The DS was innovative, but lacked power. The next handheld ought to be a hotted up version of the DS with more CPU power, more memory and a better GPU, but with basically the same external properties.
Never cared about graphics myself so as long as it has fun games, I don't really care.
What i would like though is built in memory. Prices of solid state storage is crashing so I don't see why soon we couldn't have handheld consoles with 30/60 gig drives built in. Would make the distribution of indie games much easier as there would be little production costs if they could be sold a' la iTunes/XBLA.
Have to agree to keeping the touchscreen as I love having one, especially for ScummVM emulation
Edit: Would also love the inclusion of WiMax so I can online game/download new ones on the go with better range than WiFi.
bicostp wrote:
We just have to predict what gimmick it will have.
I'm sure it will have some unique controlling scheme. Sad thing is, Nintendo survives on their gimmicks. I still vote that they team up with some major electronics manufacturer for their next platform, console or handheld.
Although its a bit unfair to compare the Nintendo DS to the Nintendo 64, I think. Nintendo DS flash carts have four times the capacity of a Nintendo 64 cart.
I made the loose comparison based on general graphics capabilities. Of course the new cartridges hold more than N64 carts, flash storage only gets cheaper with time.
The next Nintendo handheld will most likely be about the same as the PSP, maybe a bit less powerful. Multi-touch screens? As powerful as a PS2? Inexpensive VC? Full keyboard? Remember, Nintendo's a pretty cheap company. Spare every expense! It will probably have analog controls, WiFi and maybe a Wii-style tilt sensor.
If Nintendo wants to port games that were popular on the Gamecube to the new hand-held, and keep it new enough to be interesting. I'm thinking they'll be adding something like the SIXAXIS or the Wii-mote's ability to sense tilts.
Nintendo should think about changing from an ARM cpu for the hand-helds to something more powerful, something like, oh maybe a, PowerPC G4. We know it can be used in portable devices, we know it's powerful, and if they do that they wont have to making many if any changes to the game.
vskid wrote:Nerd = likes school, does all their homework, dies if they don't get 100% on every assignment
Geek = likes technology, dies if the power goes out and his UPS dies too
toby dawg wrote:The touch screen gets scratched to Sh1t.
If you use a knife to touch it. Normal fingernails and styli shouldn't hurt it, if they do the touchscreen is just a piece of crap. My Lifebook's 10" touchscreen has no scratches that I know about (after I clean it, it has lines all over it before I do, I assume it's skin oils). And then there are capacitive touchscreens (what the iphone and touch have), from what I've heard those are really scratch resistant.
I guarantee you that it'll have a touch screen, probably only one big one, as well as an accelerometer for motion control. It might have some sort of gimmicky voice recognition stuff as well, expanding on the limited capabilities the DS has in that department. I'd imagine SDHC support as well, since there's already talk of a DS Lite(r) that would have that instead of a GBA slot. The only thing I'm really wondering is what name it'll hold. I think at this point, the only thing I'm interested to see is if it'll be a GameBoy or a different name.
I happen to be with Marshall on this one, the Pandora will be my handheld gaming machine this time around. I've owned a DS, PSP, and GP2x, and the homebrew aspect really appeals to me.
neocopernicus wrote:I think the reason why Nintendo is largely behind their competitors in terms of technology is because they specialize in video games. Sony is an electronic company. Microsoft is a computer company. Nintendo has their niche in gaming and hence their strong point has to be innovation, as they do not have so much experience in other areas (perhaps their reluctance to do as their competitors do?).
I think this is true, but multimedia has never been good for gaming, it didn't work ten years ago with the CD-I and the 3DO and it's not working now (which is why Nintendo is doing better in sales despite technically being inferior), in the end a gaming system should be for games, and Nintendo being a specialty operation allows them to do that.
