Several months ago Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, announced that Nintendo would unveil a brand new gaming device before the end of the first quarter of 2004. Iwata strongly confirmed that the hardware that was to be unveiled would not be a "successor" to any existing hardware, but would in fact be a completely separate device intended to stand alongside the GameCube and GameBoy Advance.

Well, the curtain has been lifted, and the product has been unveiled.

It's called the Nintendo DS. It is a new handheld portable system, not connected to the Gameboy Advance in any way, shape or form. The "DS" in the title stands for "Dual Screen." The primary feature of the device is a pair of 3-inch, backlit TFT LCD screens with two separate processors. The device will not use discs or cartridges (like the GameCube and Gameboy Advance) but will instead play software on a semiconductor memory of up to 1 Gigabit.


The rest is taken from cube.ign.com

Nintendo explains the importance of the dual-screen setup: "Players can look forward to being able to manage their game progress from two different perspectives, enhancing both the speed and strategy of the challenge. For example in a soccer game, users can view the whole game on one screen while simultaneously focusing on an individual soccer player's tackle or goal on the other screen.

"Players will no longer be forced to interrupt game play to shift perspective, such as moving from a wide shot to a close up, or alternating between a character's ongoing battle and a map of the environment. Nintendo DS makes it possible to perform the tasks in real time by simply glancing from one screen to the other."

Today's revelation is just the beginning, according to the company. The bulk of information on the machine will be unveiled at May's Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

"We have developed Nintendo DS based upon a completely different concept from existing game devices in order to provide players with a unique entertainment experience for the 21st century," explained Satoru Iwata, Nintendo president.

The announcement, seemingly out of nowhere, likely comes in preparation for Nintendo's upcoming financial report. Also, developers have indicated that they will soon receive development hardware for the new system and with that Nintendo wouldn't be able to keep it a secret for very much longer

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Well, I can't speak for the rest of you, but I'm interested. I anticipate that it's being released in order to directly compete with Sony's PSP. The Nintendo DS is slated for a Winter 2004 release.

Here's a link to the full article.

http://cube.ign.com/articles/473/473998p1.html