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Nintendo DS Network
Kamalot writes "It looks like Nintendo is preparing a wireless peer-to-peer network of Nintendo DS ' to allow a new way of playing games online. Each Nintendo DS could includes a repeater hub to extend and share an 802.11 signal. A thread on GameCubicle unveils more, including a service called MarioNette and some disturbing marketing pieces with hidden images and messages." As with everything involving the new handhelds, take this one with a grain of salt.
It's hard to decide right now, with all the speculation going on. However, Nintendo has backwards compatibility, low-battery using cartridges innovative dual screen and not to mention a ridicoulsly awesome track record for good first party games.
The price point is even on par with an 'upscale' portable system.
Let's be serious for a minute. What can the PSP offer me that is worth it's (expected) retail price? I really don't want to play my PS2 titles on the go, and the UMD media thing doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy either. Look at Wario Ware Inc. if you want to know why you will buy a DS. It's in the games man. The games. Oh, and the price too.-- I have fans? Wow.
If there's so much as a single remote code exploit found in the DS, it won't be long before someone writes code to forcibly propagate itself and do something to your DS...something like the PSO bug for GameCube would be lethal on the DS, if it were wirelessly exploitable.
I can just see someone writing a virus that forcibly installs a miniature Linux distro on your DS and propagates.
I'm not sure if that would be horrible or awesome, personally.
It's only an insult if it's not true.
Is (from the article) a batch of pictures featuring creepy marionettes with the words ?Find(s)me? along with a shot of a lone boy in a forest using a DS as some sort of navigation device really all they have got to go on?
This is all they've developed this huge "OMG TEH W1RELESS GAMING!!!" story from? Ever think that a boy using a gameboy in the forest to navigate might be a 'pushing the frontiers' image? or an 'immersive environment' image? It's a very amiguous photograph, and I'd like to know how this rumour sprang from nowhere, based solely on one picture and a 'find me' slogan
Move along, nothing to see here.
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
"So, the DS can run in Ad-Hoc mode, and AP mode. This is groundbreaking because.......????"
Because no mainstream handheld gaming console has ever had this functionality...basically.
Creative Demolition
I would assume they would have to have a toggle switch for airplanes if nothing else...
the p2p lilypad-style network was only speculation and has been denied by those who actually do know "the secret". Nintendo has a great track record of not half-assing stuff. From the get-go, Nintendo has asserted that their product would be "revolutionary" - and they maintain that the revolutionary feature has yet to be revealed. It seems fairly obvious to me that they do not, in fact, intend to "strap a non-trivial piece of hardware" on to their system. On the contrary, it seems that a great deal of thought and planning has gone into this.
First off, I seriously doubt this has anything do with playing with the DS "online", that is, it having anything to do with the internet. A much more fasible, realistic, and practical idea is that the DS can detect others within a reasonable range. I would put this range somewhere south of 200m, even if that much. The whole network/online thing is more of a LAN than a WAN... Especially useful in larger cities or where kids congregate (mall, school, parks, etc) as opposed to rural areas. I have no desire, nor hope, to be able to text a friend an hour away using the DS. However, sitting in a cafe and seeing a list of 10 opponents to fight you in ZeldaMarioTroid is a bit more exciting.
Now, if for some insane reason the DS has a 1+ mile range then yeah, that's amazing. But I can guarantee that that is not the case. It's just a way to play online with people within sighting distance. Will come in handy in urban areas, colleges, etc. But Tommy in Montana might have a hard time finding 100 opponents.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
If the DS is going to suck juice like the WiFi card in my Clie, I would hope they'll include a feature to turn it off when not in use, a really good battery, or both. Sooner or later, we need to figure out how to effectively manage power consumption on all of these portable devices.
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
Let's just say, for a second, that this is real and it works great. And let's say you live in an apartment complex where there are five other people playing the DS at ANY GIVEN TIME. What are the chances that a single one of those five people are playing Harvest Moon?
Perhaps the DS simply includes a function that allows you to physically find other DS players. Like you know there is another DS player 100m to the north of you. This would be a great way to meet people, except that Hot Jenna is probably a six year old girl... or an undercover cop.
Actualy, the DS stands for "developer system", as in, it's the system that developers want.
And, speaking as a game developer, it is.
IF this catches on in say, schools, the kids will always need to have the newest game that their friends have to be able to play against them. So everytime you sell a few carts to some popular kids, you're instantly selling them to everyone in the school.
This is potentially one of the biggest cashcows nintendo has ever dreamed up.
Even without adhoc wireless repeaters and a range of just 150m, that's more than ample for any mall/school etc.
Imagine kids using the touchscreen to write secret notes in class - cheat on their exams etc. Man I wish i was back in school!
You're right.
Even more so to the point, Nintendo had a successful radio gameplay network in Japan that IIRC dates back to the Super Nintendo.
And somebody else made a point about Nintendo not doing things half-assed. With the exception of the virtual boy it's true. Look at the wavebird controller as a great example of doing something right. They advertise a certain distance, the controller can double and triple that distance and still work easily.
The title "Marionette" has been sitting in Nintendo's cache since rumors began in 2000, though they were in a very different vein at the time.
But, yes, Nintendo has been toying with online content for a long time in Japan. They've known better than to try online with add-on products in the states, though, so any online strategy with the DS will have to be integrated in the launch hardware.
Furthermore, Nintendo knows that this is their last shot at getting the older gaming population to buy into portable gaming. They don't want to get beat by Sony a second time to the older-gaming spenders, and the remarkably early launch of the DS before PSP, along with this rumored adult-ish marketing campaign, makes total sense. Kudos to NOA for getting their heads out of Japan's ass and getting aggressive.
I don't understand why these companies keep coming up with trivial add-ons therefore making the damn thing more expensive. I want a good gaming platform that does just that. Instead we have them adding things like mp3 players, mobile phones, address books, blah, blah fucking blah. Is that too much to ask for?