The DS, DS Lite, and DSi

The Nintendo DS was the next handheld produced, and it dramatically changed the look, feel, and controls of handheld games. The DS stood for Dual Screen, as it had a regular display screen and a second touch screen. The design was inspired by the GBA SP’s clamshell design and the old Game and Watch games produced by Nintendo in early 1980’s. It was also the first handheld to drop the name, “Game Boy,” and many saw this as way to look more “grown up” and less kiddy in the public’s eyes. Despite this, it took a while for people to stop using the term “Game Boy” and replace it with “DS” as a generic word for a portable game system. As was the case with previous systems, it was available in multiple colors.

One unique feature was that it had 2 different game slots – one in front and one in back. The back one was called Slot 1 and was used for DS games, which were called Game Cards instead of cartridges. The game cards were similar to an SD card in size and functionality. Like most SD card slots, Slot 1 was spring loaded to allow the player to easily swap cards. Slot 2 was in the front of the system and was used to insert GBA games. Unfortunately, it was not backwards compatible to GBC or GB games. 

The top half of the clamshell was slightly smaller than the bottom half, and housed the upper screen and both speakers. The lower half featured the touch screen and basically the same main buttons/layout as a SNES controller, with the exception that the Start and Select buttons were located above the XYAB buttons, while the power button was above the D-pad on the lower half. The volume control and the headphone jack were on the front of the unit on either side of the GBA slot. 

Included for the example of the remote.

Next to the headphone jack was a small port designed to be a jack for a headphone/microphone combo that was sold as an accessory. Many Japanese electronic devices had these jacks for things like CD/MD/MP3 players so that someone could adjust volume or change tracks on a remote without clicking the buttons on the actual device. The back had the power jack (which was the same as the GBA SP jack) and the slot in which the stylus was kept when not in use on either side of the game card slot. 

The DS had several features to make the playing experience more interactive. The main one was a touch screen that allowed a different kind of input. Besides tapping menu selections, it allowed players to do things such as sign their name or answer a fill-in-the-blank question by writing a number. Other examples of creative use of the touch screen were letting players write notes on a map or keep time with a beat. Players can use their finger/thumb or the included stylus to use the touch screen, as well as the thumb stylus that was on the wrist strap. 

The other feature to add interactivity is the microphone, hailing back to the days of the original Famicon (the 2nd player controller had a microphone instead of Start and Select buttons). Some games used this in conjunction with primitive voice recognition software to let players say their answers aloud instead of pressing a button (e.g., BrainAge or Phoenix Wright), or simulate blowing out a candle (Zelda: Phantom Hourglass). 

Like the GBA, it had two LEDs that indicated the system being powered on (green for power, red for low battery) and the system being charged/plugged in (orange). The LEDs and the microphone were near the bottom of the lower screen. 

When the system was turned on, it booted with the health/safety warning about playing too long (just Nintendo doing a little CYA for legal reasons) along with a distinct startup sound. The menu had the current time, calendar, and battery life on the top screen. The bottom screen featured the options for settings, brightness, alarm clock, and then 4 game choices – DS game, GBA game, Picto-chat, and DS Download Play. The options screen let the player input a name and birthday to the DS, set the language, change the color of the menu, calibrate the touch screen, change date/time, and choose on which screen the GBA games would display. There was also an option to automatically load any DS game and bypass the menu. 

It was interesting how different games used the two different screens. Some used the regular buttons, some were focused on the touch screen, some used combinations, etc. Some games used the bottom screen as the main play screen while the top screen served as a map or HUD, while other games reversed this.

Closing the system put the DS into sleep mode for most games and was the easiest way to pause a game when needed. While the GBA SP could also close, putting it into sleep mode usually meant having to go through the pause menu, and bringing it out of sleep required a 3 button combination. But the DS and its games were designed to immediately pause/sleep when it was closed (with one notable exception) and awaken when opened so it was significantly quicker and easier to do. 

The DS also had a Wi-Fi connection that some games used. The setup for the Wi-Fi connection was handled inside of individual games rather than the main DS menu. This allowed players to play games with others online natively for the first time without the need of an extra modem accessory. The servers for these games were shut down in 2014, so it’s no longer possible to play in this manner. Games with multiplayer features could also be played using local wireless, so link cables were now a thing of the past. Some games required each player to own a copy of the game, while others let multiple players download specific portions of the game to play together. 

Pictochat was a built-in application that let users send messages and hand drawn pictures to each other over local wireless within a certain range. 

Some DS games were able to detect certain games from the same series in the GBA slot and unlock features, like how the GC/GBA cable unlocked content when certain games were put together. So for example, having a certain DS Pokémon game playing while also having a previous Pokémon game in the GBA slot would unlock special content in the DS game. 

Several accessories were made for it, most notably being a browser that was programmed into a DS card but required a RAM upgrade that was inserted into the GBA slot. There were other things like cameras and an add-on to play games like Guitar Hero or a Rumble Pak to add in rumble features (like the N64). 

About a year and a half later, the DS Lite was released. It was a redesign of the physical hardware that fortunately didn’t change gameplay or user experience. The top and bottom halves were the same size, and compared to the original DS, it was slimmer and lighter. It had a repositioned power button (a slider button on the right side) and fewer “speaker holes” in the top half. Some of the other changes included being more brightly lit, changing the AC adapter jack to a new shape and style, moving the LEDs to the right shoulder, moving the stylus to the right side, the microphone moved to the hinge, and the Start/Select buttons were moved to the front of the unit. Because of the new size, GBA games now stuck out of the front of the DS Lite a bit. It also came with a “filler” cartridge to keep out dust when a GBA game wasn’t inserted. 

Nearly 3 years after the DS Lite came out, the DS got another upgrade in the form of the DSi. Unlike the jump from DS to DS Lite, the DSi was a much bigger upgrade. The mild physical changes included a slightly larger screen, moving the power button to near the touch screen under the D-pad, moving the LEDs to the left shoulder and adding one to indicate Wi-Fi connectivity, replacing the volume slider with a rocker button, changing the design of the shoulder buttons, and yet another change in the power jack. But there were some other new upgrades that made the DSi more desirable. 

First was the inclusion of two cameras – one on the hinge and one on the back of the top half. The hinge camera was next to the microphone, and served to take “internal” pics for games and applications that needed a “selfie,” while the outer camera could take pictures of other things. The cameras weren’t great, even by the standards of the time, but they weren’t horrible either. 

Second was the addition of an SD card slot. The SD card is where any pictures taken would be stored so they could be easily transferred to a computer. But the SD card slot came at the cost of the GBA port, so no more retro games. 

The menu was completely redesigned and upgraded to resemble the Wii’s “channel” based menu, but only appeared as a single row instead of an array. Along with the standard PictoChat and DS Download play there are little apps for the camera functions and a music player. The music player requires that the user transfers music files (in a particular format - not MP3) onto the SD card using a computer. It can also do voice recordings that can not be transferred to a computer. The camera app allowed the user to enhance pictures taken by drawing on them, warping them, or adding things like sparkles. There was also an included internet browser that didn’t require a separate game card like the DS did. Like the Wii menu, the icons could be rearranged by the user. 

Another big change was the DSi store – an online shop where users could download games developed exclusively for the DSi called DSi Ware. This was patterned after the Shopping Channel from the Wii, which also featured Wii Ware. The games were saved onto internal memory and each one added its own icon to the menu. Along with adding new software, it also had the ability to upgrade its firmware. 

The final iteration of this handheld was the DSi XL, a larger version of the DSi that had a screen that was nearly 50 percent larger, but featured no other significant differences.