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Portables (Games) Hardware Hacking

Nintendo DS Review and Internal Pictures 221

Posted by CmdrTaco from the look-at-my-guts dept.
OctaneZ writes "Lik Sang couldn't help themselves, and have already torn open their Gameboy DS. Among other things they found, the DS shares both its power and battery with the GB, and the 802.11b range is 10 to 30 meters, depending on the surroundings."
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Nintendo DS Review and Internal Pictures More

Nintendo DS Review and Internal Pictures

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  • Dupe, same error as last time too (Score:5, Informative)

    by Locky ( 608008 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:07PM (#10889794) Homepage
    http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/20/ 2351253&tid=207&tid=137 It's the Nintendo DS. Gameboy is a completely different product line.

    • Re:Dupe, same error as last time too (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You do realize that since Nintendo has called their handheld line the "Gameboy" for so long, everyone is going to call it the Gameboy DS whether they want to or not?

      But yes, this is a dupe. And as before, lik-sang's article is heavy on pictures and low on actual information about specs. I still want to know if they did go with the separate processor for each screen they had originally announced.
    • Gameboy is a completely different product line.

      Just like Sprite is a completely different product line than Coca-Cola.

      Nintendo may not be applying the "Gameboy" brand to their newest portable console themselves, but if it has an LCD screen and a D-pad+buttons controller layout and a GB Advance cartridge slot and plays GB Advance games...
    • I have heard that before, but what exactly does that mean? I mean is Nintendo just doing a bit of a marketing trick by not calling it Gameboy or are they going to release a GameboySP2 in the next half year and basically screw up all customers who just bought a NintendoDS?

      • I have heard that before, but what exactly does that mean? I mean is Nintendo just doing a bit of a marketing trick by not calling it Gameboy or are they going to release a GameboySP2 in the next half year and basically screw up all customers who just bought a NintendoDS?

        It's a marketing thing with two goals in mind. First, DS sounds a little more mature than "Gameboy" in an attempt to capture the nebulous "old gamer" market. Secondly, if the DS completely tanks, not sticking the Gameboy moniker on it

  • Double screens means... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:07PM (#10889800)
    Duplicated articles!!

    • After scanning through the comments on today's duplicate post I still don't see any mention anywhere of the problems we experienced with the Nintendo DS [geartest.com], probably because most people who have one don't know anyone else who also has a DS to try the wireless network games and functions with.

      I'm wondering if the problems that we encountered on a few Nintendo DS units were anomalies or if the problem was addressed with updated firmware. Please comment below if you are experiencing any of the same issues we s

  • Cheating (Score:4, Funny)

    by CrazyJim1 ( 809850 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:07PM (#10889802) Journal
    "Not to mention the cheating tool it can become... "

    How could you pass this off. "Mr. Jones, your Civics test is so easy I am putting myself at the liberty of playing some metroid while taking it."

    Then again people used Ti-85 calculators in English class in my highschool.

    • Re:Cheating (Score:2, Interesting)

      by jacen_sunstrider ( 797955 )
      Just in English? We wormed them into our PE tests. Something about calculating distances between lines on a basketball court, whatever that is.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Yes! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ambient_Developer ( 825456 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:09PM (#10889817) Journal
    I can't wait for warDriving DS to come out.. It will be the BEST GAME EVER!

    • Re:WarDriving DS (Score:4, Funny)

      by ReeprFlame ( 745959 ) <kc2lto@SOMETHINGgmail.com> on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:19PM (#10889915) Homepage
      lol. Only problem is with the limited power output of the console is that by time you find an open network, the administrator will be chasing you out of his cubicle!
    • Lol, I can see it now; underground "Haxor DS", hack mario brothers style! I shows a screen with mushrooms, showing all the networks, mario hops on the network he wants. Then it shows a screen of mario dazed, and spinning around as it connects. Then it shows all the network locations, you can take mario pipes to new locations for your convience! You can hop through the network, and download files (VIA a modified cartridge with a micro drive). It would have a built in hex editor for your convience, and variou

    • Re:Yes! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Man, never mind that... I want GENTOO DS!

      emerge ds/wardriving
      emerge nmap
      emerge xp-rootkit
      env-update

      IT'S TIME FOR A NIGHT ON THE TOWN!

      • Re:Yes! (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Not so fast, pal... remember you first have to compile it all!

