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Nintendo DS Launches
The DS system has launched today, allowing everyone with a interest in dual screen action to get their fill. Gamespy has a Beginner's Guide to the system available, while Gamespot has a detailed page reviewing the system and some of the first games available. Bionic_Baboon wrote in with a press release about the sale of the system at EB Games on Businesswire.
Mine has a bad pixel on the top screen and they tell me it will be 3 weeks before they can exchange it... with eb's 2 week exchange policy they will probably try to screw me :(
Other than that its very large but more comfortable to play.
While [kidnapping them] is admittedly not the best way to get a girl's attention, it certainly doesn't leave much room for misinterpretation.
(From the XY/XX review)
Doesn't anybody else think it would be the other way around? Kidnapping somebody is bound to get their attention whatever chromosomes they have, but it certainly doesn't scream, "I want your babies", even if you rape them.
For what is tipped at a next-gen handheld im a little dissappointed at the quality of the graphics in those screenshots - looks kinda like a low resolution N64 - lots of primary colors I cant say it blows me away.
Im sure even so it will sell after all its still a "Gameboy" and thats not just a product its a brand. Things should hot up a little when the PSP arrives on the scene which technologically blows the DS out of the water. I doubt sony will compete on price though, it remains to be seen what happens- none the less the future has to start somewhere....
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Shit, I also bought the GBA SP a few months ago. I bought it mainly because it's a very easy game system to develop homebrew games on. (See gbadev.org or my web page, above.) At the time, I did not even know about the Nintendo DS. Anyway, I ended up picking up the DS today because it looked too good to pass up.
I am hoping that the homebrew community can get together and quickly figure out a way to get our own binaries to run on this thing, because as a hacking system, it looks sweet. It's got WiFi and a touch screen dammit! Imagine the games you could develop for it! I imagine you could get Linux to run on this thing and use a virtual keyboard on the bottom touch-screen to input into a terminal.
It's slighly bigger than I expected it to be, but dang are those game cards (or cartridges... what are they really?), I didn't expect them to be that small! God, how can they fit so much information on something so small?!?
I'm really impressed here.
After 3 days without programming, life becomes meaningless
- The Tao of Programming
I picked one up. I'm not impressed with the games that much at all. Mario is kind of boring. Metroid Prime will probably be good, but, the demo doesn't allow you to invert your aiming. Since I always invert my mouse when playing FPSs, this is really annoying and very hard to get used to. I picked up Asphalt Urban GT also, but I haven't opened it yet. Still trying to decide whether or not to return it. The reviews didn't look so hot.
The unit as far as technology goes is pretty sweet. The touchscreen thing is cool, and the wireless is neat. If there was an open SDK for developing apps for it, people could come up with some pretty neat stuff to run on this. I'm sure game shops will have some neat stuff also, it will just take time.
Physically, the unit feels kind of cheap. Button layout is not ergonomic at all, and it feels like it was just slapped together. It just feels like there is empty space inside of it, which means it probably could have been smaller. In any case, it doesn't look like they put nearly as much effort into the actual construction and physical design of the unit as they did into the actual guts of it. For $149 though, you can't expect that much.
I would assume when the game library grows, they will do away with the 2nd cartridge slot and make the unit a bit more compact.
Honestly though, I bought the unit for the potential of what will come, not for what's currently available. And I like gadgets.
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I just picked one up today. The DS kinda snuck up on me, I didn't even know about it until a few months ago. While one reason I got is because I trust Nintendo to support the hardware well and release the best first-party games(as well as developer support from companies like Sega), the real reason I wanted one is the potential of the hardware crammed into this little package. There is already a pretty good community of amatuer Game Boy Advance development using flash cartridges and neat doodads like the GBA Movie Player. I beleive that a lot more could be done with the capabilities of the DS. A touch screen, integrated wireless networking, microphone, and 3D hardware in a handheld system for $150? Think of the possibilities...PDA functions, web browser, MP3 player, emulators, homebrew 3d games...
There was a site recently called DSLinux that claimed they would give $1000 to the first person who could successfully run Linux on the DS...unfotunately, the site seems to be no more...while I find that odd and a bit disheartening, I hope others will take up where they left off. After all, wouldn't it be so much more fun to hack on a sleek portable system like this than a clunky XBox that can't do that much more than your average low end PC?
Sleep is futile.
I am certain word of mouth on the unit at elementary school and middle school will ensure the success of this system.
I am just curious what Nintendo will do next. The addition of a second screen was pretty creative, but where will they go next?
-pete
[one downside is the lack of games, but that will change soon]