Gameboy DS

[Dan East]

Well, our local Wal-Mart has a Gameboy DS on display, so I played Metroid for a little while.

This may be old news, but I thought I'd give a short impression of what I thought of the hardware and 3D rendering.

First of all, the DS is large. It's as big as my a716 held on its side, plus another piece almost as thick hinged to the top. What gets me the most is how wide it is.

The controls are similar to the Advance SP. They don't feel as rugged as those on the previous Gameboy models. They feel more like an executive gadget than a bullet-proof kids' toy.

Now for the game. Metroid is a 3D First Person Shooter, with occasional 3rd person views when Shamus is a ball.

Control is just like Pocket Quake - stylus is used to control mlook, dpad moves forward / back and strafes. I didn't have time to play with other control schemes, but that is the only way to actually play the game (ie it is not possible to play without the touchscreen) with the default controls.

One modification to the touchscreen control is tapping to fire. Wherever you tap on the screen is where Shamus shoots at.

I'm not sure how I feel about that type of aiming. For one, it reduces gameplay to those "smash the gopher" games. There is no aiming - you just touch where you want the projectile to go. The other issue is it makes circle strafing impossible. Finally, that's a heck of a lot of tapping. I just can't see these screens holding up when actual gameplay requires their use. I thought the touchscreen would be more for menu selection, future PDA-like functionality, drawing programs, etc. Not for hardcore gameplay. If I gave something like this to my 7 year old, the display would be scratched to pieces after a week.

Now for the rendering. I don't remember if the DS has 3D hardware rendering, or if its CPU is simply beefy enough to do software rendering. The key issue here is that I can't tell visually if the rendering is hardware or not, which should immediately indicate that the rendering is not that good. Specifically there is no bilinear filtering. The texels are blocky, exactly as with Quake / Quake 2 software rendering. Quite simply the rendering is nothing that a Pocket PC couldn't render with a good software engine. Having worked with the ATI 2300 mobile GPU, I can say the rendering isn't even close - not by a long shot. It's like comparing PS1 to PS2 rendering-wise.

The dual screen could be useful, but in a first person shooter I was simply too engrossed in the gameplay to remember to look at the upper screen, which shows a map.

Also I noticed a grid of small white dots covering the bottom screen. I've seen those before on various devices with touchscreens. However they seemed to be more noticable on the DS than any other device I've used.

Dan East

[sponge]

I think technically it's the Nintendo DS - it's not part of their Game Boy line.

It's been known for a while that the touchscreen will be for gameplay, and although I only tried it out for a minute, liked the aiming system with the Metroid Prime game.

I'm more excited about the possibilities of WiFi in it - the people who made that GameCube tunnelling app are now working iwth Nintendo with something "revolutionary" with the DS.

[deciever]

I've actually already paid for it when I went to blockbuster and it is on pre-order. I wasn't for sure of how many wal-mart where I live was gonna get cuz I there is like a shortage of like 1 million. Nintendo estimated the launch would require 1 million but it turns out there are already pre-orders up in the 2 million.

At any rate I like the idea of the 2 screens and touch screen which was said to be more sturdy than most touch screens from the reviews I have read(Also from reading a scanned manual of the DS I think it was supose to come with a screen protector already on the bottom screen, also wal-mart will have a starter kit having a screen protector for the top screen too).

Depending on how far people are going to be able to go with it I may let my asus a620 rest in peace. What I am looking forward too is pda like applications and web browsing. Also NES, SNES emulation would be nice and psx would be ironic.

[jubjub64]

That would definitely be cool to have seperate web pages open on each screen. Or have a game going on the bottom screen and web surfing on the top.

Btw Dan, small correction: its Samus not Shamus.

[kornalius]

Do you guys really think Nintendo DS will be powerful enough to emulate SNES? That would be pretty cool in fact.

[Dan East]

Btw Dan, small correction: its Samus not Shamus.

Well, at least I was close. It's been 15 years since I played Metroid on NES.

Dan East

[sponge]

Do you guys really think Nintendo DS will be powerful enough to emulate SNES? That would be pretty cool in fact.

Isn't there already a fast SNES emu for GBA? *finds*

[deciever]

Do you guys really think Nintendo DS will be powerful enough to emulate SNES? That would be pretty cool in fact.

Isn't there already a fast SNES emu for GBA? *finds*

Yes but the last I heard about it was that it was very glitchy, supported very few games and has no sound emulation. So to the people who bash snes emulation on ppc just try it on the GBA. I actually think the snes emulation on ppc works extremely well and I think even gba emulation on ppc is under-rated.

[Andy]

What is the stylus made out of?

[Dan East]

Its plastic and its big - bigger and thicker than any PDA stylus.

Dan East

[Andy]

I have to wonder about that. How long is that nice round stylus point going to stay smooth and not scratch the screen? Especially, with a kid.

Or is that a non-issue?

[mechanori]

Just a few things.

First of all, I'm almost positive that the stylus for the display models is much larger than the ones that actually come with the DS. Also, another input method (pictured here: http://ds.ign.com/articles/564/564540p1.html) using a thumb pad is also packaged with the console. I used the thing personally, and I wouldn't say that it isn't durable. I don't see myself punching a hole through the screen no matter how much pressure I use.

Secondly, when you comment on the graphics, you have to take it from a completely different perspective. The DS comes after the GAME BOY ADVANCE, an SNES quality machine. This is a huge leap for the mass market in terms of graphics. Also, I wouldn't say they look ugly at all. Most of the games run at a fluid 60 frames per second, which makes them look a whole lot better than any PPC game I've ever seen. Not only that, but the DS only costs $150, and thats with a built-in chat program and demo game card. We're not talking $300 PPC hardware here. We're talking about the mainstream.

The control method you used is very archaic; although it began this way at E3, the real methods of play still use the touch screen, yet don't involve tapping at all, rather, shooting is done via the L or R button (depending on if you are left or right handed).

Sorry to be so defensive, but I've been following this thing since they first showed it. I know a whole lot about it, and I can understand why the PPC scene might have misconceptions. Either way, your opinion is your opinion.

[Brig]

Either way, your opinion is your opinion.

Just in case they didn't understand that right?

Personally, I'll judge the system on its merits when I eventually get my hands on one. It's odd, so I don't want to spend 150 bucks on a system that might be destined to fail commercially.

The Sony PSP looks like the more powerful system.

[Guest]

Either way, your opinion is your opinion.

Just in case they didn't understand that right?

Personally, I'll judge the system on its merits when I eventually get my hands on one. It's odd, so I don't want to spend 150 bucks on a system that might be destined to fail commercially.

The Sony PSP looks like the more powerful system.

Better graphics doesn't mean better games. With 2 million preorders in Japan, the DS is the third best-selling console there, and its already sold out in a number of stores, like EB and Gamestop, in the US. I don't think it will fail just yet.

[Brig]

I'll judge it when I see it. I tend to like shiny graphics and large library of games for older people (PSP will probably win on both counts). The PSP is also more attractive than the DS. Still, I'll look at both when I can to see which is better.