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400,000 Additional DSs Available by Year's End
SetupWeasel writes "The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that 400,000 additional DSs will be shipped to the US by year's end. This will bring the US total to 1.4 million by the end of 2004." There's also a story running on Gamesindustry.biz regarding DS sales being in line with the sales of the Gameboy Advance.
Harrison said the company did not try to keep the initial Nintendo DS supply artificially low to attract extra attention. Whereas reports of shortages can increase the buzz around a product, inadequate supply can also result in lost sales.
What he didn't think of is to give the perception of inadequate supply, but continue to fill up shelves. This way Nintendo gets the extra attention as well as sales.
Just give some lame excuses like the Chinese government did what to the Taiwanese Tibetan thing, AC where are you?!?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
I wonder what Sony has to same about all this. :P
Do Not Eat iPod Shuffle
"Harrison said the company did not try to keep the initial Nintendo DS supply artificially low to attract extra attention."
;)
However with demand high and supply low... it makes the news! Strange that...
Hey, Editors. The first time an acronym is used, you DEFINE IT. After that, you are allowed to use the acronym.
but is it $150?
One hopes that Sony can possibly keep up when it comes to launching the PSP. If history is of any precedent, this won't be the case.
Unfortunately.
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
I had the chance to play one of these with Metroid. I really liked it. There seems to be some discussion over the usefulness of the touch pad and I've found that the touch pad servers to mimic a mouse in fps's quite well. I felt at home pretty quickly. It was quite responsive too. I'm still holding out for the PSP though. I think nintendo games are a little too cute for me.
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
Touche. I'll be first to admit I'm intrigued by the technology, but I wonder if kids will care, since that's primarily the target audience.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
he ability to increase the shipments for the holidays resulted from higher-than-expected volume at production facilities in China
Here's a dumb connection: IBM sells its PC group to Lenovo, a company in China. Suddenly, China starts producing more DS's? You thing that's stupid?
Perhaps, a new Starbucks opened in the production sector...
~Ilyanep
To get message, take amount of carrier pigeons at each stage mod 2. Then decode binary.
My EBay DS Sales will go down the tubes... Now where am I supose to make all my Christmas Money?
- Your stupidity got you into this mess, why can't it get you out? -Will Rogers
...what DS stands for... Dual Screen
It's a deadshit. And where the hell are you gonna put 400,000 of 'em?
I think he meant NINTENDO DS.
That should help.
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
I dunno.... maybe you should try clicking on the article link and finding out? That's assuming you haven't seen the numerous other stories about the system over the last few months. You can even put 'ds' into Google and find out really quickly. Dolt.
-Shippy
I have a PDA(Ipaq) and i have had some problems with the touch screen, especially when it gets greasy or dirty. I cant imagine how bad it will be when you are eating chips and playing on your DS. I wonder how well the screens will hold up then?
...if these people just artificially inflate demand around the holidays through talk about "undersupply", and then pop a load of 'em on the market just in time. Nah, couldn't possibly be! [Just like every other year.]
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
I too feel that other technology will soon repace handhelds. Not because handhelds are bad in any way, in fact I love them, but they don't last long enough. Oh they are durable (usually) but they tend to get raplaced by newer models within a year or so that don't play any of your old games. And worse as soon as the new one comes out they stop making games for your old one. Note that this doesn't ahppen with a computer. Yes you machine does need to be upgraded every two or three yers (if you aren't a die-ahrd), but unlike a handheld the new one still plays your old games, and if you are resistant to upgrading there are still many games (not high-profile but still numerous) that your machine can play. As soon as pdas become powerful enough I predict that most handhelds will die off or get replaced by something new. (with one excaption, sony's handheld plays all those old ps1 games that you already have, now it might be worth it with such a large and *inexpensive* game base, unlike nintendo)
Philosophy.
While Nintendo has a large buffer in case of a failed console, ($1b) they still try to minimize possible economic hardship. Rather then have a massive run, then lose to a failed console, they slowly introduce new consoles to the marketplace, maintaining profits throughout.
That being said, PSP vs. DS should be fantastic. Both systems have fantastic games lined up for them, and both look to be really, really cool.
I had a chance to play with a DS. First impression? Nifty, but nothing to make me buy it... yet.
no
what the heck is a "DS"? Did I miss anything?
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
Well, I am 23 and Im intrigued, but not enough to buy one.
