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New Nintendo DSi Announced
justme8800 writes "The DSi has a bigger screen, an SD card expansion, a 0.3 megapixel camera, is thinner (no GBA slot), and has improved audio. To be released in Japan on November 1st, everywhere else sometime in 2009."
FYI, there are more pics and details here: http://www.wiimedia.com/news/view/next_gen_nintendo_dsi_wii_storage_solution_and_more/
And here: http://www.dsfanboy.com/photos/nintendo-dsi/
Some of these details are a bit confused. For example, Nintendo appears to have announced a 300,000 pixel camera (0.3 megapixel), yet it's also being reported as a 3 megapixel camera. Also, there was a report (now believed to be unsubstantiated) that both screens would have touch capability.
What *is* known is that Wii Points will becomes Nintendo Points. Why? Because the DSi will have internal flash memory along with the SD Card slot that can be used to download games (both new and previous gameboy games) from the DS Shop Channel. Just like the Wii. The system also appears to have TWO cameras. One on the inside of the hinge, and one on the front cover. (More evidence that we're talking about a 0.3 megapixel camera capable of 640x480 resolutions.)
Nintendo also announced a Wii storage solution. The Wii Shop Channel will have the option to download directly to an SD Card. A player will then be able to use an "easy copy to the Wii's main memory" to play the game. It's not clear if Iwata meant the Wii would use some of its flash memory as cache, or if you really have to do the copy yourself.
The DSi will be priced in Japan at 18,900 Yen. Which is approximately $180. The DS Lite sells in Japan for ~$150, so that should give some clue to its likely American price.
Nintendo also announced new games in the form of Punch Out for the Wii, Sin and Punishment 2 for the Wii, Mario and Luigi 3 for the DSi, and Trace Memory for the DSi. They are also going to be "refreshing" the GameCube line (e.g. Pikmin and DK Jungle Beat) and re-releasing them for the Wii. I'm not sure what that's supposed to accomplish, but whatever.
Nintendo of America will hold its own press conference at 12:30 PM EDT.
Hopefully we'll get a few clarifications at NOA's press conference.
BTW, if you want to see videos of Nintendo's new stuff go here and scroll down to the box that says "Nintendo Conference". Inside that box are two large buttons. One is a video for the Wii, one is a video for the DSi.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
The included camera is 640x480 or approximately 0.3 megapixels, not 3.0 megapixels.
Guitar Hero doesn't run on DSi. Nor does anything beyond the first third of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (after you get the national Pokédex). And there's speculation on forum.gbadev.org that Nintendo might have used this as a chance to beef up the security against homebrew through a combination of digitally signing new DS titles and whitelisting old titles.
Well my kids are pissed about losing the GBA slot, so they aren't planning on trading in their DSLites. Personally I like the 3mp cam. Having RTFA all the articles I could find on this one I am not sure what exact WiFi improvements are, I havent had problems setting up WiFi on the 4 units we own and the overwall WiFi performance has been adequate, but WPA support would be cool. Anyone know more about that part?
Because if they named it iDS they'd have a advertisement-nightmare when the Advanced version of that trinket came out.
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
but where the hell is my goddamn WPA support?
They are also going to be "refreshing" the GameCube line (e.g. Pikmin and DK Jungle Beat) and re-releasing them for the Wii. I'm not sure what that's supposed to accomplish
Even if it's not an actual sequel, consider the case of Capcom's Resident Evil 4. It was ported from GameCube to PS2 to Wii, with enhancements each time. Or consider the first Animal Crossing game, which was ported from N64 (as Doubutsu no Mori) to GameCube (NTSC J, as Doubutsu no Mori +) to GameCube (NTSC U/C, as Animal Crossing | Population: Growing!) and back to GameCube (NTSC J, as Doubutsu no Mori e+), again with enhancements in each edition.
Well I am not going to rush out for one of these. I like some GBA games I own and I have Opera for it. .3 megapixel camera? Big deal. :)
A
Now If Nintendo included a VIOP and maybe a Video over IP that could be cool.
Sort of an Nintendo Phone
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Losing the GBA slot is unfortunate, there were a lot of really good GBA titles that are still fun to play now.
In all likelihood Nintendo realizes this, and will re-package the old GBA titles on DS media form factor, and re-sell us the same games again, like they have with the Virtual Console on the Wii.