  • Wi-Fi Jammers? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ilyanep ( 823855 )
    The Wireless mode of the Nintendo DS is really impressive. Whether you play VS mode with Mario 64 DS, or if you send messages to each other using Pictochat, the range goes as far as 10 to 30 meters, even passing through walls and doors. We expect kids to go wild with it during boring school sessions in the next couple of months. Not to mention the cheating tool it can become... Nintendo just opened itself another niche market. The technology used for wireless connectivity is IEEE 802.11b, which some of you

    • Re:Wi-Fi Jammers? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Locky ( 608008 )
      I believe local DS-to-DS play utilizes a modified Bluetooth protocol, whereas the Wifi protocol will be used for possible future Online play, or dozens of other Wifi possibilities.

      I bought one yesterday, and while it's no graphical powerhouse, It's a lot of fun and Pictochat is a blast.

      • Re:Wi-Fi Jammers? (Score:3, Informative)

        by TechniMyoko ( 670009 )
        its not bluetooth at all, you honestly think theyd include 2 wireless hardware interfaces? No, their protocol is just a low powered version of 802.11b

        • Re:Wi-Fi Jammers? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Locky ( 608008 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:33PM (#10890002) Homepage
          The official line was that the DS had both a 'proprietary Nintendo communications protocol' ala the Wavebird, and 802.11b for Wifi.

          You're probably right though, As there are reports of Pictochat transmitting a MAC address when it's searching for other DS's.

          And for the record I have no idea why my grandparent post was a troll. I own a DS and am extremely pleased with it.

          • Re:Wi-Fi Jammers? (Score:3, Informative)

            by batkiwi ( 137781 )
            It was still 802.11b. I can't find a link, but basically they have a special ESSID set aside which embeds the DS's ID in some way. Say it's maybe (and I'm making this up so I know i'm wrong) 1231231##### where that's your DS ID. If it sees anyone else with that beginning ESSID, it knows there's another DS around.

            They did it so as not to play by the rules of 802.11b but to still KNOW whether it's a DS or a computer. I don't know any more details as what I read was mostly marketing, not technical, in nat

      • wi-fi lifetime? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by mblase ( 200735 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:47PM (#10890120)
        I'm just curious what the wi-fi communication does to the battery life on this thing. Anybody read numbers on the max. battery life playing with wi-fi and without?
    • Just one problem - if your school is like the high schools around here, they are installing wi-fi 802.11b networks in the schools for the laptops that they just gave to all students (out of our tax dollars none the less. Considering I live in one of the richest areas of NJ, the parents can more then afford to get their kids laptops...)

      But hey, wasting money is common these days. I could see them putting in wireless, then putting in the jammers thinking it will only block the DS.

    • Re:Wi-Fi Jammers? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tukkayoot ( 528280 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @02:27PM (#10890507) Homepage
      I think it would be cool of someone could figure out some way to use the Nintendo DS as an interface device for a PC. I've been playing a lot of iSketch [isketch.net] lately, and now I want a drawing tablet. I also want a Nintendo DS. It would be a nice way to kill two birds with one stone if I could use the Nintendo DS as a sketchpad to play iSketch.

      Heck, with the right drivers, you specify the drawing area only as a certain portion of the screen (the tablet I'm looking at buying supports this), and configure the D-Pad and other buttons to switch drawing tools or colors. It'd make for a neat little toy/tool.

  • Netstumbler! (Score:2, Funny)

    by JavaLord ( 680960 )
    Heh, so who is going to be the first to make a netstumbler type app for the DS?

  • wireless internet? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by brw12 ( 763380 ) <brw12@columbi a . edu> on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:16PM (#10889884)
    but will it have wireless internet access? is it capable of rendering websites via html, wml or perhaps msntv techniques? and can its 802.11b hardware act as a repeater, so wireless games and wireless internet can be daisy-chained?

    • Re:wireless internet? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Would you really want the DS to act as a repeater? Say there are four people playing a game, five nintendo ds machines. One of which is a repeater and connecting two of them to the two others.

      Then, this person is done playing whatever, and shuts his DS off, ending the game of those four people.

      Sounds more annoying and risky then cool, don't you think?

    • Re:wireless internet? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by UWC ( 664779 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:29PM (#10889976)
      I'd very much like to see a DS PDA card to give it PDA/PIM type capabilities and web browsing and email.

