back to article Nintendo confirms 3D handheld console coming

Nintendo is working on a version of its DS handheld console with the ability to display 3D content, the videogames pioneer has said. And it won't need special glasses, the company promised. Nintendo didn't say much more, beyond indicating a launch date before April 2011, the end of Nintendo's next financial year. A release …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I call it first

    Early 2011 Apple will sue Nintendo for using 3DS which may confuse punters who can't tell the difference between a 3GS and 3DS, after which Apple patent the term 3?S.

  2. The Indomitable Gall

    How to make the DS more popular...

    Have internal storage that we can install games on.

    My MP3 player doesn't need different cards for different albums.

    My eBook reader doesn't need different cards for different books.

    I try to buy PC games that can do a 100% install, no run CD required, because my PC is supposed to be portable.

    So give me a games console that lets me carry all my games without some silly pack of cards and I'll think about it. Right now, the only thing that fits the bill is the iPhone/iPod touch, and that has a silly control system.

    The market's open if someone wants to jump in....

    1. Daniel B.
      Happy

      It ain't the only one, silly!

      The PSP Go manages to do most of that as well. And you can buy real games, not some cheap knockoff on popular titles as well!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      i think you need

      a PSPGo by the sounds of it

  3. LinkOfHyrule
    Paris Hilton

    3D without glasses = teh win!

    Paris, cos if you look at her too much you may well need glasses after-all!

  4. markstickley

    Bonkers, but not out of the question

    It would be bonkers to miss Christmas 2010 for the release of this console but to do so wouldn't be unprecedented. The DS released in the UK in March...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    'And it won't need special glasses, the company promised.'

    ...if you'll just insert these contact lenses, sir.....

    Paris, because you'll never glasses to study her dimensions.

  6. Craig 12

    3DS

    I think 3DS is quite a clever name, and hopefully they keep it. Then again, the Wii had a cool code name, and look at what they stuck on it!

    However, when the big phat grey DS was first introduced, Nintendo stressed it wasn't the next gameboy, which was still coming. They almost suggested the DS was an interesting diversion. How many revisions of the DS (slim, i, xl, 3d) do we need to go through before we're back on track, or is the DS too popular to move away from now...

    It's sad because the gameboy was revolutionary and brilliant for so many years, and became synonymous with handheld gaming, like the term playstation for consoles, and that legacy is fading away. I bet a kid these days wouldn't know what a gameboy is!

  7. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    Probably uses the Volvo dashboard 2-in-1 display

    An episode of Top Gear demonstrated the Volvo dash display that could show navigation to the driver and videos to the passenger, at the same time, from one 7-inch LCD display. At the time, I told anyone that would listen that this was the future of no-glasses 3D. Wanna bet that this Nintendo device is the same tech?

  8. Yorkshirepudding
    Megaphone

    when i was a lad

    you were happy with a dot matrix screen and a green shaded screen, backlights pah

    /desperately waiting for a long straight block

  9. Kevin Campbell

    erm... HOW, exactly?

    Love to hear how they plan to pull off 3d without glasses or some other special head-mounted kit. If they can really do that and keep it reasonably priced for the target market (yes, I AM thinking of the children), then good for them. Might even buy one for myself.

  10. DPWDC
    FAIL

    Please....

    I had a handheld 3d games machine in the 80s!

    http://www.retrogames.co.uk/more/on/details/011157

  11. Steven Raith
    Stop

    Dear lord, no....

    ..not another Virtual Boy?

    Google it, young 'uns.

    Steven R

  12. Matthew Anderson

    Yeah yeah, title..

    Right - so considering I bought my 3 eldest kids a DSi each for their xmas, and now have them clammering for the DSi XL even thought it's only March, now I'm thinking shit like WTF how many of these things am I going to be buying in a 12 month period?

    At 150+ a pop they aint cheap. I think Nintendo need to get to grips with their announcements as this one seems a tad early, all be it to jump on the 3D bandwagon and seem hip and fresh,.

    I'm disappointed in Nintendo, no need to be emptying parents pockets like this. Why not just a DSi XL 3D ?????

  13. Thandar

    Flashback

    VirtualBoy 2?

  14. Daniel B.

    As long as they don't pull up a Virtual Boy again...

    That one could actually do 3D, if you consider an AutoCAD-ish wireframe image a "3D experience".

    On other matters, I wonder how many of those "mobile developers" are actually games developers. Namco? SquareEnix? Capcom? id Software? Valve? Irrational? Konami? Somehow I doubt Street Fighter 4 is available for the iBone/iTouch, or Pokemon or <insert best-selling game here>. Real mobile gamers already have a DS or a PSP. N-Gage tried to do this and failed, and that one had fairly proper game controls.

  15. John F***ing Stepp

    And so late.

    It is rather simple to do a one person 3d display without glasses; came out a couple of laptops ago.

    Where was this when I could still see using my right eye?

    (I am saving that one for a cyber implant giving me realtime Po . . . information on traffic and weather conditions. Yes, really I am.)

  16. M Gale
    Boffin

    Virtualboy? Erm, not quite.

    No-glasses 3D is already here and has been for many years. It's been on novelty prints and "special edition" DVD covers for a long time. Also known as "lenticular" stereoscopic 3D, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing for more details.

    I imagine with a bit of hackery, most/all 3D games for the DS could be engineered to work with it. How they get it to work with the bottom touch screen might be a bit tougher, but if they say they've cracked it.. could be worth a look. Plus, the lenticular system means you could use it for 3D, or for presenting different images depending on the viewing angle. Dunno how well that would translate into games, but fuck it. Is an idea.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fool me 7 times Nintendo

    shame on you. Fool me 8 times, shame on me...

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