Topic: Rumor: Nintendo DS Specs?

[Syl]

My ONLY beef is the resolution.  With a resolution that low, anything polygonal is just going to turn out looking horrible....
of course, i could be wrong.

However, i love the touchpad idea, and i hope its true.  I'm wondering how the hell this thing is going to look though, with the typical GBA controll's still on it.  I'm sure its going to continue the clamshell design (just makes sense) but.. I'm leaning towards a design in my mind thats not quite... symetrical....  

However.. the fact that the 2 screens aren't the same power seems to make me think that one of htem HAS to be secondary, considering that its dual processer, I'm not entirely certain thats 1 processer per screen.. hopefully not.  However, what kind of buttom scheme or memory system wouldn't work on a GBA powered screen?

Backwards compatibility is huge in my mind, without it this things going ot have an absurd time selling, espicially with the 50million+ people who own gba's at the moment.

[Ian Sane]

"If this does include PDA capabilties I hope that they use the most recent version of Palm OS, I can't stand the pocketPC OS. I hope it has a lot of functionality and I hope its really simple to navigate from different functions, like one touch and I go from PDA mode to Game Mode. Then straight to phone mode, and one touch and im listening to mp3's."

While we're on the topic of things that will never happen I'd like to say that if I am some day able to fly I hope that my wings are leathery like a bat instead of covered with feathers.  There's no way Nintendo will have all of those options in the DS.  It's a game machine.  And even if they did make it have PDA capabilities it probably woudn't use Palm OS.  Nintendo would likely make their own OS for it.

[vudu]

ian sane, you never cease to make me laugh.

[savanna03]

if NINTENDO is implementing those additional function, im sold...  ill buy those on the day the machine will launch...  and say "the 3rd pillar is always good to have cuz its stronger in support compared to two"  anyways, the reason i dont like gameboy is that, its a game machine.  when i go out, i dont go out to play games.  if DS has other function like MP3, CELL PHONE and etc...  i would carry one in my pocket, instead of carry 2 - 3 stuff.  beside, it plays NINTENDO games...  im not lazy, its all about convient.  its the main reason that PS2 is number 1 because of DVD feature...  instead of hooking up, GCN and DVD player on ur tv, u hook up PS2 that plays games and DVD... see what im saying???    

[Arbok]

Quote
Originally posted by: savanna03
its the main reason that PS2 is number 1 because of DVD feature...  instead of hooking up, GCN and DVD player on ur tv, u hook up PS2 that plays games and DVD... see what im saying???

Personally, I would rather hit a switch that would change between my settings from my console to my DVD Player. Less work than switiching out the game inside everytime I want to watch a movie, better DVD player too. Also, how many times do you hook up your DVD Players/Systems that this would become a "hassle"?

[savanna03]

Quote
Originally posted by: Hedorah64

Quote
Originally posted by: savanna03
its the main reason that PS2 is number 1 because of DVD feature...  instead of hooking up, GCN and DVD player on ur tv, u hook up PS2 that plays games and DVD... see what im saying???

Personally, I would rather hit a switch that would change between my settings from my console to my DVD Player. Less work than switiching out the game inside everytime I want to watch a movie, better DVD player too. Also, how many times do you hook up your DVD Players/Systems that this would become a "hassle"?

what??? i dont get it...  beside, wouldn't u switch out the DVD inside everytime u watch a another movie??? its the same thing as switching from game to DVD.  guarantee that DVD player is alot better than PS2, but can GCN play DVD???  it might not be the best DVD player out there, but it can get the job done.  if u can only afford one machine, its either DVD player or videogame and you get two option, PS2 or GCN, what would u pick???  if u are smart, you would pick PS2 hands down.  its like killing 2 birds with one stone.  

what i meant about hassle, is for everyone who dont got "THE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" on their living room...  how many people in here who only got one TV and have one or two input jack at the back of their TV???  most people in NORTH AMERICA dont get that luxury.  get the picture???  there might be some external switch input availabe in various eletronic stores but the chances of those people buying those periphal has thesame chances of kids buying link cable just to play 4 multiplayer in CRYSTAL CHRONICLES.

back to NDS... if the rumour holds true, alot of $$$ would be in NINTENDO's pocket like what SONY have done with PS2.  MP3, CELL PHONE and GAME MACHINE... where can you go wrong especially if it got NINTENDO game backing on it.  

[WesDawg]

"if u can only afford one machine"

Lol.

#1. if you can afford a $180 PS2 or even a $99 GCN plus games and controllers and memory cards for the beasts, you can certainly afford to shell out a little more for a DVD player.

