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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
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.
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?
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 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
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?
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
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.
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)
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.
Because part of the fun is developing on a platform that has users. Does anybody actually buy things like the Pandora other than homebrew developers?
Or, you know, they could just add WPA support.
Victory or awesome!
If it's anything like Nintendo's previous portable systems, there is no region lock. There should also be language settings in it to switch it to english.
FYI, I have a DS Lite bought in Canada (labeled C/USG-USA) but it has English, Deutsch, Français, Español, Italiano and Japanese language settings.
Even if the specs haven't improved (beyond token WiFi upgrades to support potential WPA, the webcam, etc), there's the new toys on the device regardless. I'm certain Nintendo's included a way to access the camera from in-game, same with the SD card reader, so there may wind up being games that, even if the DSi's hardware isn't that much stronger than the DS's, won't run on the old DS solely due to it not having the neat new stuff.
Granted, I seriously doubt they'll make the transition-period games DSi-only, especially given the massive customer base of the DS, but I can see it happening later down the line.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
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
On second thought, if they intend to use the hinge camera for video chat, they probably made the wifi a lot stronger. The current wifi is ridiculously slow, at least gauged through homebrew software downloads which maxed out around 30kbps for me.
All your base are belong to Wii.
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...
It could work like the Gameboy Color did- it plays the old games (Pokemon Red/Blue), some games can choose to use its additional features while remaining backwards compatable (Gold/Silver), and there may be a few games that will only run on it (Crystal I think, a random Disney game or two, etc.).