Nintendo DS: Facts, Fiction, Rumors

[EST323]

Here's is an informative thread I authored elsewhere on the web. I thought many of you might find it interesting. :)

Here's the official Specs:

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Oficial Nintendo Description:
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CPU Core

Main Processor - ARM946E-S (Running at 67 MHz)
Cache: 8 KB Instruction Cache, 4KB Data Cache
TCM: 8KB Instruction, 4KB Data
Sub Processor - ARM7TDMI (Running at 33 MHz)

Memory

Main Memory - 4 MB (Debug version has 8 MB)
ARM9/ARM7 Shared - 32KB (16KB x 2)
ARM7 Internal RAM - 64 KB
VRAM - 656 KB

LCD

Display Size - 256 x 192 RGB Screens x 2
Display Colors - 262,144 colors
2D Graphics Engine
Background - Maximum 4 layers
Objects - Maximum of 128
3D Graphics Engine
Geometric Transformation - Max 4 million vertex/sec
Polygon Rate - Max 120,000 polys/sec
Pixel Fillrate - Max 30 million pixels/sec

Sound
16 channel ADPCM/PCM (Max 8 channels can be set to PSG)

Microphone input

Wireless Communication
802.11 Protocol

Input Device
Touch Panel
Direction Pad, A, B, L, R buttons, Start, Select (X, Y buttons being considered)

Power Save
Sleep mode (WakeUp possible at set times or by wireless communication)
Power save for 2D engine, rendering engine, geometry engine, LCD screen possible.

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3D support will be powerful: 220M pixels/second (MPIS)

(One of the Nintendo DS' processors is the same processor that is used in "TapWave Zodiac.")

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Innovative Backlit Double Screens (Obvious)

16 Player Wireless Multi-Player

PDA Functions

Wireless Instant Messaging (local area)

Touch Screen

2+ Hours Video Play Back (3rd Party)

Mp3 Functions (3rd Party)

N64 Ports (16 Player GoldenEye) RUMOR

GBA/GBC/GB Backwards Compatibility RUMOR - I think it's fact ;)

Two Control Sticks/Control Pads (Fiction?)

Clam Shell GBA:SP style Design

A standard Headphone Jack

A Rumored Price of $129 RUMOR - It could be less.

Built In Rechargable Battery

4 Possible Face Buttons and 2 Triggers


Zelda DS possible at launch - RUMOR

RPG Dual Screen Management

Dual Screen Pinball Games

Sports Game Micro Management

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And here's one of the best ideas I have heard from a Nintendo fan:

"Co-Op Perfect Dark/Goldeneye, where you can see your teammate's view on the DS's second screen?"

Although, that's not my idea, it's still quite brilliant and it gives you an idea of the creative directions this machine could take.


My mind is racing when I think of the possibilities!

[blablamax]

Mmm .. Goldeneye and PD for the DS ... ? Mmm ...... Keep dreaming I say.

[Tedious Observer]

DS wont even be the official game from what i read on gca. i wonder what it will really be. better not be the nitro name that was earlier rumored.

[EST323]

The Nintendo DS can easily handle N64 ports. Also Nintendo owns full rights to the N64 versions of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.

They did pay for them after all. :)

[mattroid-GCA]

I'm not too keen on the hardware scene -- how good are those specs compared to, say, the Nintendo 64's?

[EST323]

If you are talking about actual performance, this machine could easily run N64 hardware.

One of the systems processors is the same one that is found in the "Tapwave Zodiac." Having seen that machine in action I can say that it is also quite capable of some impressive graphics.

Reguardless of Sony's lies about the Psp's performance, in the end, I feel Nintendo DS and Psp will have very similar graphics.

[mattroid-GCA]

Interesting -- but isn't the Zodaic the machine I've seen running that terrible Spy Hunter port? I havn't really seen anything that impressive on Tapwave's machine.

[blablamax]

Mmmm .. I dont think Nintendo are allowed to port Rare's games to their consoles .....

[Kirbimirsha]

It would be good tho, remember that rare is working on the gba and are likely to work on the DS and, sop, the PSP....i think they might du it somehow, even if rare are more likely to make original games.

[blablamax]

Microsoft and Rare had an agreement with THQ about releasing the GBA games. THQ didnt comment yet about the DS developing thought, but I pretty sure they will if they dont already started.

The problem is, that I think now, when the Handheld market goes 3D...Microsoft won't really like the fact that it's own first party developr will develop for their competitior. While I know this is another market, this is my feeling.

[EST323]

Originally posted by blablamax
Mmmm .. I dont think Nintendo are allowed to port Rare's games to their consoles .....

They are not Rare's games, they belong to Nintendo.

Anything produced by Nintendo is owned by Nintendo, and there is nothing MS can do about it.

[COTTON]

Originally posted by EST323
The Nintendo DS can easily handle N64 ports. Also Nintendo owns full rights to the N64 versions of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark.

