Hacking "Nintendo DS gets RAM Beef Injection" (cart pix)

[id242]

Nintendo DS gets RAM Beef Injection
http://news.spong.com/article/9676

As details trickle in as to the full extent of Nintendo's browser plans for its increasingly-essential DS portable, fresh information on the technology underpinning the Internet software is starting to trickle out.

To enable a smooth web experience, the DS will receive a RAM upgrade, via the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot. The add-on will be bundled with the Opera browser DS cart, the whole package costing just a shade under 20 quid in Japan. No US or European announcement regarding the surfing software has yet surfaced, though something is expected within the next fortnight.

Nintendo has not disclosed how beefy the injection of RAM will be for the DS, nor has it opted to comment on possible future applications for the memory upgrade. Speculation is rife the the DS will follow in the footsteps of the Nintendo 64, which successfully deployed a RAM upgrade used in games including Perfect Dark, Zelda: Majora's Mask, Turok 2 and Banjo Tooie, though Nintendo declined to comment on the possibility at time of press.

 

[jumpman17]

Which leaves me to ask, "Why didn't they add the RAM when they designed the original DS?"

 

[Renegade_R]

Its to kill Supercard and M3

 

[WK416]

Which leaves me to ask, "Why didn't they add the RAM when they designed the original DS?"

Pricing or spacing issues? Heating issues? Who knows.

Either way, an expansion pack can mean good things for games to come.

(assuming Nintendo actually uses it to their advantage)

 

[Dirtie]

Its to kill Supercard and M3

I never thought of that O_O
But if they did require it for some games as well as the browser, wouldn't that also isolate customers? I'm sure Nintendo wouldn't be stupid enough to do that in these present times, although they did do it with N64

 

[id242]

that cart looks strange - but it is the one used on their website's article.... go [email protected]

 

[Mr.Curlynose1]

That looks a lot like the N64 expansion pack.

 

[Kyoji]

That looks a lot like the N64 expansion pack.

Thats because it is

 

[bolton2]

well some things are worth buying, and if some games required the expansion pack, and i really enjoyed the game such as majoras mask or banjo tooie, id gladly buy it

 

[skywarp]

Now I wonder, what will we see first, GBA flashcarts with an extra allotment of ram, or a real DS flashcart...

 

[754boy]

This thing is gonna be used for the WEB BROWSER ONLY!!!, not for games!

 

[Heran Bago]

They said they'd use the GBA slot for expansions. This kind of thing is a great example, and shows why it's so easy to do stuff with the GBA slot like what we are familiar with.

 

[Jojjy Ugnick]

Which leaves me to ask, "Why didn't they add the RAM when they designed the original DS?"

it would have raised the price of the ds and lowered sales initally. Nintendo usually waits for hardware to be more affordable, or optional. It's possible but it's not as if this will be used for games too. Thus not necessary, unless you want the browser.

 

[id242]

This definitely would NOT be the first title that Nintendo included a GBA Feature Pack with... ie; Metriod.Prime.Pinball w/Rumble Pack, Wario.Ware.Twisted w/Motion Pack...etc. So there is no reason for why Nintendo including this Ram Pack should make any more difference than their previous offerings

 

[faceless]

well, if spong.com is the source, it must be fake.

 

[Dirtie]

Yeah, spong claims some weird crap, and a lot of the time it isn't true.

 

[Ranma13]

The DS comes with 4MB of RAM, more than enough for developers to take advantage of. Opera probably requires a memory expansion because web pages hold a lot of images which just eats up RAM. But for games, 4MB is enough given the DS's CPU.

 

[cory1492]

I already have 2 GBA slot "expansion carts" that have 32MB of available SDRAM when used from NDS mode... I call one the supercard and the other the M3 (although the M3's method of accessing the SD ram is currently above my understanding) ... 32MB is so much space in fact that I dont really know what to do with it when making DS code.

 

[skywarp]

I already have 2 GBA slot "expansion carts" that have 32MB of available SDRAM when used from NDS mode... I call one the supercard and the other the M3 (although the M3's method of accessing the SD ram is currently above my understanding) ... 32MB is so much space in fact that I dont really know what to do with it when making DS code.

Same thing with the EZ-Flash 3, I wonder if anyone will mod the browser to work with the EZ3 ram thou...I'm sure someone will for supercard, but that's alot more mainstream.

 

[id242]

Almost a year later and not much has taken advantage of the additional ram-pack so far - not even available to the folks in the USA yet either.

I wonder though, some of the above replies, could this be used to enhance future games and other commercial applications such as a DS.PDA ? or is it just another proprietary device to the DS.Browser - since the DS.MP3 player already comes with it's own SD slot.

hmmm.