This makes total financial sense, but it's too bad. I can't think of any way as a consumer to act in a way that would give the incentive to Nintendo to retain backward compatibility so that I don't have to re-buy games I've already played. If we all don't re-buy, Nintendo would just not re-package to re-sell, rather than retain backward compatibility.
It seems like console makers have some incentive to provide backward compatibility during the intro period when they are transitioning from the old platform to the new, but once the new platform is entrenched they drop backward compatibility to cut costs/up profits.
Guess I'll keep my GBA SP2+ around, then.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I see no reason to pick this one up if they remove the GBA slot. One of the more popular features of the Nintendo handhelds is the backwards compatibility. The ability to only have to carry one device to play all my games was a nice feature. Also, there are several DS games that can have extra features unlocked or data transferred from GBA carts. Obviously, this kills that bonus as well. As much as I would really like to have the better wireless features, I will just have to make do.
I just picked up a used ds lite with 3 games for $100. That should hold me for a while. I like that I can play GBA games on it - wouldn't want to give that up to be honest. The camera and music don't matter - I have other devices for that. The wireless store is cool - but not enough for me to shell out a bunch of money again. I'll probably end up getting a used DSi somewhere down the road I guess.
I'm more interested in seeing what happens with Apple. I keep seeing articles saying the ipod touch is a threat to the ds. I personally don't see it - but I'm not good at predicting that kind of thing. I look forward to seeing how it plays out.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I for one thought it was interesting that while Nintendo kept bringing out new home systems with approximately zero ability to play titles from earlier systems, they kept the ability to play old game boy games for years and years as they brought out new systems. If the GBA slot is gone, does that mean that now Nintendo no long feels it worthwhile to maintain the ability to play old titles?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Still no WPA. It's just embarrassing now.
Because GBA games can be run from SD
I am tired of fuzzy cameraphone shots. Heck, I had a camera on my palm pilot years ago and it took nothing but fuzzy 640x320 pictures. Nasty, and not a feature I can see anyone needing. You need to take pictures? Grab a proper $100 digital camera.
This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
Virtual Portable. Not only downloadable GBA games, but GBC, GB, Gamegear, NeoGeo Pocket, Lynx, etc. That's not a press release, just my own note of an obvious thing for Nintendo to do. Aside from being able to play your GBA games this way, you'd be able to carry all of them with you without carrying/fiddling with any cartridges. Too bad they aren't doing the same with the DS games. Or are they? Or perhaps for new DSi-only games. That's certainly the direction they should be going: all download.
--- What?
Guess this is why my local Radio Shack has been selling new DS Lites for 95 bucks for the past few weeks. Since the new one has no GBA slot (and no new features that I really care about), I may have to go grab one on clearance.
This guy's the limit!
The original DS came out in 2004, the DS Lite in 2006. Two years for a consumer electronics product is a reasonable cycle. Do you also complain about auto manufacturers producing new models every year?
.sdrawkcab si gis siht
...and it's possible to download games and keep them on the DSi.
I'm buying one.
I own a DS for home brew. I set it to auto-load DSOrganize when I turn it on, and I have various home brew games on it as well as my own creations.
I can't imagine that Nintendo didn't change the security, so the cat and mouse game will continue. Hopefully it won't end. Otherwise *gulp* I'll have to start developing for the iPhone. :(
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Someone please clarify for me... Is this DSi Miami, New York, or the original one that was in Vegas? If there's no Grissom, then I'm not interested.
One of the driving forces behind the development of the DSi is the rampant piracy in the DS market. You can buy a flash card and 1GB microSD card that'll run copied ROMs for less than $20 these days. I fully expect Nintendo has incorporated some fairly aggressive tech to prevent copying. That's not a bad thing, except that it throws up yet another roadblock for homebrewers. The DS is a capable, affordable and widespread platform that would benefit tremendously from independent development, yet there's no way that Nintendo is every going to let that happen without extracting a pound of flesh through their online download service.
We're officially in a new era in which manufacturers see it as their duty to lock down their portable computers - I hope that the Pandora is a success, although I fear we'll have to wait a few years before a manufacturer comes along and blows the market open with a tiny box that can run third party code without obstruction
I'll be honest, I haven't played my GBA games in a while (gasp! zomgshockhorror what sort of nerd is this?!?) and I'm not in the homebrew community (gasps have now been replaced by sounds of fainting from the peanut gallery), so I won't be missing that end of it. And I still have my trusty GBA SP if worse comes to worse, and I don't NEED to trade in my old DS ("DS", hard stop — yes, just the DS, not Lite). And (potentially) finally being able to ditch WEP on my wireless network would be a very nice addition.
