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Nintendo DS TV Adapter Hands-On Review 47

Posted by Zonk from the two-screens-no-waiting dept.
Nintendo DS News writes "Lik Sang have posted a great hands-on article examining the new Nintendo DS TV Adapter. From the article: 'Both projects are converters displaying the image of your Nintendo handheld on Television sets. One is for the Gameboy Advance SP, the other is, more interestingly for the smoking hot Nintendo DS system.'"
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Nintendo DS TV Adapter Hands-On Review More

Nintendo DS TV Adapter Hands-On Review

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  • Not so fast... (Score:2, Informative)

    by dalmiroy2k ( 768278 )
    The unit is a prototype and a distributor is need, so don't expect it any time soon...

  • Less than useless. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by theSpaceCow ( 920198 )
    Is there a market out there full of people who want to use their portable devices in the least portable way possible? And in the case of the DS, a way that not only can't capture the device's full functionality, but hinders it as you look back and forth between your handheld and the television?

    On my Nintendo add-on scale of 1 to Power Glove, this gets a -3.
    • Is there a market out there full of people who want to use their portable devices in the least portable way possible?

      The Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for the GBA looked MUCH BETTER in a TV Set (or emulated in your PC) than in the GBA itself.
    • On my Nintendo add-on scale of 1 to Power Glove, this gets a -3.

      I'm a little confused by your scale. Does it assume that the Power Glove is the best Nintendo add-on that has ever or will ever exist? Or is "Power Glove" a negative score, and 1 the highest rating available?
      • I wonder if he's restricting the scale to real numbers. And, is this a straight linear progression or is some sort of algorithm involved? Kudos to him for ignoring the convention of the more obvious "Scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the Power Glove"!

        -Eric

    • Re:Less than useless. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Thursday April 27, 2006 @01:55PM (#15214248)
      "Is there a market out there full of people who want to use their portable devices in the least portable way possible?"

      If the DS's (or GBA's) main selling point to you is "portable," then no. If it's "good games," however, then yes, there is always a market to play those good games on a television.

      "Good games" is why I have a GBA Player attatched to my GameCube, and why I'm worried about not seeing a GBA slot on the Wii.
      • Didn't MadCatz release a GBA player for the Gamecube that used the memory card slot instead of hooking to the bottom to play GBA games? Anyone know how that works.

        Unless it's been limited by Nintendo based on how they handle hardware for the Wii, this still might work with it. If it would, MadCatz suddenly looks like they made a very smart move!
      • I'd imagine Nintendo will announce a wifi DS player for the Wii.

    • Almost forgot. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Guppy06 ( 410832 )
      "but hinders it as you look back and forth between your handheld and the television?"

      Never played Zelda: Four Swords Adventure or Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles?
    • Is there a market out there full of people who want to use their portable devices in the least portable way possible?

      Some of us old people prefer to play with a larger screen. It's kinda hard to hold the SP or DS and a magnifying glass at the same time.
    • Is there a market out there full of people who want to use their portable devices in the least portable way possible?

      I'm not interested in portable gaming at all. However, there were a handful of GBA games (Metroid, mostly) that I wanted to play. So I got a Gameboy Player for my Gamecube.

      When someone (Sony, preferably) gets around to letting me play PSP games on a TV in a way that doesn't involve a crappy mini-cam kludge, I will probably buy a few of those too.
    • The market for this sort of thing would be old people who want to play that 'Brain Age' game but for whom the DS screen is illegibly small.
    • In the times where Gameboys where still green and blurry I used the SuperGameboy Adapter for the SNES a lot, in times where the GBA was increadible dark I used the GameboyPlayer for the Gamecube a lot, now however with the GBAsp and the DS the portable displays are good enough that I only very seldomly use the GameboyPlayer. This new TV adapter on the other side doesn't seem rather useless, since he doesn't produce a better picture then the portables, but simply caputured.

    • Re:Less than useless. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by damsa ( 840364 )
      There are websites out there where people record their best Mariokart times and you can see the video of them. So there is a market abeit a small one of people who is in the market for this.

