ok, i know quite a few of you have already met the ds in personal. i had this pleasure only today - the sales guy at the nearest toy'r'us was kind enough to allow me to play awhile with the one unit on display. if you are curious what impression and thoughts i was left with, read on.
first, the display(s) - the device provides quite some screen real estate, be that split in the middle, and the backlight takes the pixel quality very close to maybe the prev generation of desktop LCDs (better than most smartphones and mid-level PDAs). one thing is for sure though, people won't need anymore to run their games in desktop-based emulators just to see the games in their true colors.
second, the touch-sensitivity of the bottom display may not sound as anything extraordinary but keep in mind this is a handheld designed for letting you keep your thumbs on its lower body - the second screen's location and touch-sensitivity then turn it into a very efficient input-output element of the interface - as you tap on the buttons you occasionally and without much effort tap on GUI contorls dynamically appearing on the lower screen - that's a whole lot more functional and convenient than any (small) button-based interface i've come across so far. where precision is required over speed the stylus steps in. but a well-devised speedy interface would require just your thumbs.
third, the wi-fi. although i didn't have the opportunity to try it out in action (there were no other units around) its presence in the ds is a very right thing with a lot of potential. as it has better network-layer characteristics than bluetooth (the latter has a more sophisticated innate protocol, but the connection layer behind that has a lot to be desired of). potentially, the wi-fi would allow for very viable medium-sized networks (15-25 units).
fourth, the madia - the new format has a good price-performance (performance reading both volume and speed) ratio, sufficient for games to have some short CGI sequences. and the capability to read the old cartridges here gives one big advantage aside from running the gba library - people already know how to upload custom content through that cartidge format.
fifth, weight, sturdiness and battery life. first two were absolutely ok with me, and we're yet to see about the latter but first reports are more than promissing.
now, the above five points immediately steered my thoughs into one direction - the ds is actually very close to my idea of a versatile, multimeda-capable mobile device. think of an ergonomic mobile data terminal with the capabilities to handle video and audio content from cartridge or via network connection, with a human interface both ritch and of millisecond-fast mechanics. basically something the PDAs never were. so, to conclude this post, i'm more than anticipating to see what demo coders and hackers can make out of this "game" machine. i, personally, am more than willing to get my dirty little hands on its devtools.
first, the display(s) - the device provides quite some screen real estate, be that split in the middle, and the backlight takes the pixel quality very close to maybe the prev generation of desktop LCDs (better than most smartphones and mid-level PDAs). one thing is for sure though, people won't need anymore to run their games in desktop-based emulators just to see the games in their true colors.
second, the touch-sensitivity of the bottom display may not sound as anything extraordinary but keep in mind this is a handheld designed for letting you keep your thumbs on its lower body - the second screen's location and touch-sensitivity then turn it into a very efficient input-output element of the interface - as you tap on the buttons you occasionally and without much effort tap on GUI contorls dynamically appearing on the lower screen - that's a whole lot more functional and convenient than any (small) button-based interface i've come across so far. where precision is required over speed the stylus steps in. but a well-devised speedy interface would require just your thumbs.
third, the wi-fi. although i didn't have the opportunity to try it out in action (there were no other units around) its presence in the ds is a very right thing with a lot of potential. as it has better network-layer characteristics than bluetooth (the latter has a more sophisticated innate protocol, but the connection layer behind that has a lot to be desired of). potentially, the wi-fi would allow for very viable medium-sized networks (15-25 units).
fourth, the madia - the new format has a good price-performance (performance reading both volume and speed) ratio, sufficient for games to have some short CGI sequences. and the capability to read the old cartridges here gives one big advantage aside from running the gba library - people already know how to upload custom content through that cartidge format.
fifth, weight, sturdiness and battery life. first two were absolutely ok with me, and we're yet to see about the latter but first reports are more than promissing.
now, the above five points immediately steered my thoughs into one direction - the ds is actually very close to my idea of a versatile, multimeda-capable mobile device. think of an ergonomic mobile data terminal with the capabilities to handle video and audio content from cartridge or via network connection, with a human interface both ritch and of millisecond-fast mechanics. basically something the PDAs never were. so, to conclude this post, i'm more than anticipating to see what demo coders and hackers can make out of this "game" machine. i, personally, am more than willing to get my dirty little hands on its devtools.
