Nintendo's New Hardware


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Heyz, I was wondering whether or not some of you hardware tech wizzies could help with distinguishing what some of these testbed parts are?
You know, analogue sticks, speaker, and stuff, etc. the important things.

Below is the article taken from Kotaku.



Nintendo 3DS Going Widescreen?




An FCC filing submitted by Nintendo and Mitsumi, an electronics manufacturer, seems to be for the new Nintendo 3DS handheld. There's not much to it, but what there is should give hope to fans of widescreen gaming on the go. That pic above there is most likely a testbed for the Nintendo 3DS. Since the FCC report it turned up in is for its wi-fi system, there's no information on the inner workings of the handheld itself, but as you can see, while most of the board is a mess of prototype components, those two screens stand out clear as day.

The bottom one appears similar to the existing bottom screen on the Nintendo DS. A regular aspect ratio, lighter and looking slightly "spongier" thanks ot its touch screen interface. But get a look at the top screen! It's widescreen.

Before you go jumping to too many conclusions, know that this is prototype hardware, so it's not what you're going to see in the final production model. It doesn't take an industrial design student to work out that, if the top screen in this case is widescreen, then when the 3DS ships the bottom screen will probably be widescreen as well.

As for the rest, while it's tempting to spot an analogue stick, be warned that this picture is as hi-res as it gets, so it's tough telling what most of those components actually are (aside from the obvious bits like the screens and speakers).

Oh, and one more interesting thing: buried in the FCC reports is a request by Nintendo that the guts of the handheld not be made public for a time period of 180 days, dating from April 2010. That timeframe would expire just before the Christmas shopping season...

EW4DWMW028 [Federal Communications Commission, via Wireless Goodness, via Eurogamer]


EDIT: http://kotaku.com/55...oing-widescreen
 
After the GameCube the love between Nintendo and me was really over. The new "casual" Nintendo is not for me. Wii, DS, and 3DS included. Some very cool games that I'm missing out on, but in the end I really don't care at all. Not even about Chrono Trigger for the DS, and this says really something. And this 3D thingy is just another hype to sell you the very same crap in a "new" experience. Get ready for Mario 3D, Metroid 3D, Zelda 3D, Donkey Kong 3D, etcetera.

Could be a very cool device. But I'm not going to buy it. I'd rather buy a second Pandora or donate all the money to some developers.

No offense, but this also has zero to do with the Pandora.
 
Hmmm. A Stereoscopic mode for Pandora emulators... That would be brilliant.

3d-television-2.jpg
 
borgqueenx said:
I dont think this will be a console a youtube video can show. Curious how the device will be.

Ah, but Youtube has a mode for displaying 3D content. You can even chose the 3D rendering method (like anaglyph glasses or the double image thing where you have to cross your eyes).

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/07/youtube-3d.html
 
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JayFoxRox said:
Oh shit... now we have to re-design our upcoming DS emulators - how on earth would that gigantic display also fit on the pandoras screen?

Thankfully many of us are hard at work on the problem. We should have it sorted for you pretty quickly, we're brainstorming that hard. I love this place, it's such a rich think-tank.

All the Latest News
 
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Kotaku said:
It doesn't take an industrial design student to work out that, if the top screen in this case is widescreen, then when the 3DS ships the bottom screen will probably be widescreen as well.

The flaw in this logic is that there's no good reason it wouldn't be wide in the dev kit, where cost isn't a factor (and I doubt availability would be either, you could slap a touchscreen on anything). For an embedded platform like a handheld getting one of the resolutions wrong would completely crippled development, not to mention potentially be incompatible with other bits of hardware.

If you look at a current DS, a lot of space is wasted by speakers that a wide display could fill.. not so much the case for the bottom portion that needs to support controls.
 
