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Portables (Games) Wireless Networking Hardware

Nintendo DS Network 195

Posted by Zonk from the aetheric-plumbing dept.
Kamalot writes "It looks like Nintendo is preparing a wireless peer-to-peer network of Nintendo DS ' to allow a new way of playing games online. Each Nintendo DS could includes a repeater hub to extend and share an 802.11 signal. A thread on GameCubicle unveils more, including a service called MarioNette and some disturbing marketing pieces with hidden images and messages." As with everything involving the new handhelds, take this one with a grain of salt.
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Nintendo DS Network More

Nintendo DS Network

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  • DS wins (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jmank88 ( 813483 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:36PM (#10378587)
    ive been debating between PSP and DS, but after reading this, and that the PSP may cost $349, i think the DS just won

    • Re:DS wins (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ayaress ( 662020 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:43PM (#10378656) Journal
      Just like the pricing turned out to be a rumor, I seriously question the truth behind this. They're saying that, this late in the game, Nintendo intends to strap a non-trivial piece of hardware onto a system that I'm pretty sure works already. Also, the wide-area integrity of a network based entirely on systems that are A. irregularly distributed, B. probably moving around, and C. turned off much of the time doesn't sound like it'd be worth the effort to set it up.

      I guess it could work to automatically network to any other DS's within a set range, but over a wide area, what happens when some dipshit turns off his DS and breaks the very tenuous chain of DS's transmitting through the rural area between two urban areas (where there are more people and probably far more DS's floating around)? I admit I'm not as knowledgeable about wireless networks as wired ones, but I don't see this working on a large scale, and on a smaller scale, why even bother with building a hub into every DS?

      With all its problems, the N-Gage probably was closer to the spot with a wider area gaming network. The cell phone network is already there, and although it's not 100% reliable (especially if you're moving around between cells), it's got far less random factors involved than a p2p DS network.

      Just sounds too cool to be true. At least the hoax about the PSP price was believable. The PSP will be a lot closer to $350 than the DS will be to this p2p distributed network.

      • Re:DS wins (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jimmytango829 ( 742272 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:59PM (#10378792)
        the p2p lilypad-style network was only speculation and has been denied by those who actually do know "the secret". Nintendo has a great track record of not half-assing stuff. From the get-go, Nintendo has asserted that their product would be "revolutionary" - and they maintain that the revolutionary feature has yet to be revealed. It seems fairly obvious to me that they do not, in fact, intend to "strap a non-trivial piece of hardware" on to their system. On the contrary, it seems that a great deal of thought and planning has gone into this.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Nintendo intends to strap a non-trivial piece of hardware onto a system that I'm pretty sure works already.

        It may not be an issue of strapping on another piece of hardware. All of the DS's will have 802.11b, and the processing power is pretty reasonable. There's a good chance that they will be able to form ad-hoc networks without the need of any other hardware to be installed. What I'm describing, though wouldn't be nearly what the article is suggesting. I'm picturing something along the lines of a b

      • What? What new hardware? I read the entire story, and the only mention I see of new hardware is the EECuber guy saying they'll add a microphone, which is silly, because the DS has been known to have a microphone for almost a year, and one lonely guy talking about some new chip to enable wireless in the DS, which is silly, because the DS has been known to do native wireless for more than a year.

        Unless you think that buying a peripheral somehow adds hardware to the host?

  • It's possible (Score:4, Funny)

    by buffer-overflowed ( 588867 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:37PM (#10378601) Journal
    And I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to do it. They were doing console networking before most people here even knew what a network was. On the Famicom, in Japan.

    However, the real question is:
    Who shall save the poor boy out in the wilderness tied into the internet via the DSes the bears ate along with unsuspecting tourists who dared feed them! *

    * - Providing this is true, of course.

  • Very cool idea (Score:5, Funny)

    by phaetonic ( 621542 ) * on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:38PM (#10378606)
    How great would it be to port mini-stumbler to this device. You could bring your little cousin with you while he pretended to play a game to scan a building's network, what a decoy...
    • It wouldn't necessarily be that hard, from what little I know...the processors aren't custom-built, from what I've read...but I'm not an expert.