      As for functioning as a repeater, there's been a lot of speculation on this, with nothing definitive, except that there doesn't seem to be any functionality for that in the built-in software. I'm still eager to see what kinds of applications can be developed for it in games or otherwise. I hope developers aren't completely limited to games, though it is ostensibly a gaming platform.

      • Re:wireless internet? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by chris462 ( 656034 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:46PM (#10890104) Homepage
        I'd very much like to see a DS PDA card to give it PDA/PIM type capabilities and web browsing and email.
        Ditto that.

        I was talking last night, actually, to a friend about the PDA possibilities of the DS and speculating what Nintendo had in mind, long term, for this sort of hardware.

        It already has all the basic PDA hardware needs. Nice display, touchscreen w/ stylus, internal clock/calendar, and wireless connectivity. Add a USB connection (via the expansion port?) and you're gold.
        • Or failing the USB connection, sell a USB dongle that uses whatever protocol the DS uses for its wireless communication. I know there are phones that have sync functions via bluetooth, which would I guess be an analogous setup. I have a Nokia 3660, and its only connection options are bluetooth and infrared--no wires beyond charger and headset. I have a laptop with IR, but that line-of-sight requirement always feels so precarious. Whee, tangent!

        • Re:wireless internet? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Pxtl ( 151020 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @02:07PM (#10890315) Homepage
          Why bother with USB? It already has a mechanism to hotsync - the wireless. More likely it would be the other way around - a USB device for your desktop that communicates with your DS (not using the 802.11b because home users don't want to deal worrying about ports and servers). The DS broadcasts its name on hotsync, and you configure your desktop with the name as well.

        • I'd like to see it, but I doubt it will happen (Score:4, Interesting)

          by AllenChristopher ( 679129 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @03:05PM (#10890890)
          I'm returning my DS this morning. It has some major flaws.

          I really wanted to like this machine. I *ached* to like it, because I want to see draw/chat becoming a daily thing.

          I can sum it all up very neatly. It says that it has an "alarm." You would think that you set this alarm and the machine beeps at the time you've set, whatever you happen to be doing.

          No such luck. The "alarm" is a special mode you put it in. While the "alarm" is active, you can't do anything else with the machine. It just displays the current time and the time the "alarm" will go off.

          It's the same with every part of the DS software.

          Want to PictoChat? The chatting's nice, but if you want to exit to the main menu you have to reset the machine. If you then want to check the time and date you have to reset the machine. If you change any of the user settings, like which screen GBA games will show up on when you run them, you have to reset the machine. If you're in Pictochat and you want to change your background color you'll end up resetting the machine twice!

          Every time you reset it displays a several second startup screen and a health warning you have to click through.

          What they had described was a multitasking system that would keep an eye out for other players, do the alarm stuff, and sleep when you weren't using it. What they gave us was a system with many modes, but no reasonable integration between them. It's a collection of kludges.

          The game functionality is very nice if you just want to pop in a GBA or a DS game and play, but the bells and whistles are refugees from a 1994 handheld PC. So no, I really don't think a PDA card would work. A PDA requires an uninterrupted background OS of some sort to be watching out for your appointments. The DS just can't do that.

          Oh, while I'm griping, the sound's got so much interference from two processors and two screens that in a good set of headphones the buzzing is nearly unbearable.
          • Alright so you returned the game system because it wasn't a PDA? If you were expecting a PDA, why didn't you buy one in the first place? Why did you buy a GAMING system?
          • Its a handheld gaming gadget. Not a smartphone. Not a PDA.
            Why dont you whine that it hasnt got a digital camera or tv-reciever either?

          • Re:I'd like to see it, but I doubt it will happen (Score:4, Informative)

            by PhoenixFlare ( 319467 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @05:02PM (#10892219) Journal
            No such luck. The "alarm" is a special mode you put it in. While the "alarm" is active, you can't do anything else with the machine. It just displays the current time and the time the "alarm" will go off.

            Handheld game system (or just about any console game system, for that matter) != PDA. You use it for one discrete function at a time.

            Want to PictoChat? The chatting's nice, but if you want to exit to the main menu you have to reset the machine. If you then want to check the time and date you have to reset the machine. If you change any of the user settings, like which screen GBA games will show up on when you run them, you have to reset the machine. If you're in Pictochat and you want to change your background color you'll end up resetting the machine twice!

