Kirbydode

Philnolan3d

secondly, nintendo took 4 editions of gameboy before they finally made a colour screen. it was another 3 years after that before they released the advance. READ: nintendo is slow to change.

now answer me this: why would they introduce a new screen aspect ratio when they've got an established screen layout with over 50 million customers? the studios know it, the customers know it, the people who don't have one but still want one know it. heck, it's the friggen logo.

this is not something that's going to change unless Nintendo is planning on scrapping the DS line as a whole and replace it. the screen aspect ration WILL stay the same on the next refresh, and will be the same until the entire DS line is replaced with, say, the DS Advance or DS2 or what have you.

as for the PMP aspect, just because nintendo can do something doesn't mean they will. the wii is perfectly capable of playing DVDs. the DS is already capable of playing MP3s. Nintendo, however, is good at staying FOCUSED as much as possible. the only reason the wii has the "news" and "weather" channels is that it is designed to primarily bring families and friends together- the actual gaming is second.

willyolio

MastaFalse

bigpolla

The touch works better on iPhone/iPod touch ...

so If they threw in a decent 3D-GPU, perhaps even a Physics processor, acellerometer, wifi that works out-of-the-box - then you´d have yourself a deal!

JoOngle

jsimondsmalamud

jamesvpat

Solidius

AND FOR PETE'S SAKE capacitive touch screens!

Also, the control surfaces would save power and hardware with virtualization(?). Think of it this way. You can use the touch screen already to tap input. Current D-Pad tech is silicone (for "bounce") and contacts. Well, Move that on top of a touch screen and it does the same thing. Or you could use your finger.
AND you can use an analog stick.

LED Backlight. No Not that expensive stuff. Just several banks of white LEDs behind a diffuser. Less heat, longer battery.

Firmware upgrades. Nothing special. Just Fixes. And I hate to do this, but... Patches are not actually applied to the firmware, but are stored separately. When the DS boots, it checksums the patch, checks for th Nintendo security key. and applies it in RAM.

Mic Array. 3 microphones (or more) to sense direction.

Backwards Compatibility: None on board for GBA, GB Color, but an attachment. (Lord knows 'N' likes THAT word.)

bobbiac

I did consider than it looks a bit like a makeup compact. Perhaps that could be part of Nintendo's goal of reaching a larger audience.

Philnolan3d

Thanks and you're right. A good example is Steven Spielberg. If you ever meet him and mention having an idea for a movie he'll walk away before you can say a word further.

If you send a portfolio to many of the big studios they'll make you sign something before they even look at it. Because if they do make something, even completely unrelated, you could find some little thing that looks like your portfolio (or movie idea) and sue them for stealing your idea.

Philnolan3d

Not only you got backward compatibility with the GameCube, but you can go back to NES and even other game systems.

With Nintendo bringing game downloads to the DS, it seems like a natural. Play the original Tetris, if that rocks your boat. No need for old cartridges.

Jesus Diaz

Lestat

Actually I was planning to put a GBA slot, but then Igot the measurements for the GBA cartridges and discovered that it would not fit, the whole cartridge is slightly thicker than this device. The DS carts are much slimmer so that was no problem.

Philnolan3d

Re. 1. Forward compatibility has never been a problem and is not a problem in this concept either. There's NO need for changing resolution in DS games. There's NO need to run them full screen in the big top screen. The actual game display area will be the SAME of both screens. As the article clearly says, games will run with two black bands on the side. Period. As for retro-compatibility, Nintendo has always broken backwards compatibility. A Gameboy Advance game can't be played in a GameBoy.

As for media playback on existing DS, there are MP3 players already. The logical step for Nintendo -from an economical point of view: it's just cheaper- is to use one of the many integrated silicons that have graphics, multimedia and general purpose processing into one. These are cheaper, faster, consume less energy and are generally available. It's like the Wii: use what's available at the cheapest prices. From there, the logical thing is to implement multimedia everything on the core of the system. Your views remind me of those who said "COLOR?! GAMEBOY WILL NEVER HAVE COLOR! IT'S STUPID!"

Re. 3. Same with price, like people saying that slimmer DS Lite wasn't possible when the rumors started. What you fail to comprehend is that the parts needed to do this are getting so dirty cheap that Nintendo can't ignore them. As soon as they have exhausted the current sales momentum, and with PSP gaining more strength everyday, Nintendo will just switch, reduce a little bit their margins for a while (if that) and keep on going.