      If only the DS had a permanent memory storage device, like an internal flash chip...I bet someone would have Linux and Kismet/Airsnort/[choose your favorite] running on it within six months.
      • Who's to say it doesn't?

        A lot of consoles are moving toward having some kind of permanent internal storage (PS2, XBox). It wouldn't surprise me if the DS did too. Hell, the media format sounds like it might be something like SD. Maybe they'll shock the hell out of us and make it SD for real (or something that's form-compatible with it, and let you browse digital camera SD cards with a simple file browser or something). Sky's the limit with this machine.

    • Re:Very cool idea (Score:3, Informative)

      by chrispyman ( 710460 )
      The problem is as soon as that happens you get corporations to ban the devices outright, just like many do for USB flash drives. On the other hand, you should probably be getting actual work done anyways, so I'd be surprised if they aren't already "frowned upon" (atleast the GBA anyhow).
    • If GPS units were cheaper, you could put one in the cartridge, then make a game where part of it was to walk around looking for secret battle chips through a tricorder type interface.

      You'd just use the GPS to track that they are going to new places to randomly give them chips while gathering wireless network info in the background, when they sync with the internet to process their new chips it sends you the net infomation, you scour over it and next time they sync you have the game tell the kid to go back

  • The future SkyNet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:38PM (#10378609)
    At some point, all the Nintedo DSes in the world will form a neural net the Roombas. They will rise up and kill humanity in association with WiFi enabled Aibos.

    Alternatively, look for the first Nintendo DS virus to forcibly re-direct all WiFi-based HTTP requests that use your DS as an AP to the Goatse-man site.

  • Killer App? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:40PM (#10378631)
    As I've said over here [gadgetophile.com], If this repeater stuff is in any way true, it really could be a killer app for handheld gaming.

    The potential hinted at by these new revelations [gamecubicle.com] totally trancends your basic "sit around in a group and play wirelessly" functionality. If this (the repeater functionality) is in any way true, then it will make the touch-screen part of the DS look about as groundbreaking as MP3 support on a Sony player, and it makes the PSP's infra-red wireless gaming look like a silly kids' toy.

    Seriously, wide-area gaming would be the killer app for handheld consoles. Imagine some sort of asynchronous MMPORG-style game whereby when a fellow player's DS is detected, some form of battle can take place. Some sort of modern take on the old style Campus 'Assassin' games [uwsp.edu].

    Not to mention the facilitation of true munchkin-style [gadgetophile.com] ubiquitous networking.

  • Just to be clear... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Recoil_42 ( 665710 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:41PM (#10378642) Homepage Journal
    None of this is actually confirmed, and to my knowledge, nothing is actually from nintendo themselves -- rather, all of the clues have been posted by various promiment community members like Chad of WarpPipe. ..I'm not saying that it's false or a hoax or anything, just that it's not at all confirmed.

    But i gotta say, alot of the messages are very cool, almost like Nintendo's ilovebees.com on a much smaller scale.

  • How long... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bai jie ( 653604 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:42PM (#10378648)
    do you think it'll be until someone orginizes a DDOS attack with thousands of these?

  • Problems with this? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by StevenHenderson ( 806391 ) <stevehenderson@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:45PM (#10378671)
    Okay are these potential problems:?

    1. Early adopters will get spottier connection capabilities than those that wait til tons of people have them? (much larger network based on the repeater concept).

    2. What if I am connecting via John D.S. and suddenly he drops off of my range? Will I lose my connection and game? This would um...whats the word? Oh yeah...suck.

  • Decisions Decisions (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fwitness ( 195565 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:46PM (#10378678)

    It's hard to decide right now, with all the speculation going on. However, Nintendo has backwards compatibility, low-battery using cartridges [gamespot.com] innovative dual screen [gamestracker.co.uk] and not to mention a ridicoulsly awesome track record for good first party games.

    The price point [slashdot.org] is even on par with an 'upscale' portable system.

    Let's be serious for a minute. What can the PSP offer me that is worth it's (expected) retail price? I really don't want to play my PS2 titles on the go, and the UMD media thing doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy either. Look at Wario Ware Inc. [nintendo.com] if you want to know why you will buy a DS. It's in the games man. The games. Oh, and the price too. :)
    • I'm definitely going to buy a DS, and I'm not decided yet on the PSP.