            Again, not a PDA. I'm curious, which game systems besides a PC or PDA/Pocket PC/etc. have you actually had extended contact with?

            Every time you reset it displays a several second startup screen and a health warning you have to click through.

            I've seen a lot of other people say the reboot cycle is on the order of 2 or 3 seconds, but since I don't actually own one myself, not going to argue for the moment.

            What they had described was a multitasking system that would keep an eye out for other players, do the alarm stuff, and sleep when you weren't using it.

            Did they? Or was that just what you wanted it to be? Again, every handheld or console system i've ever used does one thing at a time. If you want to switch games, play DVDs, enter a browser, etc., you either power cycle or reset. This shouldn't be a suprise to anyone who's gamed with anything besides a PC or PC variant.

            The game functionality is very nice if you just want to pop in a GBA or a DS game and play, but the bells and whistles are refugees from a 1994 handheld PC. So no, I really don't think a PDA card would work. A PDA requires an uninterrupted background OS of some sort to be watching out for your appointments. The DS just can't do that.

            Guess that's good, then, because (for the third time) it is not meant to be a full-on PDA and from all indications is not being marketed as such, only as a gaming machine with some neat side bonuses.
            • I'm not returning it because I expected it be a PDA. I'm returning it because the UI is very bad and the sound quality is poor. There's no way that I should have to reset the machine this often.

              Half the functions on the main menu are a trap. If you just want to play a game, you start up in the menu. That takes 2-3 seconds, yes. 40% of the screen real estate on that tiny touchpad is taken up by functions that involve submenus. If you go into *any submenu* by accident, you will have to reboot the machine.

              Le
        • Well, Innovation has already made a GBA PDA. Granted, no sync capability whatsoever. However, Nintendo's had clock capability for every model of GB - the GB through GBC had the MMC3, which was a cart memory controller with RTC, the GBA had something (considering that there were MMC3-based pokeman games, and there were pockeman games for the GBA...), and now the DS has an internal RTC.

          FWIW, I have heard something (I forget where) saying that the GBA cart port could be used for hardware addons, not just GBA
    • is does it run Linux yet?

      • Well, i can only assume this was meant as a joke... but it wouldn't be hard at all to get linux to run on a DS. It uses a StrongARM processor, which Linux has been compiled for. So, it's just a matter of getting all the hardware detected and functional. Even better, you could have it run off a cartridge, so as to seperate the PDA functions from the game functions. I see lots of potential in Linux for NDS.

        It would be just like Linux, though, to take too long fulfilling this potential for anyone to care. (I

    • It has 802.11 wireless ethernet. (Score:5, Informative)

      by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:41PM (#10890051) Homepage
      It can do whatever any other device with an 802.11 wireless ethernet repeater can, as long as you can get software that does it.

      At this exact moment there is no software available for the DS which uses the wireless to connect to the internet. The only announced software so far which is known to use the wireless to connect to the internet is Nanostray [shinen.com], a shooter by the Iridium 3D people, which uses wifi to connect to an internet high score board.

      Nintendo representatives seemed enthusiastic about the idea of a web browser for the DS, so I assume if someone goes to Nintendo asking for a license to make a DS web browser they'll get it.

      and can its 802.11b hardware act as a repeater, so wireless games ... can be daisy-chained?

      This can be done; there's a DS game (I think Japan only right now) called "ping pals" that repeats in such a way that up to 128 people can connect to each other over the wireless, so long as there's an unbroken chain of DSes between them to relay the signal. I think most games require all the players to be in a 10-30 yard radius though.

  • Got mine - my first impressions. (Score:5, Informative)

    by jbuilder ( 81344 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .nisefukindave.> on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:20PM (#10889918)
    OK, so I have my Nintendo DS, and so far it's great, but what I was *hoping* for was that Picochat could be configured to go over the internet via 802.11b. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case.

    The graphics are *amazing*. I've been playing the demo version of Metroid. The DS is somewhere between the N64 and GC in graphics quality. Gameplay is a little hard at times with the touch screen. You have to use the same thumb to move that you use to make contact with the screen. Oh well.. I guess it's time to evolve a third hand.. ;)

    I also got Super Mario 64DS. No surprises there, per se. The split screen does give a nice perspective of the playfield while you're playing, however.

    All in all I think Nintendo has the foundation of a truly classic gaming system.
    • You have to use the same thumb to move that you use to make contact with the screen.

