New Nintendo DSi: camera, music playback
Nintendo’s hit DS portable machine will come with a digital camera that will allow players to mix images, scribble on photos and create new faces, the Japanese game maker said Thursday. The Nintendo DSi will go on sale in Japan on Nov. 1 for 18,900 yen ($180), and will be available overseas next year. Dates and other details for overseas plans will be announced later by the company’s regional units later, President Satoru Iwata said. Iwata said the revamped DS is meant to be the first toy camera for children and a tool for network-building and party fun for older people in the company’s ongoing quest to make gaming popular with everyone — not just a niche crowd. One in six Japanese already owns a DS, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo, which also makes Pokemon and Super Mario games. But the goal is to make the DS a must-have for every Japanese, Iwata said.
The improved DSi is thinner than the current DS model, and will have a bigger screen, he said. The machine also comes with an audio player, to play sound stored in a memory card. Users will be able to change the speed of the sound. In a demonstration, Iwata showed that players will be able to listen to a foreign language lesson at a slower speed, or distort music or voices to a shrill pitch for fun. Nintendo also demonstrated new game software for its hit Wii home console, including “Wii Music.” Players just need to jiggle their remote controller to feel as though they are playing any of 60 musical instruments, including a drum set, sitar, saxophone and piano, although there are only 50 preprogrammed melodies. Nintendo has sold 77.5 million Nintendo DS handheld devices worldwide, nearly 23 million in Japan, far outselling Sony Corp.’s rival offering, the PlayStation Portable, at 41 million globally — 10 million in Japan.
Source: AP
Comments(27)
I think i’ll wait for the next one with DVD playback and sattelite support.
yesss! i never got around to buying a ds, but i think it is finally time. w00t
This is good otherwise, BUT they removed the GBA-port
Awesome ! it seems to have the awesome Opera browser built in !
Does anyone know if the screen resolution is going to be changed? What about backwards compatibility?
I wonder if we’ll be able to download Gameboy games.I want Zelda:Links Awakening DX, never got to play it first time round.
Sure I can download the rom, but I spend more time on the road.
Arrgh! And i just bought a ds like 2 days ago
hope its atleast 6 months before it hits Denmark!
I have been playin old gameboy games on my ds for a long time now including movies and music can any one say R4
@8
WOW!!1 You are truly my hero.
!! It Prints Money !!!
So now you know, “i” is the most expensive letter in the tech/com consumer market.
@ Pegasus # 11
“i” lol’ed
#8.
How do you play GBA/GBC colors with R4?
Thanks
#8. (correction to reply #13)
How do you play GBA/GBC games with R4?
Thanks
dont worry about the gba port, you can still use flashcards and do whetever you want.
This has been declared a RUMOR for about a month now (about the DS having a camera and for it to play audio files… Most likely having a Micro SD chip slot. I guess we’ll find out today whether it is now truthfully confirmed, or if people BS’ed this… It was “supposed to have dual widescreen touch screens with better screen resolution” that was rumored months ago… What happened to that rumor?
@ ebisr
You can’t play GBA/GBC games with an R4, I have one. You have to buy a Gameboy advace cartridge with an SD card slot in it (like the M3 cartridge, which I’m getting from a friend), and even then I’m not entirely sure if you can play GBC/GB games on it, as the DS didn’t put that chipset it when they made the DS… It was like the Gameboy Micro.
You can play old Gameboy and Gameboy Color games with an R4 and an emulator. That’s how I played through Metal Gear: Ghost Babel.
Thank you # 16 & 17
#17 – What emulator do you use and how do you program the R4 to run the GBA/GBC games?
i love my PSP! waiting for PSP2! never bn a nintendo fan…!! but both can defintely co-exist…love the way the portable gaming mkt. is shaping up! BRING IT ON!
‘They’ll’ (Nintendo) almost certainly remove the ability to run the R4 or SimplyDS on this new baby, they’ve been losing millions to piracy!!!
Oh… I’m sorry, hahahaha I forgot that I have Gameboy roms on my DS!
I use Lameboy for an emulator, I find that one’s the best… Again, sorry about the earlier post… Lameboy supports both GB and GB roms… As for GBA roms though, you’ll have to to buy a cartridge for the GBA slot… I’m getting myself an M3… For emulators, I have Lameboy for my Gameboy roms, NesDS for my NES roms, and SNEmulDS for my SNES roms. I don’t believe there is a GBA emu though 
Thank you Armstrong14
I wish you were more specific anyhow the good pc emulator that I know for GBA is Visualboy
LoL who the hell uses their GBA port? Ghetto people thats who. If I want to play GBA or GBC I’ll just pull out my old GBA or GBC.
DSi looks interesting, going to be lots of stuff to do with SD cards.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4425000/Wii.Softmod.Complete.DJTaz
This is a torrent link to 100% Genuine Wii Softmod files and tutorial to modding your wii for free to play “backups” on all regions. All you need is a 1-2 GB SD Card and rented or borrowed copy of Twilight Princess (Legend of Zelda).. Then the rest is easy if you just follow the simple directions you will be able to play free games you downloaded just like someone that has a hardmodded wii.
Go to GBAtemp.net for details.
Well, this brings some .3 mega pixel camera… thats right .3?! thats crap, i do like the gba slot, cuz not all ds games are not uber amusing and sometimes an oldie game is just what you need….
music? thats what my cyclone is for, so for me, my ds is better than this new DSi, pze.
Actually that’s just one of the cameras. It’s supposed to have two.
The only real plus I see in the DSi is the bigger screens and the fact that they’re both touchscreens. Everything else is pointless.
And yes, they shouldn’t have taken the gba slot, but still with the SD card slot the emulation will be easier.
There is a kart that is confirmed working on the dsi.
It is called AceKart. and there is speculation of another….