      However, from what I've heard, the PSP's screen is absolutely beautiful, and I can understand the appeal of being able to play a port of a PS2 game like Gran Turismo 4 on the go.

      Is a PSP going to be worth $300 or $400 to me though? That's what I'm not so sure of. It sounds cool, but it also sounds like they are going for a different market than just handheld gaming.

      I am pretty sure I would not buy movies released on UMD format thou

    • "Let's be serious for a minute. What can the PSP offer me that is worth it's (expected) retail price?"

      An exceptional game you can't get on PS2?
      • An exceptional game you can't get on PS2?

        Unless you think they've already got one in the wings, otherwise you have to wait 6 months or a year or however long for a killer app to be released. With the DS, there's innovation to play with immediately.

        Maybe it's just me, but hoping that a great exclusive might come out in the future is not enough to warrant a purchase.
        • Well, I've already seen one that looks remarkably interesting-- Metal Gear Acid. I want to see if Kojima can pull off a decent card game, much less a decent Metal Gear and a decent card game all in one.

          I'll be getting the DS, though-- probably at launch if I can manage to get my hands on one. I'm already convinced it'll be good and the price isn't THAT bad. The PSP I'm still planning to wait and see on. I could get two PS2 units for the hinted retail price they're talking about for the PSP.

  • I hope they're secure... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rincebrain ( 776480 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:47PM (#10378687) Homepage
    If there's so much as a single remote code exploit found in the DS, it won't be long before someone writes code to forcibly propagate itself and do something to your DS...something like the PSO bug for GameCube would be lethal on the DS, if it were wirelessly exploitable.

    I can just see someone writing a virus that forcibly installs a miniature Linux distro on your DS and propagates.

    I'm not sure if that would be horrible or awesome, personally.

    • Re:I hope they're secure... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Joe5678 ( 135227 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:55PM (#10378761)
      Except there is likely no permanent storage on the device itself, so at most it could get into memory, or possibly the save game area on the cart you are currently using.

      Based upon that, I would guess that if there were an exploit, it would be caused by a specific game, and could at most ruin that specific cart. In which case, it serves the developer right...

    • If there's so much as a single remote code exploit found in the DS, it won't be long before someone writes code to forcibly propagate itself and do something to your DS

      Unless the DS boot blocks can be overwritten, I wouldn't worry. Remove the battery when in contagious zones and you won't propagate anything.

      something like the PSO bug for GameCube would be lethal on the DS, if it were wirelessly exploitable.

      Lethal? How? I can see how it might end up harmful to Nintendo's business model in that it e

    • "If there's so much as a single remote code exploit found in the DS, it won't be long before someone writes code to forcibly propagate itself and do something to your DS...something like the PSO bug for GameCube would be lethal on the DS, if it were wirelessly exploitable.

      I can just see someone writing a virus that forcibly installs a miniature Linux distro on your DS and propagates.
      "

      Umm, seeing as how the DS doesn't have any storage for this sort of thing, how does this really rate as an insightful comm

  • This is News? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by One Childish N00b ( 780549 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:48PM (#10378703) Homepage
    Is (from the article) a batch of pictures featuring creepy marionettes with the words ?Find(s)me? along with a shot of a lone boy in a forest using a DS as some sort of navigation device really all they have got to go on?

    This is all they've developed this huge "OMG TEH W1RELESS GAMING!!!" story from? Ever think that a boy using a gameboy in the forest to navigate might be a 'pushing the frontiers' image? or an 'immersive environment' image? It's a very amiguous photograph, and I'd like to know how this rumour sprang from nowhere, based solely on one picture and a 'find me' slogan
    Move along, nothing to see here.
    • Well, a picture is worth a thousand words. And in the rumors community, a photoshopped "artist's rendering" based on a press release and some sophomore CS student musings on a forum are worth TENS of thousands of words.

      Come on, man. Even if it's full of shit, it's fun to dream about pervasive wireless networking. But speaking as somebody who's USED the Pokemon GBA wireless adapter, it'll probably be slow, weak crap.