The whole market is making these things cheap. Look at the PMP currently in the market, their screen qualities, features and price points. The components are so ubiquitous that, soon, it's going to be more cost-effective to overload the DS withprocessingl power than keep using old custom ASICs.

Jesus Diaz

GeekGoth

Upsilon

ihavenoimaginationwhenitcomestopickingausername

Savage6000

Solidsky

berribrand

endrewsmith1

Lavallee017

Nintenboy01

BoinK

Nintenboy01

Machete_Bear

Nintenboy01

dead_red_eyes

frigg

Also, don't make the bottom too thin. The DS Lite is right on the edge of being painful to hold b/c the lower part is so thin. Better to make the top as thin as possible in order to reduce overall thickness.

andrewkfromaz

willyolio

nintendo does not force studios to ensure all their games run on 2 different resolutions- they keep things simple and easy to program.

the DS is not the PSP, media playback will not officially exist on the DS and making a bigger screen for it is, therefore, stupid.

#2 i agree with. the next handheld will probably just be another DS. my guess? a DS without GBA support to slim it down more.

#3: too expensive? yes it is. where have you been for the last 2 decades? nintendo has never been about the latest and greatest, and lowering cost of parts means more profits, not bigger and newer tech.

willyolio

newgalactic

Murdermonkey

jspec1594

Reilaos~

Ask me how I know.

Serolf Divad

Brock

imTheKing

Elliuotatar

The terrible part about mockups like these are no matter how amazing they look, Nintendo (or whatever company) will make sure it doesn't look like that. I don't know if it's copyright stuff, design-stealing or what. It seems like whenever someone out in the world creates an amazing design for a product that is imminent, the actual product looks totally different and half the time worse.

xious

Is that a scream I hear in Cupertino?

Jesus Diaz

frigg

It occurs to me that this would be a... 1... 2... 3... jointed hinge, but it's... plausible. And cool.

Reilaos~

I've actually been trying to think of my own mock-up, but the only 'originality' I've got is to give it a spin-out/flip out top screen (a la Sidekick) that could also turn a-la tablet PC style and spin back in for a single screen mode for GBA or some other game that doesn't need the two-screen functionality. This flip-out screen, like the bottom should also be multi-touch-sensitive, for maximum awesome.

The bottom screen would have to be depressed for this to lie flush, moving the gba slot to the right side (if you kept the same space for the buttons, and somehow really really compacted the PCBs, you could fit a full-sized GBA game no problem.

Also, since there isn't any room for speakers on the top screen for this setup, they'd have to be under the buttons and D-pad, like the GBA, but stereo, this time. The start and select buttons would move to above the D-pad since I don't want to move the letter buttons down to make room, and since they'd need to be moved to make room for the speakers.

Putting the GBA ot on the right side would require movement of the stylus to god-knows-where, and the power switch somewhere up top, or something.

Thne all the fun digital stuff, (light sensor, accelerometer, etc).

Reilaos~

Windhawk

I am wondering if they will add motion controls to the handheld, tilt and your cart turns faster. It might be a hell of a lot better than the Wii, as the device itself is the screen.

nordbyk

kevinXnaked

smitty1123

Ghede

xhx

"...his cool version of this dreamed-up second-generation Nintendo DS that may not be that away from happening."

NoDeuces

weatherman

They milked the cow until it was dead. Then reinvented themselves. The next DS will be an evolution of power and features, not of basic concepts. It works great, so you don't need to change it just yet.

I predict DS for at least another decade or two, going through five generations or so. Each thiner and more powerful than the next.

Jesus Diaz

Regardless of all of that, I like this version and might even get me to purchase a DS.

Asvetic

Andune

Lavallee017

EMoShunz

EMoShunz

However, as not even Fort Knox (The Bureau of Engraving and Printing sounds too lame)prints as much money as the DS, I am not sure that we won't just see the Nintendo DS Lite + better hardware + bigger screens.

Don't stop innovating Nintendo!!!

nordbyk

Quite simple.

Jesus Diaz

kumuasata

Skemo

I wonder what just broke the sound barrier. I heard this "boom" somewhere.

Jesus Diaz

Serolf Divad

EMoShunz

slingblade

QB8Young