#2. While the DVD argument was true back when the system launched, DVD was new then and it was still in the exciting phase.  I don't think it's much of a selling point anymore. A selling point maybe, but not a huge one. Anyone who's bought many multi-purpose electronics will tell you that in the end you're usually disappointed. They perform a lot of tasks, but do most badly, and with something that gets as much use as a DVD player, its worth it to shell out the extra money for something that does its job well.

[Bloodworth]

k, I thought I was jumping to conclusions, but nowhere in there does it mention any kind of cel-phone  or mp3 technology.

[Smadte]

Nintendo has odd ways of geting the public's attention. I'm sure this and the little "slip up" on their website aren't slip ups at all.

[Ocarina Blue]

Quote
I poked Louie with my plunger and got him to update the colors spec. 262 colors... that's just absurd!

Eh? I can't understand because of my accent... How many colours does it have?  

[ruby_onix]

The first rough translation of the report said that the DS could put out "262 and 144" colors, perhaps meaning that one screen was better than the other (with both being pretty crappy).

But TYP noticed a "6:6:6" thingy in there, which apparently suggested that each primary color (red, blue, and yellow, or maybe green) will have six-bits worth of color-levels, and then they can be mixed together, making for 262,144 different color possibilities. Which makes it vastly superior to the GBA, which could put out about 32,000 different colors.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

Yeah, the GBA has 5 bits per color channel.

That comment on the DS's resolution for 3D games may or may not hold true.  The two screens combined provides more resolution than the N64 320x240 standard.  It is divided onto two screens, though, so games will have to intelligently place where they display things.

[savanna03]

Quote
Originally posted by: WesDawg
"if u can only afford one machine"

Lol.

#1. if you can afford a $180 PS2 or even a $99 GCN plus games and controllers and memory cards for the beasts, you can certainly afford to shell out a little more for a DVD player.

#2. While the DVD argument was true back when the system launched, DVD was new then and it was still in the exciting phase.  I don't think it's much of a selling point anymore. A selling point maybe, but not a huge one. Anyone who's bought many multi-purpose electronics will tell you that in the end you're usually disappointed. They perform a lot of tasks, but do most badly, and with something that gets as much use as a DVD player, its worth it to shell out the extra money for something that does its job well.

holy cow... u still dont get it... my argument wasn't about me, i wasn't even thinking about me.  my argument was about the people who cant afford alot of things.  GCN plus a memory card, plus a DVD player equals more than a PS2... plus you only get to hook up one machine instead of two.  forget the extra features... all they care is about is that it PLAYS GAMES and MOVIES... PERIOD.  that is my point.  i even admit that a DVD player is better than PS2, but if u just want to borrowed a movie and watch it, you can do that with PS2... forget the extra stuff that the DVD player can do, my point is that PS2 can do it to.

beside bloodworth is right... this argument is useless cuz nothing is conform.... im just basing it in "what if" facts only conserning with the NDS.

[vudu]

i can't believe we're having this argument again.  dvd was important when the ps2 launched 3 years ago, not so much now.  even less when you can get a gamecube and a good dvd player for less than a ps2.

anyone happen to have sales information on the xbox dvd kit?  i'd be interested in seeing how well it's sold.  (correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't believe you can play dvds on the xbox unless you purchase the $30 kit.  so it would probably be a good indication of how many people use (or at one time used) their xbox to watch dvds.)

[KDR_11k]

Note that all this speculation arose because the DS was alledgedly used to play back video and everybody thought this would mean multimedia stuff while it probably just means FMVs. Any talk about MP3, cellphones, PDAs, etc. is just plain BS.

BTW, Gartner Research believes that PDA users want dedicated devices that cost less, as opposed to super-versatile thingies that do things they don't need and cost 300 quid extra. Well, they didn't meantion the price, but said people are quite comfortable carrying around 2 to 3 different devices, each performing a specific task. People don't WANT extra functionality they don't need. The example was games on a PDA, except for a few people who should have bought a GBA instead, users expect the PDA to organize stuff, not play games.

[couchmonkey]

I'm not that interested in multi-purpose devices myself, and I wouldn't want Nintendo to include extra functionality unless it came at a minimal cost.
But on the topic of the specs, I wonder if the "touch pad" is perhaps the portable alternative to analog control sticks?  In the past Nintendo has always used analog in its 3D games, and this is one reason why I usually preferred N64 games to the Playstation, it just feels more natural to me.  Anyway, a control stick isn't really practical for a portable system, so if it's not a touch screen, this could be another possibility.
You can't spell speculation without specs...err, minus the s....