Im waiting for the RPGs (Final Fantasy III especially), then I will probably pick up one.
...of other substances hitting the touchscreen worry me far more, especially when they "hit" the secondary market.
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
It's not an acronym, DS is the name of the system.
The Nintendo DS
The vast majority of my GB games are for the original gray GB. Looks like I'll be hanging on to the trusty ol' gray one (and my GBC and GBA) until there's some killer "must have" game, like a new Mario Kart.
This is one device that was available in the US first. (Slashdot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/09/163521 7&tid=126)
Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
Not knowing what a DS is, one could follow up by clicking on the link or doing a google search, only to find out, "oh... it appears to be some sort of gizmo Nintendo is making... this has nothing to do with my interest in [insert game topic here]"
But wouldn't it be nice to speak clearly in the first place and save them the trouble. I agree with the parent to your post. Very sloppy editing.
(now guess the reference)
SNACKS ARE AWESOME
Wow that is a suprise: American units outselling Japan Units. I applaud Nintendo of America for boosting available units. Unlike what happened with that tragic accident with the Nintendo 64.
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
Whew! Thank goodness I'm impervious to marketing and hype!
ooo there's a platinum version of helloworld.c coming out...must have *drool*
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"400,000 additional DSs will be shipped to the US by year's end"
..whew. I was worried for a moment that someone was going to send 400,000 more Dumb Sh*ts to the US.
Oh Nintendo DS!
Still, I couldn't justify purchasing it.. There's just nothing compelling software-wise that makes me want to jump and buy this thing. I'd love to see some classic PC remakes like command and conquer on there. That would be cool.
www.lonseidman.com
Well, Nintendo announced a few weeks ago they were bringing another factory online for manufacturing these things, so it's no surprise they'll be able to produce more at this point.
Better to promise a low number and then boost it, than to pull a Sony and promise 2 million PS2, and only deliver 500,000. I'd rather have the impression that there's demand, than the impression that they'll be in stock when I get to the store and they're not!
the PSP touts it's supreme processing power while the DS already has such a stranglehold on the market.
It seems to me like the DS is the PS2 of handhelds and the PSP is the XBox.
What is a "DS"?
HELLO, down there in the cave!
It's a Nintendo DS, the GBA replacement. You know, the thing that gets posted about here a couple of times a day?
Jebus, wait until the PSP comes out...and whatever handheld billy boy comes out with (x/2 Box?).
and I can tell you that of that 400,000 more that are supposed to ship by Christmas, I will see four more tomorrow and maybe four more next week.
Of course, I have a waiting list of over 30 customers who want one. Supply and Demand isn't exactly working the way it should, hype aside.
Same with the PlayStation 2 remake. We're getting eight in stock tomorrow, and I have almost 50 people on the waiting list.
For all of you who don't know what is a DS, it is Nintendo's new handheld game console.
It has two screens (Dual Screens - DS) and some mighty hardware.It's main rival will be Sony PSP.
For more information, just google arround a bit.
--the troll in me--
Here is some info about DS
--the troll in me--
As more and more people become interested in DS hacking and home-brew development, I must personally say that this is the best news we have heard in a while. The Ni-Fi hacking scene as well as the DS cart dumping scene is moving along quite nicely, and every bit of help we can get, the better.
I completely agree, the DS interface gives nintendo the edge over PSP in allowing them to create RTS games that have always relied on a mouse for controlling groups of units and quickly selecting teh appropriate action. Hopefully nintendo plans on exploiting this advantage.
Blizzard made a few gameboy advance games, will we see warcraft on the DS?
If they sell them all (at Amazon prices)...
1.4m DSes sold, that's 0.3bn dollars, or 0.02bn pounds. Remove the ammount they pair their retail channel...
Just goes to show how truely insignificant the market for games consoles is. IBM's now-ex PC business has an $11bn turnover, 37 times the size of Nintendo's DS turnover (ignoring SPA sales for now), and IBM isn't even a big player in the PC market.
Curiously enough if you owned the US monopoly on DSes then you could purchase 150 million beers. Sufficient for any party one might think.
Beep beep.
Just to nitpick a bit, the DS is not a replacement for the GBA. Note that the DS doesn't carry the "Gameboy" name on it, it just happens to be backwards compatible with the GBA games. Game development will continue for the GBA, which probably has a good bit of life left in it. The DS is Nintendo's attempt to conquer the wireless handheld market that may or may not exist.
