New DS confirmed

[~De arimasu]

Why must I always run out of money as soon as something nice shows up

I never bothered with the DS Lite since it didn't add anything new to the DS. I'm interested in this since it's got so many additional features.

 

[Electric_Wizard]

Nothing here to make me even consider wanting one.

- No GBA Slot - Instant fail
- SD Slot - Anyone with a flash card already has this...
- Internal storage space - ... and this
- Two built-in cameras (0.3MP) - quality looks piss poor
- Music player (seems like a built-in Play-Yan) - Anyone with a flash card do this too
- Bigger screens - don't care - battery life is probably going to suffer
- Slightly thinner than the DS Lite - I've got fat hands, I don't want it any smaller
- Just ONE Touch Screen - Same as DS/Lite
- Built in web browser - Already got the browser and it sucks (unless they've added buckets o' RAM)
- "DS Ware" to be available for purchase - Which will all be hacked and available to flash card owners...
- Mii support on DS - ... as, no doubt, will this

All these 'amazing' new features for just 50% more than a DSL.

I never believed it would have a second touch screen - would have caused too many compatability issues between the new and old models. They'll save that for the DS-2

I'm actually glad I don't want one. I don't need any more stuff to piss my money away on right now.

I'm sure it'll still sell by the bucket load and anything that takes sales away from Sony is alright by me.

 

[updowners]

CONFIRMED:
1 touch screen
2 cameras (3.0 and 0.3megapixel)
SD card slot
2 3.25 screens
Downloadable games for nintendo points (DSware)
No GBA slot (slot 2)
Guitar Hero unplayable
No multi-touch screen
Listen to music
Some basic photo editing
In built Web Browser
Slimmer than the DS Lite
Three LED indicators (wireless, charging, power)
Coming out Nov 1st
Mii support
Shorter battery life
Flickbook program

Uncomfirmed:
More RAM
Internal memory? (help!)
GBA emulation?
WPA support

 

[Toni Plutonij]

Engrish-free English translation to the Japanese DSi website here.

Thanks Densetsu3000.....I was looking for some translations online, but couldn't find any..

 

[Banger]

do you guys think they added wpa/wpa2? can the ds processor handle it?

is the ds hardware powerful enough to emulate a gameboy advance if the emu code if extremely efficient? that lack of slot-2 is a show stopper.

Ummm yea, as it could be done so with slot2 via card so yes it is very possible most likely via SD card and with the onboard memory yea it is very possible.

Actually now that I think of it, could be ran through slot 1 if you can load the emulaotr through the 512MB of suppusode ram and also the game through ram or SD card.

 

[Normmatt]

I wonder how long it takes for someone too hack the sd slot to run games (I'll try if/when i get one)

 

[Lelouch]

Engrish-free English translation to the Japanese DSi website here.

thanks for the translation!

and ill wait to buy mine when they release better colors

 

[berlinka]

I honestly don't understand what Nintendo is doing here. The DS Lite still sells like crazy.
I could imagine that Nintendo would give the DS Lite another sales impulse by redesigning it, bigger screens, better speakers, thinner casing. But instead they're talking about a THIRD pillar!!! Which looks exactly the same as the DSLite!!????? To me it seems this is not a third pillar, but just uninspired risky business.

People all know and love the DS Lite. The core and casual handheld gamer are completely satisfied with the product it seems. It's got all the nifty features you could possibly hope for.....and now???.....A CAMERA! Yes that's what was missing. Oooh and a bigger screen!
To me it doesn't sound very innovative.

In this very topic I see people saying that they've just bought a DS Lite. If this were to be a real "NEW" product I can see people buying this next to their DS Lite, but when I'm looking at my own situation it's never going to happen. While I've had the DS Lite for 1,5 years now it still is a very cool, slick device and I'm never bored with it. I would feel so stupid if I would buy this new DSi.

Maybe if the new DS would have wonderful state of the art graphics it would make a difference, but if it's basically a DS with a new design and a camera I would feel insulted as a customer already owning the best selling handheld of all time!

I seriously would have loved the idea that Nintendo came up with something that I just had to have. It was the same with the DS and the Wii. At first I was like "I don't need a new GBA" and "I don't need a console, I've got my PC for my gaming needs" and still they managed to blow me away with these products. But with this I can hardly see that happening.

