Nintendo's Mystery DS Portable Revealed 391
Thanks to GameSpy for its story revealing the first information on the dual-screened, portable Nintendo DS, the previously rumored 'mystery console' that's been lacking any concrete details up to now. According to the piece, the DS "features two separate 3" TFT LCD display panels, separate processors, and semiconductor memory of up to 1 Gigabit. It's scheduled to launch worldwide before the end of 2004." The article further explains: "Players can look forward to being able to simultaneously manage their game progress from two different perspectives, enhancing both the speed and strategy of the challenge. For example, players will no longer be forced to interrupt game play to shift perspective, such as moving from a wide shot to a close up, or alternating between a character's ongoing battle and a map of their environment." A concurrently released official Nintendo press release confirms this information.
Why two screens? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Er - Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
But on the other hand, I can look at this and say "Well, but - maybe." The idea itself is nothing new compared to playing, say, Descent, Quake, or Baldur's Gate with 2 monitors the way I've always wanted to play them - a menu or map on one side, and the "gameplay" on the other.
The screens sound about the size of a Gameboy Advance screen. Remember, Nintendo - back light, please Lord backlight. It will require a different kind of thinking for developers.
Nintendo isn't crash proof (Virtual Boy, anyone?) but this product is certainly interesting, and has some potential for RPG's, strategy games, maybe FPS kind of games. If nothing else, it certainly can give the PSP some interesting introductory challenges to face.
Interesting idea but... (Score:5, Insightful)
2 screens & 2 processors - thats gotta chew up the batteries pretty quick relative to a standard GameBoy...
Also how useful will the second screen be in a fast paced game where 'glancing at the second screen' = painful death?
Cheaper components (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Gigabit? (Score:3, Insightful)
uh-oh, deja vu (Score:2, Insightful)
sounds a little like the virtual boy, doesn't it?
Virtual Boy 2 (Score:2, Insightful)
It seems Nintendo management hasn't learned anything at all from the Virtual Boy fiasco. It looks clever and innovative at first blush, but if it's huge, overexpensive and adds nothing to gameplay, then guess what Nintendo --- it ain't gonna sell. A ten-year-old could've told them this. Nobody wants fancy new controllers and displays --- the basic gaming hardware has essentially all been invented. Just focus on cranking out good games: IMHO, there's still plenty of innovation to be made in that department.
Re:Why two screens? (Score:2, Insightful)
Nobody cares about the screen size, but 2 screens, ooohh!
Of course, it'll use twice as many batteries, but I doubt marketing will insist on that feature...
Re:Virtual Boy 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't you wait until there's just a little more information and then make your judgement.
Also, why does everyone keep comparing it to the Virtual Boy?...it's NOT the Virtual Boy, and how ever it turns out, it still wont be the Virtual Boy, so the fate of the Virtual Boy is irrelevant when looking at this.
Re:Interesting idea but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Virtual Boy 2 (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the Virtual Boy was also a supposedly "innovative" gaming system that wasn't really very interesting at all beyond the initial gimmick factor, and because this handheld is going to flop almost or as badly as it did.
Re:The reason for the dual screens (Score:2, Insightful)
Plus there's the 'horde of nerds' factor, who take it as a challenge to emulate/hack/install-linux-on the next big thing.
Re:The reason for the dual screens (Score:2, Insightful)
Although I can't really see a good reason for doing this at present (because there are no games), there is a perfectly good reason that Nintendo is doing this. INNOVATION.
N64 used carts because the load times were a lot better than optical media of the day. Seriously. Look at load times on an N64, then at the PSX. Sure they might have been more expensive than a PSX disc, and didn't hold enough data, but from a purely technical standpoint, it was a far better idea.
When the GameCube came about, optical discs had gotten to the point that Nintendo could use them without compromising load times. The smaller form factor was used to create a smaller console, faster seek times, and the anti-piracy that you mentioned. Anti-Piracy was not the SOLE reason for the smaller form factor as you make out.
The same goes for the new console. There are many ways of using two separate displays. I don't think that anyone is really qualified to judge it until we start to see some of the killer apps for the console.
Hey, did Iwata get his 10 percent? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why two screens? (Score:5, Insightful)
Gee, 15 hours of battery life down to 7.5. Well damn that's just unplayable.
Re:Risky move (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll alienate the ones that aren't serious about making good games. Not so horrible in a saturated market.
Re:Risky move (Score:5, Insightful)
True, but I think you over-trivialize the entire idea of a port from the GC or PS2 to any handheld - Sure, they can possibly used similarly-themed games, but keep in mind that while the PS2 performs comparably to a mid-range PC with high-end graphics, the GBA has only slightly more powerful hardware than the original SNES, a 13-year old console with a 16-bit CPU.