[nemo_83]

I don't think we will be seeing a touch screen.  I think this touch pannel is most definetly going to be some patch of plastic that is touch sensitive.  I suppose it will be above the start/pause buttons.  This would be similar to a touch screen except with this you get to keep the screen finger free but get the same function.  Its like using a pencil device on a pad that translates the movements; or it could even be compared to a mouse.  I like this idea cause there a lot of games on pc that use mouse functions very well.  This touch pannel could replace the joystick.  I just can't see a good, lasting joystick on a portable device.  I hope the dpad is bigger than GBA and there better be four face buttons.  

Why they are chosing a low poly rate is bogling to me when they could easily push at least Dreamcast level hardware at a low price and in portable form by 05.  I don't want to play low poly games ever again.  I will play beutiful 2d games, but 3d is best left to the consoles that can do things like cel shading and real time lighting.  I was hoping they would just make Cube portable but the hardware just isn't there according to this new news.

Most discerning is that it really seems to be the replacement for GBA for 05 and not a "third pillar" of hardware used to make games better or easier to control.  I could imagine the replacement for GBA as a controller for not only Cube but more so the N5 which means it needs a more shoulder buttons.  

A microphone in my belief is a neccesary element.  It does imply cel phone technology and even the ability of this machine to interact with other DSs, N5s, and network N5s and DSs by sharing the wieght of the signals being sent in a "Cell" technology structure.  I was expecting it to use addons like cameras, mp3 players, and cel phone anntennas; but I didn't think they would build in a mic.  That's a

Sega has been into the whole mic gaming for a while and recently had some new info on how they will use the variances in the voice to animate the face.  Thus there is no need of a camera being built in or added onto the controller to trace facial expressions or likenesses into the game.  Though a camera or several cameras would be cool features to work directly with the console rather than the DS.  

If the hardware is able to play a movie, then why not allow the gamer to do it.  Especially when it is cheap and encouraging to the consumer for them to be able to watch a movie on an air plane through their DS in the privacy of their Sony head phones.  Maybe this could require an addon, but I would rather have two versions of the system on the market.  The game device and the all in one.  Or at least the one and a half.

[Koji]

You people are getting way ahead of yourselves... DS will NOT be a cell phone/game system. Nintendo saw what happened to the Ngage, it's not stupid. You all talk about how you would gladly have a cell phone gaming system... but as anyone with an Ngage will tell you, it's clumbsy... ugly... and you wouldn't wanna be caught dead talking into it.

The microphone is likely used for playing games over a decent distance or for specific games. It would be really nice to see it support a rewritable standard for media (like SD or CF) for MP3 and such, but that's not likely as it would be easily abused (plus they said the limit is 128MBytes... SD and CF are both a lot larger)

[savanna03]

hear me out guys...  if you people will start thinking NDS as a pure gaming machine, then this isn't very different to GBSP line and the 3RD PILLAR that NINTENDO uses is basically a gimmick...  i would like to think that NDS has more to it than adding two screen.  NINTENDO said that by E3, we will know the other function that will differentiate the two.  the only thing that NINTENDO reveals is that it has two screen with two processor and it can communicate wirelessly.  NINTENDO would be very stupid if they decided to split up the GAMEBOY user base by supporting two handhelds...  the only way i can think of achieving this, if NINTENDO would target two different crowed.  GB line is for kids(which is true because there are more percentage on kids owning GB than adults do.)  while NDS is for adults(which PSP is trying to target).  you cant target adults with pure gaming device, which brought the PS2 and GCN argument all over again.  if by E3 when we know the truth and i end up being wrong(basically an upgrage to GB with two screen), then i guess ill start seeing NINTENDO as a whole new company who brings new product every year like MICROSOFT did with windows...  same product with minor changes.  (GB POCKET, COLOR, ADVANCE, SP, DS = WINDOWS 95, 98, ME, XP)

PS.  ill end the PS2(multi-purpose) vs GCN(gaming) argument by this statement...  do you think the N5 can dent the PS3's armour if NINTENDO decided to stick with pure gaming machine in next round???  time will tell...  beside in order to run a succesful business, you dont target what minority wants(hardcore pure gaming loyalist) you target the majority(mainstream who buys solely for the better specs)

[oohhboy]

Look, Nointendo is a gaming company, not a tech company. thier goal is not to make TVs and washing machines. By ading themselfs technology such as DVDs and MP3 playback, they would have taken the first step in to that direction which they have no plan, desire nor the resources to expand in that area.

The "Third Pillar" is indeed a gimmick. but you have miss read Nintendo's motive. The DS serves several functions for Nintendo.