I'm actually a bit sad because of this news.

 

[Lelouch]

Nothing here to make me even consider wanting one.

- No GBA Slot - Instant fail
- SD Slot - Anyone with a flash card already has this...
- Internal storage space - ... and this
- Two built-in cameras (0.3MP) - quality looks piss poor
- Music player (seems like a built-in Play-Yan) - Anyone with a flash card do this too
- Bigger screens - don't care - battery life is probably going to suffer
- Slightly thinner than the DS Lite - I've got fat hands, I don't want it any smaller
- Just ONE Touch Screen - Same as DS/Lite
- Built in web browser - Already got the browser and it sucks (unless they've added buckets o' RAM)
- "DS Ware" to be available for purchase - Which will all be hacked and available to flash card owners...
- Mii support on DS - ... as, no doubt, will this

All these 'amazing' new features for just 50% more than a DSL.

I never believed it would have a second touch screen - would have caused too many compatability issues between the new and old models. They'll save that for the DS-2

I'm actually glad I don't want one. I don't need any more stuff to piss my money away on right now.

I'm sure it'll still sell by the bucket load and anything that takes sales away from Sony is alright by me.

yeah I was wondering if anyone else didn't like the idea of making it thinner.. I have small hands and the lite can be annoying at times.

 

[Banger]

I honestly don't understand what Nintendo is doing here. The DS Lite still sells like crazy.
I could imagine that Nintendo would give the DS Lite another sales impulse by redesigning it, bigger screens, better speakers, thinner casing. But instead they're talking about a THIRD pillar!!! Which looks exactly the same as the DSLite!!????? To me it seems this is not a third pillar, but just uninspired risky business.

Well Sony is releasing its "new" system so they have to too.

 

[berlinka]

I honestly don't understand what Nintendo is doing here. The DS Lite still sells like crazy.
I could imagine that Nintendo would give the DS Lite another sales impulse by redesigning it, bigger screens, better speakers, thinner casing. But instead they're talking about a THIRD pillar!!! Which looks exactly the same as the DSLite!!????? To me it seems this is not a third pillar, but just uninspired risky business.

Well Sony is releasing its "new" system so they have to too.

Yeah, but that doesn't sound like Nintendo does it? They're succes is not doing what other companies do.

 

[Rock Raiyu]

I honestly don't understand what Nintendo is doing here. The DS Lite still sells like crazy.
I could imagine that Nintendo would give the DS Lite another sales impulse by redesigning it, bigger screens, better speakers, thinner casing. But instead they're talking about a THIRD pillar!!! Which looks exactly the same as the DSLite!!????? To me it seems this is not a third pillar, but just uninspired risky business.

Well Sony is releasing its "new" system so they have to too.

Or maybe the fact that they are running out of things to do with the DS. At least with this, a range of new ideas can be used. Plus, now it can be used for multimedia just like the PSP. (except no video playback and probably lack of NDS FW).

Although, very very very nice. Time to save up for it. Too bad US gets it in 2009, but thats cool. I'll import. But why did they call it the DSi?

 

[Banger]

So far peoples main "Beef" with the new DS is no GBA slot but I think it would be pretty easy to run GBA games. Well if there is the 512MB of ram and the SD port. With the two I think GBA games would still be able to be played. DSware will hopefully have GBA games and if it does then yea GBA gaming will be possible.

Time will tell

 

[Foppzter]

Am I the only one that thinks handheld VC when I see DS Ware?
Buying and downloading classic GB/GBC/GBA games. Yes I said GBA, it's perfect with the removement of the GBA slot.

 

[DivineZeus]

Nice, i need a second DS! i will take this one instead, for christmas...

 

[Rock Raiyu]

Wow, I just read the whole artice. Nintendo, your awesome. I'm sorry for ever doubting you.

 

[ViRGE]

do you guys think they added wpa/wpa2? can the ds processor handle it?

is the ds hardware powerful enough to emulate a gameboy advance if the emu code if extremely efficient? that lack of slot-2 is a show stopper.

