The Nintendo DS
 

Hey all,

There was a thread I started a couple months ago about the DS, but it was mainly about speculation on the system. Now that the grand unveiling is less than a week away, I thought the system deserved a new thread.

IGN is reporting that the system has over 100 different developers with kits, all who are planning on supporting the system. This is quite a bit more support than the Virtual Boy (i feel i'm jinxing it with the VB's mere mention) ever got.

i'm a shameless Nintendo afficionado... but i'm also excited about this system for other reasons than blind devotion. :p I feel the videogame industry has really become stale lately. I mean, how many variations on the Tekken/Final Fantasy/MarioKart/GTA/Half-Life/MGS themes will the market support? while there is a good chance it will fizzle and die pretty quickly, i hope this bold move by Nintendo will prove to inject some fresh blood into game development.

and also, it'd be nice to see Nintendo have a genuine stroke of genius and innovation that used to charactize their business. Nintendo makes some bone head moves, but they're also one of the few companies that seems to care about real innovation. It'd be nice to see one of these wild-goose chases they seem to enjoy so much pay off as much as the Gameboy has.

::crosses fingers::

I dunno, just like the GBA was a pocket SNES, this'll be a pocket N64.

I hope.
*crosses fingers*

If not, then I wont have a good reason to get one since I already have anSP.

that, to me, would be a great disappointment. i want it to do things that no other console is capable of by virtue of its unique hardware.

I'm very interested in the DS so here is my take.

I find this hard to believe. After working with Nintendo for a while I've learned that getting support from them is a bit of a challenge unless you are 1st party. This is not to say that developers arent interested in the system, I just dont know anyone that has a kit yet.

There is a reason for this. Publishers want to make money. Titles like this have proven to make a profit. What certain companies don't understand is that even though you can make a clone of these games 90% of them will be garbage. With the budgets of games these days you really need to make a triple-A title to make any sort of profit. The sad thing is that some brilliant games get lost in the shuffle. Smaller development studios who dont have the assets to market their game and hype it up suffer the most from this.

Look at the specs of each system

N64
CPU: 64-bit R4300i RISC (93.75MHz) / 64-bit data paths, registers with 5-stage pipelining
Co-processor: 64-bit RISC (62.5MHz)
RAM: 4MB (36Mb) upgradeable
Graphics: Pixel Drawing Processor (RDP) built into co-processor
Colors: 16.7 million (32,000 on screen)
Polygons: 150,000 per second
Resolution: 640x480 pixels
Sound: 16 to 24-channel 16-bit stereo (up to 100 PCM channels possible)

DS

Main Processor - ARM946E-S (Running at 67 MHz)
Cache: 8 KB Instruction Cache, 4KB Data Cache
TCM: 8KB Instruction, 4KB Data
Sub Processor - ARM7TDMI (Running at 33 MHz)
Main Memory - 4 MB (Debug version has 8 MB)
ARM9/ARM7 Shared - 32KB (16KB x 2)
ARM7 Internal RAM - 64 KB
VRAM - 656 KB
Display Size - 256 x 192 RGB Screens x 2
Display Colors - 262,144 colors
2D Graphics Engine
Background - Maximum 4 layers
Objects - Maximum of 128
3D Graphics Engine
Geometric Transformation - Max 4 million vertex/sec
Polygon Rate - Max 120,000 polys/sec
Pixel Fillrate - Max 30 million pixels/sec
16 channel ADPCM/PCM (Max 8 channels can be set to PSG)
Microphone input
Wireless Communication - 802.11 Protocol
Input Device
Touch Panel
Direction Pad, A, B, L, R buttons, Start, Select (X, Y buttons being considered)

It will be a powerfull unit, the thing that really got my attention was the actuall design of the unit is not exclusive to gaming. The touch screen and 802.11 protocol really leaves things open for Nintendo to maybe do a lot more with this product. I've been a Nintendo guy ever since I got my NES and hope that this will bring them back into my good graces :) AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PUT THE DANG X/Y BUTTONS ON THE DS!! Even if a game does not use them, it allows for so much more control sets.

The recent Matrix games sold more than Prince of Persia, Mario Sunshine, Metriod Prime, Eternal Darkness, F-Zero GX, Metal Arms... the list goes on.

Gosh, that is discouraging.


HAHA, if by "control sets" you mean "top-notch SNES emulation"... then i agree.
:p :p :p

The already made the pocket N64, the iQue =) And it rocks, apparantly. Lucky chinese....

It'd be really interesting to see what Nin have come up with, though. I'm gripped.

Screw that thing, I'm hyped about the PSP.

They made the PSP, except it had a phone attatched =D

Comparing the PSP to the Ngage is like comparing the comedy stylings of Bobcat Goldwaith to Ricard Pyror. Although, Ngage has made a lot of progress with the new model..but thats not really saying much...

i'm sure the psp will have merit... merely having the playstation name and styling attached to it will be enough for many to buy it.

still, i can't help but feel it is merely a logical extension of what we already have. i'm hoping the DS will allow for new types of gameplay... not just squishing what i played on the Playstation into a handheld device.