And I'd be willing to bet Nintendo will have a way to access the camera from games, leading to all sorts of frivolity and goofiness along the way (members of the peanut gallery are now calling for my head). So I say, bring it on.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
This version has the serious drawback of not playing GBA games.
But yes, I did skip the lite-version and might get that one, maybe, as my old DS broke.
But there's no way to compare old games with worse graphics to black and white movies. Black and white movies have real benefits over color movies, technical, e.g. contrast range, and cinematic. People perceive pictures differently when they're black and white.
While games with worse graphics are just that, games with worse graphics. You might have a point when you actually meant to compare 2D vs. 3D graphics though..
Oh, and note I did not judge the actual content, I know some older games have a lot more depth than what's around nowadays.
Anyway, yes, people don't play games if they feel their graphics look bad. Not exactly news, though.
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
OOh they do make cameras worse thatn the iphones!
At 0.3, that's like 640x480...
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
They could even support NES and Master System Virtual Console titles, I'm sure.
Will they release yet another version of Mario Kart for the DSi? I am sure of it! :)
Do you also complain about auto manufacturers producing new models every year?
I do because they produce new cars that aren't much better than the year before, then asked to be bailed out to the tune of $25 billion because nobody wants them.
They'll probably use that money to build a factory or two overseas, then use the rest to pay off some bank loans. Meanwhile, we borrowed that $25 billion from the FED at interest who creates it from nothing and the taxpayers are on the hook for it.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
So they managed to bloat it (camera, music) AND cripple it (GBA, battery) at the same time? No thanks, Nintendo; swing and miss.
I haven't jumped on the DS bandwagon yet, so I wonder if this will be an opportunity to snatch up the old DS model for less? That is, before Nintendo stops production and makes them unavailable. (Sure, there's always eBay, but I avoid that place as much as possible.)
Palm and Pocket PC have had a pretty thriving casual gaming market for some time. The lack of processer power, and particularly the lack of graphics acceleration, have limited them to casual gaming... but there's no reason that a decent "power user" PDA couldn't blow the market open the way you're thinking.
Games announced "for the DSi"... does this mean that DS and DS Lite will not play Mario and Luigi 3 or the new Trace Memory? Is this actually a new generation instead of an upgrade? If it's an upgrade, I'll probably pass, but if this is actually the new generation, and is required to play future games, then they probably have a sale, sad to say.
Yeah, can't wait to pay for my Advance games again!
1&1 - Cheap domain and web hosting.
No mention of built-in rumble that I can see. :-(
No GBA, no can use rumble pak.
Tactile feedback is good. Sony recently learnt this lesson the hard way.
I think I speak for a good majority of DS lite owners when I say that I will not be picking one of these up until Nintendo releases the Pink version.
(Seriously, best theft deterrent I've ever had)
Pass, my DS Lite and R4 card are perfect as is.
I hope wifi support has been improved.
The DS & Lite only do WEP; no TKIP or other modern security protocols are currently supported.
What really strikes me as odd about the DSi is Nintendo's announcement that this will constitute a "Third Platform", not replacing the DS Lite but complementing it. How many markets are there for dual screen handhelds with one touchscreen by Nintendo? Especially since the DSi appears to be such an incremental upgrade over the DS Lite.
Source:
Engadget
Still no WPA. It's just embarrassing now.
I seem to remember we discussed this in the last story about DSi. We ended up reaching a consensus that not everyone needs WPA, and people who do should buy a second AP for Nintendo WFC. Now that 802.11g and pre-n are common, you can find b-only APs at fire sale prices. Turn on 26-digit WEP and MAC whitelisting, turn off the AP when you turn off the DS, and you should be safe.
You mean they're bringing out another Nintendo DSi?!
Otherwise *gulp* I'll have to start developing for the iPhone.
The iPhone is even worse. Even the cheapest model (iPod Touch 8 GB) is $229, more expensive than a DS Lite + M3 Real. And there's as much anti-jailbreak cat-and-mouse on an iPhone as there ever was on a PSP. I'd recommend getting in on the next round of Pandora preorders.