1. Nintendo gets to try out on the mass market a new way of playing games without disrupting the status quo by separating the DS from the GB line.
2. Nintendo gets in a pre-emptive strike against the PSP by diverting attention away from it.
3. Nintendo while doing this pre-emptive stirke also allows them to hedge thier bets as to the future of handheld gaming. If the DS goes out and kicks some ass, then it is some thing that other companies can't go out an copy without extremly stiff resistance, which would be even more so than the current GB line. If the DS fails to get attention in the market, then Nintendo still has the solid GB line to work with.
4. Nintendo gets to differeniate themselfs from everybody else giving them a stronger brand name.

As for savanna03 comment about the GB line bcoming the next windows line up, you would be mistaken. The difference is that Nintendo has made real improvements to each device according to the demand out in the market. Look at the SP, If no one biched about the GBA screen, then Nintendo would have never have made and released the SP. Look at MS. Each version of thier operating system gets fatter and fatter at a near geomertic rate along with the very same bugs and security holes. MS has broken more promises than Saddam has killed people.

[KDR_11k]

"Microphone" is likely a mistranslation of "Phono" or "Phone", the stuff written on the headphone jack.

[xanrastafari]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but a touch screen has an additional advantage:  It's an innovative form of control that's bloody hard to emulate practically.

[savanna03]

Quote
Originally posted by: oohhboy
Look, Nointendo is a gaming company, not a tech company. thier goal is not to make TVs and washing machines. By ading themselfs technology such as DVDs and MP3 playback, they would have taken the first step in to that direction which they have no plan, desire nor the resources to expand in that area.

The "Third Pillar" is indeed a gimmick. but you have miss read Nintendo's motive. The DS serves several functions for Nintendo.

1. Nintendo gets to try out on the mass market a new way of playing games without disrupting the status quo by separating the DS from the GB line.
2. Nintendo gets in a pre-emptive strike against the PSP by diverting attention away from it.
3. Nintendo while doing this pre-emptive stirke also allows them to hedge thier bets as to the future of handheld gaming. If the DS goes out and kicks some ass, then it is some thing that other companies can't go out an copy without extremly stiff resistance, which would be even more so than the current GB line. If the DS fails to get attention in the market, then Nintendo still has the solid GB line to work with.
4. Nintendo gets to differeniate themselfs from everybody else giving them a stronger brand name.

As for savanna03 comment about the GB line bcoming the next windows line up, you would be mistaken. The difference is that Nintendo has made real improvements to each device according to the demand out in the market. Look at the SP, If no one biched about the GBA screen, then Nintendo would have never have made and released the SP. Look at MS. Each version of thier operating system gets fatter and fatter at a near geomertic rate along with the very same bugs and security holes. MS has broken more promises than Saddam has killed people.

hmmm. u got a point...  it is true that NINTENDO is a gaming company but the fact is, they aren't building a console by themselves anymore.  N64 were the last system they made by themselves and even commented that after the GCN, they will match whatever the competitor has cuz they cant have a GCN vs PS2 match all over again... that is why they made partnership with the likes of PANASONIC and IBM who specialize different area.   its pointless arguing what NDS can do when its shrouded with mystery and didn't really specify what their real motive is.  all we got from them are mind games(IWATA mension that it would be cool if 10% of the people would find it interesting, then later YAMAOUCHI stated that if NDS do fail, this will end it all) but if they only revealed who partner is in this project, then we wouldn't have any argument at all.

PS... oh i might made a bad example between NINTENDO and MICROSOFT, but you cant deny that NINTENDO is almost following thesame path as MICROSOFT... that is why i hate monopoly.  also, people weren't b**ching about the back lit during the start of GBA era.  it all started during the GAMEBOY COLOR era but it took them years to finally listen cuz when you control the market, you play ur own rules, not what people wants.

[ghostVi]

savanna03, there's a difference between "having a monopoly" and "abusing your monopoly" (hint - one of them is not only morally wrong, but also [surprise!] illegal in most countries).

on topic: my guess is these specs are simply fake.

[KDR_11k]

Quote
Originally posted by: savanna03

PS... oh i might made a bad example between NINTENDO and MICROSOFT, but you cant deny that NINTENDO is almost following thesame path as MICROSOFT.

Actually Microsoft is doing what Nintendo does, not the other way around. Microsoft went over to IBM and ATI after Nintendo used them, Microsoft ditched the HD after Nintendo used none, Microsoft started using a proprietary disk format after Nintendo did.

Also, the "If the DS fails that's a big blow for Nintendo" didn't mean their future is directly tied to the device, but it would be the ultimate proof that innovation is dead and people rather want sequels, rehashes and graphics updates than new stuff.