Nintendo DS Lite Hardware

On this page find features, news articles and frequently asked questions about NDS.

The most distinguishing trademark of a Nintendo DS, is the Dual Screen. Dual Screens opens a new dimension of game play. The green LED status lights are clearly visible - even If your DS Lite is closed. The console has an auto power save setting that activates sleep mode when the screen is folded up.

Since the arrival of multiplayer wifi era with family multi-play games, such as Big Brain Academy, the touch generation games are reason alone to choose a NDS over the other handheld platforms. Using the touch screen as an inventory reference for role-playing games, to view maps on a strategy game, or see racing action from two perspectives at once. Better still, DS lets you feel your way through a game. The touch screen makes accessing items, moving characters or navigating menus as easy as a tap or drag on the flat lcd screen.

Twice the Fun - Nintendo DS Lite Hardware

Choice of Colours

Original DS

Red DS
Navy Blue DS
Silver DS

DS Lite Colours

Crystal White
Coral Pink
Smart Black
Ice Blue

Talk to Your DS

A built in microphone with voice recognition lets players simply tell the game what they want it to do. Chat software - PictoChat, will let users transmit text messages, handwriting and even drawings to one another. The microphone sits in the center of the unit.

Pictochat

Pictochat is the first gadget to deploy wireless instant picture messaging straight from the box. Use pictochat to chat to people near by on other Nintendo DS consoles! In a nutshell a Nintendo DS can send instant messages which you can draw freehand on the lower screen and add words by typing on the screen's soft qwerty keyboard, then send back and forth - there are lots of great ideas on games to play using pictochat. See the manual booklet with the console.

Nintendo DS Lite MP3 Player

Nintendo has finally added an MP3 player software update to its handheld DS Lite console which costs £20.

The Nintendo DS Lite system only drops a point against the PSP when it comes to adding MP3 files to the console. MP3 files are added to an SD card using a PC. However, NDS owners also require a SD memory card & card reader. In contrast, a PlayStation Portable connects to a computer using USB. Although PSP owners are still required to buy a memory card, MP3 files can be dropped straight on to the console. The Nintendo MP3 Player software will be available from December 8th 2006.

Nintendo DS Wifi - Playing Online

Wireless communication links DS players in the same room - or across the World. Wi-Fi DS games have a blue emblem on the back to indicate that the game supports multi-player online gaming. A DS web browser utility is available from Opera which allows the DS to browse Webpages. Nintendo made connecting to wireless simple enough for your parents to understand. Nintendo DS / Wii owners do not need to subscribe to online services - as the Nintendo Wi-Fi brochure says - FREE + SIMPLE + SECURE. Find your nearest Wi-Fi hotspot using this Wifi hotspot locator, simply tap in your postcode. More info is available from Nintendo Wifi

Download Play provides direct download of games rather than hardware based cartridges which are the norm. You can use the Nintendo Wifi Download Play from inside a few games stores at the time of writing. In the future Nintendo plan to allow the DS to connect to the newest member of the Nintendo family the "WII".

Compatibility

Yet another great feature of the Nintendo DS is the excellent backwards compatibility which allows the DS to play games from a Game Boy / Advance, SP and Micro handheld games consoles! Not just UK games either, the DS is as bilingual as the Euro vision song contest.

Everyone should own a DS!