      The D-pad and the ABXY buttons both function as traditional WASD-style forward-back-strafe movement, and touchscreen gestures are used for mouse-like targeting. No reason not to use both thumbs together.

    • You have to use the same thumb to move that you use to make contact with the screen. Oh well.. I guess it's time to evolve a third hand

      No, you don't. The D-pad and the letter buttons serve the same function in the Metroid demo. So, for example, when I was playing the demo the other night at Target, I used my right thumb on the letter buttons to move, right index finger on the right shoulder button to fire and left thumb on the touch screen to target, jump, change to a moprh ball, etc.

  • First camera phones http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/17/22 20224&tid=133&tid=215&tid=158&tid= 1 Is nintendo DS next?
  • Can someone mirror this please? can't view that website at work..

  • Too much rebooting (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you quit Picochat, it shuts the DS down. You can't get back to the main menu once a game has launched, without powering down. Gameboys have always not really cared about managing memory in a conventional way, and it would appear the DS is no more sophisticated in this regard. Makes it difficult to see it becoming more PIM or phonelike (which, with its feature set, would have seemed to be an obvious thing to do).

  • DS Shortage in the US? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kmahan ( 80459 )
    There's been a lot of hype about how the Nintendo DS is going to be in short supply here in the US.

    I didn't make a reservation and Sunday morning I went over to Best Buy (here in Salt Lake City, Utah) and they had a big stack of the Nintendo DS systems. And they said they had lots more in back -- and laughed at the idea of a shortage.

    Are there shortages? Or is it just hype to get publicity and increase the demand?

    • i live in a small town in texas, and the nearest big city is 3 1/2 hours away. the only "good" place in town is an EB/Gamestop whatever, and they're sold out. in the big cities, i'm sure there is no shortage, but in the small towns, big shortage here.

    • Anecdotal Evidence Theatre (Score:5, Informative)

      by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:57PM (#10890231) Homepage
      From what I've heard so far:

      It seems the shortages are real, not hype, but it is not really something to worry about. Basically there are serious shortages in some areas but no problem whatsoever in others. It seems that outlets of the big video game chains (EBGames/Gamestop) often had shortages, and sometimes didn't even get enough units to cover their preorders, but more general stores that don't generally do the preordering thing (Best Buy, Target) you can just walk in and buy one.

      There are also reports of shortages of a couple of the games, specifically Feel the Magic and Mr. Driller. I don't know how accurate these reports are. It's unfortunate it seems there's been a shortage of the good games but no problems getting the EA stuff :(

      Now, whether there will be shortages after Black Friday is another question altogether.

    • Re:DS Shortage in the US? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cmpalmer ( 234347 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @02:08PM (#10890324) Homepage
      I had asked the same thing on another Slashdot DS story. Here in north Alabama, I can't find any stores that have any in stock. The Wal-Marts and Target stores got about 6 each and were sold out by midday Sunday. A local Rhino store had two left at closing time yesterday, but had sold both of them by 10:30 this morning.

      There is a definite run on them here. The EB stores got enough to cover their pre-orders, but no extras at all. Best Buy got 16 and sold them all in an hour. No stores I talked to had any concrete dates when they would get more, but all expected at least one more shipment before Christmas.
    • EBgames, WalMart, Amazon, and Best Buy all have them marked as "Sold Out"

      Lik-sang.com is sayign that they most likely won't be able to get new orders out until next year sometime.

      I'd say there is a definite shortage now, but the question is will that shortage remain through Christmas?....
    • I didn't pre-order, one of the Best-Buy's in Oklahoma City had them out, so I grabbed one with Madden and Mario 64x4. So far I really like it, the Metroid demo is excellent, Mario 64 gets alot better once you get used to using the thumb pad on the touch screen, and Madden feels like N64/PS1 era football. The only problem is wrestling it away from my wife who is seriously addicted to Mario games.

  • I never realised... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AC-x ( 735297 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @02:01PM (#10890258)
    I never realised the Nintendo DS ran windows [lik-sang.com]
    • It was disappointing that you need to reset to do alot of things. As far as I have found once you select some action you MUST restart to get back to the choice menu. So if you select pictochat and want to play a game you have to restart no backing out to the main menu again.

  • RSASecured? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 22, 2004 @02:13PM (#10890365)
    Can anyone tell me why there is a RSASecured logo on the back of the unit and on the box?

