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Nintendo DS Hands On
The Big N's media event went off well, and people have finally had a chance to experience the playability and feel of the DS system. Penny Arcade has commentary from Gabe and Tycho, and Gamespot gives it a look as well. Quoth Tycho: "The final analysis: I am overjoyed that Nintendo isn't completely nuts, which was my fear initially. This is a pretty cool little machine. But the opening salvo is a little soft in the genres I prize most, and there's no stand-out title that forces my hand on the system."
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GO LINUX!
DS rocks.
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Slashdotters:
Yeah, DS rocks.
PSP rocks.
reply: you're wrong.
reply to reply: you, sir, are a moron
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How long will two AA batteries last with all these new goodies packed into the DS? Not long I would think..
My understanding is that Nintendo is working on both a hypnotist game - word is it's much better than "Cats" and you'll want to play it again and again - and a game called "Current" which is so involving you involuntary grip your hands on the DS and just can't put it down.
check it out here
like they say, i wonder if they are going to be causing fights in the stores, like the tickle-me-elmo craze..
" You use the stylus on the bottom screen to look around and double tap it to jump. In just a few minutes I was pulling off classic FPS maneuvers like jumping, spinning around and shooting Tycho in the fucking face."
Shooting people in the face........what people have been longing for in a handheld system.
-Randy
The touch screen opens so many new avenues of gaming, I cannot wait to see what dev's cook up for it. check out the puppy demo for example http://gba.n64europe.com/specials/nintendogsflash. html
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
Is it just me, or is this thing really useless? I think the guy from Penny Arcade had it right: The SP is the perfect size.
And the touchscreen? What the hell? Who here owns a PDA? Ok. Out of you, how many have lost their stylus at one time or another? All of you? That's what I thought. And we're supposed to stick this thing in the hands of junior-highers? Yikes...
Nintendo, don't get me wrong... I love you. I love your gold-encrusted Zelda cartridges; I love Mario in a non-homosexual way. But please, lay off the crack in the R&D department, huh? R.O.B.? The Power Glove and Power Pad? Virtua Boy? And now... DS.
Sony ha
Curse you Nintendo! Now I need new pants to hold all the electronic gizmos I own or will soon own. This DS unit is the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back (or in this case his pants). To date I have a Rio Karma to get my Ogg on, a Toshiba e805 PDA to play Sam and Max Hit the Road (love PocketSCUMM), my Nokia 3650 cell phone and leatherman multi tool. Where oh great purveyor of Mario am I expected to put this new porta game system?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
If they could fit the first five Zelda games onto one catridge, that would be a start. Perhaps even upgrading the graphics of Zelda I and II, but leave the game the same.
I think Nintendo is on crack. The DS needs "killer apps" to progress, but such has never truly been explored on such a basis.
Someone made a picture of a "hypothetical" Gameboy spinoff, which would have been far more realistic a goal. Minidisc drive, cartridge port, dual analog sticks, d-pad and twin shoulder buttons.
This looks like a future Virtual Boy, truth be told. Very little in the gaming world requires you to actually *watch* two screens. The ones that do, usually require more than two screens, and one hefty graphics setup to support a 180 degree view. Additionally there's the hassle of paying attention to *two* vertically arranged screens simultaneously, when most peoples eyes automatically are trained to work on a horizontal arrangement (duh, its how their eyes are arranged).
The second screen isn't nessesary. In fact, they probably would have done better to make a portable with a larger screen with a better 3D chipset.
Instead, add a simple IR eye tracking monacle that would do the job of the touch pad, so there would be less "switching hands/fingers" delay, and you have a winner (when I have 30 enemies dropping on me at the same time, I want to be able to aim and run at the same time without deciding what hands and fingers to favor).
If Nintendo had any sense, they would market the DS as a PDA that has the additional bonus of playing high resolution 3D games, which, most PDA/Smart Phone manufacturers have yet to claim.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
SimcitySphere
I guess it means archaic.
Being a left handed person, when I try to use a pen like object with my right hand, it doesn't quite work the way i want it too (I'm sure everyone has tried to write with their other hand once in their lives. This means I will have trouble holding the machine and useing the dpad with my left hand and trying to write on the screen. Any writing would be illegable. I most likely couldnt make precision movements required in an fps if I cant make an uppercase K on paper with a pen.
Are they gonna rerelease Zero Wing?
vicious, untreated political sewage...niche entertainment for the spiritually unattractive...worshipless pap
Can be found here. I recommend them highly.
Be sure to note the insanity that is Pac-Pix and this screenshot.
Also click here to see videos of Mario 64-DS and Metroid Hunters in action.
So, did anyone else want to cry at seeing that Nintendo has finally taken the most wonderful game series ever created by Humankind (ie, Metroid), and made it into a multiplayer death-match-style FPS?
Sigh. Nintendo, You've just lost a customer, not for the lack of games, but for the non-lack of this particular one.
