There you go WiFi on the DS for Animal Crossing.
October 29, 2004 - Nintendo today revealed some new details about the Japanese version of Animal Crossing known in Japan under the tentative name of Doubutsu no Mori DS.
Only a few details have been revealed on the game. You'll once again find yourself living in a village, taking up residence in your very own home. The game looks like one would expect of an Animal Crossing game, with a similar color palette and those trademark balloon-headed characters. Nintendo has even managed to keep the 3D perspective in the move to the portable.
Animal Crossing represents the perfect chance for Nintendo to show off the NDS's trademark features, and it seems like Nintendo will be doing just that.
The WiFi functionality of the system will let as many as four players play together, walking around in the same village. Players will be able to chat using the touch screen and show off their own rooms. The touch screen is also used for menu selection, which should make for a fast interface.
With so few details available on Animal Crossing DS, we expect it to be a ways off from release. We hope to get a closer glimpse shortly, though, so stay tuned to IGNDS.
It looks like this one is about ping times or game lists.
DS UPDATEDS UPDATE reports that on 10.10.04 Warp Pipe is supposed to make some announcement, well I wont be holding my breath for this one like I did for the the last "announcement" that was supposed to happen.
TOKYO--Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed on Thursday that the company's dual-screen DS handheld gaming console can download game data wirelessly, then play it back.
"The Nintendo DS's greatest features are its revolutionary control schemes, such as the touch-sensitive screen and the microphone input," Iwata said during a press conference at CEATEC, a large technology conference taking place here this week. "And its other major feature is the wireless connection. With it, we're going to revolutionize the way that games are played.
"The DS's wireless connection isn't just a substitute for the link cable that was used on the Game Boy (for multiplayer games). The DS has wireless download capability, which allows it to receive a program and to execute it. With it, people can play games together using only one cartridge," said Iwata, citing as one example Super Mario 64 DS' four-player, one-cartridge simultaneous game play.
While game-session sharing isn't totally new, since it was possible with titles on the Game Boy Advance, the DS can do far more.
"Although this won't be available at launch, we're thinking of using the wireless download function to change the way in which people try out upcoming games at retail outlets," Iwata said. "We're thinking of a system where people can download a demo program (from the store's machines), with a time or a usage limit, to their own DS. We hope that this system will allow new potential hits to be recognized by everyone, and that it will help to buck the trend where only sequels are hitting the sales charts."
Iwata also talked about plans to integrate the DS's download capability with theatrical movie releases, starting off with a short mention of former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi's conviction that Nintendo should enter the animated film business.
"We are absolutely considering the idea (of going into the movie business)," Iwata said. Although we don't have anything to talk about right now, we hope to make an announcement by the end of the year.
On a related subject, we're planning to try integrating the DS with movie theaters. By using the system's wireless functionality, users that bring their DS and GBA Pokemon cartridge to designated theaters will be able to download game data that will be distributed during certain scenes of the next Pokemon movie. In one scene where the main characters meet a new Pokemon, that character's data will be sent to their cartridges. This will be the first time such a distribution scheme has been used anywhere in the world."
Though most of Iwata's comments had to do with the DS, he assured the crowd that Nintendo is still supporting the Game Boy Advance. "The DS isn't the only thing that Nintendo will focus on. Ever since the price reduction of the Game Boy Advance SP in September, it's been selling better than last year, when it was in high demand to begin with. We forecast that there will be over 60 million units shipped throughout the world within the year when including the Game Boy Advance, and we are anticipating further market expansion" of the handheld and its games.
Hirohiko Niizumi of GameSpot reported from Tokyo.
It looks like DEMASKED. COM is official meaning that they have website up and running. The site has the demasked logo on it as well as a place to submitt an email address for their upcomming service. While visiting the Warppipe forums Chad left another message at the end of a locked topic, it was something to the affect of enjoy your DS on November 21st and DEMASKED. Hopefully that means we will get to see a DEMASKED service/product before Thanksgiving.
I guess WPT is ditching the old familar Green Warp Pipe logo for the new Demasked logo. From the interveiw it looks like WPT is creating some software and or a service,. I guess we can say the DS is officialy Online. Like one memeber of the Nintendo forums said "We're going be the ones who help Nintendo go online", that comment is scary but true..
It looks like nintendo has a filed a patent for a GPS device/addon this was found by DIDYOULOSEASOCK from the Nintendo forums. Ive listed some highlights from the patent and will be posting more as I read through the patent.
[0052] a pass-through connector 902 (This is an addon to the DS)
[0062] antenna 922
[0066] Transmit power-1 watt
[0067] Bit rate-9600 bps
[0065] Frequency bands: 896-902 MHz
Example Operations
[0079] A pager-equipped portable game machine may include (but is not limited to) the following features:
[0080] a plug-in two-way pager,
[0081] sending and receiving of alphanumeric pages,
[0082] sending and receiving of e-mail messages,
[0083] receive broadcasts such as news broadcasts,
[0084] allow playing of pager-compatible games (e.g., network games),
[0085] provide real time clock and calendar,
[0086] play mini-games, [0087] creation of personal persona, and [0088] playing of conventional games.
