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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.
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.