Especially since it's $150, and I can trade in the old GBA for $25, the old SP for maybe $40... it'll still play GBA games, so it's all good. C'mon, nobody complained about Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Tournament Edition... don't complain about Nintendo Gameboy Advanced SP Dual-Screen Edition.
All this talk of Nintendo being on crack doesn't matter much. Even if the system isn't that great, Nintendo has a star line-up of games. Just the fact that Square is releasing Final Fantasy 3 (which never before came to america) to the handheld will win over thousands from the PSP. With good marketing and a few good games, it'll be fine.
Those poor bastards, they have us surrounded. Now we can fire at them in all directions!
You haven't even looked at the device or the planned apps, all you know is that it has two screens and a pen?
It seems Bush is prompted through an earpiece.
More here: http://www.isbushwired.com/
For a voice over, go here and listen. Forward to around 22:39. A voice says a line and Bush repeats it:
The Nintendo DS, when you use pen-based games, is set up so that the ABXY buttons on the right side mirror the D-pad on the left. Left-handed people will hold the pen with their left hand and use the ABXY keys as a D-pad with their right hand.
For some reason they won't let you bring them on an airplane. What fun is that? :(
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, RTFA! The XYAB buttons are designed to replace the D-pad for lefties. You just use your left hand with the stylus, and the R buttonand Lbutton switch places, and the D-Pad and XYBA buttons switch places. It's that simple. And for the people worried about battery life, again, RTFA. Or go read IGN's interview with Reggie Fils-Aime. Battery life is about what the SP's is. They've come out and said "somewhere from 8 - 10 hours, depending on use, volume, WiFi, etc." And I can't believe people are still using the word "virtual boy" when talking about this thing. This has a better launch/near launch lineup than any system Nintendo has released since the SNES. And it has hundreds of games being worked on right now for it. Virtual Boy had what, 20 in total or something? Everyone knows this will be a big hit. I mean, seriously, wireless multiplayer Sims and Mario Kart and Metroid... Absolutely pure money trees. And rumors of a new Pokemon RPG, plus the movie-downloading stuff, the "go to EB and download demos of new games" stuff, the "whatever warp-pipe is doing" stuff, the "Final Fantasy 3 finally being officially translated" stuff, the "Built in wireless chat" stuff... and it just keeps going on and on... This thing will dominate for sure, and the PSP really isn't any comeptition. Totally different target markets other than age and the fact that they play games. And it's got it's own set of problems... still no word on price or launch specifics, games, BATTERY LIFE, etc. It has the potential to kick ass, but I think it would have better luck if it released for sub-$200 in a few years rather than trying to take over the DS's market. Nintendo is keeping the gameboy brand for the sub-18 year olds, and the DS's demographic is 18-24. PSP is for 21-30. It's a bit of overlap, but the price difference and game styles will seperate them enough that those with good jobs in the overlap will just get both.
Born to Play
who is zonk? is he new?
I think Metroid Prime was one of, if not the most fun game I played last year. I'm already psyched to play "Echos," and take it out for a multiplayer spin when I've finished the single player.
If some "lesser" version of the revived franchise is bundled with a DS, I'm already sold.
The key difference between a Programmer and a Senior Programmer is that one of them is Mexican.
Try as I might, I was unable to find any pictures of the game cartridges, or "game cards", as nintendo refers to them. Can anyone help me out?
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every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Two games:
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Zelda: Four Swords.
Only now no longer limited to a TV, and (possibly) only four players, and needing to buy like ten accessories.
I realize these games are basically at "rumor" stage for the DS now, but if and when they come out, I WILL buy a DS. Maybe two.
They thought of this. you can switch the functions of the D Pad and the ABXY pad. They are the exact same shape, so you would hold the stylus in your left hand, and hold the device in your right.
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Gamespot Movie
In this movie, it's incredibly clear that not only does the device work, but Metroid Hunters actually has more PC like control than any console based FPS I've seen - essentially, the stylus acts as the mouselook, and the d-pad works like your standard WASD keys. I'm convinced; that's all it comes down to. I can also see things like Flight sims, which, with the stylus, will now have enough area for complete controls, and can do more than one plane. For more "innovative" games, I'm sure we can rely on Sega and Nintendo, but I'm happy if this is what we get.
you can always play the GBA Metroid games if you want the same gameplay experience ... if you want to take part in a fantastic series evolving then you can join the rest of us with the newer games.
vote with your dollars.
Chewie does not get a medal. Come on, George. Can a Wookie get a medal?
The DS can't play non-GS games multi-player.
I kind of agree with you in some ways - I have a portable storage device for photos that is rechargable, but happily I can take along a second battery and have made use of it from time to time.
:-)
But I have to say, that with a portable game player with a 10 hour battery life it's probably not going to be an issue very often - and how many people would really remember to keep spare batteries with them anyway? And they really can get a lot more life out of a custom rechargable solution, you might only be looking at six hours with AA's which might make it mandatory to carry extra with you.
The scneario that does suck is when you forget to charge the thing before you go somewhere for ten hours. That's invariably how I end up breaking out the extra battery on my portable storage device, I had thought it a waste until that happened to me. It's pretty rare though.
