[Lord Traith]

Yeah, this is one upgrade I'm not springing for. There's just nothing that different for me to fork out more money. Now, what I want to know is this: Why on Earth did they not stick a GBA slot in that thing? You can't tell me it wouldn't have fit... That would have been a really smart thing for them to do.

[boyward]

Lord Traith, on 02 March 2010 - 08:00 PM, said:

Yeah, this is one upgrade I'm not springing for. There's just nothing that different for me to fork out more money. Now, what I want to know is this: Why on Earth did they not stick a GBA slot in that thing? You can't tell me it wouldn't have fit... That would have been a really smart thing for them to do.

Yes, I agree about the GBA thing. That's one reason why I'm keeping my DS Lite. (That, plus I want to keep it around to play multiplayer with my son.) I don't have a DSi so this will be a pretty good upgrade for me and my tired old eyes. I'm also looking forward to playing stylus-controlled games like Zelda without my fat hand covering up the whole screen.

[keyblade]

boyward, on 02 March 2010 - 09:06 PM, said:

Yes, I agree about the GBA thing. That's one reason why I'm keeping my DS Lite. (That, plus I want to keep it around to play multiplayer with my son.) I don't have a DSi so this will be a pretty good upgrade for me and my tired old eyes. I'm also looking forward to playing stylus-controlled games like Zelda without my fat hand covering up the whole screen.

I never got a DSi either. The PSP has all that the DSi had to offer except for the cameras.

The bigger screens are tempting, though. And the stylus, too. I wonder if the new stylus's (or whatever the plural of stylus is.) are compatible with the DS Lite.

[Luinnar]

Cing (the developer of Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk) files of bankruptcy. They owe 256 million yen (about $2.5 million).

Nintendo should buy them. They do great work for the DS.

[Luinnar]

Rumor, DS2 coming soon?

Quote

Details have surfaced from GDC at San Francisco, CA pointing to a potential release this year of Nintendo’s DS follow-up. This isn’t a new iteration of existing DS tech, either. The report mentions dual screens being used as one, an accelerometer, and development kits comparable to the GameCube.

Raymond Padilla questioned anonymous developers that claimed to be working on the “DS2” (no official name was revealed). Allegedly, the system will also have two screens even larger than the DS, but the gap between them will be so narrow that games will utilize both to display one big picture. We'd like to see a DS where the "other" screen can be used for something other than a map, so this is a good start.

The development kit is said to be comparable in power to the GameCube. Game creators who are familiar with the GameCube or Wii will be right at home crafting games for the new handheld. Developers busy working on games said there isn’t much of a learning curve.

Additionally, an accelerometer is said to be incorporated into the handheld. If you’ve toyed around with pretty much any smart phone, you’re familiar with the screen tilting action. We imagine this will lead to many balance beam and pinball minigames.

These game creators said the games for the new handheld will be completed by the end of the year. Whether Nintendo releases the unit by then is still mysterious. However, enigmatic sources say that we might see an E3 2010 announcement and a release later this year.

Keep in mind that none of this information is official. We’ll keep you posted if anything new comes up.

I think a new DS coming this year might be a little too soon considering the DSi XL comes out later this month (it did come out earlier in Japan though).

But the holiday season is the best time to release it.

[boyward]

Luinnar, on 12 March 2010 - 06:16 PM, said:

Rumor, DS2 coming soon?

I think a new DS coming this year might be a little too soon considering the DSi XL comes out later this month (it did come out earlier in Japan though).

But the holiday season is the best time to release it.

I am now just a wee bit hesitant to keep my pre-order for the DSi XL. Part of me wonders if I should hold out for the DS2. On the other hand, I have a significant backlog of regular DS games to play through, and it's conceivable that I could be busy with those well into the lifespan of the DS2.

I really like the idea of pulling the two screens together to make one big one. I've always thought it was awkward in games like Contra 4 where bullets pass through that area where you can't see anything and come out of nowhere to clobber you on the screen below.

When they say the DS2's screens are larger than those of the DS, I wonder which DS they're talking about? DS, DSi, or DSi XL? There are already significant differences between those three DSes.

[Luinnar]

More rumors, found this via Kotaku:

Quote

One of my missions for Game Developers Conference 2010 was to get more information on the successor to the Nintendo DS. I heard some cool rumblings about it in February and wanted to use the show to pester developers for confirmation. While nobody would tell me the name of the new handheld or the exact dimensions, I was able to extract some pretty cool tidbits on the “DS2″.

* The system has two screens, just like the DS, but they are bigger and higher resolution. I’m sure most of you could have guessed that, but the interesting part is that the gap between the two screens is negligible. Developers will be able to use them as one giant screen. At the very least, this will allow for some awesome cutscenes. It also has some potentially cool gameplay potential, with developers shifting the action from dual screen to single screen depending on the situation.

* The next Nintendo handheld has an accelerometer. I blame the iPhone for this. Everything has to have an accelerometer now. Yesterday I bought a sandwich at the Moscone Center and it had an accelerometer in it.

* The dev kit is similar in power to the GameCube. Developers that worked on GameCube or Wii games will find it easy to create with. I found this information unusual. The DS successor is rumored to use an Nvidia Tegra chip, while the GameCube and Wii have PowerPC CPUs and ATI GPUs. The people familiar with the dev kit made it sound like there wasn’t much of a learning curve on the new system. I have to admit that I’m not familiar enough with Tegra, but I imagined developing for a system-on-a-chip platform to be different enough from developing for a CPU/GPU system. It could be ignorance on my part or maybe the DS2 uses something other than Tegra.