PSP EBay Sales.
The DS is not a replacement for the GBA. Nintendo is still having developers working on GBA and the DS. Nintendo has said that there will be a new Gameboy and the DS isn't it.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
Like Mario Kart DS?
You can preorder Mario Kart DS here.
I was wondering if the DS and PSP and N-Gage will have the online capabilities of a computer or just in the 100 ft. radius or something. Please respond. I know Nokia had an N-Gage Arena thing, but I'm not too up-2-date on the details... BTW...I only play online games, classic remakes, and rpgs, so this will really help me decide what I purchase (if anything).
Kidz! What is a DS ? Put it in the lead part of the story !
....if Nintendo can get their attention. This may be the first console that Blizzard could release a successful game for, since all their best games rely heavily on the mouse.
Starcraft on a DS.... 'nuff said.
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
This is all fine and dandy but when is the UK, and the rest of Europe, getting the DS?
I like muppets.
You know what is means because you know what it means. The rest of us have other topics and subjects on our minds.
Fata viam invenient.
Exactly. It might mean "Distributed Spam".
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
That's funny, I thought they stopped making the DS in 1975...
~
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-- INSERT --
In typical Slashdot fashion, it is assumed that everybody knows what DS is. I've been working with computers and technology for a long ass time, and I, for one, have no frickin' clue what a DS is. Not all of here are frickin' 14 years old, you know! SOME OF US EVEN BATHE! It would've been considerate to mention what DS means right in the parent post.
So, what's a DS?
As an added bonus, fewer people would call you ignorant, and you might just become a little less ignorant in the process.
Not to go on about your ignorance far too much, but are you the kind of person who walks around the office asking for someone to define a word for you, rather than picking up a dictionary or typing "define:ignorant" into google? Damn that's annoying. Please stop.
Well, unless you're the kind of person that only follows one avenue of gaming (and that not being Nintendo's), you could always use a GBA for portable use, or even the Gameboy Player for the Gamecube - and it doesn't need batteries or a backlight.
Or an AOL? Or a PSP? Or an LCD? Or a PHP?
Come on people, before you complain what a certain acryonym is, take two seconds of your time and click the link. I promise it'll take you less time than asking.
Except that it's not an acronym. The DS is the official name. Nintendo DS. That's it. DS doesn't stand for anything in particular anymore. (Previously, it stood for Dual Screen or Developer's System.)
If you wanted to know what it was, why not just click the link and RTFA or google for it? It wouldn't take that much longer than putting up a post bitching about it.
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
That would also be a great game for the DS.
Especially with two screens.
It plays older games, its not natively compatible but there is an adapter.
Regards,
Steve
I'm not bitching about ONLY this one occurance of what "appears" to be an acronym. I took this opportunity to criticize all such usage in the blurbs to Slashdot's topics. (If you don't know what DS means, how do you know it's not an acronym? Use your mind, son.)
Fata viam invenient.
You mean the parent poster isn't flamebait, but my reply is?
HAHAHA
Fucking retarded slashdot.
I guess this is where all the "Dumb Sh*ts" are.
As if there was ever any doubt.
Oh wait maybe if I add "USA Sucks" my post will get modded up LOL.
it sure is. it even runs linux. check out a used Zaurus SL-5500 on ebay..
I tried one out in the store. I have fairly large hands, and I found the controls very uncomfortable. I started to get a hand cramp after a few minutes because the d-pad and the buttons were too close to the edge of the unit.
They should have wireless controllers that you can use with this thing. That way if you need the pocket-sized portability you can leave the comfortable controller home.
The touchscreen is okay, but I dislike touching any screen with my fingers (mostly because I don't like cleaning screens).
The screen resolution and graphics quality are okay, but could be much better. There are lots of jaggies. I don't think portables are really ready for 3d yet.
400,000 more systems is all well and good... but what about selfish bastards such as myself who've already managed to get theirs and just want more games? The DS itself is quite nice indeed (as other posters have already mentioned... check it out yourself at Best Buy or your local game store if you doubt), but the only game that's really worthwhile at this point is Mario 64 DS, which got kinda old kinda quick. It's a great game and all, and yeah, they changed some stuff around from the original, but it's still just Mario 64. Where's the Metroid game? Where's Final Fantasy III? Where's any mention whatsoever of Zelda? Give me a new Kid Icarus, dammit! This is Nintendo, I expect more first party goodness than the lackluster launch titles are providing me with.
