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[Altor]

I was searching the net with google, seeing if I could find some hints about what Nintendo's next handheld might be (besides "years away"), and I instead got a bunch of sites with DS announcements back from 2004!

I've been laughing by butt off just reading these, they're great.  One example is: http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Jan/bga20040121023527.htm

The user comments are just gold...

who's gonna want dual screens?
sounds like a dumb idea to me...

Two screens..nice try Nintencrap.

Won't work. Nintendo needs to do what Sega did, get out of hardware and just make great games.

2 screens is a crap idea, better to have one big one instead sure, it might not be as portable but the game
s would be loads better.

I have to say, this is probably a doomed bit o' technology, like their 3D gameboy.

The problem is they created a device which is to proprietary, the idea of twin screens is not commonly used in games.

Nintendo's biggest problem has been making games available for their hardware, and this new device is not solving that problem. Instead of offering thousands of games which will drive hardware sales, they will introduce a device which will probably never have more then a handful of specialized games.

This isn't even a gameboy successor, which means, Nintendo isn't even secure in the success of the idea. The dual processors are probably just 2 GBA cores, each designed to drive the independent screens. All they are doing is pairing two GBA's in one unit.

Anyways, we will see what comes of this, but I doubt this will be Nintendo's saviour product.

It will worsen the drainage of batteries.

I'm wondering if Nintendo is already anticipating more hand-held gaming devices from other companies like Sony, etc.. Seems so, especially after Nokia's attempt.

I wish Nintendo could try harder in the console department, as I think that Nintendo's next one (Gamecube 2) can and could beat XBox Next and PS3. First, it will have to include DVD playback capability, second it will have to have a much better (more adult-like) controller, closer ratio of processing power compared to PS3/XBox2, backwards-compatibility with GC games, and many, many more games developed (by acquiring more prime game publishers).

Hehehe

Hate to point out the obvious ninty, but if its one player i can only focus on one screen at a time. when i cud jus switch to a different view. *ouch* thats the foot of sony's psp

I think they can go ahead and jsut stick with the GameBoy. I now that they just want to start another short lived fad in japan but c'mon!

The Nintendo DS will make the N-Gage look like a spectacular success.

The second screen could be a touch screen, which lets you input info or even display a virtual keyboard for using it as an email device or other functions besides playing games. It may look like the sidekick email device.

:shock:

Look it up PSP is the best handheld gamesystem yet. The minute it comes out, it's mine. ( GPS, 1.8 Gb Rom)
Nintendo knows they're screwed.

[h8uthemost]

Look at all these completely moronic statements. I can't believe all the people that doubted Nintendo.

They might not currently be the king of consoles anymore. But I believe they will always be on top in the handheld market. I don't care what kind of crazy idea that they might have for their next handheld, I'll trust that it will be a great machine.

Look at all the people that doubted the Wii too, just because they wanted to try something different.

[uzumakishade]

its hilarious when people doubt nintendo and those same people end up buying the product.

[dantheman]

At http://www.4colorrebellion.com/nintendo-ds-mockups/ you can see some of the pre-release mockups that people made.  My favorites are http://img104.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nintendods8mv.jpg and http://img492.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nintendobs8zk.jpg

I remember an old GameInformer issue where they were saying that it probably wouldn't take off too well.  Still, you have to admit that everybody gets skeptical when a radical new change is announced.  It's easy to look back on it now and laugh, as hindsight's 20/20 as they say, but at the time it seemed very out of the ordinary.

[Altor]

This one I'd actually buy in a heartbeat: http://img362.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dslite6vj.jpg

Would have to be super-durable and made of good aluminum, like a decent digital camera, and preferably have the original DS's face buttons and d-pad.

[Perseid]

Very amusing. I knew the PSP was in trouble, being disc based and having no back library to be compatible with, but I also did not figure how successful the DS would be. I think even Nintendo is a little surprised at this. Will we be laughing at the same comments over the Wii in a few years?

[Altor]

Handhelds just *need* to be cartridge-based, the battery life and load times are IMO the most important things besides gameplay, more important than graphics or sound.

DS was just a stroke of brilliance, for these reasons:
-Good battery life, unlike PSP which gets 5 hours at best
-Good, reliable screens (especially with Lite), unlike PSP with a number of dead pixels being almost standard until lately
-Good build quality, difficult to damage the screens even with excessive force and they are protected when not in use, unlike PSP which is so easy to get scratched up because it can't be protected without using a bulky carrying case
-Instant standby, being among the most appealing of DS's features IMO, although I know PSP has a similar feature, it's not as cleverly done as on the DS
-Virtually nonexistent loading times except on the largest most complex games like Animal Crossing, unlike PSP which requires long load times

The loading time is especially important.  Until I had my DS I never realized how handy it would be to have something to pass the time in doctors offices and lineups and bus rides, etc.  With PSP you might spend half your time just loading.  From what I hear, one of the boxing/wrestling games is so bad there's like 2 minutes total waiting time between the game being turned on and when you begin actually playing.  That's just unacceptable, be in on PC, console, or handheld.

Wii still worries me.  I know it'll be successful, I think it's hit critical mass.  But the motion control seems to be something that's hard for developers to work on.  The end result is excellent, sure, but I think all the first-generation games demonstrated how hard it is to get used to programming for the new control style.  And honestly sometimes I wonder how much more immersive a game might be if its graphics were a little better, and higher resolution like 720p.

Metroid Prime 3 and SSBB are two games that I see as being necessary to take whatever time is necessary to make them *perfect*.  A lot of people are waiting for them, expecting them to be a good representation of the Wii's full potential.  I want a wireless nunchuk eventually too...

I seem to be in a long-winded mood today

[PharaohsVizier]

To be honest, when I heard about the PSP and the DS, I thought the DS was incredibly stupid, and that it would lose for sure.  I mean, I just couldn't understand why you would want two screens...  And the initial design for the DS was just ugly.  The PSP had seemingly better graphics, and better games at the time.  I don't understand how the PSP lost, even to this day.  But well, now I'm a DS fan.  

I'm worried about the Wii as well.

[Haoie]

The DS v PSP prerelease debate was a lot like the original Gameboy v Atari Lynx, you know.

[Hi]

I bought the nds in the late spring in the first year of it's realise; when it was still extreamly young and people were dobting it. I, to, was not excited about two screens, I just wanted to play games that were 3-D. Only now do I realise how un-important the 3-d feature is (though nice on many levels) compared to the touch-screen and 2-screen "feature"

Oh, and who says nintendo isn't the king? With the wii, I think that they might end up winning the 7th generation.