Seriously, where did I miss the NGage coming into play? I was comparing the PSP to the DS.

Yeah, I was taking the piss =) The PSP looks to do what the N-gage did, but without so much lameness. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Ye-e-e-s. Veeeerrrrrry interesting.

/me goes and does something sinister

First DS Details and authentic picture

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifesty...tendo-ds_x.htm

That looks great! I'm gettin sorta excited about it now. I hope it does well.

-Lasereth

YES!!!

it looks like the button configuration will closely resemble that of the SNES. I can't wait to get some hands-on impressions of the styling and feel of the thing.

Very cool! Now just give good developer support and I'll be a happy guy!!!

Don't like the look of it but I still can't wait to get one.

First official pic of the PSP:
http://www.trenzhost.com/files/Culex/PSP.JPG

Here and here are a few 1/2 decent screen caps from the Nintendo presentation this morning. Beware Miyamoto and his sword!

Link is dead now, they should all be up on various sites soon though.

man, for relevancy sake i should've name this thread "The Sony PSP"

gosh.

Holy Jesus. Those are some awesome pics, 001110000, too cool.

Nice screenshots, mrquackers, 001110000 and Mr.D.

Damn, the PSP is looking nice as well. It's all up to the developers now.

-Lasereth

I'll never buy one because Sony is trying that "propritary media with encryption" bs. I never bought a mini-disk player for the same reason. Sony doesn't seem to realize that some people WILL NOT buy crippled products on non-standard media. Those reasons along with Sony's decision to add regional codes to the games means that I will never buy a psp.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/media/1233.jpg

The little mini-disk thing in the corner is what has me upset.

The Gamecube seems to be doing alright with minidiscs. :)

-Lasereth

Gamespot describes the media as:

"UMD (Universal Media Disc)
60mm-diameter disc
660nm laser diode
1.8GB capacity (dual-layered disc)
11Mbps transfer rate
AES crypto system
Unique disc ID
Shockproof
Regional code system
Parental lock system
Repeat ordering system"

I don't think those are standard mini-disks, note the crypto, disk ID and regional code.

I don't understand the problem. Current PS2, GC, and XBX media all have encryptions on them. If you're gonna pirate them, ya gotta go to great lengths with mod chips and all. There's regional code locks on PS2, GC, and XBX games as well. The parental lock thing is new...and it sucks. The rest has been done before though!

-Lasereth

the coverage on the software has been pretty thin so far... but i'm encouraged by what i've seen so far.

that new metroid game looks cool, as does the new mario game.

on a less dramatic note... i bet you could make really good chess and golf games with the DS hardware. dragging the pieces w/a stylus instead of fumbling w/a keypad would be a big improvement.

I hope they come up with a sketchpad type disc where you draw with the stylus.

They both look good. I think that competition is a good thing. I just hope the PSP doesn't suck up all the FF releases.

Really huh, I guess being a 99% pc-only gamer I had forgotten how crippled consoles were.

Sorry man, I brought it up. I started it all. My bad, sorta jacked your thread there. Apologies.

check this out! pre-order

Crippled? You mean you actually have to pay for games on consoles? That's not crippled. That's called not being a freeloader. :) If everyone stopped paying for games, then developers would stop making them. It's consoles and console gamers that keep the videogaming market alive. If it was as easy to pirate console games as PC games then videogames would have been dead since the PS1 used a CD format.

-Lasereth

The DS looks awesome. Nintendo did some good again.

Back to the DS. I like what I see so far...but that is all first party stuff. That is all Nintendo has these days and sadly they don't put out enough games. If they don't get the support from the larger companies the unit will be lackluster at best. The GBA is one of my favorite systems and it has done ok, but good games are few and far between. When I saw the specs on the DS I was instantly stoked...but then remembered all the shovelware that is bound to ensue. You'll get some good studios putting out some quality games, but the way I see things is that third party developers, who put out the bulk of portable games usually have to deal with less than ecxiting porperties and next no budget.

The fate of the DS lies in its games, developers need to push that technology like they did in the late nes and snes era. With all that cool technology there are tons of possibilities for some seriously cool gameplay. What to do....oh what to do? :confused:

i would describe third party support for the gamecube and n64 as being sparse... but i don't think the GBA has anything like a lack of quality 3rd party titles.

but you're right, i hope the DS gets the ball rolling in that regard.

well the third party support for the gamecube is better than the n64.

The thing that pisses me off about the DS is this:

http://www.popkid.com/nintendo/images/nintendo071.jpg
Why? Why stay with cartridges. They messed up bad when the n64 did it and now they are doing it again with the DS. *sigh*

Honestly, I'm fucking blown away by the DS... still like the look of the PSP more but the DS is out of this world. It's a great time to be a gamer!!!!

they aren't really staying w/the cartridge... it's more of just a legacy thing. all the DS games will be in the other format. personally i think this adds a lot of value to the device... as you will not have to lug around another system to play your old games.

i was actually very encouraged by the backwards compatibility... but, each to his own i suppose.