Instead, always carry two DS's!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Has anyone mentioned the Japan site yet?
...along with Hikaru Utada (I guess they are going for the global thing, since she speaks English and all, LOL)
http://www.touch-ds.jp/fla.html
The demo video is kinda neat... it shows it in action...
Given that the GBA can already emulate the NES and kinda-sorta emulate the Super NES, and the Nintendo DS CPU runs at four times the clock speed of the GBA CPU (67.1 MHz vs. 16.8 MHz), I see a Sega Genesis emulator for Nintendo DS as a possibility should somebody outside of NDA-zone figure out how to get arbitrary code running on the thing. Run Zero Wing on that, and all Toaplan's base will be belong to you.
I was a bit cynical at a touchpad being better then a mouse keyboard combination so after reading the article I got the idea of plugging in my Wacom and having a couple of goes of Quake 3 just to see if it was any good. After all we've see these type of things come and go for years - From the rather lame Fragmaster to that weird orb thing that owned in Descent.
Sweet Jebus it was actually better. This has to be the first time that I have *ever* used any interface has actually been better then a mouse for a FPS.
So much so that I will probably be using a keyboard trackpad setup in the future. You really have to just try it. It's a similar experience to when you first used a mouse/keyboard combination in Terminator:Futureshock from the old keyboarding days of doom hexen etc. It's just that good. Just give it a go. The difference is amazing. And this is coming from someone who is a total FPS junkie.
That someone has been able to crack a mouselook, that it was a handheld and that it was from a Japanese company just blows my mind.
It looking like PC's may have to just have mod's and graphics over consoles in the future. Because even if the DS falls flat on its arse, which is not looking likely, Someone copy the interface for the next generation of console just like everyone copied D-Pads. It's killer for FPS's.
...are geniuses and deserve every Dollar or Yen they earn, imho.
The DS has just enough features to pass as an inovation and offer enthusiasts a reason to by it, but unobstrusive enough so n00bs on mobile gaming can join the fray.
Apple does things very much the simular way. The japanese call it "Kuy-Zen". Copy the things or rebuild them, and then start improving them bit by bit.
Their philosophy shows in every thing they do nowadays. No wonder Nintendo is doubling its revenue on something like a half year basis.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Given that Mario DS is a ported Mario 64 (and other N64 ports will be coming soon), I'm curious what the control layout is like given the...unique nature of the N64 controller which was essentially designed for the game. Does the stylus replace the analog stick? Is there a Z-trigger type button on the underside of the unit?
If they could just upgrade the graphics in Zelda I, II, and IV. And no other modifications, period. Perhaps even have a speech mode for when characters talk, but optional at start of the game. The classics stay good through the years. I'm sure they'll keep creating more Zelda and Mario games. But if they could take the time to upgrade the classics with better graphics, keep everything else exactly the same (except for my speech idea). In other words, bring the graphics up to the SNES standard, 32 bit, like you said. As for Zelda V, I have no idea how big that is, but I guess they'll be able to fit it onto DS (if DS is 64 bits). I haven't done my research on DS yet.
It's just the stylus. Really, modern controllers *are* left-handed. In the old days you had to hit the buttons really fast and the D-Pad was suited for the less coordinated task of just leaning back and forth. Or whatever. I think it could have gone either way. Now we have the subtle and touchy anaolg stick under the thumb of the left hand. The less intense camera view stick is under the thumb of the right. Then again in an FPS the intensity is reversed again... The result is that if you play a game like Super Monkey Ball which requires extraordinary precision you really notice how clumsy your non-dominant hand is. In the end when playing it, I just held the controller funny in my right hand alone. No buttons are involved. The DS stylus must be located in the dominant hand, so they've designed to deal with handedness, but there's really no reason to complain on a normal console pad. In some games the control is right-handed-ish and in some left-ish. Either way you're using a whole set of learning that isn't really hand based. After all, what handedness has a keyboard? :)
can I run Matlab on this thing?
I hate how Nintendo wants all their characters to be girly whiners with really annoying voices, screaming your ears off every time you do anything. (I collected a coin, YAHOOOOOO!!!!!)
This just ruins the whole game for me, there's no way I can play the GBA port of A Link To The Past now.
Of course, I don't have a GBA...
meh
So what you're saying is, without the Power Pad, there would be a lot less people looking like retards at the video arcade. I don't know if that's good or bad!
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Possibly, but the GP32 is much better for that sort of thing.
And not available at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Toys "Ya" Us, or any other major American chain of video game stores. In practice, I've found that parents are more comfortable importing accessories (such as a flash card) than consoles because a console purchased at Wal-Mart will typically have official games for sale at Wal-Mart, at least for a few years.
Personally, I think $3-5 per classic (NES/SNES) game would be fine. So if they were to put 10 classics on a cartridge, $30-50 would be fine. As for N64 games, that's probably a bit more difficult, and too new still.
Right here.
And of course if you only want to see the new carts.
It's basic HTML people, and it's not that hard!