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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.
...what DS stands for... Dual Screen
It's not an acronym, DS is the name of the system.
The Nintendo DS
"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"
If I remember correctly, the PSP does not play PS1 games, it uses a proprietary mini-disk type format for each of its games, videos, etc.
As for Nintendo having a large, inexpensive game base, the DS is backward compatible with the GBA, which is backwards compatible with the original Gameboys. That's years and years worth of old games, many at thrift stores.
Your new system doesnt play the old games??? What planet are you from, every version of the gameboy ever made was backwards compatable, hell even the DS will play gameboy advance games.. (i think it will also play regular gameboy games as well.. but not posative of this so wont' claim it to be so) So that right there is a good 10 years or so of backwards compatability. Now speaking of computers, go grab any 10 year old game, I bet you'll have a hard time getting the thing to work on a modern operating system without jumping through some hoops first.
Just thought I'd point out a few flaws in your logic while taking a break at work.
Whodunnit out.
I'm not going to call you ignorant, because I myself have noticed be a bit of acronymic presumption on the part of Slashdot editors...and it seems to be especially common in gaming-related stories. I've lost count of how many stories concerning the "DS" or the "PSP" (products that have barely been released) have been posted that fail to actually mention what they ARE.
Now I can understand not defining "PHP" or "RIAA"...but not everyone stays on the cutting edge of game technology. Anyway...
DS
PSP
The DS uses 802.11b technology for wireless communications. No current software titles support TCP based communication, so they cannot be played online. team xlink is working on "tunneling" the existing DS software titles. Future DS titles will support internet access, but it is currently unsure which titles and when they will be available.
Nintendo isn't always that great at publicizing their recent products. If you read the article, it would tell you that the DS is Nintendo's new handheld system. Its capabilities are somewhat comparable to the N64, just as the GBA's capabilities are analogous to the Super Nintendo.
The lower of the "dual" screens is touch-sensitive and one uses a stylus to write or steer on it. The system is wireless-enabled and I think it's about time. I pretty much never carry around a gameboy link cable.
I am looking forward to playing Mario 64 on the DS. I think the system's real selling point is the number of N64 titles that have been and will be ported over.
The biggest reason why I got a DS was that I can play GBA games without a Gamecube + Game Boy Player or play games in not-so-well-lighted places (I have the first GBA, passed on the GBA SP).
This may be the first console that Blizzard could release a successful game for
No, that would be the SNES. Blizzard made console games (including some very successful ones like Lost Vikings, Rock & Roll Racing and Blackthorne) before they ever made PC games.
Many cards work fine. You can find compatiblity lists on some sites.
"they tend to get raplaced by newer models within a year or so that don't play any of your old games."
The Game Boy Color plays four-color Game Boy games.
The Game Boy Advance plays Game Boy Color and four-color Game Boy games.
The Game Boy Advance SP isn't even a new system per se.
The Nintendo DS plays Game Boy Advance games, but does not play Game Boy Color or four-color Game Boy games. But this is because Nintendo has repeatedly stated that the DS is not intended to replace the Game Boy Advance, referring to the DS as their "third pillar." The idea seems to be to try doing something new in handhelds without sacrificing Nintendo's bread-and-butter that is the Game Boy line. After all, this is the "Nintendo DS," not the "Nintendo Game Boy DS."
Personally, at this point I don't think even Nintendo themselves could unseat the Game Boy line as the top of the food chain, but it seems their intent is to not even try to.
The thing that confuses me about your comment, though, is that the Game Boy is really the only handheld console that has been around long enough for a new hardware iteration to come out. The Lynx, Game Gear, Tiger.com, NeoGeo Pocket Color (among others) all died in their first generation. The only other handheld I can think of that made it into a second iteration was the WonderSwan, and even then the WonderSwan Color played older b/w WonderSwan games. So where are you finding this "tendancy" you're talking about?
"but unlike a handheld the new one still plays your old games"
You sound like someone who doesn't know the joys of getting XP to play a DOS game well, let alone the tricker problem of some of the really old games (I never had to install an app to slow down my GBA's processor to play Metroid II).
"with one excaption, sony's handheld plays all those old ps1 games that you already have,"
As others have pointed out, no, it doesn't. Sony is trying their hand at making a new proprietary format for their PSP (as if they didn't learn anything from the MiniDisc), which means the PSP will only be able to read PSP software, and the PSP will be the only device able to read PSP software (unless they include that functionality in the PS3).
With Sony paying for a new, proprietary media and Nintendo using an older standard that may end up being less expensive to produce, it's almost as if we're about to see a reverse of what happened back when the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation were competing with each other.
"now it might be worth it with such a large and *inexpensive* game base, unlike nintendo"
New GBA cartridges tend to be $30. DS cartridges seem to be starting between $30 and $40, but I don't think it will be long before they too are consistently around $30 (after all, Nintendo has been working on cartridge technology for a very long time now). PlayStation 2 games, using relatively inexpensive and widely-available media like CDs and DVDs, usually sell new between $40 and $50. Sony seems to expect to get similar performance out of a PSP as they get out of a PS2 (if not equal), but they will not be using such off-the-shelf media technologies like CDs or DVDs or even ROM chips. At this point, I don't think Sony will be able to publish and sell PSP games at the same price as DS games without taking a loss, at least not until this new media catches on, which would require the PSP catching on. So will they be taking losses on both hardware and software at the same time?
Nintendo DS is Nintendo's new hand held console. With Dual Screens.
When you read a story about "PSP" it doesn't mean Painshop Pro, it's PlayStation Portable, Sony's portable console.
You're supposed to pick either PSP or DS and love it passionately. You're also supposed to hate the other console and anyone who likes, or even tolerates it.