They did pay for them after all. :)

Nintendo holds the copyright to Goldeneye. Rare holds the copyright to Perfect Dark. So a Goldeneye DS is certainly a good possibility. especially since there is a Goldeneye 2 coming out for the consoles probably around the same time the DS is being released, so it's certainly a good possibility.

though, who knows, Maybe Goldeneye will be ported to the GC as a bonus for preordering the GC version of Goldeneye 2. Or another bonus disk this holiday season like the LoZ collection last holliday season? Who knows.

[Freak of Kane]

Yeah, but I don't think the relationship is THAT stale between Rare/Nintendo now. Sure they work seperately, but according to GCA last year, Rare helped with the GBA conversion of DKC.

BTW, can't wait for DKC 2 on GBA! June 24th for Europe :D

[EST323]

For the record, Nintendo still owns all rights to the original Perfect Dark as well. Anything after that belongs to Rare.

[COTTON]

Thanks for correcting me, EST323.

[EST323]

Actually brother, I could be wrong. It's just what I was told by a low level Nintendo employe that I'm pen pals with :)

[BigBroMario]

If Ninty can pull all that off and sell it for $130 or less I will be very, very impressed. This thing is gonna blow us all away, this E3 is gonna be awesome...

[Kirbimirsha]

They need to pull it off......otherwise everyone will be impressed by the PSP and no-one will pay attention to the DS
I just hope they have some clever ideas which we havn t guessed about....like internet or something coool thats great and involves gaming.

[Lovebird]

they need to pull it off? what? no they don't you dope, it isn't like they are putting all their money behind it...if you were aware nin said if ten percent of people interested in it uy it, they'd be happy...so clearly, it isn't needed and vital to nin's life...secondly, what makes you think psp will overthrow nin's handheld systems? they reign over 95% of the handheld market.
don't give me that, well well psone dethroned nin...bull****, they didn't almost own the whole market, then they held 60-70% of the market...wasn't that hard to swing that .... but w/e...

[EST323]

IMO, Psp is heading towards serious failure. A $300 handheld with $40 games does not sound appealing to me. Especially with the 3 to 5 hours battery life that Sony quoted.

If anyone has their neck on the line, it's Sony. If Psp fails they are in big trouble because Ps3 could easily be next.

Once people actually see the Nintendo DS in action, I think they will be blown away. It's far more than anyone expected.

Just read my first post.

[blablamax]

I totaly agree. If the PSP will failled, the PS3 will be 100% effected, in my opinion - and this mean's only good for Nintendo and Microsoft.

[johnnyb853]

i only hope that the DS is closely related to some our predictions

[COTTON]

Originally posted by PatrickMugan
they need to pull it off? what? no they don't you dope, it isn't like they are putting all their money behind it...

No, they are not putting all of their money behind it, but just like any big product you need to use a large amount of money to give it a proper push. And I do believe Satoru Iwata said in an interview that if the DS is a total flop it could devistate Nintendo financially. It wouldn't bankrupt them, but it would hurt their pocket book so to speak. I just hope this product does live up to our ideas and invisioning of it.

To me, it seems like a cool enough concept, I just hope they can pull it all together in a tight little convenient package.

[OutlawAdidas]

yea I agree.


hey everyone, if you write *CLOSED* at the end of a post White Guy will get mad and call it spamming, so whatever you do,
do not not write *CLOSED*

[alegoicoe]

A nice port of Goldeneye for the DS wouldnt be bad

[Kirbimirsha]

But you can never be too careful.......remember that with the right software sony could get a nice chunk of the handheld market.

I'm not saying that nintendo doesn't have the ways of fighting back and being strong on their strongest market, but i think they might aswell push this system all they can because it has great potential from my point of view and if sony steals the show with a "walkman" hybrid then it would be a shame for the ever inventive ninty.....
Like cotton says, they can't fail with the Ds as iwata says coz it is a system that they WILL push.
Let just hope ninty can WOW us with a bang coz another E3 like last year would break my heart....

[victuoso]

I read somewhere that Nintendo demonstrated a Mario 64 version for the DS to demonstrate its capabilities

[OutlawAdidas]

Yes I also read that.


*CLOSEd*

/\

not mocking cuz it has a lower case "D"

[EST323]

And I do believe Satoru Iwata said in an interview that if the DS is a total flop it could devistate Nintendo financially

Ok, please fogive me but I just have to say something about this.

Iwata DID NOT mean that it would devastate Nintendo financial. He meant that it would devestate Nintendo SPIRITUALLY.

Nintendo has poured their hearts and souls into this machine.

This quote was misrepresented almost everywhere on the web. Especially over at IGN, a website that doesnt seem fond of Nintendo.

He also said that he doesn't expect everyone to cheer for the Nintendo DS when it's revealed.

[MAX]

I hope that it ISN'T backwards comptatible to GBA or GBC or GB.... just because then I wouldn't have a reason to buy the next gameboy. Ports from N64 sound interesting, but I hope that is limited to 25% of the software that comes out. I'm not worried about the performance of the machine in the least. I know it's gonna be pretty bad a$s... but I'm worried the software is gonna lag at launch =(

[COTTON]

Supposidly the next Gameboy will be disc based. The DS is backward compatible to hopefully roll over the HUGE audience of the Advance to the DS and give people that much more of a reason to buy the DS. The transition from carts to discs will be made in the next Gameboy.

