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Nintendo DS specifications leaked

Gorxon

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The Nintendo DS specs was leaked yesterday. Apperantly it will be a quite powerful device, at least faster then I had expected. The memory worries me a little bit though, only 4MB (even Ngage...but then again, ngage has a Symbian OS using a lot of that). Anyways, check out the specs here:

http://www.cube-europe.com/news.php?nid=6236

What are your thoughts?

I like that IEEE802.11 bit ;)
 

Alchy

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Sounds cool. Even if the 120K poly's/sec is real-world performance rather than (as is more likely) a flat-shaded max, it should have 3d capabilities somewhere around 32X/Jaguar kind of level. Would have been nice to see PSX-level handheld, I guess we'll have to wait for the PSP for that. I've seen people posting that this will be as powerful as the N64: plainly it won't. If Nintendo themselves are putting 120K polys max then it's going to fall well short of the N64.

While I like the addition of wireless and touch-screen capabilities, I can't help thinking that such things are going to seem pretty unimportant compared to the competition's raw power, even with the price differential. I think Nintendo would be better off spending the cash on a decent 3d chipset.

Also there seems to be some debate as to whether X+Y buttons are going to be included. It's suicidally restrictive not to, surely?
 

vleespet

The decent one
Note that the screen resolution is pretty low, so you will get performance similar to (or even above) the n64 (omg omg omg, n64 emus 4 teh new gameboy :p).
 

2fast4u

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vleespet said:
Note that the screen resolution is pretty low, so you will get performance similar to (or even above) the n64

what the hell does the screen resolution have to do with the overall performance in your book?


compare: gba specs
 
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Gorxon

Gorxon

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2fast4u said:
what the hell does the screen resolution have to do with the overall performance in your book?


compare: gba specs

Lower resolution -> better performance. Just look at PC games..I think same applies to the DS. Oh, and Nintendo always give up specs based on somewhat real performance I think (textured, lit etc) and not theoretical-polygon-pushing (or flat shaded max as Alchy so nicely called it), so 120k isn't too shabby and I think we might see N64 like games at least. But I have not enough knowlegde to say something certain about it...

I just hope I can someday see a good SNES emu running on it...imagine the possiblities. Wireless SNES playing and touch screen based Game Gear (or whatever the gun is called) too mention some. Let's just hope they do include X and Y buttons.
 

2fast4u

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Gorxon said:
Lower resolution -> better performance. Just look at PC games..I think same applies to the DS.

possibly so. however judging by the screen resolution if there could be n64-ish games running on it seems like a longshot. either that or i completely misunderstood vl's post.
 

Alchy

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The lower resolution won't make that much difference. Also, I haven't read anything about what 3d hardware it's got, which is absolutely vital - the GBA is close to the PSX in Mhz, but the two have completely different 3d performance.

Also, I wouldn't get your hopes up for a SNES emu. There's not enough power, and probably little chance for HLE (the graphics chipset will be completely different). Certainly no N64 emulators...
 

linemu

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Sounds cool to me... but the fact that this isn't going to replace gameboy advance makes me think that this will be passed up by the consumer market. I don't know what Nintendo is thinking creating Two lines of handhelds at the same time. Perhaps the DS will be compatible with software for the new gameboy?
 
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Gorxon

Gorxon

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Alchy said:
Also, I wouldn't get your hopes up for a SNES emu. There's not enough power, and probably little chance for HLE (the graphics chipset will be completely different). Certainly no N64 emulators...

Not to be rude, but I must say you are very wrong ;)

There is a SNES emulator for the GBA already (SNESAdvance), which can run games, without sound, at about 60-70%. This cpu is at least three times as fast, then use both (one to emulate the SPC chip). You need however good coders, but Loopy (the man behind PocketNES and SNesAdvance) I am sure could pull it off...he writes all of his code (or almost) in ASM afaik :)

N64 emus on the other hand arent possible..

SNESAdvance homepage: http://www.snesadvance.org
 
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Gorxon

Gorxon

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Tagrineth said:
News flash, the specs are fake.

Heh, what about a source?

And, yes, they are probably old specs, but I dunno about fake. Feel free to prove me wrong...
 
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blizz

New member
well, one of the people I know who has actually seen the specs for both the PSP and the DS made a reference to the article on IGN, their comment was of course "whoops"

of course they can neither confirm nor deny the specs are true since they're under an NDA until E3

so just more fuel to stoke the fire really
 
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Gorxon

Gorxon

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AlphaWolf said:
You can trust them every bit as much as you can trust gorxon.

Or cube-europe.com in this case :)

Oh well, not long until E3 now :cheers:
 

Alchy

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Gorxon said:
There is a SNES emulator for the GBA already (SNESAdvance), which can run games, without sound, at about 60-70%. This cpu is at least three times as fast, then use both (one to emulate the SPC chip). You need however good coders, but Loopy (the man behind PocketNES and SNesAdvance) I am sure could pull it off...he writes all of his code (or almost) in ASM afaik :)
That's an impressive feat of programming on his part (which I wasn't aware of), however I do partially stand by my statement. If this device contains dedicated 3d hardware then 2d system portability is going to be low. If you want an example, look at the emulation of SNES on the Dreamcast. The dedicated 3d chipset means that most of the SNES's graphics functions cannot be simply HLE'd over, and there's a big hit in performance as the CPU has to deal with it. In comparison I would imagine there to be at least some similarity between the SNES and the GBA's graphics hardware - not identical by any means, but certainly closer than the DC's GPU. If a decent amount of the SNES graphics hardware can be functionally transfered onto the GBA's, it would leave the ARM chip in the GBA to pick up the loose ends and emulate the main CPU, I/O etc. If the DS has video hardware designed solely to produce polys then it's going to be left to the 2 ARM chips to do the majority of the work. Although on reflection that's pretty unlikely ;)

Now I'm not a emulator coder, so I may be completely wrong, but that's how I understand it.
 

Trotterwatch

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GogoTheMimic

Pimpin' Red Mage
Looks interesting. If Nintendo doesn't add X and Y buttons on this next handheld I will personally piss on their shrubery, I'm sick of the piddly amount of buttons on Gameboys, don't get me wrong, I don't want a GB with a Steel Battalion controller but still, 2 extra buttons would be nice.
 

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