Citizens demand more games!
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
There are at least TEN people above you complaining about the same thing... guess what? Products have NAMES. They don't call the new ATI card "ATI Really Cool Video Card with Pixel Shading". They give it a name. The name is usually a couple of letters and numbers stuck together. The fact that you don't know the name of a video game console isn't really /.'s fault. You might as well say "What the hell is a Nintendo?"
If, after many dozens of stories on this item, after 500,000 of them have already been sold in the space of weeks, after marketing campaigns and endless flamewars about DS vs. PSP, you still don't know what the thing is, you know what? You just might be out of the fucking loop.
(If you don't know what DS means, how do you know it's not an acronym? Use your mind, son.)
If you don't know what it is, why ASSUME it is an acronym? And I believe the point still stands, if you want to KNOW what it is, follow the link. If not, then let it pass.
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
Nope - it sure isn't. I spent way to much on a Pocket PC PDA and I admit one of the primary reasons was retro gaming. I own GBs and GBAs (yes - multiple) but I hate having to carry around multiple small cartridges which can be easily lost.
My PocketPC handles NES, GB, GBC, PC Engine, Sega Master system, Game Gear, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Spectrum and Apple 2 games as well as some SNES and Genesis (not as well). There is also GBA emulation but its not very good.
The great thing - aside from the nostalgia, is that a lot of these older games are perfect for quick pickup play. Most emulators support memory saves as well - meaning you can put it down at a moments notice even if you are close to getting that high score.
You can fit a hell of a lot of games on a 512MB SD card and Compact Flash drives go up to 4GB if you need more storage.
The added bonuses aside from the usual PDA features are that it plays both audio and video. You get mp3, ogm, avi and mpg playback.
There are also excellent native Pocket PC games including ports of Age of Empires, Warlords 2 and Ultima Underworld. RTS, RPG even FPS games are available.
So yeah its expensive, but it is a hell of a toy if you can justify the cost.
If you have a model with bluetooth and or 802.11b its great for ssh or terminal services too.
My biggest complaint is that someone needs to come out with a gaming oriented model, so we can get a decent button layout. One of the main considerations in my purchase was the dpad and button setup.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
You can even put 'ds' into Google and find out really quickly. Dolt.
Hey Dolt,
It's customary to put a carriage-return between the last line of your comment and your 'signature'
You are basing your opinion of an entire system on a commercial that showed one possible use for a color touch screen?
Have you even tried one yet? They've got the demo units out in stores to try.
Yeah the PSP LOOKS great, but battery life is going to be horrible. Looks aren't everything. Companies have tried in the past to de-trone nintendo with better looking portables and they have all failed so far.
Now the PSP looks sweet. Please people hold out for this one, with its larger wide screen display and DVD quality video on the go.
How much did Sony pay you to say that?
Maybe you are using it Wrong?
The stylus is suppossed to touch the screen, not the finger. Just like you don't Fist your pda screen. And the dual screens is suppossed to be a redundant measure to make sure that you don't have finger prints. The Upper screen is suppossed to stay clean.
some people just want commercials to do all the thinking for them.
There are ways around this little caveat, but the legality of it all is a little questionable. .gba or .bin rom file. It's then just a matter of transferring the file to the flash cartridge and you're away.
Firstly you need to get hold of a GBA linker and flash cartridge. You also will need download Goomba, a Gameboy emulator for the Gameboy Advance. Use the linker to dump your Gameboy games on your PC, then combine them with Goomba into a
Life is like an analogy
touch screen +
decent cpu +
flash memory +
i/o networkable +
portable +
$150 price
------------
$150 general purpose computer
Why doesn't MS just buy a dev kit for DS, port Windows CE to it and release a $200 tablet PC on the DS platform?
This makes me think: if the GameBoy Advanced
(released in 2001) has the capabilities of
the NES (early 1990s?) and the DS has the
capabilities of the N64 (released in 1996),
it means handheld technology is catching up
with consoles with a delay of about 8 to 10
years. Therefore, in 2012-2014, we can expect
a handheld device that will have the power
and versatility of today's GameCubes and
XBoxes!
But then, maybe the delay isn't that long,
since the PSP is rumored to be more or less
as powerful as the PS2...
The second screen is used for a variety of things. The somewhat addictive minigames in the Mario 64 remake use the screen for all kinds of stuff and it's in full color..
