January 7th, 2008 by sergioalb64
If you have a DS, chances are you love it and play it to death. You know it can play GBA games, and you know it has two screens, Wi-Fi capabilities, touch screen input support, and many good games for all sorts of genres. We’re sure, however, that you might not know a thing or two about the system. We have put together a list of cool and interesting DS facts that is sure to entertain you; use it well and you will be known as the ‘DS Master’ at school, work, or the local Starbucks.
Although everyone knows it as the Nintendo DS, at one time the system was code-named “Nitro”. The name was later changed back to Nintendo DS.
The Nintendo DS was Nintendo’s first gaming system to be released in North America prior to Japan
Each DS screen has a resolution of 256 x 192 pixels.
The DS has two processors, 4MB of RAM, and 256 KB of flash memory.
The DS was Nintendo’s first handheld device with stereo sound without the use of headphones.
By September 2007, the DS had sold 50 million units worldwide, making it the fastest-selling handheld gaming device to date. As of writing, the system has sold over 65 million units around the world.
The Nintendo DS is available in China and is known as the iQue DS, which features a larger firmware to accommodate Chinese character glyph images.
Nintendo DS systems can play any DS game except iQue DS games. However, the iQue DS can play any DS game.
Actionloop, the European version of the DS puzzler Magnetica, is bundled with a DS Rumble Pack.
DS game cards can hold up to 128 MB (1 Gigabit) of data, with the rare exception of the game ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat, which features a 256 MB card. The standard 128 MB DS card has twice the capacity of the largest Nintendo 64 titles.
The ‘virtual gap’ between the system’s screens equates to about 92 hidden lines of pixels.
The system is designed to render 3D graphics to one a screen at a time, making two-screened 3D graphics difficult to achieve.
Up to 16 people can connect to an specific room in PictoChat.
There are over 500 unique DS games in North America alone.
Cool stuff, eh?
Posted in Game Culture, DS News |
January 8th, 2008 at 6:31 am
[…] For more facts like this, follow this link. […]
January 8th, 2008 at 8:36 am
It is amazing, when you look at a game like Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, how much developers are able to do with only 4MB of RAM.
As a comparison, how much memory did the N64 have?
January 8th, 2008 at 9:59 am
veeger: According to Wikipedia.org the N64 had 4MB RAM.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Are you sure about that total worldwide sales number? There are so many numbers thrown around with consoles and handhelds, it’s hard to tell which are actually accurate.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:49 am
According to vgchartz.org that is the accurate worldwide sales.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:58 am
(Sorry - I’ve not visited before so I’m getting a little article-necro action going on here).
Not only are both screens running the same resolution, as far as I can tell from having done screen replacements for both, the hardware is identical. The bottom screen has touch capabilities due to a screen overlay, not different screen hardware.
January 18th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Is 128MB really one gig?
January 18th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
128 MB = 1 Gb
1028 MB = 1 GB
It’s easy to confuse the two; Gigabits and GigaBytes