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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.
Offering 100+ games in the early stages of this things life is going to cement them a damn nice seat in customer heaven. They must have a lot of faith and support from the devs that this thing will be a hit. Good for them.
Of course that's probably the exact reason Nintendo hasn't said anything (if they haven't).
Schnapple
...because two screens are clearly superior to one screen. Logically, this machine must be exactly twice as much fun as a handheld game with only one screen.
I can barely control my excitement, because it is a given that Nintendo will eventually release the QS with four screens. That amount of fun is sure to explode the heads of children and the elderly.
www.kitchengeek.com -- Nosh for
...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...
From the press release:
The retooled Nintendo DS features a thinner, black base and an angular platinum flip-top cover.
Damn, Nintendo, really shooting for the luxery market with this one, huh? Hoping people will assume it's better than the PSP because it has twice the screens and ten times the price? ;)
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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.
Platinum? Sheesh. They are going for the top end of the market, aren't they?
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
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
While playing the DS, I noticed that my hands were sometimes pushing a couple of buttons at the same time - basically, the buttons were small and pretty close together.
Comparing the old button design to the new (old design), you can see that they've altered the layout.
This is an absolutely welcome change in my book. With the buttons in a side-by-side, wider layout, they'll feel a lot more comfortable for adult hands.
Video Game News, FAQs, etc
Because we all know how the NGage outsold the GBA...
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Sony may have 100 developers but only a few of them will actually make good games. It's been that way since PS1. Quantity over Quality.
Let's see... there's going to be a Super Mario game, a Mario Party game, a Mario Kart game (watch the drivers in front of you and behind you at the same time), a Metroid game, a Zelda game, two Pokemon games ("Fuschia" and "Teal"), and probably a version of Tetris that uses both screens as a single play area.
That's eight right there. Any obvious franchises I've overlooked?
Wha? Are you just a Sony fanboy, or do you have some logic to back up that statement?
... Nintendo has complete dominance of the handheld gaming market. They have 120 games in development for the DS already.
Let's see
So why will the PSP "mop the floor"? Because it can do so many polys per second? Or has such-and-such megahertz chip? The PSP has *zero* backwards compatibility with earlier PSone and PS2 discs. So they're basically starting from scratch to compete with the player who already has complete dominance *AND* is building in backwards compatibility with older GBA carts.
Care to rethink your statement?
--- witty signature
It's not so much the number of games, as the type. I suspect Sony will go for older gamers, the way the PS1 did when the NES was the market leader.
I have a GBA, and there are some great games, but 90% of what's out there seems to be targeted at 8-14 year olds. Nintendo has pretty much ignored the adult market on the GBA, and if they do the same with the DS it may prove a costly mistake.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I know many people whose phones can play mp3s, and none of those people listen to mp3s on their phones. Similarly I know many people whose phones can take pictures, and once the novelty wore off (and it did, quickly) they stopped taking pictures with their phones.
Give me a game machine that plays good games, a phone that makes good connections and a camera that takes good pictures and I'll be happy. A hybrid device that does all three poorly is useless.
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
Do not confuse games currently in development with games available at launch. Besides, Do you really think that EB / Walmart / whatever will want to give up the shelf space for 120+ games for an unproven console?
And while there is a chance that the in development also includes the GBA titles currently on the go, I dont think that Nintendo is going go play that sort of game with this launch.
END COMMUNICATION
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.
I like the fact that nintendo continues to innovate, and a handheld is one of the most well suited niches for exploration. I have yet to try dual screen touch screen gaming, but in the hands of creative devs I think there are a lot of possibilities. Factor in the wireless support and things just get better. Imagine an FPS where the second screen shows a live map and stats, while the main screen features the action or a multiplayer strategy game where the main screen displays the shared world map and the second screen is where battles take place. Some people might see these kinds of features as pointless, but I believe anything that adds depth to the gaming experience is more than welcome. We've been dealing with games designed for game pads and single screens for two decades and mixing things up a bit can only contribute to the evolution of gaming.
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.
I had problems fitting things into my pocket, too. The trick, see, is to have your penis removed.
In all seriousness, though, I agree. It's a bit larger than I was expecting, but so is the PSP, so I guess we'll just all have to wait and see what kind of library each system is going to boast. Personally, I'm not all that excited for the DS. My Advance SP does me just fine as it is now, and unless I try a DS upon release and it just completely blows me away, I won't be in any rush to buy it anytime soon. I do give props to Nintendo for innovating, even if everyone else claims this is just a technologically souped-up rehash of those horrid Game & Watch things...
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Is it me, or did it just get fatter in here?
Aw heck why even pretend. I'm gonna buy one the day it comes out.
Best part is, I have a son who loves his gameboy, so I don't even have to admit it's for me when I buy it.
I have no idea what ninetendo's overall financial situation is like, but it's sure easy to picture them placing an order for a printing press to mint their own greenbacks, just to cut out the middleman.
Note that it does state: "The ship date and retail price have not been confirmed and therefore are subject to change. If the retail price is decreased you will receive the lower price."
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
Yeah, just in time for all the N64 ports! Note to Nintendo: When designing a handheld system capable of running games for $console, please include at least as many buttons as were present on $console's controllers.
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.
As for Nintendo making a "costly mistake" by continuing in the handheld market as they have done until now... That must be why they completely own the entire handheld gaming market worldwide, right?
Clever signature text goes here.
As you can clearly see from this image that's been on PlanetGamecube since this morning, it's a power button! Why do mods reward people who can't be bothered to look at the zoomed version of pictures? It's not hard!
What is hard is to RTFA and actually make an insightful comment, or draw attention to something not covered by the subject material. The parent post does not do this!
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I love Nintendo for having made the Virtual Boy.
Its name alone has become a litmus test to differentiate between real gamers who know what they're talking about, and "gamers" who spend too much time reading video game history summaries on the web to know what constitutes a good gaming system or even a good game.
Understand that your "Virtual Boy" metaphor is tied to your narrow perception of the Nintendo brand name, not any true relationship between the VB and the DS. Once you can do that, you'll have caught up with the rest of us.
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.
Unless this thing has an MP3 player, a phone and a digital camera [...] I don't imagine it will be that hot of a seller.
The Game Boy Advance system has a camera and a passable music player (which converts the MP3s to GSMs first). Not everybody who buys Nintendo handheld game hardware can afford 40 USD/mo for mobile phone service.
Uh... totally ignoring all the GB games playable on the GBA, there are still hundreds of games of pretty much every genre ever released on a console, so what exactly are your gaming tastes? MMORPGS? RTS's? Flight sims?