  • Nintendo Tii Vii (Score:3, Funny)

    by dividedsky319 ( 907852 ) on Thursday April 27, 2006 @01:55PM (#15214242)
    If Nintendo came out with an official tv adapter, would they call it the "Nintendo Tii Vii"?
  • I know many people that want to use DS games, on a TV. I see this as a great temporary solution. A more permanent solution could be something like the Super Gameboy Cartridge for the SNES. The revolution (Wii) could do this right with an attachment that connects a DS cartridge to the system, and one in the DS, so you can use it like a controller over WiFi, or the like. This would be best if it used the NintendoWiFi connection, and multiple systems as controllers (splitscreen multiplayer). Optional integ

  • Ugh. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Thursday April 27, 2006 @01:59PM (#15214292)
    It looks just like the insanity they're trying to push with the PSP: a small camera pointed at the handheld's screen. Yes, there are DS games I'd be interested in seeing on a television, but this is not the way I would do it.
    • Yeah, and the quality in the screen caps shows that a camera doesn't pickup everything from LCD's well... nor does the lense properly deal with aspherical issues at such a close distance, nor are the colors great, etc...

      But you gotta admit, if all it is, is a camera, for 30 bucks, I can use it on ANYTHING I want to put on the TV. Just duct-tape this thing to your favorite portable console or laptop screen or whatever and plug it in. My Game Gear will be great with this adapter. But you could even use thi
      • But you gotta admit, if all it is, is a camera, for 30 bucks, I can use it on ANYTHING

        As long as it's not down your pants, that is.

  • No thanks (Score:4, Funny)

    by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Thursday April 27, 2006 @02:00PM (#15214301)
    I'll pass on this. Why would I want to sit a foot away from my TV to use this? Not to mention, I don't like the idea of getting fingerprints all over my TV screen.
  • Whoever buys this needs a punch in the groin. Congratulations. You just bought a device that makes playing games that much more difficult.
  • It been mentioned that DS be done through Revolution. Thats fine and all, but what about the stylus games? Kirby wouldn't play anywhere as well on anything other then an LCD screen with some sort of stylus.
    • It can be done in a similar way to using a GBA as a controller on your Game Boy Player. We already know the Wii will have wireless capabilities, so you rig a hypothetical DS Player to transmit what the DS would interpret as a "single-card download play" and you use your DS as the controller.

      That, or you use the Wii remote as the stylus, pointing it at the screen in the place where you'd want the stylus to be.
    • What rock have you been living under? The Revo^H^H^H^HWii is all about he new controler which will be able to point on a 2D plane among other things.
  • at penny arcade expo. They had two lcds, one for each DS screen. I don't recall seeing a camera on theirs... I think they just rigged some kind of video out. Maybe they had special DS units for that though... but I bet that the ones on the market could be made that way.

    If I actually *had* a DS, I'd just bug nintendo to release their official solution, which seemed like a much better design overall.
  • As you may know, the DS transmits its screen contents over some RF signal. Someone found the signal with his TV tuner. I think that's what Nintendo uses to display the DS screen contents on the TVs at expos. The proper approach would be to identify and reverse engineer that signal.
    • As you may know, the DS transmits its screen contents over some RF signal. Someone found the signal with his TV tuner.

      I'm pretty sure you just made that up.

      The DS transmits its screen contents from the mainboard to the LCDs via thin ribbons of metal called "wires".
    • The parent poster is correct that there is some interference from the DS that can cause a barley decernable replica of it's image to be displayed on a TV.

      I doubt though, that this is the same technique used at Expos since there are usualy many of these units placed next to eachother and I've not seen them interfere with eachother.

      I saw watched in operation at Penny Arcade Expo myself and the image was very crip.

  • Nintendo DS (Score:3, Funny)

    by suv4x4 ( 956391 ) on Thursday April 27, 2006 @02:57PM (#15214880)
    or now knows as Nintento Puu.
  • The review is done by what will be the main seller of it! That rocks!
  • I'd like something official that worked like the Super Game Boy did. The screenshots of the TV show a rounded black blur on the sides. At first I thought it was a an adapter to watch TV on the DS, not the other way around.

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