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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!
Still no WPA. It's just embarrassing now.
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
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 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)