RIP Nintendo DS and DSi

[A Black Falcon]

So, Nintendo just shut down DS card production, which means no more DS games will be manufactured from this point on. This comes on top of shutting down the DSiWare store a little while back, so you can't download games to a DSi either, only play card games or games already on the system. Of course 3DSes can play most DSiWare games and the games are still available in the 3DS eShop, but still, it's sad to see... and terrible for preservation of course, with how not all DSIWare games also run on the 3DS, apparently. When the 360, PS3, Wii, Vita, and 3DS online services get shut down that will be far worse, but this is a reminder that that happens eventually, as much as people like me who care about maintaining access to all games don't like that. I just hope that consoles never get so secure that they can't be hacked...

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/its-the-...intendo-ds

[Dark Jaguar]

The DSi store is still up, but it will be closed in 2017. I just checked it and confirmed both of those things.

The 3DS is fully capable of playing all DSi games (they aren't emulated, the hardware is basically the same, just more powerful), but the real question is just what will and won't end up on the store. Frankly, a little pruning would be a good thing. Nintendo was FAR too lax in their standards when it came to DSi and Wiiware. There's a lot of garbage on both of those stores, and not just any garbage, like "Action 52" levels of garbage. Historically, yes, it would be good to have an archive, but some of this never should have been approved to begin with. The worst of it actually came after the 3DS and Wii U hit shelves, the very definition of shovelware poured out onto the system to give it a sense of continued life. Check out the store for yourself. It's pretty embarrassing.

The good news is, every game that's actually worth playing is available on the 3DS store, except for Four Swords Anniversary, a game Nintendo foolishly is keeping in the "artificial scarcity" pile. The bad news is, the 3DS transfer tool has to be downloaded first before it can be used, and for obvious reasons it wasn't exactly preloaded on DSi systems. If you've any intention of moving DSi games to the new system, best get that tool now. DS games run just fine on the 3DS, except for the blurred scaling. That can be disabled so it keeps the intended resolution, but that shrinks the image by a good amount. The 3DS XL (new or otherwise) counters this a bit, but it still ends up looking at it's biggest on a DSi XL. Further, the d-pad is just easier to use on the original DS.

For my part, I have yet to transfer over my DSi purchases to my 3DS, for the reasons I stated above. Frankly, I still won't have need of such after the store is disabled, so long as I am careful not to delete anything. I can "back up" my DSi games to an SD card, in case I run out of room, so that'll serve for now. Ultimately though, I'll need to make the move. The flash memory on the DSi won't hold out forever. I'm actually worried about that, as I wonder if the system will even be bootable when that fails, but frankly it'll probably be a good long while before that's an issue. I don't use my DSi's flash nearly as often as I do an SD card, and my oldest SD card is still going strong. Flash drives in PCs get a lot more use, so they might actually fail in their use lifespan, but I expect this'll last at least as long as the battery backup in my Zelda cart (still works as of today).

Ultimately, hackers will need to find a way to run decrypted DSi games on DSi systems.

[A Black Falcon]

You're right, the DSiWare store was just announced for future shutdown, not shut down already. I remembered that wrong.

As for me, I never got a DSi, so that doesn't apply to me; I stuck with my original DSes until I finally got that New 3DS XL last year. But for future-preservation purposes, I very much hope that all games on the DSiWare service have been backed up so nothing gets lost. As I said though I'm sure that's going to get MUCH harder in the future platform-wide. There are, of course, many cases where single games have been rendered permanently broken because their servers were taken down, but whole game-download services haven't for the major popular online systems... yet.

The 3DS is fully capable of playing all DSi games (they aren't emulated, the hardware is basically the same, just more powerful), but the real question is just what will and won't end up on the store

Indeed, for preservation purposes that last point is the key one, that not all DSiWare games got re-released on the 3DS eShop. Maybe on a quality standpoint this doesn't matter much as you are probably right that most such games were most likely no good, but from a preservation standpoint it does.

As for quality, though, did Nintendo care about quality at all, so long as games functioned and didn't include certain types of particularly objectionable content? Seems unlikely. Do any of the console manufacturers, now, for games on their download services, though?

The good news is, every game that's actually worth playing is available on the 3DS store, except for Four Swords Anniversary, a game Nintendo foolishly is keeping in the "artificial scarcity" pile.

Ugh, yeah, it's such a pain that Nintendo has refused to re-release that in any way... such a bad move.

DS games run just fine on the 3DS, except for the blurred scaling. That can be disabled so it keeps the intended resolution, but that shrinks the image by a good amount.

Yeah, playing DS games on the N3DSXL REALLY blows up the picture to painfully blocky levels, but the big screen is nice, so... plus and a minus, there.

Also I agree that the original DS has a nice d-pad. The N3DSXL's is okay, but the original DS's one was comfortable and works well, why did they ever change it? Size?

he flash memory on the DSi won't hold out forever. I'm actually worried about that, as I wonder if the system will even be bootable when that fails, but frankly it'll probably be a good long while before that's an issue. I don't use my DSi's flash nearly as often as I do an SD card, and my oldest SD card is still going strong. Flash drives in PCs get a lot more use, so they might actually fail in their use lifespan, but I expect this'll last at least as long as the battery backup in my Zelda cart (still works as of today).

Yeah, while this is an issue, how much the flash is actually being overwritten is key, and if it's something only for DSi games and not much else then it'd probably be fine for quite a while. If it's in with the system data then it'd last less long, but how many writes can the chips Nintnedo is using these days last, anyway? I really have no idea. But yeah, I would expect it to last longer than a PC SSD, that's surely being written to more...

[Dark Jaguar]

The d-pad on the 3DS is built well enough. My complaint is with it's position on the handheld, moved down to make room for the analog nubbin. It's just not as comfortable where it's at. For the most part, it's workable, but if I have to choose which system to play a DS game on, I'll go with the original.

[A Black Falcon]

Oh, the location. Well, on the N3DSXL, it depends on how I hold it, really, but yeah, both are definitely not comfortable at the same time. With how I usually hold it, I find the d-pad's location okay, but the analog stick uncomfortable and a bit of a reach. Holding it differently reverses that, but having only one definitely allows the original DS to not have any comfort issues and I do like that even if adding an analog stick was a good idea.