  • FCC test report of Nintendo DS (Score:5, Informative)

    by no_such_user ( 196771 ) <jd-slashdot-2007 ... .dreamallday.com> on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:48PM (#10378704)
    Check out the FCC test report. According to the document, it looks like max RF output of the unit is 1.45mW -- not very much power!
    Coral P2P link to FCC report [nyud.net]
    or
    Direct FCC link to report [fcc.gov]

    More info on Coral distribution network [nyu.edu]
  • Nintendo DS....resistance is futile?

  • Battery Life (Score:5, Insightful)

    by StevenHenderson ( 806391 ) <stevehenderson@@@gmail...com> on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:56PM (#10378764)
    Gotta wonder if the repeater functionality would affect battery life. If so, are people going to have the option to turn it off and make the network essentially smaller?

    I would assume they would have to have a toggle switch for airplanes if nothing else...

  • C'mon now (Score:5, Insightful)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:59PM (#10378794)
    First off, I seriously doubt this has anything do with playing with the DS "online", that is, it having anything to do with the internet. A much more fasible, realistic, and practical idea is that the DS can detect others within a reasonable range. I would put this range somewhere south of 200m, even if that much. The whole network/online thing is more of a LAN than a WAN... Especially useful in larger cities or where kids congregate (mall, school, parks, etc) as opposed to rural areas. I have no desire, nor hope, to be able to text a friend an hour away using the DS. However, sitting in a cafe and seeing a list of 10 opponents to fight you in ZeldaMarioTroid is a bit more exciting.

    Now, if for some insane reason the DS has a 1+ mile range then yeah, that's amazing. But I can guarantee that that is not the case. It's just a way to play online with people within sighting distance. Will come in handy in urban areas, colleges, etc. But Tommy in Montana might have a hard time finding 100 opponents.
    • Would it also make sense to use the DS to share, discover and download MP3s from your adhoc peers?
      • Sure, it makes sense. Anyone who gets one of these DSs probably has a computer and that computer probably has a good amount of media on it. It would be awesome to be able to carry some of that media (mp3s, videos, pictures) along with you. If that's the case the iRiver suddenly becomes extremely useless.
        • But if their is rw media for the DS, wouldn't that make piracy easier? I'm not sure nintendo would embrace this, as much as I'd love an mp3 player, and other custum files and software accesible on my DS.
    • But Tommy in Montana might have a hard time finding 100 opponents.

      Fair enough, but Tony Montana could easily find 100 opponents.

  • http://games.slashdot.org (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @06:59PM (#10378797)

    "Unsubstantiated rumours and wild-ass guesses for nerds"

  • Sweet! (Score:2, Funny)

    by lortho ( 700090 )
    /me starts porting BitTorrent to Nintendo DS...

  • What about battery life? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ElForesto ( 763160 ) <elforesto@ g m a i l.com> on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @07:04PM (#10378833) Homepage
    If the DS is going to suck juice like the WiFi card in my Clie, I would hope they'll include a feature to turn it off when not in use, a really good battery, or both. Sooner or later, we need to figure out how to effectively manage power consumption on all of these portable devices.
    • The wireless adapter that comes with Pokemon fire/leaf sucks battery like crazy. I plugged it in when I first got the game, thinking it'd be ignored when not in use. It cut battery life by at least half. And it's not even 802.11b!
      • Really? I don't leave it plugged in, so I can't say that I've noticed. Kinda surprising to me in a way, but also kinda not surprising. Not surprising because wireless drains batteries, but surprising because it runs off the same port as the cables do and I guess it never crossed my mind that the wireless would suck out more power than the cord.
  • Something I'd really like to see in the DS or PSP is the ability to go online (from an access point or whatever) and play other people.

  • Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Doesn't Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green already do this? Apparently (I haven't tried it yet, though it came with the adapter) there's a wireless adapter you attach to the back of the GBA that allows up to 40 players into a "common room" in which they can chat, walk around, trade pokemon and have battles. Maybe it's small by comparison, but evidently they're headed in that direction already, and it's well... it sounds pretty cool, I haven't found anyone out there that is playing it yet... besides me... the hopel
    • Yes it does (I play it too). However, the GBA's wireless adapter only works with other GBA wireless adapters. The DS has 802.11b/g compatibility and, if speculation proves to be true, the ability to spread the connection range out so that other people not near hubs can also join in. Time will tell, and this is definitely something I'm going to keep my eye on. Either way, my DS is already preordered.