When I do play GBA games it's usually on a Game Boy of some kind - most often the Micro. It's more portable than the DS which is real handy sometimes. Plus I think it's just an all-around better experience than booting up a GBA game on the DS, not using the full screen or the full set of controls... Really, once I got a decent collection of DS games going, I found I'd rather play those on the DS.
But even if it was under-utilized, I liked the potential for the GBA slot as hardware expansion. Guitar Hero is a good example.
In terms of homebrew, I'm happy enough if I can use my R4DS... But I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo arranged for that to not work on the new system...
Bow-ties are cool.
Agreed.
I still have the original model NDS, as I saw the Lite as not compelling enough to "upgrade". The loss of the GBA slot in the DSi is pretty much a deal killer for me.
When the GBA Micro came out, I avoided getting one because I still have quite a library of Gameboy (Mono, Super, & Color) games that I still play form time to time. My GBA SP is still in my arsenal.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
That would be awesome if I didn't have to pay for games I already own yet again.
This poo is cold.
I'm going to Japan this December. If I pick one of these up and bring 'em back to the US, will I be able to play my current DS/GBA games on it, or is there some sort of 'region' DRM restriction?
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
One one hand, it's just cashing in. But on the other hand, this way those who actually want to play older games can do so on a newer device, without giving increased size and price of the device for everyone.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
Yes, but if the price is low, I don't think too many would complain. For one thing you are gaining greater portability (no need to carry the cartridges). I don't have a huge collection of GBA games, though. You could always sell the carts and buy the downloads, though.
--- What?
"But there's no way to compare old games with worse graphics to black and white movies. Black and white movies have real benefits over color movies, technical, e.g. contrast range, and cinematic. People perceive pictures differently when they're black and white."
I'm pretty sure that the GP was talking about the rash of B&W classics that are being re-made in color. Generally speaking, older black and whites have no technical benefits over modern color (due to improvements in film technology) and if the artistic benefits were to outweigh the value of color the remake would likely be shot in monochrome as well (or post-produced into it, as the case may be).
I think your (and probably the GP's) analogy fits more with special effects than it does with color mode. The only inherent difference between a movie with poor special effects and a movie with great special effects is just that, but there are to this day plenty of movies being made in black and white.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
the first thing i thought of...
...is I could yank the SD out of my DSLR and view the pics easily, one screen for a photo album and the other for a view of the selected photo. but thats just me... a SD slot adds a whole new range of options to this toy. now, is there a decent SDK?
Is it still Opera? Is it the same version as the DS cart + GBA RAM cart? And since Opera needed a GBA RAM cart, does this means the DSi has more internal memory and will this extra memory be accessible to games or only the built-in browser to prevent companies to make "DSi-only" games, cutting off regular DS/DS Lite owners?
One thing I like about the Wii's Virtual Console is that N64 games look better. They run at twice the resolution (640x480 instead of the N64's 320x240). They still look dated, of course, but the graphics are cleaner. I've been having a lot of fun with Super Mario 64 on my Wii.
sudo eat my shorts
I think Nintendo is marketing the DSi as the "On-The-Go" DS that you don't monkey with peripherals, just throw it in your manpurse/laptop bag/purse and off you go, ready to whip it out for light gaming and to social network with your friends, etc., and replace your mp3 player and cell phone camera.
The Lite & original DS will be the "At-Home" DS where you can attach the menagerie of peripherals and such, and play with your huge library of DS and GBA games handy.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Super Game Boy will allow you to colorize most B&W gameboy games to a palate of 4 colors. Also this is a terrible troll.
moox. for a new generation.
Out of curiosity, are you the same guy that was complaining when they bogged down your monochrome gameboy with all those pesky colors ?
It loses the GBA port but also increases screen size, decreases weight, and becomes more slim, and adds video chat. Seems kinda cool to me.
And it's not like the DSLite is going away anytime soon. You could still buy the DSFat long after the lite was released.
A lot of people watch older movies because the limitations forced their directors to focus on things like plot and character development instead of whizbang special effects. The same is true for games. There are many great games that are forced to excel in other areas like gameplay, atmosphere, etc. simply because of the hardware limitations.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
It doesn't take much extra effort for the automakers to put out a new model each year. They mostly change cosmetic things: bumpers, headlights, grills, fenders, dashboards. The guts of the car are the same until they change the platform, every five years or so. The yearly model thing is pretty much entirely for the psychological effect on buyers. It makes you feel like you're getting something special that nobody else has yet, or it makes you feel that your mechanically-fine vehicle is out of date and you should get a new one.