The PSP can't do DVD quality video. It doesn't have a high enough resolution(The display is 480x272 pixels). It does have more graphical horsepower though.
How lazy does one have to be gripe about using google? Does that make breathing and blinking a reason to gripe too?
Its not like people gripe when a Computer is referred to as a Computer and no link is provided.
Because you can buy pocketPCs for that price that have a much larger touchscreen.
They won't have wifi, but the models that do aren't too much up in cost.
01101001 01100001 01101101 01101110 01101111 01110100 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110111 01111001 01100101 01110010
I assumed it was an acronym because it has GREAT BIG LETTERS that apparently don't form a word. In other words, it looks like an acronym. Enough of this...I just wish writers would not assume that every reader is familiar with their jargon.
Fata viam invenient.
By the way, the DS is AWESOME!
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
Who knows! But we have 400,000 more of them available! Kick ass!
The DS has been talked about for over year and you can actually buy them. This excludes it from "cutting edge" on a nerd site, in my opinion.
More importantly, did you not notice:
1. The first word of the headline is "GAME:" (ie, it's in the games section.
2. The color photograph of a Nintendo Game Boy next to the DS post?
If you need more context than that on a nerd news site, you should consider being spoonfed your news at CNN or MSN.
Ham and egg's - $3.00
And people, the plural of "CD" is "CDs," NOT CD's.
I can only think of one exception to the rule: if you are talking about more than one "A," such as getting straight A's, omitting the apostrophe makes it looks like "As" which would be very confusing.
For all you programmers: you don't like reading spaghetti-code, so why write spaghetti English?
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
Hello, Sony shill! I plan to get a PSP and not a DS, but the second screen really does offer a lot of potential (and the way some of the games are using it already make it useful to have color and graphics acceleration) and the battery life of the PSP is, while acceptable, only just.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm worried what will happen when I try to play my DS and eat barbecue spare ribs at the same time. How responsive will the touchscreen be when it's covered with tangy barbecue sauce?
Tetris IS in color on my GBA SP, it's just not in very many colors.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
From a logistics and marketing perspective, it would just be too darn complicated to try to pull off a trick like that. It would be much easier to just try to sell as many units as possible.
But wouldn't it be nice to speak clearly in the first place and save them the trouble. I agree with the parent to your post. Very sloppy editing.
Heaven forbid a submitter assumes someone reading the gaming section would know what one of the world's largest game companies is up to.
I mean, really...I bet it took you more time to make your post than it would have to do a quick Google search or actually click the article link. This whole idea of whining if the summary doesn't give a 100% clear idea of what the article's about is getting to be just plain silly.
seriously, he is dead on, wtf...retarded mods
Jesus fuck, people, would it kill you to stick "Nintendo" somewhere in the summary text? The hell makes you think that "DS" is to special and unique a term that even an average slashdot reader would immediately know what it is? I'm sure there's a subset of nintendo geeks who will find this instantly obvious, but could you please make things clear to the rest of it? It'd really streamline my process of not caring. Thanks.
OK everybody, considering how often news on the DS has been on the front page for the past few weeks, at what point do we start to mod these constant "What's a DS?" questions as trolls?
Hell, "DS" isn't even really an acronym, it's the actual name of the system: Nintendo DS.
If I am traveling with a backpack, the extra space of a comfortable controller wouldn't matter much, though you probably would have to have a way to slip the DS into the controller so that you could hold the screens in the right way.
I don't think that using the sytlus would work well when playing games. You need to use those fingers to hold the DS.
My main complaint about the screen I guess is the resolution. It should be at least 320x240 now. I retract my comment about it not being ready for 3d. The poly count is probably better than a PS1. However, the resolution is sorely lacking.
I am excited about the wireless and the possible hackability of it though.
Seriously. It's the system's name, all of the "What's a DS?!?" posts are essentially the same as going "What's a PS2?!~?!!" in any story that didn't explicitly spell out "Sony Playstation 2 Computer Entertainment System." There's a goddamned Game Boy icon, and the story's in the games section: WHAT ELSE COULD IT STAND FOR?
Scarcity ($car City) often brings out the worst
in people.
Some of us do not even play computer games. Not a comment on those who do... whatever lights your fire.
Even if all 400k of those Dumb Shits were in Ohio Diebold still would have stolen it.
Dumb Shits can't win because they aren't smart or patriotic like Republicans.
