Nintendo 3DS in-game menu: notes, friends and more explained

[Terminator02]

The Nintendo 3DS is a powerful multitasking beast, besting the efforts of many handhelds and consoles before it. If you don't want to quit out of your game, you can use one of the four highlighted icons to perform additional tasks on top of your game after pressing the Home button.

For example, want to jot down some important notes during a game? Don't ruin the last few pages of your instruction booklet. Instead, tap the pencil icon to access Game Memo, an app that lets you draw and write anything you want. (It looks a lot like Pictochat.) Once you're done, you can save your image to the SD card.

Is your system notification LED flashing orange? That means one of your Wi-Fi connected friends is online. Tap the smiley face button to see what your friends are playing. The speech bubble icon will give you insight into all of your Spot Pass and Street Pass activity, letting you know when you've downloaded something new. Finally, the internet browser (available via firmware update) should let you research some GameFAQs and read some Joystiq while you take a break from raiding some faces.[/p]

Source (Joystiq)

Spoiler: More pics

OMG I WANTED MUSIC SUPPORT!!!! RAGE!!!!!

 

[Devin]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

 

[Hop2089]

That would help with events and doors in RPGs that require a code, I can just open up the memo, write down the code, and finish, saves trees and time.

 

[Terminator02]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

i believe u mean patented and if it is that's complete bs, there are games on the ps3 that allow simulatenous music and gaming, like LBP2's create mode and such

 

[Hop2089]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

i believe u mean patented and if it is that's complete bs, there are games on the ps3 that allow simulatenous music and gaming, like LBP2's create mode and such

PSP games have it too, Gundam Assault Survive, Macross Ultimate and most likely Triangle Frontier not to mention ACE Portable have custom BGM.

 

[Arras]

Question: Can it do all of this while playing an old NDS game? Or is it in NDS mode and does that not support multitasking?

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

i believe u mean patented and if it is that's complete bs, there are games on the ps3 that allow simulatenous music and gaming, like LBP2's create mode and such

PSP games have it too, Gundam Assault Survive, Macross Ultimate and most likely Triangle Frontier not to mention ACE Portable have custom BGM.

Not to mention countless iPhone games.

 

[MegaAce™]

Question: Can it do all of this while playing an old NDS game? Or is it in NDS mode and does that not support multitasking?

Maybe it standby-es the NDS game, like you would shut the DS and open it later again to play, and goes into the menu?

 

[Windaga]

Wait, I'm confused. Does the article mention anything about Music? Or do you mean you won't be able to play your own music while playing games, like in most Xbox and iPhone games?

 

[Hop2089]

Wait, I'm confused. Does the article mention anything about Music? Or do you mean you won't be able to play your own music while playing games, like in most Xbox and iPhone games?

Unless developers implement it in their games you won't have custom bgm. Some might, I could see some like Namco-Bandai who currently do this to some PSP games to have them.

 

[HaniKazmi]

They might add music in a future update. Or they might leave it as a selling point of a 3ds lite

.

 

[Windaga]

Wait, I'm confused. Does the article mention anything about Music? Or do you mean you won't be able to play your own music while playing games, like in most Xbox and iPhone games?

Unless developers implement it in their games you won't have custom bgm. Some might, I could see some like Namco-Bandai who currently do this to some PSP games to have them.

But is that what terminator is upset about; the inability to do that in all games? I'm sorry, I'm just a bit lost.

As for the article itself, it's cool to see that they're allowing multi tasking. I really do like the fact that I can pull up the browser or memo pad mid game to look at a FAQ or draw a map.

 

[Rydian]

Great, so now all my friends can see when I'm playing Super Princess Peach and mock me for it.

 

[Zeroneo]

Great, so now all my friends can see when I'm playing Super Princess Peach and mock me for it.

Happily you can turn that option off.

 

[ProtoKun7]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

Seriously?

And Rydian, you should be PROUD of Super Princess Peach.


(pfft, what a sissy)

 

[Deleted_171835]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

Seriously?

It's true!1
http://www.google.com/patents?id=mx93AAAAE...ming+soundtrack
---
I'm interested as to how the friend system works.

 

[Sterling]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

i believe u mean patented and if it is that's complete bs, there are games on the ps3 that allow simulatenous music and gaming, like LBP2's create mode and such

PSP games have it too, Gundam Assault Survive, Macross Ultimate and most likely Triangle Frontier not to mention ACE Portable have custom BGM.

A few Wii games as well. Endless Ocean 1 for example.

 

[Sir-Fritz]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

i believe u mean patented and if it is that's complete bs, there are games on the ps3 that allow simulatenous music and gaming, like LBP2's create mode and such

PSP games have it too, Gundam Assault Survive, Macross Ultimate and most likely Triangle Frontier not to mention ACE Portable have custom BGM.

A few Wii games as well. Endless Ocean 1 for example.

Excite truck was the first wii game to do it afaik.

 

[Sterling]

IIRC in game menu music support is trademarked by Microsoft.

i believe u mean patented and if it is that's complete bs, there are games on the ps3 that allow simulatenous music and gaming, like LBP2's create mode and such

PSP games have it too, Gundam Assault Survive, Macross Ultimate and most likely Triangle Frontier not to mention ACE Portable have custom BGM.

A few Wii games as well. Endless Ocean 1 for example.

Excite truck was the first wii game to do it afaik.

Hmm, interesting. I never played excite truck, and I don't plan on it. Lol.

 

[dinofan01]

Hmm, interesting. I never played excite truck, and I don't plan on it. Lol.

your loss?

but anyways theres still the option they could patch in-menu music support later. But if microsoft truly did patent it, nintendo will pass this feature up. Ive seem Nintendo make too many decisions to save a buck before to think they would add it. But nintendo has commented that the system has mp3 support. I dont know whats its for but that doesn't mean a dev cant put it in their games. Hopefully every racing game has mp3 support. Racing games is one of the few genres i like muting the original music.

 

[shakirmoledina]

well this does allow one to switch on a walkthrough on the background thru the browser while playing the game. interestingly enough, some games have notepads within them like dementium so its more like filling in the gap for those which dont.
the smiley icon kinda tells me flashcarts will have to include this feature or else nintendo will know they are playing something unidentifiable