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The 16:9 LCD is probably the 3D one. From Engadget:

It looks like Nintendo may have managed to run an early prototype of its upcoming 3D handheld, the 3DS, through the FCC without anyone noticing -- well, for a few weeks, anyway. The filing was made available on April 30 and Wireless Goodness spotted it, posting the image above showing what looks more like an ATX motherboard than a handheld gaming platform. But, what wasn't noticed at the time was the aspect ratio of the top screen (in the middle of the circuitry): it's 16:9, while most every other Nintendo handheld to date has of course been 4:3. That aspect ratio matches the 3.4-inch parallax barrier display from Sharp, the one that just about everyone is expecting will be featured in the device. Connecting the dots, this could be a prototype 3DS in the flesh, dubbed the "CTR." Given that Nintendo called the DSi the "TWL" the XL the "UTL," even the naming scheme fits in. Sadly the FCC images have since been pulled, but we look forward to seeing a rather more petite version of the thing at E3 next month.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/17/is-this-a-prototype-of-the-nintendo-3ds/
 
JayFoxRox said:
Oh shit... now we have to re-design our upcoming DS emulators - how on earth would that gigantic display also fit on the pandoras screen?
No, this is an entirely new system. It's probably going to have new guts and everything.
 
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Dear, Nintendo of Japan,

I'm going to line up on the midnight launch of your new hand-held console, so you better damn well give me something warm to drink while I wait in the freezing cold.
Oh, I'll also buy every single launch game available just to make more money for Nintendo Corp.
Next month, at E3 you've better announce a definitive and obvious official launch date, so that I can change my flight date from November 27th to whenever you're having the launch.
I can't wait!!!


Regards,
Mel SONY Harrington
 
I've got first dibs on Red Baron's unit.
 
SONY said:
Heyz, I was wondering whether or not some of you hardware tech wizzies could help with distinguishing what some of these testbed parts are?
You know, analogue sticks, speaker, and stuff, etc. the important things.

Below is the article taken from Kotaku.



Nintendo 3DS Going Widescreen?




An FCC filing submitted by Nintendo and Mitsumi, an electronics manufacturer, seems to be for the new Nintendo 3DS handheld. There's not much to it, but what there is should give hope to fans of widescreen gaming on the go. That pic above there is most likely a testbed for the Nintendo 3DS. Since the FCC report it turned up in is for its wi-fi system, there's no information on the inner workings of the handheld itself, but as you can see, while most of the board is a mess of prototype components, those two screens stand out clear as day.

The bottom one appears similar to the existing bottom screen on the Nintendo DS. A regular aspect ratio, lighter and looking slightly "spongier" thanks ot its touch screen interface. But get a look at the top screen! It's widescreen.

Before you go jumping to too many conclusions, know that this is prototype hardware, so it's not what you're going to see in the final production model. It doesn't take an industrial design student to work out that, if the top screen in this case is widescreen, then when the 3DS ships the bottom screen will probably be widescreen as well.

As for the rest, while it's tempting to spot an analogue stick, be warned that this picture is as hi-res as it gets, so it's tough telling what most of those components actually are (aside from the obvious bits like the screens and speakers).

Oh, and one more interesting thing: buried in the FCC reports is a request by Nintendo that the guts of the handheld not be made public for a time period of 180 days, dating from April 2010. That timeframe would expire just before the Christmas shopping season...

EW4DWMW028 [Federal Communications Commission, via Wireless Goodness, via Eurogamer]


EDIT: http://kotaku.com/55...oing-widescreen
Who really cares if it is widescreen or not. Pretty meaningless unless you are going to watch movies on it. It would actually not be as good for older DS games running on it. They would either be stretched or windowed. Also now the unit will need to be longer (or the screen area actually be smaller) to fit it in. If they need to put the speakers on the bottom that won't be as good sound wise.

I don't see the big deal with widescreen, it is just a shape. It doesn't give any advantage on such a small screen. I just hope the screen is a decent resolution and size for better 3d as the res is halved horizontal when in 3d mode.
 
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It's widescreen because the manufacturer of the 3D displays, likely the only feasible choice, makes them widescreen. And it makes sense that they would, given that there are lots of 3D movies out there that could be ported to this display but no 3D games.
 
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