3DS Info Press Conference about to start!

[A Black Falcon]

No live feed I know of, sadly, so it'll be liveblogs only, sadly. http://ds.ign.com/articles/112/1124149p1.html

Should be interesting though, the rumors about when the 3DS will launch have been all over the place, and the system of course is getting a huge amount of hype...

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.coveritlive.com/index.php?opt...&width=800

[A Black Falcon]

Wiimote Plus, Wii remote with Motion+ included in it. Good idea.

[A Black Falcon]

February launch in Japan, March elsewhere. 25000 yen price there, price here to be announced later. So no release this year...

[Dark Jaguar]

I honestly didn't expect it this year. Too soon after it's initial announcement really. Looking forward to it, but I've still got plenty on my current DS.

[Dark Jaguar]

Lots of neat news.

http://kotaku.com/5650667/the-3ds-has-a-...-boy-games

Game Boy games in the virtual store? Awesome! About time really. It looks like all they announced is GB and GBC games. GBA games follow logically though, especially considering how easy it should be to "emulate" them. That is, it can play all DS games natively, meaning it has the basic DS hardware, and some of that basic DS hardware is a GBA processor.

http://kotaku.com/5650651/the-3ds-hardwa...its-stylus

The placement is unchanged as near as I can tell from the big E3 announcement. The d-pad still looks a little iffy to me, a little hard to reach, but I can't think of a better solution in that space. The power button so close to the start button also concerns me. Why not stick it on the top screen instead?

http://kotaku.com/5650705/here-are-the-f...-3ds-specs

A charging stand included by default? That's been a long time coming! This'll set the stage for everyone else in the industry to play catch-up. It's a lot easier than holding up the charging cable on my night stand with a book when I take the system out and about. Further, it's got a gyroscope and an accelerometer, which means that old motion sensing Gameboy games sold in the store should work perfectly with proper emulation support.

http://kotaku.com/5650702/watch-almost-e...-in-action

Thy graphics! Thy graphics! Amazing, and I instantly want almost all the games they just showed. My only question, does the 3DS have TV-Out support built in? The PSP, 2000 model and up (I have the 2000 model) has it, and it's really been a great feature. I play it as a portable on the go, and at home I just plug in the A/V cord and play it on my TV. It beats buying something like a Super Gameboy or Gameboy Player accessory for sure.

[A Black Falcon]

A lot of people were expecting it this year, DJ, and maybe Nintendo was for a while too -- after announcing the February/March release date, they also dropped their expected earning for the year by a lot, as if they'd been planning on having it ready for Christmas, but missed the deadline.


Game Boy Virtual Console is good, finally... it's needed, lots of GB games have dead save batteries and replacing those things aren't easy. Plus if they redo any in 3d it could be interesting...

Thy graphics! Thy graphics! Amazing, and I instantly want almost all the games they just showed. My only question, does the 3DS have TV-Out support built in? The PSP, 2000 model and up (I have the 2000 model) has it, and it's really been a great feature. I play it as a portable on the go, and at home I just plug in the A/V cord and play it on my TV. It beats buying something like a Super Gameboy or Gameboy Player accessory for sure.

1) Nintendo has never had direct TV output from a handheld.

2) The 3d screen couldn't be done on most TVs, which is a good reason really to not even try (even beyond the "the dual screen design also would be a challenge, and the touchpad too, and the microphone, etc" part that the DS also had, and that probably explains why there is no way to easily play DS games on a TV.)

A charging stand included by default? That's been a long time coming! This'll set the stage for everyone else in the industry to play catch-up. It's a lot easier than holding up the charging cable on my night stand with a book when I take the system out and about. Further, it's got a gyroscope and an accelerometer, which means that old motion sensing Gameboy games sold in the store should work perfectly with proper emulation support.

For $300, I'd expect some extras... and hopefully a lower price than that in the US, though I'd probably guess at $250 right now most likely.

[Dark Jaguar]

"Nintendo has never had direct TV output" is meaningless to me. It's a new feature that the PSP added to a remodel. What does "they never had it" matter?

As for the 3D, I don't care about that for the TV-out. They don't even need to bother implementing it there if they don't want to. Not a single game ever HAS to have 3D output to work, and in point of fact ALL 3DS games can be played in 2D thanks to that slide bar. The touch screen thing is a real concern, but not all games made use of it, and the option is nice, especially for the Gameboy games. Oh, since it's a 3D system, can we expect Virtual Boy games being sold on the online store? Red... so much red...

[A Black Falcon]

DJ, I would be completely shocked if there was some kind of TV output. Nintendo wouldn't do it if it wasn't good, and without a good way to do the touch screen, microphone, or 3d, it wouldn't be good. Nintendo would never release some half-functioning thing that didn't work with the 3d or touchscreen, I think. Yes, you can turn it off, but it's one of the system's major selling points.

Also, how would you display both screens on the screen? It'd need to be HD only or something, right, because an SD 640x480 display could never fit both screens at once at their full resolutions... one more reason for Nintendo to definitely not do it.

I mean, I agree, it'd be great. I love the Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player. But because of the designs of the DS and 3DS, getting them to work on a TV would be quite difficult.

[Dark Jaguar]

It's mainly for the Gameboy games that I'd want it anyway. In the case of the PSP, the resolution of the PSP screen compared to a TV screen is low enough that there's a lot of black space around it. I never bothered checking on the DS's screen resolution, so that could be an issue. Anyway, it's a thought based on how well it works on the PSP. I think the biggest issue is just that the DS uses the awkward two-screen setup rather than one big screen.

[A Black Falcon]

... But you can already play all Game Boy games on a television, so nothing new is needed for that... but yeah, screen resolution is an issue because of the two screens thing.

I looked it up, the original DS would fit on an SD 640x480 screen, if you actually could use all the lines that is and it wasn't interlaced (so progressive scan only maybe? That would be too high a barrier for Nintendo to consider it, they need composite support.), because each DS screen is 256x192. With the 3DS though even that is not an option -- the upper screen is 800x240 (400x240 effectively, with the height doubled for 3d effects), and the lower 320x240.

[Dark Jaguar]

It's the width that's doubled, we don't have one eye directly above the other. Anyway, yeah it'd need to be progressive, though the PSP already supports that.

I can kinda play my GB games on a TV, but I need to drag out my Super Nintendo or my Gamecube for that. I'd rather not have to, and for modern gamers who don't have all those old systems and accessories, that's not even an option.