Supposidly the next Gameboy will use the same discs and be roughly the same power as the Gamecube. By the time it's released they will be able to use a disc based media with a reasonable power consumption and reasonable price point.

[MAX]

Will it be backwards compatible with GC discs?

[COTTON]

?, i THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY WOULD LIKE THAT TO BE THE CASE, (whoops, my caps lock was on, sorry, and I dont feel like fixing it either) but as you can imagine, the release is quite a few years off, so it has yet to be determined. Hell, they may not even go this route come a few years down the road. I personally would like to see that be the case though. I wish sony did that with their PSone, make a cd player that basicaly plays PSone games. That would have been a killer system for them if they'd have done that, instead of this (supposidly) high-priced PSP.

[EST323]

Someone mentioned a possible lack of NDS software at launch.

With 30 games set for E3 alone, I don't think that should be a problem at all.

There is also another rumor floating about that says the NDS will have 100 games World-Wide by it's first Christmas.

Thats a ton of games.

[COTTON]

No shortage here.

[Kirbimirsha]

Whao, i'm impressed....but its soooo strange coz i heard only the japenese software houses like sega and namco got the dev. kits before Christmas....either the system is easy to develop for, either people are only porting old games ( noooo!) either nintendo is making most of the games .....
I just hope this amount of software is for the best ( if it means that we get 2million ports then i'll massacre my ninty mascot ;-) ).
Long live innovation !

[MAX]

i hope all the games aren't stupid games like you'd find on 'Yahoo Games" *check it out if you don't know what I am referring to*

100 games by christmas is a LOT. How long does it take to develop a new game for a new system? Does that seem unusual that the developers just recieved the kits a few months ago and there is rumor that 100 games will be out by christmas? That seems...odd... to me.

[COTTON]

it's being released this holiday season. The holiday season after this upcoming one is the holiday season they're refering to by having a hundred games by then.

[MAX]

oh... but is that still realistic for the type of games people are wanting to see on this device?

[Freak of Kane]

I see Rott's point...but then again the types of games people are expecting and the types of games they'll see on the device could be totally different. I wouldn't be surprised if only a few companies properly utilised the DS. Who's to say other companies aren't gonna release the Rayman 4's (totally out of context) and what not with a few extra gimmicks.

BTW, not disrespect to Ubisoft - Rayman 3 GBA and GCN has one of the best connectivity features I've seen. Arguably the best.

[COTTON]

How much you wanna bet when EA releases a (american) football game on the ds, you'll play the game on the top screen and nothing but the score board will be displayed below. you'll also pic your plays on the bottom touch screen.

Simple as that probably. That would be more than likely what we'll see from EA on this DS.

[Luigis_Angel930]

Just out of curiousity. The DS is being shown at E3 but when is it actually coming out into stores? For ME to own? :) I'm sorry if this was asked and answered before.

[alegoicoe]

The Nintendo DS is gonna be the Sh*t

[MAX]

Originally posted by Luigis_Angel930
Just out of curiousity. The DS is being shown at E3 but when is it actually coming out into stores? For ME to own? :) I'm sorry if this was asked and answered before.

For some reason I want to say it is supposed to be released worldwide around thanksgiving/christmas? I could be WAY off though.....

[Luigis_Angel930]

Wow that's so far away. :( Ok thank you. :)

[blablamax]

Mmmm,well Nintendo stated that the DS is planed to release world-wide durning November-December. If they will succee to do it? I dont sure. Ninty known for their love to push dates.

[MAX]

They can't afford to push dates... not this time. They could get away in the past with it... but it's getting way too cut throat do be doing that now.

[Kirbimirsha]

http://www.gamecubeland.com/index.php?page=news&news_id=2089

This is quite interesting, but not very credible in my opinion.....would be cool tho......

Who said that nintendo couldn't do this ?? Wish every night with oyur undies on to have this one becoming true ;-)

[blablamax]

Originally posted by rottwylor
They can't afford to push dates... not this time. They could get away in the past with it... but it's getting way too cut throat do be doing that now.

Well,this is what we said on the day of the announcement of the Cube, which if I dont mistake released after his original date.

[MAX]

Yeah... and nintendo got away with it...barely.

[EST323]

The latest Nintendo DS rumor comes from the infamous "patent document" that was circulated around the web.

Apparently, the Nintendo DS may have a hard drive or a built in "flash memory device." Allowing users to transfer GBA/GBC/GB games to their hard drives and play them on their DS.

This gives credence to a quote I heard elsewhere stating that the Nintendo DS would be backwards compatible, but "not in a way you would think."

Hmmmmmm

[Kirbimirsha]

Hmmmmmmmmm interesting but sounds expensive......we'll c.....