    • Doesn't Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green already do this? Apparently (I haven't tried it yet, though it came with the adapter) there's a wireless adapter you attach to the back of the GBA that allows up to 40 players into a "common room" in which they can chat, walk around, trade pokemon and have battles. Maybe it's small by comparison, but evidently they're headed in that direction already, and it's well... it sounds pretty cool, I haven't found anyone out there that is playing it yet... besides me... the hop

  • Hmm, I thought the marketing materials were real until I saw this supposed "side view" of the marionette picture. It's just a photoshop rotation. It's clearly not a photograph. What's the point of this "side view"?

    LS

  • One slight problem (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TuxMelvin ( 97727 )
    Let's just say, for a second, that this is real and it works great. And let's say you live in an apartment complex where there are five other people playing the DS at ANY GIVEN TIME. What are the chances that a single one of those five people are playing Harvest Moon?

    Perhaps the DS simply includes a function that allows you to physically find other DS players. Like you know there is another DS player 100m to the north of you. This would be a great way to meet people, except that Hot Jenna is probably a
    • Supposedly the DS is going to have a instant messaging system built into it. So maybe I can't find someone playing the same game that I've got loaded, but perhaps there's a way to notify them that there's someone online looking for a game, and play one of those games that allows multiplaying with just one game cart.
    • You're overthinking this. The biggest audience for wireless gaming isn't strangers...it's siblings, and groups of friends, who plan to buy the same game and play each other.

      I've played big Advance Wars 4 way tournaments with my friends, and they were hella fun...EXCEPT they were too slow, and even the slightest jolt on any of the cables stopped everybody's game. Annoying.

      A game like Advance Wars, Pokemon or Shining Soul would be a lot of fun when hanging out, IF they were wireless, fast, and could deal

  • Here's a clue stick (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @08:31PM (#10379455)
    Ugh, I hate inaccurate submissions.

    These are not "marketing pieces" and Nintendo is not planning a p2p Wireless Network.

    The story: there's some guy named Chad who is the lead developer on Warp Pipe (a tunnelling system that lets Gamecube owners play LAN games against each other on the internet). There's this other guy Dean from n-sider.com who knows Chad.

    A few days ago, it was posted that Warp Pipe got new offices in Chicago. Combined with this, it was also known the Warp Pipe attended E3. Apparently after E3 Warp Pipe became quiet about their future plans.

    Fast forward to a couple of days ago, Chad posted the picture with the kid and the dog. After that, Dean posted a pick of the Marionette (which is photoshopped from an original Ragnarok Online piece of art http://www.prontera.net/cards/marionette_l.jpg. Dean claims he needed a Marionette.

    The third picture (with the guy missing eyes) is another photoshop job by Dean. Chad said there would be a logo on the box of some games (DS? Gamecube?) that when you bought them, Warp Pipe would receive money. They both also said that this news will not be broken by Nintendo in their upcoming Oct 7 press conference.
  • Sounds like you'll be able to play GBA/DS games online with friends from your living room couch, via your home wireless router, via the Mario Net service, ala X Box Live.

    You _MAY_ be able to access the Mario Net from places like starbucks and airports, but it's likely it'll simply start from home and expand from there.

  • Wireless networking is good for game sales (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mewphobia ( 630153 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @09:05PM (#10379628) Homepage
    IF this catches on in say, schools, the kids will always need to have the newest game that their friends have to be able to play against them. So everytime you sell a few carts to some popular kids, you're instantly selling them to everyone in the school.

    This is potentially one of the biggest cashcows nintendo has ever dreamed up.

    Even without adhoc wireless repeaters and a range of just 150m, that's more than ample for any mall/school etc.

    Imagine kids using the touchscreen to write secret notes in class - cheat on their exams etc. Man I wish i was back in school!

  • anybody remember the initial 'marionette' rumors? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by muel ( 132794 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @10:21PM (#10380045)
    The title "Marionette" has been sitting in Nintendo's cache since rumors began in 2000, though they were in a very different vein [n-sider.com] at the time.

