I wasnt a big fan of the cartoony graphics, I bought a sega Gamegear.. although this system lasted me a bit longer than the lynx, games became much harder to find.
Now, I think I will wait to see the actual release and game development of the new sony and nintendo portables before I shell out the cash. I guess I will have to settle playing games on my laptop for now.
Boxing Equipment Reviews
Looking at the key layout, there ought to be a bunch of SNES ports for this thing. It's probably more powerful than it.
XABY 4 LyFe baby!
- Sherman
this might not sound cool, but you probably would be able to render the 2 screens in a 3d environment with the eye level of each screen seperated by a little bit. Then you could hold the unit vertical and cross your eyes until the 2 screens meet. then you would be looking at a neat 3d game. of course, people might not want to cross their eyes for extended periods of time... -scaaven
I know I'm going to be modded up on this
It looks like a waste of money and battery life. Also looks a bit too big. If it doesn't fit in my pocket, I'm not buying it. The GBA *barely* fits.
yeah, it looks pretty good, but is it as good as the Virtual Boy?
Quote:"Original Ideas: 0 /only half joking"
Actually, Nintendo is one of the few gaming companies where you can expect original ideas.
The whole device is a nice new idea (more original than "play PS2 games everywhere", isn't it?)
I don't need a signature.
If the PSP comes to market at $300 with 3-5 hours of battery life compared to 10+ hours for the DS and a probable $150 price tag, the DS will bury the PSP easily - despite the PSP's obvious technical merits. Battery life and initial cost are everything in the portable market, and the backwards-compatibility with the huge GBA library gives the DS even more of an edge.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Isn't the second screen there so you can leave stuff like maps open?
The article says that it has touch screens. Perhaps the second screen is meant to have buttons customised for whatever game is being played. This way they could actually be labelled with names to clearly define their function, and they could work like GUI elements like sliders.
It's about time a portable Nintendo device has four right-thumb buttons! Now they can do GOOD ports of every SNES game, and not have to mess with the controls to make them fit in the confines of the GBA!
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
After having read the first 7 replies, I will simply reply to myself since I don't want to reply to you all. I have to admit, I agree with you all. I've never had an interest in mobile gaming, hence my not being Nintendo's target market. None of the games have ever appealed to my gaming tastes. You all seem to make the same point that a device should do one thing well rather than several poorly, which I totally agree with. The only feature which I would personally want, at least as an option, on any device is MP3/OGG. The rest to me is a waste since I too would probably tire quickly of the mediocre quality of all the other features. I'm a strange breed though. I have no cell phone, no digital camera, no PDA. No electronic portable devices at all, except for the pager, but that's job related and I remove it any time I don't HAVE TO be wearing it. I so often find that my friends with such devices become slaves to them, or simply irritating in their social behaviour. I choose not to be, convenience be damned.
Living in Vancouver, BC, microsoft code names humour me quite a bit. Last weekend i was drinking in whistler, sitting at the longhorn salloon with a nice view of blackcomb thinking of all the big skii lodges owned by MS execs.
The Neo-Bohemian Techno-Socialist
or this is just like the old school handhelds that nintendo used to sell with the dual LCD screens (remember king kong and the one with the 'walking' jaws and vines you had to climb in a green case?)?
Are video games starting to become like fashion - every 20 years, we start back where we started??
Touch screen? WiFi? Four face buttons? Games?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
You forgot the fact that the PSP is also an inch thick, which pushes it squarely into "brick" territory. And the design doesn't even protect the screen.
I think Sony took one look at the DS at E3 and realized they were screwed. They seem to be doing a lot of cost-cutting and cancelling of unprofitable product lines lately. I think they're trying to cover up an expected loss on the PSP.
All IMHO, of course.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
I think the fact the the gamecube didn't have many games at launch really killed the console.
Eh? From everything I can see, the Gamecube is doing quite nicely in about 2nd place, either running neck-and-neck or slightly beating the XBox in the US. And that's to say nothing of Japan, where they're even farther ahead.
Sure, Nintendo has had failures in the past, but with the GB/GBC/GBA, the Cube, and soon the DS, they're not going anywhere for a while.
You can play many GB mono compatible games in emulation using a GBA flash cart. This includes Pokemon Yellow, Gold, and Silver, which Nintendo hasn't announced porting. This does not include Crystal or Puzzle.
However, Pokemon Puzzle was remade for GBA, under the name "Panel de Pon", one of the multiboot extras in Nintendo Puzzle Collection (Japan only). Rumors claim that the DS doesn't seem to support GBA multibooting or any other GBA link cable functionality; if you want to play Pokemon Puzzle on a DS, you'll need a GBA flash card and the ripped .mb ROM. If your flash card's menu software doesn't support ROMs in .mb format, you'll need a multiboot menu as well.
And if anybody cracks DS's smaller Game Paks, watch somebody port Snes9x, and you'll be able to play Tetris Attack, the Super NES version of Pokemon Puzzle.