Nothing that runs on the PS2 or GC will directly port to the GBA (or this new 2-screen model), other than cheezy puzzle games (and even them only with 99% of the special effects cut out). The GBA has carved out a niche for itself in classic-style RPG games for a reason - They don't take too much CPU power to have a great storyline, and they don't require 90% of the development costs go toward eye-candy. That wouldn't work on the PS2, nor would FFX2 work on the GBA.
For that specific market, those who really enjoy console RPGs, a second screen for things like zoomed-out maps or party status, a second screen sounds like an amazingly good idea. Even for numerous other games, I can think of endless uses... I don't care for sports games, but imagine having each screen show one side of the field/court/rink/whatever. For platform games, the zoomed-out map idea still works well. Same for action (FPS?) games, with the addition of status and weapons not taking up the main view. Really, this seems like a great, innovative idea that makes me wonder why no one thought of it before (So it would take two TVs - A 19" tv costs under $100 (easily $25 used), about the same as two games). And imagine the boost to two-player games, each having their own screen!
So, regarding ports, it wouldn't surprise me to see ports go the other way, with the next gen of non-handheld consoles supporting more than one TV (or at the very least, a standardized split-screen mode for 16:9 TVs).
It's all in the specs... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why two screens? (Score:2, Insightful)
aren't.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, a lot of you can't think. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm guessing most of you who are trouncing this idea are PC game players or people who have never used a hand held game system. In any game with a large amount of information, say every RPG or RTS there is a lot of time spent bring up extra menus or pausing the game to hit a sub menu system. With two screens, one probably located directly below the other near the controls, now you just have to glance down to grab additional info. The LCD screens being used here don't have very high resolution to keep the costs reasonable so a second screen is an easy way to add much more feedback to the game player.
This console sounds like it is a direct result of the GC-GBA link system. When done right (see Zelda, Final Fantasy Chronicles) it is an amazing thing. The GBA link actually gives us what Sega promised with the dreamcast VMU except in colour and with a lot more than just basic, bland static information.
Sheesh just imagine a RTS game like Advance Wars where the secondary display shows a zoomed out map area and other random stats but automatically changes over to an info pane when you move your selector over one of your own or an enemy unit. That's not cool?
Re:Why two screens? (Score:2, Insightful)
Compare it to having to hit a button to switch between them.
Re:Risky move (Score:3, Insightful)
The biggest thing that console gamers forget, when comparing graphics, is that you're not talking about the same scale. 480p roughly looks like 640x480... nobody even runs their desktop at that anymore. Even 1080i is interlaced (every other line displayed, so it's only rendering 540), and the only system capable of that (and 720p) is the Xbox - which has a handful of supported games.
The console's "graphic revolution" can't come until HD becomes standard, or Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony decide the vast majority of their client base already has HD capability.
You can only make 480i look so pretty. There's only so many ways to work with that limited number of pixels.
-lw
How does this not compete with the GBA? (Score:1, Insightful)
As an investor, I'd be a little worried. Even as a consumer, I'd be a little worried about them splitting an already thin development community.
I'm not going to say this is a bad idea. I just think this might not be the best time for it considering it looks like a GBA competitor and the GBA is still the best selling console and going strong.
If I was Nintendo I'd keep my technology held back and mature to undercut the next competitor. Seeing how Playstation Portable is coming out this year and Nintendo is releasing this this year it's a little too convenient. I think Nintendo is prematurely replacing the GBA in order to kill the PSP before it takes them out. A risky move since it hurts consumer loyalty, takes out the "sweet spot" where Nintendo makes its big profits in the late cycle, and may ultimate blow up in their face if PSP wins and they don't have the GBA or the dualie to back them up.
Re:Unimpressive (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting. I knew that they must have had some purpose, aside from looking a bit silly
Still, 2 screens is a hardware change based somewhat in the PC world that has been mostly unused
I suspect that, like the double guitar, there's only a very small niche for this kind of thing. Will developers even be interested in coming up with worthwhile uses for it, or will it just be relegated to "map" or "menu" stuff? I don't believe the average hand-held game player is going to get too excited about that. Then we get into the UI design issue that your attention can only be focused on one thing at a time anyway.
As you say, we'll have to wait and see what they intend this for, but given how something like wireless multi-player gaming, done well, could change the nature of hand-held gaming, it had better be more interesting than "maps and menus" to make anybody care enought to buy one.
Of course, if it does indeed have wireless support, and the multi-screen thing is really not the focus, that's a different story.