Why handhelds?
I bought a Gameboy Advance used for about $20 USD so I could connect it to my gamecube for things like the Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion link bonuses. After I had picked up a few games for it I invested in the SP because it has a better form factor, a backlit screen, better battery life, etc..
Now I carry it everywhere. Bored on the bus and riding alone? I pull out my GBA and play some Metroid. TV in use? No problem, I've got my own screen.
My username does not make me Apathetic. It's irony, get it?
I should clarify, it's not that ALL nintendo games are cute, it's more that so many of them are. I want a system where most of the games aren't bubbly characters looking to be happy all the time. I like games like final fantasy, metal gear, and the other games that were so big on playstation. I don't remember anything really fun on gamecube aside from zelda. I'm sure there were some good games, but none that made me buy the system. As for the really awesome nes games of the past, well, I have a nintendo. I don't need all the same games on my portable to make me buy a portable. Also, I like the DS. I just can't afford to commit to one system when I still might really like another one.
Reality is nothing but a collective hunch.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-06 -27&res=l
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-06 -27
I don't think the GBA to PS2 factor really matters as they are completely different markets. Sony has never made a portable before, but if it works anything like their experience in consoles, they'll sweep Nintendo into the corner and let them take the kids' and budget gaming markets.
I have a GB, GBC, GBA, SP, and GCN, and they're great systems, but so far I've seen Nintendo offer a system with minor graphical improvements and some fiddly gimmicks I really don't want on a handheld, with a lineup of games I'm not really interested in because it looks like they were written as DS gimmick demos. (oo, steer/aim with a touchscreen! Blow on the mic!)
In the other corner, we have a system that's like a handheld PS2. The Japanese "mita?" ads say it best really: Someone will be sitting there playing their PSP, and someone else wanders by and just stares in awe at it until they're noticed. A nice large screen should help those advanced 3D graphics stay nice and visible in a variety of situations. Several of the launch titles look like solid games on their own without falling back on awkward "features." In fact, at least the Armored Core game is making a portable AND console release.
I'd go for the PSP, except for one thing, it's not even for sale in North America yet, something that's going to hurt Sony in the long run. Also, the GBA really isn't insufficient in any way, and I haven't come close to beating all the good games for it, so I don't NEED a new handheld... I have a backlog of awesome games as it is! Maybe it's just me, but this whole new "handheld war" just seems like noise from both sides to get sales up again.
Like the parent post says though, it comes down to what you're looking for in a handheld and people will grab whichever has what they want. I just can't help but see Nintendo's other "innovations" when I see the DS. Things like the Track & Field pad, U-Force, ROB, Power Glove, Super Scope, Virtual Boy, GB camera, FF: Crystal Chronicles GBA link cable, etc... Innovative for sure, but useless outside the scope of the one (or up to a half dozen sometimes!) games they were made for.
I like the way my NES retro GBA-SP looks, but after five minutes at EB with the DS, I can tell you that the DS is FAR, FAR more comfortable for a guy like me with huge mitts and long fingers. Extended periods on the SP make me crunch my hands up and together, usually interlocking ring and pinky fingers under the unit just to give them something to grasp (too long!) while the old style GBA was unplayable because of the lack of backlight. The DS has that old-GBA feel, nice and wide and comfy (though even wider would be better... not as much as the first Xbox controllers, but the current Xbox S pads are very nice) and it plays my GBA games! I don't currently own any GB or GBC titles that haven't been updated for GBA, so I think it's time to upgrade once I get through the Christmas spending necessities of my family. Definitely a comfortable portable for those of us who have large hands.
Hell, "DS" isn't even really an acronym, it's the actual name of the system: Nintendo DS.
I think it stands for ' Dual Screen. '
If all else fails... RTFM
You know who stores often put empty boxes on display if the item is small and expensive? You bring the box up, pay for the item and then they bring you a real one from the back? Well...
A few days after release, once I had determined that there were no DS system left in Huntsville, I wandered into a Software Etc. store in the mall and there were three boxes, with price stickers, sitting on the shelf above the demo unit and games. Already feeling like an idiot for asking, I said, "Do you really have these three in stock?" The clerk said, "No, those are the boxes for the pre-orders that haven't been picked up." Jerks.
