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DSi project leader reveals unreleased Nintendo handhelds

Joseph L. Flatley — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:31:00 +0000

Man, the folks over at this year's Game Developer's Conference are having all the fun -- and now the Joystiq crew just got a rare look at two Game Boy models that never made it to production, unveiled during a talk by the project leader for the development of the DSi, Masato Kuwahara. The first, developed around 1995, was labeled "Game Boy Advance Predecessor," and was based on a 32-bit ARM RISC processor. The project stalled in development due to poor graphics performance. The second device was essentially a touch-screen Game Boy Advance SP, with a clamshell case thrown in for good measure. Apparently, this one didn't make the cut due to its lack of a backlit display. We've got a picture of that one for you too -- and it does look somewhat familiar. Check it after the break.

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DSi project leader reveals unreleased Nintendo handhelds originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ben Heck’s Xbox 360 Controller Monitor lights up your latency

Ross Miller — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:54:00 +0000

Ben Heck's latest device isn't gonna help you take your next-gen gaming on the go, nor will it let you play with one hand. Instead, the Xbox 360 Controller Monitor is designed to test gamepad latency using a data cable hooked up directly to each button and fed into a 8 x 8 inch display board. Each action lights up the corresponding indicator, and it includes three levels of sensitivity for each cardinal direction of the joysticks and shoulder triggers. At $600 (controller and AA batteries included), it's not exactly something for the hobbyists out there, but already this thing's got some major gaming street cred: it's currently being used for playtesting on Mass Effect 2, the new Wolfenstein, and the just announced Modern Warfare 2.

Continue reading Ben Heck's Xbox 360 Controller Monitor lights up your latency

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Ben Heck's Xbox 360 Controller Monitor lights up your latency originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rock Band ticks off 40 million tracks sold, $1 billion in revenue

Paul Miller — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:28:00 +0000

That's a lot of dollars. Also? A lot of Mötley Crüe. Seriously, people, calm down. As of right now Rock Band has 614 songs on offer, 269 different artists, 11 full albums, more revenue than any other game in 2008, $1 billion total in North American retail sales, 40 million tracks sold, and unhindered wallet access to countless deluded human beings who think they're rock stars.

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Rock Band ticks off 40 million tracks sold, $1 billion in revenue originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo announces DSi-only and “DSi Enhanced” software

Paul Miller — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:23:00 +0000

While Nintendo has been pretty good so far with the Game Boys of yore and the DS / DS Lite at keeping backwards compatibility pretty much at a maximum, the DSi's added functionality and processing power is going to test that a bit. Nintendo has confirmed that there will be two new types of DS software, "DSi Cards" and "DSi Enhanced Cards." The former will only work with the DSi (and with the current DS install base, we're guessing they won't be incredibly common, but the DSi's off to a strong start) and the latter will offer expanded functionality on the DSi (like mapping a photo onto a character) but will still downgrade gracefully to regular DS handhelds. This could certainly cause some confusion, but hopefully anything DSi specific will be very obviously DSi-centric, like a camera app or something to automatically spend thousands of Nintendo Points on classic titles in a flailing attempt to relive your childhood.

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Nintendo announces DSi-only and "DSi Enhanced" software originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo ships 50 million Wii consoles, which still isn’t enough

Darren Murph — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:24:00 +0000

Earlier this month, both AMD and IBM announced that they had shipped the 50 millionth Wii GPU and CPU, respectively, so it was only a matter of time before Nintendo came forward to say what everyone was already thinking: the Big N has shipped 50 million Wii consoles worldwide. Today at the outfit's Game Developers Conference keynote, Satoru Iwata confirmed that it had moved "more than 50 million" units, making it "the fastest selling video game hardware in history." Interestingly enough, the company also announced its 100 millionth DS shipment just under a fortnight ago, so it's pretty safe to say things are going well in the Mushroom Kingdom. Now, if only it could get through a Christmas without ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids with procrastinating parents, we'd be able to hand over a "kudos" with a straight face.

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Nintendo ships 50 million Wii consoles, which still isn't enough originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo launches Wii System Menu 4.0, including SD card WiiWare playback

Paul Miller — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:15:00 +0000

Nintendo's finally patching WiiWare's biggest hangup: storage. Not only can you back up titles to SD, but games can now be played straight from the cards, so there should be very little hassle to data management going forward. The "SD Card Menu" can be accessed straight from the main Wii System Menu 4.0, an update that's being pushed out as we speak, which also enables the Wii to work with memory cards larger than 2GB, all the way up to 32GB -- which should make room for a good many NES carts. Nintendo's also pushing out the new Virtual Console Arcade, which brings old school arcade titles to the Wii. Hit up the read link for Joystiq's walkthrough of the SD card functionality, or just fire up your Wii and find out for yourself -- the water's warm!

Filed under: Gaming, Storage

Nintendo launches Wii System Menu 4.0, including SD card WiiWare playback originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GameTrak Freedom motion controller for Xbox 360 outed at GDC

Laura June — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:54:00 +0000

IGN's gotten a preview of the Gametrak Freedom motion-controller we first spied back in September. Designed by Performance Designed Products (PDP), the Xbox 360 (which will probably also be available for the PS3 at some point, too) stick's looks have changed quite a bit since then. Like most other motion controllers it uses accelerometers, but also adds ultrasonic 3D positioning using two sensor bars mounted to the display, which can triangulate the device's positioning to precisely calculate its distance, orientation and speed. Though the Gametrak Freedom is expected for Xbox 360 in the fourth quarter of this year, there are no specific details about pricing or availability yet.

[Via Joystiq]

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GameTrak Freedom motion controller for Xbox 360 outed at GDC originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Joystiq is live from Nintendo’s GDC 2009 keynote

Paul Miller — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Our siblings in blogging over at Joystiq are live at the Nintendo GDC keynote right now, which just got underway. Hit up the read link for the full blow-by-blow!

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Joystiq is live from Nintendo's GDC 2009 keynote originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is Netflix PS3-bound, too?

Tim Stevens — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:14:00 +0000

Rumors of Netflix content streaming to the PS3 date back to, well, the first rumors of it hitting the Xbox 360. We all know which of those two platforms got some red envelope love last year, and now, soon after hearing the service may be heading to the Wii, we have what seems to be similar confirmation that Netflix is at least still considering bringing their bitstream to the PS3. The screenshot above was captured by a reader, showing a message like that on the earlier Wii survey -- in fact it's exactly the same from what we can see. Given our proximity to that least newsy day of the year on April 1st we can't be sure this is entirely genuine, but it probably is time for Sony to make a little room in its XMB for Netflix.

[Thanks, Jake N.]

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Is Netflix PS3-bound, too? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft unveils gorgeous blue-tinted Xbox 360 dev kit and no, you can’t have one

Ross Miller — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:44:00 +0000

There are so many things we love about the new Xbox 360 dev kit unveiled at this week's Game Developers Conference and due out in the summer. In addition to its sleek black-and-blue tint finish and some stylish etchings, it also boasts 1GB of RAM, or twice what is found in the retail model. Beg all you want, this gorgeous piece of hardware is only for those who make the games -- for now, at least.

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Microsoft unveils gorgeous blue-tinted Xbox 360 dev kit and no, you can't have one originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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