I actually dislike a lot of the cosmetic changes that they make. When a totally new car is designed it has an overall motif. A couple years later, just to be different, they slap on fenders and spoilers that don't really go with the underlying design.
The big thing I like in the new Nintendo DSi is the built-in web browser. I so often wish I could look something up on my DS while watching TV rather than getting up and going over to my desktop. To continue the car analogy, adding the web browser is like adding HD radio to a car. It doesn't make the old model less useful and it's not worth much expense to add myself, but it'd be a nice feature to have.
Just a counterpoint, you can put a Gamecube disc into the Wii and it'll play just fine. Try doing that with any other Nintendo living room console. Any backwards compatibility at all in your living room is new for Nintendo.
All that being said, I don't think the DSi not playing GBA games is that huge of a deal for the large majority of the market. It's not aimed at replacing GBA's, it's aimed at replacing DS's, which it's mostly backwards compatible with.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
If you have GBA games, I wouldn't get one of these (since it doesn't have a GBA slot any more - that's how they got it slimmer)
Someone above said something about how this new product will stand independent of the DS (at least for now). That makes sense as it mitigates the problems with releasing a new system too early. But at the same time, it means Nintendo will have different levels of DS and that doesn't sound like a standard strategy of theirs.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
That depends on the car you buy. Some manufacturers, Mercedes for example changes the body style of their vehicles every 6 years, so you know that your car will look like the newest model for a specific period of time.
They will change some of the internals, different engine, different seats, interiors, etc, but externally it won't change
I wonder if purchases from the virtual console will also work on the DS? I mean, if they are changing Wii points to Nintendo points, we can expect an eventual class action suit, right?
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Still no analog input device?
Seriously, as a former DS developer, that's one of the things that drives you crazy about making 3D games for that platform.
I've read nothing official, but I would assume there is more on-board memory in the DSi.
Not only would this memory serve as browser storage, but also more memory for the new processes running in the background for all the new features, both passive and active.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
I skipped out on the DS Lite because I had a perfectly good DS. I saw no reason to "upgrade" as the differences between the two were almost wholly in case design. Compare to the GBA and GBA SP, where they added a backlight (honestly, who thought it was a good idea not to have a backlight?)
The DSi at least has new features, so it may be worth it to upgrade for some. I hope that they don't release cartridges exclusively for the DSi, though--that way, madness lies.
my kids have both and like to play GBA games on the Advance SP more than on the DS... which also covers games way back to game boy color. SP is still a big seller (more were sold than Xbox 360s last year!), and at only $60 there's no reason to duplicate functionality in a new DSi. The Lite could only play GBA games anyway so hard-core poke-crowd still need the SP..which is a frick'n tank!
Presumably this is what the "Nintendo Store" is for. Instead of letting you play your old cartridges, Nintendo will charge you $5 or $10 and let you download them.
So I have to pay for them again? I'd love to play my old NES and SNES games on the go, but I already paid full price for them 10 and 20 years ago.
I should be able to show them my old cartridges and get a downloadable version for free. It's almost enough to drive one to piracy. . .
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
The original DS came out in 2004, the DS Lite in 2006.
How long was the original gameboy on the market?
Do you also complain about auto manufacturers producing new models every year?
Hell yes. What a waste of effort and resources! Unless they're fundamentally redesigning the vehicle, they should leave it alone, so that all the parts are interchangeable no matter what year it was built. It would be cheaper for everyone, owner, dealer, mechanic, manufacturer, everyone. Less R&D resources, more economies of scale, etc.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
You forgot Virtual Boy. Get the red displaying on one screen, the black on the other...hold the system against your nose and you'd be good to go.
adventure-today.com
Nintendo has a solid release formula that they have followed for 30 years. The only variation has been the introduction of the DS as an experimental platform. It ended up being so successful that it really demanded they drop the GBA mid life cycle. I keep a running review of release dates here over on the Game Zero magazine site.
Interesting point.
The new PSP has twice the RAM, did anybody release software that won't work on the old one?
The features that were added to the DSi don't really strike me as things to base a game on, but then the article was pretty impressive in its lack of information.
