A New Member of the Family

The Next Portable Nintendo

May 15th, 2004

Well, it's that time again! The great and powerful Ninty, has innovated another breathtaking handheld! This time it's the Nintendo DS! Now, this isn't an actual advance in generation for the Game Boy like the move from GBC to GBA was. This instead is an adaptation of existing technology, much like the move from GBA to GBA:SP was. The DS stands for Dual Screen, which means exactly what you might think. The Nintendo DS (or DS for short) has two screens!

The System's design is a mix between the GBA and the GBA:SP. It's shaped much like the original, an elongated oval of sorts with buttons on either side of a screen. However, it has a folding top with another screen on it like the SP. It's difficult to explain, and I've never been very good at explaining this sort of thing. So I have provided a picture from the official E3 website below.

The system is backwards compatible; it is not however confirmed which one of the screens you will play older games on. I would venture to guess they will give you a choice to switch between the two screens. Of course, the DS will have a lot of it's own games to play with as well. These games will take full advantage of the dual-screen technology.

A lot of you, myself included, may be wondering, "What is the use of having two screens? Seems a little bit like a novelty item to me." While there are several uses that Nintendo named, they also hastened to add that the possibilities are limited only be the designers imaginations. With two screens, you could browse menus and look at maps while you played the game. Instead of having your stats and such (e.g., your ammo in an FPS) all over your game screen, they could be on a separate screen above, or below. I myself can think of many uses for this system. For instance, when playing a multi-player game with the Nintendo DS (more on that later) you might be able to see your teammates on one of your screens while using the other screen to control your own character.

This is that later part I was talking about earlier. About the multi-player, yeah, it's wireless. About time right? Well you can view the stats at Nintendo.com, but it's a bit techy for most. Needless to say, Nintendo did their wireless right, and you can look forward to seamless wireless gameplay. Nintendo, the leader of the handheld system. No, the only real handheld system, has a bright future.

However, the DS will have to do it's best to withstand the coming storm. For 15 years, the Game Boy has reigned unrivaled as king of the handhelds. Nine other handhelds have tried to take the Game Boy's place, and nine handhelds have failed miserably. But, as gaming veterans, and historians will remember, Nintendo's consoles were also untouchable at one time. The Game Boy's newest competitor is being created by the very same company that pushed Nintendo from the top of the heap all those years ago. Sony's Playstation Portable (or PSP) has impressive stats. It uses Universal Media Disc format, which supports 1.8GB of data, despite being only 60mm in diameter. We will have to wait and see what both of these impressive machines are capable of.


Link Skywalker ~[The Future is Forever]~