[0091] Two illustrative, but non-limiting, applications of pager cartridge 100 to game playing are in Multiple User Dungeon (MUD) games and virtual pets. Generally speaking, MUDs are Internet-based on-line exploration and quest games in which an open-ended number of players simultaneously exist in the same game world, sharing experiences and adventures. MUD games exist in all genres, from fantasy to science fiction and all point in-between, and come in countless formats from text-based to fully graphical. Some currently popular Internet MUDs include Ultima Online (Electronic Arts/Origin), Everquest (Sony 989 Studios), Darkness Falls (Gamestorm/AOL/Kesmai) and Cosrin (AOL). While MUDs vary greatly in appearance and content, MUDs generally share the following key components:
[0092] Exploration and adventure
[0093] Chat and community interaction
[0094] Character growth
[0095] Perpetual, dynamic worlds that grow, adapt and change
[0096] In one implementation, the user of pager cartridge 100 becomes a player in what will be referred to hereinafter as PagerWorld, a virtual community for the network of all users having pager cartridges 100. Players are represented in PagerWorld by a "persona character" and it is this character that all other PagerWorld players will see, for example, when messages are received. Over time, this persona character will become ever more unique to the particular player. As players interact with other players in PagerWorld (e.g., by sending messages and playing games), players will share the fin and excitement of discovering new items, skills and appearances as their persona characters gain experience.
[0097] Players read and send messages from the main PagerWorld screen, this screen serving as "communication central." From this screen, the player can choose a portal and actually step into a nation-wide or world-wide community of other PagerWorld players. PagerWorld is the hub for communications, becoming a central meeting place to find friends and share messages. Visually, it can be thought of as a carnival midway where players walk their persona characters in a world featuring attractions and sideshows. Players can find pen-pals, view message boards, check high-score lists and play games with others. PagerWorld also contains games and quests with prizes for victorious persona characters
The plot thickens (Warp Pipe Speculatons)
Well the boiling pot of clues get thicker and thicker as time passes on. It looks like Chad Paulson may have registered himself at the Nintendo forums as DEMASKED. All the eagle eyed DS'ers are on top of this like white on rice and are on the lookout for the next crazy clue thats posted. Heres a link that shows all the clues that have been left for us to figure out.
http://forums.warppipe.com/viewtopic.php?t=11573
The GameCube LAN tunnelers are moving on to more fertile grounds. We spoke with the Project Manager to get a cleaner angle on all the crazy rumors.
Chad Paulson, Project Manager at Warp Pipe Technologies, has been stirring up quite a lot of controversy this week. His posts at the
Warp Pipe forums, along with some comments by Dean Bergmann of
N-Sider, have ignited a blizzard of rumors and speculation in the online community. Bergmann worked
http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=5663forum posters into a frenzy with this cryptic teaser:
“You're lost in the woods of a city, and you know there are others there. But how do you know they're there if you're lost? I know the answer. You'll see mid october.”
At the center of the storm of rumors is a series of images hosted at Warp Pipe’s website. The pictures, shown below, will have to speak for themselves, because Warp Pipe is not ready to comment on their specific meanings.
Note that the “Find(s)me.” image is based on the card “Marionette” from Ragnarok Online:
We spoke with Paulson to obtain some kind of clarity on what is going on with his company and with all the crazy rumors. He refused to go into details about specifics of his project, but he did have the following to say:
PGC: Can you comment on the rumors revolving around Warp Pipe right now?
Paulson: I can confirm to you that Warp Pipe Technologies is working on a service that will launch globally. North America and Japan Q4 of 2004. And the rest of the world Q1 - Q2 of 2005.
PGC: Is your involvement in the current swirl of DS rumors related to your project?
Paulson: The DS rumors... There are so many. The majority of which are simply ridiculous, but I guess that's what you get with the Internet.
PGC: Let me be more specific. Did you create the picture of the guy with no eyes holding a DS?
Paulson: Yes. The child in the woods, the "findsme", and the "no eyes" are all clues from us.
PGC: Is this a project Warp Pipe is releasing independently? Paulson: I can’t comment on that. I can confirm that there are a handful of publishers / developers are in the loop and their involvement will prove beneficial to both parties. …I can confirm what this isn't. It is not tunneling.
PGC: Is Warp Pipe a licensed Nintendo DS developer?
Paulson: I cannot comment on that.
PGC: Is this project primarily or wholly intended for Nintendo platforms? Paulson: I cannot comment on that.
PGC: Is there anything else you can say about the project at this time?
Paulson: Although this service will greatly surprise gamers, it is not what they would traditionally expect. We (Warp Pipe Technologies) feel that online communities have been commoditized, with publishers and developers focusing on the technology instead of the social and personal aspects that truly make a multiplayer experience unique. In launching this service, we will be addressing these issues.
Planet GameCube is following this story closely, though hard facts are unlikely to surface before Nintendo lifts the rest of its DS information embargo in October. Around that time, Warp Pipe will be fully announcing their new project, and we’ll be sure to catch up with them for a detailed follow-up.