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
If you have GBA games, I wouldn't get one of these (since it doesn't have a GBA slot any more - that's how they got it slimmer)
Of course you could always play your GBA games on your GBA.
"Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing."
I'm not getting one. I thought of trading off backwards compatibility for new features (since I have a GBA) but anything that badly broken and DRM-ridden isn't worth buying.
- Original DS owner whose hands are too big for the Lite, and saw no compelling reasons to upgrade to that either.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
While I fundamentally agree with you, I must say your analogy isn't very apt. They aren't coming out with new roads that aren't compatible with my one to two year old vehicle.
You may be mistaken. The simple cracks are for WEP, WPA and WPA2 are secure unless you use a simple passphrase for your PSK.
It's possible guess this guy was using a WEP cracker in combination with a dictionary attack for WPA/WPA2, but that's what you get for using a weak password!
Nick
If they're going to keep making cars, why not include improvements?
That's like suggesting a website should have its developers working all the time, but only release the new features they've developed every 5 years.
(yes, I just made a computer analogy out of a car analogy out of a computer analogy)
Can I store all those extra pokemon on my SD card? I have a billion of the damned things and they keep breeding at an increasing rate.
If I could offload some of them to my SD card and then burn it up in Mount Doom or Mordor or wherever, the world would be a better place!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
Saab does a good job of keeping their product line fairly stable with only minor tweaks. Its one of the things I like about them (besides their being outside my price range and the fact that I'm not looking for a car right now :) ).
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I'll be buying this fo' sho'.
My question is do you need a Wii for this? I'm guessing yes.
Would be cool. Have an SD card slot you can replace and play whichever games you want.
As for DS games, they can be played via the M3 and R4. I'm willing to bet Nintendo put some new tech in this version to prevent those devices from working.
I wonder if my R4 Revolution Homebrew Card will still work with this.. I waited over a month to get it delivered from canada.
while i don't have much experience with Nintendo products, Sony has taken a similar stance with the PSP. they're constantly releasing new PSP firmwares which you need to upgrade to in order to play new games. the firmware updates usually don't add any new features or convey benefits of any kind to the user. where the custom firmware (CFW) released by homebrew developers actually add value to the PSP.
case in point:
at least Nintendo has tried to match homebrew features so that users wouldn't need to turn to homebrew & flash RAM carts. Sony's tactic is to simply break forward-compatibility and force users to upgrade to new official firmware which don't add any value to the user's system.
Sony's wasted efforts trying to combat piracy through attacks on homebrew could have been better directed towards improving the PSP's software and addressing user complaints. they could have added playlist support and a media browser to the audio player, or added support for more video codecs; heck, the PSP's built-in web browser could have been greatly enhanced with a memory paging system that would take advantage of my 4 GB memory stick for storing swap files.
but instead Sony allows the PSP's amazing hardware to continue to go underutilized. i guess trying to "prevent piracy" is more important than realizing the platform's full potential. it doesn't take an genius economist to see the opportunity cost of Sony's anti-homebrew efforts.
i have the same issue with the PSP's PopStation. it's such a money grab it's not even funny.
firstly, they advertise the PSP as allowing you to play PSX games on the go--a huge selling point for many people. but then once people purchase the PSP they find out that they can't connect to the PSN or Playstation Store without a PS3, despite the fact that the PSP has wi-fi support and a built-in browser. this isn't a technical obstacle--it's a deliberate sales strategy to get PSP owners to purchase another $600 system if they want to use one of the core features of the their new handheld.
now, many PSP owners were also Playstation owners, and many still have their PSX games from years ago. technically, these discs can be ripped and converted to POPS files to be played on the PSP. but Sony has intentionally crippled the PSP's firmware to prevent the system from loading up unsigned games from the memory stick. so unless you run CFW you have to re-purchase your entire PSX library, most of which probably won't even be available on the PSN--which your PSP doesn't have direct access to anyway.
so it's not surprising that many PSP owners find it simpler to just run CFW and download pre-converted POPS conversions. the funny thing is, Sony could have prevented all of this had they not been so greedily anti-consumer. they could have just released an official PSX disc ripper/converter so PSP owners can easily put their own PSX games on their PSP without needing CFW.
I doubt that. There's too many Lites out there anyway. This article claims that the DSi is designed to attract those who don't care about videogames (yet) and those people aren't likely to have any GBA games anyway so Nintendo is saving space and money by removing the connector (it already seemed pretty out of place on the Lite with the carts sticking out).
