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Nintendo DS to Launch November 21

Posted by Zonk on from the dual-screens-means-more-shines dept.

mcc writes "PlanetGamecube is reporting the upcoming Nintendo DS handheld has been given a launch date of November 21st and a price of $150 ! It is also being reported that the Nintendo DS will ship with PictoChat (a sort of chat/whiteboard software) and some form of the Metroid Prime Hunters multiplayer FPS bundled in. A fact sheet is also available."

8 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. Le *sigh* by Control+Group · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Dammit, where was this stuff when I was a kid? All I had for hand-held gaming was "Castlevania," which had a monochrome LCD screen that could display Our Hero in three different positions, four different enemies in two positions each, and a series of flagstones for me to "walk" on.

    Nowadays, these things are fantastically cool, and I love them, but man, do I not need another video game platform. Now I drive myself places. My only video game time is at home, where I've got a 65" TV, a PC, and six different consoles. I want a GBA, I'm sure I'll want the DS, but I know I'd never play them.

    It's really kind of depressing.

    --

    Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
    1. Re:Le *sigh* by Control+Group · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I suppose if I had kids, it might be different. That sounds like a good time...as it stands, though, I already have more unfinished video games than I can shake a stick at (Metroid: Prime, XIII, Hitman 2, Mario Sunshine, Tron 2.0, Ikaruga...probably more that I'm forgetting). I wouldn't have finished Wind Waker if I hadn't had three friends over for a weekend to race.

      Not to mention Doom III and HL2 (if it ever comes out).

      I never knew in college how good I had it, with time to finish games as they came out, instead of continually falling further and further behind...

      ...you're probably right. Where's the registrar? I need to turn in my geek card. ;)

      --

      Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
  2. A cool idea by iamdrscience · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think nintendo should make a cartridge with emulations of a couple of those old multi screen game 'n' watch games they had. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's an example. You can see others on Gameandwatch.com, just click on "multiscreen" on the menu.

    Hell, if they don't do it, I might just have to waste my time programming it myself once somebody gets together a free dev-kit for the DS.

  3. Re:It's nice to hear.. by slashrogue · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe... a lot of those games are available elsewhere now, however. FF Anthology & FF Chronicles available on the PS (and hence on the PS2 as well) give us access to FFIV, FFV, FFVI and Chrono Trigger. I also don't know how doomed its previous hardware is... the GBA is the dominating force of the handheld market. I guess we'll have to wait and see how Sony's PSP does, which I'm personally rooting for.

    Of course I remember when the PlayStation was first announced and thinking to myself, "Sony? Sony doesn't make video games who are they trying to kid?"

  4. Nintendo has Good Games by ShadowFlair · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My largest rant about games nowadays is that companies seem to spend so much time/money on graphics the contents is, well, lacking. This seems to be slowly changing of late. But, heh, I always get suckered into buying Nintendo stuff because I am a huge fan of the few genres that they have come up with. Zelda and Metroid, even with good graphics, still maintain good game content, and I still buy one after another.

    --
    To iterate is human; to recurse, divine!
  5. Released first in the US by AmishMoshr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems rather odd to me that something by Nintendo would be released in the US first. Is this normal for their handheld systems?

  6. Re:It's nice to hear.. by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 4, Interesting
    If someone throws down in that ring, dont expect Nintendo to last.

    Oh, other than the crappy Ngage? I guess you mean handhelds like Sega Gamegear, Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket, Turbo Express? They all went up against the original monochrome Gameboy and failed. You'll soon be able to add the Sony PSP to that list.

    --
    Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
  7. Easy to explain by Plutor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is very easy to explain. The Game Boy and Game Boy Color used an ~4MHz 8-bit CPU similar to the Zilog Z80 (which was itself based on the Intel 8080). The Game Boy Advance uses a ~33MHz 32-bit ARM7 CPU. In order to make Game Boy backwards compatibility as fast, simple, and (yes) cheap as possible, it's got a second processor: a Z80. They can't be used at the same time, because they're for different architectures for different cartridges.

    Since the DS uses a ~67MHz 32-bit ARM9, they either had to 1) have three processors in the thing, 2) abandon the legacy games, or 3) write emulation software into the console. $150 is already fairly expensive for a Nintendo device, portable or not, so they chose option 2. Accordint to the Wikipedia article, there are emulation projects for the ARM9 underway.