New Nintendo DSi Announced 290
justme8800 writes "The DSi has a bigger screen, an SD card expansion, a 0.3 megapixel camera, is thinner (no GBA slot), and has improved audio. To be released in Japan on November 1st, everywhere else sometime in 2009."
Lack of GBA slot easily solved (and improved on) (Score:4, Interesting)
Virtual Portable. Not only downloadable GBA games, but GBC, GB, Gamegear, NeoGeo Pocket, Lynx, etc. That's not a press release, just my own note of an obvious thing for Nintendo to do. Aside from being able to play your GBA games this way, you'd be able to carry all of them with you without carrying/fiddling with any cartridges. Too bad they aren't doing the same with the DS games. Or are they? Or perhaps for new DSi-only games. That's certainly the direction they should be going: all download.
The jury's out on homebrew compatibility... (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the driving forces behind the development of the DSi is the rampant piracy in the DS market. You can buy a flash card and 1GB microSD card that'll run copied ROMs for less than $20 these days. I fully expect Nintendo has incorporated some fairly aggressive tech to prevent copying. That's not a bad thing, except that it throws up yet another roadblock for homebrewers. The DS is a capable, affordable and widespread platform that would benefit tremendously from independent development, yet there's no way that Nintendo is every going to let that happen without extracting a pound of flesh through their online download service.
We're officially in a new era in which manufacturers see it as their duty to lock down their portable computers - I hope that the Pandora is a success, although I fear we'll have to wait a few years before a manufacturer comes along and blows the market open with a tiny box that can run third party code without obstruction
New shiny toys (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll be honest, I haven't played my GBA games in a while (gasp! zomgshockhorror what sort of nerd is this?!?) and I'm not in the homebrew community (gasps have now been replaced by sounds of fainting from the peanut gallery), so I won't be missing that end of it. And I still have my trusty GBA SP if worse comes to worse, and I don't NEED to trade in my old DS ("DS", hard stop — yes, just the DS, not Lite). And (potentially) finally being able to ditch WEP on my wireless network would be a very nice addition.
And I'd be willing to bet Nintendo will have a way to access the camera from games, leading to all sorts of frivolity and goofiness along the way (members of the peanut gallery are now calling for my head). So I say, bring it on.
Re:There are already incompatible games (Score:3, Interesting)
But you can also insert an SD card directly into the DSi now, I'm sure they will find a way.
Re:The jury's out on homebrew compatibility... (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the driving forces behind the development of the DSi is the rampant piracy in the DS market.
How rampant? Thousands? Millions? Got some numbers?
Re:GBA slot will be missed. (Score:3, Interesting)
Of which 2 or 3 games, one of which being the DS browser (now built into the system) used that exp. port. The exp. port-less system won't be sold in the US in quantity until 2009 so they still have another christmas' worth of DSes to be sold with the expansion port. Shrinking market? Perhaps, but that's 5 months from now and most of those DSes will continue to work for another year or two.
Re:Subtle (Score:3, Interesting)