    • Most likely DRM (Score:3, Informative)

      by Andy Dodd ( 701 )
      The DS apparently has a feature where if you want to play a multiplayer game, only one DS actually has to have the cart, the others will download it.

      Needless to say, such a scheme is going to need some very well thought-out security.

      Any bets on how many days it takes before it gets cracked and you can set up your own "DS server"? :)

  • I almost bought one (Score:3, Interesting)

    by b1t r0t ( 216468 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @02:24PM (#10890482)
    I went out to Fry's on Sunday morning, hoping to get one to leapfrog the SP (I have a 1st-gen GBA with barely-readable screen), and they admitted to having a short supply. Then they showed me a sheet of paper where were requiring you to buy it as a bundle (like there weren't already a bunch of GBA games it could already play?) and I didn't want either Spider-Man or the generic EA (boo-hiss) sports title for $169.99 (they had already run out of Urbz, and I didn't really want that either). They mumbled something about a Mario bundle for $159.99, but it wasn't printed on the sheet, so I assumed they were just being rhetorical. I guess I'll have to wait until January. Maybe I'll be able to get it in a cool color or something.

    /still not regretting getting a GBC on the release day

    • I was ready to wait until Jan/Feb to pick one up for the fact that Animal Crossing DS and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles DS were supposed to be out. Now as I look at the release schedule, AC has been moved out to next SEPTEMBER - ouch. Looks like I'll be able to save my money for quite a while. Like most consoles, this one is not, IMO, a must-buy-early situation unless you're trying to outdo everyone in terms of buying a gift for a kid.
  • this is the exact same company the microsoft tried shutting down [slashdot.org] for distributing mod chips for the x-box.
  • All the reviews talk about the piece that goes over your thumb that you can use instead of the stylus. Has anyone played with that extensively yet? I haven't seen it yet (except for the photos,) but it sounds to me like it has the potential of causing some serious repetitive stress injuries.
  • The DS Games come in plastic boxes, not the cardboard Advance boxes. And yet, every box has a place to store an Advance game. This is good for sorting your GBA games for a trip. I sense another intention. They may use specially made Advance cartridges for memory cards.

  • Think about the Gameboy's market...... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ZosX ( 517789 ) <zosxavius@gTIGERmail.com minus cat> on Monday November 22, 2004 @06:52PM (#10893331) Homepage
    The wi-fi capabilities are going to sell millions of these things to little kids. Think about how big the IM market is with these guys. Haven't you ever seen the little faux PDA's that actually have some wireless text messenging built in?

    Think about it this way. When little 10 year old Johny wants a new handheld cuz his GBA broke, what's his mom gonna buy him? My guess is that a DS would only make sense if she wanted to get him something new. Nintendo sold us all as kids with the NES, and has continued to do so with the gameboy for many years. They really have no competition. The PSP will either sink or become a niche item for 20 somethings with money. I can't see many people spending $200-300 for a portable console, especially on kids. How many times do you think one of those finely sculpted bricks will take a 4 foot drop.....with the drive spinning?

    I'm getting nearer to 30 and I love the SP, but I think that is probably not the norm. I really liked the classic SP and seeing the familliar grey lines on black definately imparted some sense of nostalgia. When I get on the bus and I fire my SP up, usually the only other people actually playing video games on the bus are the really greasy fat nerdy kids (oh, no offense intended to 60% of you here) and 5-10 year olds. For some reason adults sometimes try to watch me play because I think it bewilders them that someone other than a kid would be playing video games in public.

    The gameboy will certainly take this round because Nintendo knows its market so incredibly well and have always pushed for what it considers the golden pricepoint. >=$100

    While the DS is $150, remember that the SP and maybe even the GBA started out at $120 or so and has slowly fallen to $100.

    Clamshell is a great design too. It protects the pricey LCD screens that so easily scratch and break.

    I mean really. Is there any debate over who will end up with the lion's share of the market here?

  • After scanning through the comments on today's duplicate post I still don't see any mention anywhere of the problems we experienced with the Nintendo DS [geartest.com], probably because most people who have one don't know anyone else who also has a DS to try the wireless network games and functions with.

    I'm wondering if the problems that we encountered on a few Nintendo DS units were anomalies or if the problem was addressed with updated firmware. Please comment below if you are experiencing any of the same issues we s

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