    But, yes, Nintendo has been toying with online content for a long time in Japan. They've known better than to try online with add-on products in the states, though, so any online strategy with the DS will have to be integrated in the launch hardware.

    Furthermore, Nintendo knows that this is their last shot at getting the older gaming population to buy into portable gaming. They don't want to get beat by Sony a second time to the older-gaming spenders, and the remarkably early launch of the DS before PSP, along with this rumored adult-ish marketing campaign, makes total sense. Kudos to NOA for getting their heads out of Japan's ass and getting aggressive.
  • "It looks like Nintendo is preparing a wireless peer-to-peer network of Nintendo DS ' to allow a new way of playing games online. Each Nintendo DS could includes a repeater hub to extend and share an 802.11 signal."

    I'm figuring that this will either be an underutilized feature on incapable budget hardware or the DS is gonna fall way above the impulse buy range everybody is counting on. After all, if the hardware can do half of what they're claiming... Nah. This screams "Pay attention to meeeeeeee!"

  • Marionette has meaning and Wi-Fi's not alone. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Rolman ( 120909 ) on Wednesday September 29, 2004 @03:18AM (#10381303)
    Marionette in japanese would be correctly pronounced or written "Marionetto". "Netto" is also the way to write/pronounce "Net". So it could be a very clear hint to something called "Mario Net".

    A Nintendo network for the DS would be fairly easy to do. You only need to maintain a matchmaking service. Basically it's the same Xbox Live does (matchmaking and then letting one console be the host to others), but the footprint and requirements for DS games are quite smaller and there's no HDD to download patches to, therefore the service could be very cheap, paid by simple marketing schemes or even free.

    By the way, Wi-Fi is not the only wireless protocol the DS has built-in. It also includes a proprietary wireless chipset, probably devoted to game requirements, like using lower frequencies and throughput than 802.11b to maximize range and battery power, and optimized to not include IP to avoid overhead/latency and simplify connectivity between users.

    It's also desirable to avoid hotspot authentication when connecting locally since it can really be a nightmare because some hotspots are not configured to allow connectivity between machines on the same network, they only route to the outside and that could mean a lot of headaches for local users.

    As much as I like Wi-Fi, it has limitations and can't really be considered "Plug and Play" (imagine typing your credit card number or WEP key on the DS screen in order to access a Boingo hotspot in an airport), so I definitely support the simplicity of another wireless protocol specifically made to run games locally and nothing else.

  • Bogus (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tina Russell ( 589416 ) <tinarussell386&yahoo,com> on Wednesday September 29, 2004 @05:06AM (#10381635) Homepage
    Kamalot's summary of this is an enormous logical leap... all the evidence suggests that this is an independent Warp Pipe project, as we have heard not a peep from Nintendo.

    That, and can you imagine playing games over a P2P network? Okay, I'm playing Metroid Prime: Hunters. I am facing off against my mortal enemy. We each have one bullet left, taking cover behind the tattered remains of the arena in which we fought. (Yes I know Samus doesn't use bullets but bear with me.) Suddenly, she takes a flying leap from behind a pillar! No! I shrink into a Morph Ball and dodge, then rise back up and pray that I can hit her first...

    But, I neglected to mention that she is in Montana, and we are connected by a kid playing DS over his lunch break who is thirty feet away from somebody who is lollygagging on a park bench who is thirty feet away from somebody who is playing the DS on the can... and just as I emerge from my Morph Ball to stare my enemy in the face, the guy finishes washing his hands and walks out of the bathroom, DS in hand, and the connection is broken.

    WHAAAAT?! Uuuuuaaarggghhh! I'll stick with hotspots, thank you very much.

    So anyway, I'm sure whatever Warp Pipe has cooking is super ultra mega exciting; but there is nothing to suggest that Nintendo is in on it, nor that it is a P2P network, which are the two main points of the article. I hope Slashdot sees it fit to update the article with a retraction; they're busy people and I don't blame them for being duped by the hype, but, you know, they were still duped.
    • Actually, members of Warp Pipe have stated that it does, in fact, involve both them and Nintendo collaboratively... and that it involves an NDA, so they can't talk about it outright.
  • There is a wolf in the woods with the boy. Maybe you can make a beowolf cluster.... ugh. man slashdot has rotted my brain. :D

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