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Well, the DS has been shown, whoopee, I bet Dringo wet his pants this afternoon.
So, anyway, this dual screen malarky, revolutionary? A brilliant change to the way games are played by the industry?
Well, guess what, I don't agree, and I'm going to be called a Sony fanboy, or at very best, an anti-Nintendo zealot for it ;)
Anyway, here's my gripe, there's nothing revolutionrary about the DS what-so-ever. People are talking as though they have never seen dual screen hardware in gamers lifetime, well, I hate to dissapoint you all, but the dual screen handheld format was tried, tested and loved by us golden oldies a little short of 20 years ago.
[URL]http://www.infa.abo.fi/~buck/misc/gizmos/pix/nintendo.game+watch.mickey+donald.open.jpg[/URL]
This picture shows a NINTENDO Game And Watch handheld single game device from almost TWENTY years ago.
[URL]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/12/nintendo_ds_comms/[/URL]
This image shows an almost identical looking handheld game platform, released by the very same company, but claim this dual screen arhitecture to be new, revolutionary, and well, good.
I'm not saying there may be some niche elements available to gamers, but I feel that most games developers will not use the additional screen for anything useful. Football games will have a top down radar, metroid will have a map, mario kart will have the track and player positions, basically world information about locations and the layout of the world will be used on this screen.
There is a good reason for this too, people can only concentrate their vision to a single focal point at a time. No one can concentrate on both of those screens at the same time, so one screen will be used for gameplay, and the other for displaying information.
This is a good thing given the paltry size of the DS screen, it means the game screen can be uncluttered with HUDs and the like but concentrate solely on letting the player play the game.
I will be truely amazed if anyone on this forum can come up with an original gameplay dynamic which could actively use the two screens of the DS in a way that could not be done on a single screen.
I'm even thinking of having, say, a heat sensor camera on the top screen, and a normal view on the bottom. This would be done MORE effectively on a single screen as a current day frame rate is at a higher reresh rate then the ability of a person to change their point of focus from one screen to the other. Sinply hitting a button to change views whilst focusing on a single point is a more natural way of playing a game.
So, I suppose I have set myself up for a fight by challenging the might of Ninetndo, again, but surely there are more innovative things happening in the world of gaming than a twenty year old handheld design being rereleased to a massive fanfare with no clear cut example of how this creates a revolution.
Nintendo should be commended for spinning up some dust to hide Sony's far nore impressive PSP handheld entertainment device.
The PSP is much more of a students system, good games, good movies, good sounds, wireless and one decent big widescreen which will let people who commute, or like to enjoy the comforts of their bedroom in some glorious sunshine.
The DS is not a gaming revolution, it's a bit like 90s pop music, a remix of something old people liked twenty years ago, just with more colours and more marketing hype. Take the DS with a pinch of salt, it's not worth the hype.
So, anyway, this dual screen malarky, revolutionary? A brilliant change to the way games are played by the industry?
Well, guess what, I don't agree, and I'm going to be called a Sony fanboy, or at very best, an anti-Nintendo zealot for it ;)
Anyway, here's my gripe, there's nothing revolutionrary about the DS what-so-ever. People are talking as though they have never seen dual screen hardware in gamers lifetime, well, I hate to dissapoint you all, but the dual screen handheld format was tried, tested and loved by us golden oldies a little short of 20 years ago.
[URL]http://www.infa.abo.fi/~buck/misc/gizmos/pix/nintendo.game+watch.mickey+donald.open.jpg[/URL]
This picture shows a NINTENDO Game And Watch handheld single game device from almost TWENTY years ago.
[URL]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/12/nintendo_ds_comms/[/URL]
This image shows an almost identical looking handheld game platform, released by the very same company, but claim this dual screen arhitecture to be new, revolutionary, and well, good.
I'm not saying there may be some niche elements available to gamers, but I feel that most games developers will not use the additional screen for anything useful. Football games will have a top down radar, metroid will have a map, mario kart will have the track and player positions, basically world information about locations and the layout of the world will be used on this screen.