Ummm yea, as it could be done so with slot2 via card so yes it is very possible most likely via SD card and with the onboard memory yea it is very possible.

Actually now that I think of it, could be ran through slot 1 if you can load the emulaotr through the 512MB of suppusode ram and also the game through ram or SD card.

Unfortunately it's not quite that easy. While the GBA's ARM7 processor has to stay since it's the DS's co-processor, the rest of the GBA compatibility hardware doesn't have to stay and will undoubtedly go. The fact that the ARM7 is staying is great news (we can just pass GBA CPU instructions to the ARM7) making up for the rest of the GBA will be challenging. We're going to have the ARM9, which is going to need to control everything, and then emulate all of the missing GBA bits. I really have no clue what it would take to emulate the GBA's graphics hardware, it should be fairly easy, but don't hold me to this.

And then you run in to the issue of RAM and cart sizes. GBA carts are too big to store in the DS's RAM*, which means you need to stream data in from Slot1. Ask the developers of the other major DS emulators how easy it is to emulate games when you can't put the whole game in RAM... Streaming will also bring up the issues with the tighter specifications of Slot2 compared to Slot1; Slot2 (or rather the GBA) isn't nearly as forgiving as Slot1 (which is why we can get away with using NAND flash for DS games, while we need NOR flash or oodles of RAM loaded from NAND for GBA games) and I'm fairly sure Slot1 can't keep up in the end. So even if we solve the problems with emulating the video hardware, we have an issue with being able to read data from Slot1 fast enough.

As a final answer, I'm going to put a tentative "this isn't possible" out there. I once said the same thing about emulating the Sega Genesis and I was wrong, but that was solely a matter of processing power. I am fairly well convinced that you're never going to be running GBA games on a DSi if you can't load them entirely in to RAM.

Edit: There may also be a problem with RAM latency, but I don't have the data needed to double-check this

* The DS would need 32MB of RAM to emulate most GBA games(16MB to hold the game, the rest for the emulator), 48MB+ to emulate them all

 

[Banger]

Am I the only one that thinks handheld VC when I see DS Ware?
Buying and downloading classic GB/GBC/GBA games. Yes I said GBA, it's perfect with the removement of the GBA slot.

Yes I said it before you.

@ViRGE: Said to have 512 MB of ram which is enough to load any GBA game as well as NDS. Being as the largest DS game is what 256MB? While GBA is much smaller. Also there is an SD card slot.

 

[ViRGE]

Am I the only one that thinks handheld VC when I see DS Ware?
Buying and downloading classic GB/GBC/GBA games. Yes I said GBA, it's perfect with the removement of the GBA slot.

Yes I said it before you.

@ViRGE: Said to have 512 MB of ram which is enough to load any GBA game as well as NDS. Also there is an SD card slot.

It doesn't have 512MB of RAM. It may have 512MB of FlashROM(i.e. internal storage), but certainly not 512MB of RAM. Not even the Wii has 512MB of RAM (it has 88MB).

 

[Hadrian]

IGN posted some details on the new features:

"Select DSi Camera from the menu, and you'll quickly transform your system into a digital camera. Pics that you've taken can be transferred via SD card to your PC and cell phone. You can also send snaps between two DSi systems wirelessly.

In typical Nintendo fashion, the camera will include some game elements. Among the fun features are a facial blending tool, a method for changing facial expressions, and a means of measuring similarity between two faces. The camera itself can be set to take pics in a variety of modes, including normal mode, "trick" mode, and frame mode.

Select the DSi Sound option from the menu, and you'll have yourself a mini music player, complete with a variety of visualizers and audio tools. The system can remove vocals, allowing you to sing along for yourself. Nintendo also appears to have included a built in Band Bros. of sorts, as you can tap buttons along with the rhythm in order to overlay sounds. You can also record 10 second audio samples through the system's microphone for use in your music sessions.

Unfortunately, those looking for MP3 support are out of luck. The DSi Sound program will only support AAC format.

Finally, there's the DSi Shop, a program that serves as the DS version of the Wii Shopping Channel. You'll be able to download free and paid programs from this under the "Nintendo DSiWare" label. Two free programs have been mentioned by Nintendo, an internet browser and a digital notebook that lets you create moving comics."