Skip ahead a coupla weeks. I go in Toys R Us to do some Christmas shopping. They have a board up toward the front of the store listing new video game releases. In big letters, they list "Nintendo DS". I already know they're lying, but when I get back in electronics, they have 30-40 boxes with price tags in a huge display in the middle of the electronics dept. Again, knowing the answer, I ask a clerk if they actually *have* the product they are displaying and she says, "No, those are just display boxes. We sold out two weeks ago, but we haven't had a chance to pull the boxes." Yeah, right. They've got middle of the aisle toy displays all over the store, overstock stacked to the ceiling, and two many people trying to maneuver shopping carts through the maze, but they haven't had time in *2 weeks* to pull 40 empty boxes off a shelf and toss them behind a counter. I guess they enjoy answering the same question over and over and having pissed off people stand in line for 20 minutes holding an empty box for a non-existent item. I'd hate to be a cashier.
The other day, I heard Sears had some, but I didn't even bother going to look.
What confuses me about this is that I can see (in a misleading way) displaying these empty boxes to get people into the store, but in all three stores, you couldn't see them until you were already in the store shopping. What possible reason could a store have to mislead shoppers and piss them off?
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness
You took the words right out of my mouth ;)
I also hate the tangy, greasy barbeque sauce all over my screen, let alone my pants..
For every report that there's a lot in stock, there are many cities with absolutely none in sight, and no mention of when the new shipment will come in. I t is not hype, Nintendo had no idea it was going to be this successful on a launch system.
Hey dork boy... maybe it's you that lives in a cave? Or perhaps your parent's basement? There are people out there who only stop by Slashdot once in a while, and don't keep up with the latest geek-toy-of-the-minute.
No, it stands for "DS." The box says "Nintendo DS," the software says "for use on the Nitnendo DS," Nintendo's website has information on the "Nintendo DS." How and why Nintendo came to choose those two particular letters doesn't really matter any more because the name is the two letters, much like the "real" name of the Game Boy Advance SP really is "Game Boy Advance SP" with no explaination of "SP" offered or warranted.
Think of it like "KFC," only moreso. Or the fact that I subscribe to "DirecTV" and not "DirecTelevion."
To be fair, part of the reason Nintendo usually starts off with a smaller amount of things in the US is to see if they'll even take off first. They've been burned in the past by things like the Virtual Boy, the Super Gameboy, etc. which did not sell as well as they had hoped. Nintendo is a Japanese company and they test the waters in the US to see if something is going to take off there, then if it does, ship in more to sell. I mean, the DS could have been a collosal failure. Some were predicting that six months ago. The device is hopelessly Japanese and quirky. Somehow, they've pulled it off yet again.
That's strange, I could have sworn that an acronym had to form an existing word. DS isn't a word in the English language (or any other language that I'm aware of), so it is not an acronym. On top of that, it [i]is[/i] the product's name.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
You do realize the PSP will have a 2 - 4 hour battery life, the DS gets 8-14 hours, even more with GBA games. I've been playing my brand new DS alot, I love it. I own a PC, iPaq 2215, powerbook and a DS, I love this thing, future games will have online play. The graphics are beautiful.
P.S. Sony really has to learn to ditch the CD format, it provides crappy battery life, also who's going to want to buy all their dvd's again just to watch them on their PSP? Not me, thats why I own a TV, as for mp3's there are better things for playing mp3's, they have way better battery life, don't require memory sticks and don't have a screen that will scratch so easily.
By the way, if anyone in Finland is lusting after a DS or PSP, I can send one to you (for a fee).
o m/psp.php
http://www.bemmu.com/ds.php
http://www.bemmu.c
The unit comes with a thumb strap, it is a piece of plastic which straps to your thumb. You use the same motions as you would with your thumb, but without actually touching the screen.
I know because I have a DS. The thumb strap works GREAT, I wouldn't use the thing without it.
what did you get? I just purchased a ipaq 3115 that has wireless and a nice dpad, but still find it very cumbersome. what really needs to happen is for someone to make a decent bluetooth controller for it....
-and occasionaly a giant moose.
Or am I the only one who love my sp more than the ds? I just kinda hated the early 3d console aera, n64 sucked.
I think I'm going to sit tight with my sp, buy up some cheap games, and then switch to psp when it comes out.
-makoffee
DS stands for downs syndrome in my world. and PSP has always been the acronym for Paint Shop Pro, originally shareware software when you nintendo obsessives were still in nappies (diapers). If you think that if you think something, everyone else must think the same, you're are a geek, sure, but not a high functioning one. (See autistic spectrum for more details)
(Military Quote: We state the obvious, so we all have the same obvious)
oops, i think that was a troll..