Nintendo dropped GB/GBC support from the GB Micro, this is the third DS iteration and again the backwards compatibility is getting dropped.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Well, there's two cameras on the thing, maybe both are...
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Who knows, Nintendo knows what games you own if you've used nintendo.com to register games (GBA/GC and up, I think). If they re-release a GBA game for the DSi, and they see you've registered the game, perhaps they'll let you download it for free. Here's hoping.
The coffee shop down the street
Buy your coffee at McDonald's. I seem to remember reading that 1. McD's Wi-Fi partner Wayport signed an agreement with Nintendo to provide Nintendo WFC access, and 2. McD's coffee isn't as unbearably hot as it used to be.
Nintendo dropped GB/GBC support from the GB Micro
No authentic GBA games relied on GB/GBC support. But in this case, we have DS games carrying the Official Nintendo Seal that rely on option paks, such as Guitar Hero, Nintendo DS Browser (powered by Opera), Arkanoid, and that face training game from Japan. Now Opera just uses more RAM, and Nintendo could solder RAM where SLOT-2 was to make up for it. But the other three option paks are input devices.
Why is the parent marked as a troll? The grandparent post cited a $25 bailout in the automotive industry as a reason to complain about Nintendo releasing a new model of DS. Seriously.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I couldn't care less. The DS is awesome without the added bullshit.
actually, i wouldn't be so frustrated with Sony's tactic if the PSP were in fact crap. but the hardware itself is an amazing piece of engineering with great potential. it's just Sony's incompetent mismanagement of the platform that has crippled the system.
it doesn't matter how great a piece of hardware is if there isn't matching software to take advantage of it. and Sony has gone the extra step of using software to cripple a great piece of hardware. if it weren't for homebrew and CFW, the PSP would probably have remained crap to this day.
i can play PSX games, run emulators, listen to music, watch videos, read e-books, surf the web, etc. all on the go. but that's only because i don't use my PSP the way that Sony wants people to use it. still, there isn't a portable entertainment device out there that can do all this. so until the Pandora comes out, i'll have to keep putting up with Sony's BS.
The shitty lenses on phones etc typically don't justify more pixels, they seem to be there to look good on the box.
If they aren't trying to cram as many pixels as possible onto the sensor (or whatever it is) perhaps it can instead be targeted at producing a decent image, especially in lower light conditions, rather than a big one.
I live in hope.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
After all, the reason they dumped the GBA cart is because that's the slot that Flash-ram carts (with a wraparound ribbon if you are playing a DS title) use for their interface.
That might have made sense if this decision had come before the slot-1 flash cards came out, but what good does it do them to drop the GBA slot when the best flash cards now use the DS cartridge slot?
Newer flash cards like the R4 only use the DS cart slot. They don't plug anything into the GBA port.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
The reason why I bought my NDS was right before a 6x plane ride to and fro US, Canada, and Hong Kong. And the DS was the only system that lasts 10+ hours on the dim level.
I had such a great time turning on wifi during take off and landing with other geeks who also happen to have bomberman on the plane (did I say bomb?).
I won't be getting the DSi simply because it's not really that different from the NDS. But I want to thank nintendo anyway, for bringing us the DS Lite. What a great system. It's been already 2 years and I haven't touch it for at least a year. But it's one of those gadget that I keep next to the front door.
I cant think of a better way to slap a company in the face than to take away its newly discovered 'cash-cow', the guitar hero series has a lot of potential on the DS, its one of the few games I have purchased, seeing as I have a slot-1 flash cart, i can test games before i buy and avoid disappointing purchases.what Nintendo has done here is shoot Activision straight through the heart for this series... I mean, if i was stupid enough to 'upgrade' i would not be able to buy new guitar hero games... but I bet my Cyclo-DS will still work... hmm can someone tell me what the ??? before the 'Profit!!' would be in this case? I see no benefit other than an attack on piracy, that already looks like it wont work :\
That depends, will the new car be incapable of running on a lot of the old roads I like driving on and will I be unable to drive on future roads with my old car?
They cannot improve encryption/security without breaking compatibility with older DS software.
Such a new firmware would whitelist the SHA-1 values of the older DS software. Pocket Heaven lists fewer than 3,000 DS releases so far, and the SHA-1 values of those releases wouldn't take more than 30 KiB of the firmware.
you were saying?