* The developers I spoke with will be finished with their games before the end of the year. The Nintendo DS is still going strong and the company could delay the next handheld’s release if it wanted to, but it looks like an E3 2010 announcement and a late 2010 release.

That’s all I have for now. Remember, none of this information came from Nintendo. It came from developers that claim to be working on the new system. Some of them I’ve met before, while some were introduced to me by people that knew I was looking for DS2 details. Hopefully none of them were hammered and thinking, “Hey! Let’s mess with the guy trying to dig up Nintendo information.”

[Phazon]

And alas, it has been announced. More details at E3.

Quote

Nintendo has announced a new handheld device known as the Nintendo 3DS. The system is slated for a release before March 2011, with the official announcement coming on June 15th during E3.

According to the Nintendo release, the system will feature 3D gaming and require no glasses, feature cart based games, is the successor to the Nintendo DS, will feature backwards compatibility, and hold a target release date of before March 2011. Previously, rumored specs of the handheld had graphics comparable to that of the GCN, no mention of graphics output was made here, though. All the other information will be known at this year's E3 showing.

We'll have more information as it becomes available, but as of now, this is all Nintendo has released.

[Luinnar]

It sounds neat.

Here is a DSIware game that is out/coming in Japan that is 3D, might be similar to how they will handle the new system.

[Rexman64]

Wow, I hadn't seen that style of 3D before... After seeing Avatar, my opinion on 3D became "occasionally cool, but mostly dumb." That sort of window to another world style looks way more interesting.

Since they started revealing the fifth generation Pokemon recently... I wonder if there's any chance for the new set of Pokemon games to be available at launch. That would be an incredible game to start a system with, just in terms of sales.

Also, Pikmin 3 was recently (re)confirmed. Possibly another 3DS game?

[Lord Traith]

Saw this earlier... It's good to know that Nintendo is putting that obscene load of money earned from the Wii and DS to good use!

[Sargus]

I'm surprisingly excited about the idea of 3D in a handheld. I think it's the lack of a need for glasses that sells it for me.

I would type more, but the truth is that I already did.

[Phazon]

Rexman64, on 23 March 2010 - 03:34 PM, said:

Wow, I hadn't seen that style of 3D before... After seeing Avatar, my opinion on 3D became "occasionally cool, but mostly dumb." That sort of window to another world style looks way more interesting.

Since they started revealing the fifth generation Pokemon recently... I wonder if there's any chance for the new set of Pokemon games to be available at launch. That would be an incredible game to start a system with, just in terms of sales.

Also, Pikmin 3 was recently (re)confirmed. Possibly another 3DS game?

When the new Pokemon generation was rumored, the big rumor was that it was going to be a launch title for the new system. After confirmed reports that the developer had 3DS dev kits, it was all but certain that the new generation is going to be a launch title. They have promised big things for the next entry in the series too. I'm really hoping for Pokemon Stadium style battles as a lot of the rumors seem to suggest the system is quite the visual powerhouse. Hopefully, we'll know everything at E3 unless somebody leaks it. I so want a leak! xD

[boyward]

The soundtrack CD that came with my copy of "Strange Journey" is a data CD, not a music CD. On my CD player it shows one track with 44 minutes of music, but no sound comes out. It looks like somebody at Atlus pushed the wrong button when making the CD.

[Luinnar]

boyward, on 24 March 2010 - 04:35 PM, said:

The soundtrack CD that came with my copy of "Strange Journey" is a data CD, not a music CD. On my CD player it shows one track with 44 minutes of music, but no sound comes out. It looks like somebody at Atlus pushed the wrong button when making the CD.

Yeah a lot of people are having problems. You can rip they to your computer and should be able to burn another cd if you want (I have not tried it yet).

Do you have a CD burner?

Edit: Just copy the folder into your music folder or copy the files into a new folder. You cannot rip it with Windows Media Player sadly.

[Forte V4]

Atlus is replacing the Strange Journey soundtracks. So, they fixed that problem, apparently.

...I want Strange Journey so much ;_;

[boyward]

Forte V4, on 26 March 2010 - 07:40 AM, said:

Atlus is replacing the Strange Journey soundtracks. So, they fixed that problem, apparently.

...I want Strange Journey so much ;_;

Yeah, I appreciated how they contacted me with this replacement plan, rather than vice versa, or responding with some half-hearted customer service line like, "Your satisfaction is important to us." I love it when businesses like Atlus are pro-active about problems like this.

EDIT: It could be because I'm a member of "Atlus Faithful". Maybe this was a general email sent to all the Atlus faithful?

[Sargus]

boyward, on 26 March 2010 - 08:56 AM, said:

Yeah, I appreciated how they contacted me with this replacement plan, rather than vice versa, or responding with some half-hearted customer service line like, "Your satisfaction is important to us." I love it when businesses like Atlus are pro-active about problems like this.

EDIT: It could be because I'm a member of "Atlus Faithful". Maybe this was a general email sent to all the Atlus faithful?

I got the e-mail as well, so I'm assuming it's an Atlus Faithful thing... And I've been really curious as to whether I could just follow the steps in the e-mail and get a free soundtrack CD without having to buy the game

[boyward]

Sargus, on 30 March 2010 - 04:39 PM, said:

I got the e-mail as well, so I'm assuming it's an Atlus Faithful thing... And I've been really curious as to whether I could just follow the steps in the e-mail and get a free soundtrack CD without having to buy the game

There is a box you have to check at the end of the mailing information that says something like "I promise I really did buy Strange Journey". So no, you couldn't do it honestly.

[scott_g777]

I don't know if anyone posted this, but the 3DS is coming soon and I think it actually looks pretty cool.



I guess it works without glasses too.