The article was on the front page. And it's still a good idea to mention the company. Nobody knows every acronym and gadget model number by heart.
Hey, who knows what games are going to run on the DS? I dunno, maybe i'd buy one of these portable console, but i know nothing of the games that run on them. Plus, i got ripped getting a gamecube, wich sucked because it runs about only 2-3 good games. SO? WHO'S GOING TO FLAME ME AND HELP OUT?
The specs suggest that the PSP will wipe the floor with the DS. Perhaps the PSP will suck, just as the N-Gage did, in ways that the specs don't reveal. For example regional encoding is a stupid idea in these devices, and stubby memory stick format is even stupider, considering that memory stick is used by barely anyone except Sony. But the only way to know for sure is stand back and wait until the choices are all in front of you, including a decent selection of games.
Though frankly I don't understand why demand for any console are high at the beginning. Why is everyone rushing out to buy a DS, (or XBox, PS2, Gamecube before that), when there are precious few games for it at launch, where it isn't backwards compatible and the main competition is only a few months away itself. It makes no sense except as a "I want it" knee jerk reaction to anything new.
Why don't we mention what an iPod or, hell, a PC is in every summary? Because at some point the term has appeared often enough to be presumed known. The DS is way past this point. The few people who still don't know can simply enter "DS" into Google and have their answer quicker than asking here.
Sony doesn't have to pay people to say that. There is always some idiot who wil come out and say it for free, even though it doesn't make any sense for him to do so.
(He's pleading for people to wait for the PSP? WHY? I'm enjoying my Nintendo DS RIGHT NOW.)
The article was on the front page.
And the Gameboy icon, reference to Gameboy Advance sales, and a mention of Gamesindustry.biz wouldn't clue you in that it might be a gaming-related story? C'mon now.
Nobody knows every acronym and gadget model number by heart.
News about the DS has been everywhere on gaming related sites, and Nintendo has been running TV commercials, magazine ads, contests, the works. The DS is a major new product from a huge international company, not a little niche gadget.
And as I said before, if you've somehow missed it all, you could have found out exactly what the DS was after about 5 seconds of clicking the article link or searching on Google. Unless you're just incredibly lazy or looking for something to complain about, like the whiners on this particular topic.
Gillette seems to be failing to generate good revenue on razor sales for Q4 2004.
They claim to be making money off the blades, but that sounds as nonsense!
I almost never spend more than four hours away from a charging source. If I do, I won't need my PSP, because I'll be backpacking or something. If I used a lot of public transportation, I might feel different. The Sony screen is supposed to have some new coating on it, but if that doesn't work out there's always softside protectors. Hell, they have waterproof bags for cellphones that you can talk through. The DS has its functions, but I already have a GBA SP and that fulfills my needs for a small game device with extended battery life. Actually, we have two of them, so we can play head to head even, and a game boy player. I love my Nintendo stuff but I think the PSP will offer me more than the DS.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
How in the @#$% can anyone in their right mind prefer the Xbox controller over the GameCube controller? I have both systems and like them both a lot, but the GameCube controller is much much MUCH more ergonomically designed, IMO. It's not so good for fighting games, but that's its only drawback.
BTW, Metroid Prime has fantastic controls. You are clearly a moron.
The NeoGeo Pocket Color was the second generation of the machine. Previously it was the NeoGeo Pocket, which was black-and-white.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
I ended up getting an Asus MyPal A716. From the research I did, the graphics performance is very good. The dpad works well. Perhaps the biggest issue is that you only have 2 buttons plus the dpad click that you can really use for in game buttons. The other 2 can be used for select and start or similar functions.
This model has built in 802.11b and bluetooth - but I haven't had a chance to test the bluetooth.
I find it reasonably comfortable for use gaming but the GB form factors are clearly superior (although I would argue the original GBA was more comfortable than the SP version).
It works well enough that my son constantly wants to use it to play.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
My local Target got around 12 in this morning. I needed two (I ain't scalping them, I've got two spoiled kids), but they would only sell me one. I bought one, went and ate lunch, drove back and bought another from a different clerk. They only had 5 when I returned for the second one.
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness
The US does not have 5 times as many people! Stupid Mexican immigrant!