There is a good reason for this too, people can only concentrate their vision to a single focal point at a time. No one can concentrate on both of those screens at the same time, so one screen will be used for gameplay, and the other for displaying information.
This is a good thing given the paltry size of the DS screen, it means the game screen can be uncluttered with HUDs and the like but concentrate solely on letting the player play the game.
I will be truely amazed if anyone on this forum can come up with an original gameplay dynamic which could actively use the two screens of the DS in a way that could not be done on a single screen.
I'm even thinking of having, say, a heat sensor camera on the top screen, and a normal view on the bottom. This would be done MORE effectively on a single screen as a current day frame rate is at a higher reresh rate then the ability of a person to change their point of focus from one screen to the other. Sinply hitting a button to change views whilst focusing on a single point is a more natural way of playing a game.
So, I suppose I have set myself up for a fight by challenging the might of Ninetndo, again, but surely there are more innovative things happening in the world of gaming than a twenty year old handheld design being rereleased to a massive fanfare with no clear cut example of how this creates a revolution.
Nintendo should be commended for spinning up some dust to hide Sony's far nore impressive PSP handheld entertainment device.
The PSP is much more of a students system, good games, good movies, good sounds, wireless and one decent big widescreen which will let people who commute, or like to enjoy the comforts of their bedroom in some glorious sunshine.
The DS is not a gaming revolution, it's a bit like 90s pop music, a remix of something old people liked twenty years ago, just with more colours and more marketing hype. Take the DS with a pinch of salt, it's not worth the hype.
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Oh and you can have front and rear views at the same time.
Twin screens:
You can have a characters stats/a map on one and play the game on the other.
Great for RPGs.
You can have a characters stats/a map on one and play the game on the other.
Great for RPGs.
Haven't read all this but:
DS contains 'nothing revolutionary'?
Neither did the PS2 at launch...
DS contains 'nothing revolutionary'?
Neither did the PS2 at launch...
Anyone got any pics of it closed?
For interest's sake.
For interest's sake.
The DS nearly made me wet my pants.
Have you seen Pac Pix? Doesn't sound like much of a game, but, boy, does it sound fun.
Animal Crossing will be helped by the touch screen-age
Baloon Trip (probably only a demo, but, whartever) is another good use of touch screen for great good
Table Hockey looks like asimle game, but could it be faithfully done on, say, the GBA, it no touch screen and singular screen?
You could even play house of teh dead on the console, for heavens sake.
And for the twin screen thing? Somebody will find a use, but, for the moment, i'm happy with it being for maps and stuff, and the fact that we've fgot a touch screen...
I think it'll be a launch day affair for me.
Have you seen Pac Pix? Doesn't sound like much of a game, but, boy, does it sound fun.
Animal Crossing will be helped by the touch screen-age
Baloon Trip (probably only a demo, but, whartever) is another good use of touch screen for great good
Table Hockey looks like asimle game, but could it be faithfully done on, say, the GBA, it no touch screen and singular screen?
You could even play house of teh dead on the console, for heavens sake.
And for the twin screen thing? Somebody will find a use, but, for the moment, i'm happy with it being for maps and stuff, and the fact that we've fgot a touch screen...
I think it'll be a launch day affair for me.
PSP looks far, far better, but the DS still looks like a nice, PDA-type thing.
gamezfreak wrote:
> Like it states in the original post, The DS is looking way too
> "Game n Watch".....
It doesn't look too GnW when you see the real shots of it.
And besides it'll look different by release.
> Like it states in the original post, The DS is looking way too
> "Game n Watch".....
It doesn't look too GnW when you see the real shots of it.
And besides it'll look different by release.
The stylus will be for on-screen keyboards, picture messaging, etc.
I doubt it would be used for many games.
I doubt it would be used for many games.
Oh, and how are we supposed to hold the stylus, press the screen, and press the buttons on the other side and the d-pad at the same time - bearing in mind a very low % of the population are Hindu gods.
Like it states in the original post, The DS is looking way too "Game n Watch".....
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