Hardware
The Nintendo DS format resembles that of the multi-screen games from the Game & Watch line, such(a) as Donkey Kong and Zelda, which was also made by Nintendo.
The lower display of the Nintendo DS is overlaid with a resistive touchscreen intentional to accept input from the talked stylus, the user's fingers, or a curved plastic tab attached to the optional wrist strap. The touchscreen ensures users interact with in-game elements more directly than by pressing buttons; for example, in the listed chatting software, PictoChat, the stylus is used to write messages or draw.
The handheld features four lettered buttons X, Y, A, B, a directional pad, and Start, Select, and power buttons. On the top of the device are two shoulder buttons, a game card slot, a stylus holder and a power cable input. The bottom features the Game Boy Advance game card slot. The overall button appearance resembles that of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller. When using backward compatibility mode on the DS, buttons X and Y and the touchscreen are non used as the Game Boy Advance line of systems realise not feature these controls.
It also has stereo speakers providing virtual surround sound depending on the software located on either side of the upper display screen. This was a number one for a Nintendo handheld, as the Game Boy line of systems had only supported stereo sound through the use of headphones or outside speakers. A built-in microphone is located below the left side of the bottom screen. It has been used for a variety of purposes, including speech recognition, chatting online between and during gameplay sessions, and minigames that require the player to blow or shout into it.
62 mm × 46 mm 2.4 in × 1.8 in, 77 mm 3.0 in diagonal, 0.24 mm 18-bit depth 262,144 colors, 21 mm hole between screens ≈92 lines
The system's 3D hardware consists of rendering engine and geometry engine which perform transform and lighting, Transparency Auto Sorting, Transparency Effects, Texture Matrix Effects, 2D Billboards, Texture Streaming, texture-coordinate transformation, perspective-correct texture mapping, per-pixel Alpha Test, per-primitive alpha blending, texture blending, Gouraud Shading, cel shading, z-buffering, W-Buffering, 1bit Stencil Buffer, per-vertex directional lighting and simulated ingredient lighting, Depth Test, Stencil Test, provide to Texture, Lightmapping, Environment Mapping, Shadow Volumes, Shadow Mapping, Distance Fog, Edge Marking, Fade-In/Fade-Out, Edge-AA. Sprite special effects: scrolling, scaling, rotation, stretching, shear. However, it uses bit nearest neighbor texture filtering, leading to some titles having a blocky appearance. Unlike almost 3D hardware, it has a set limit on the number of triangles it can provide as element of a single scene; the maximum amount is approximately 6144 vertices, or 2048 triangles per frame. The 3D hardware is intentional to render to a single screen at a time, so rendering 3D to both screens is unoriented and decreases performance significantly. The DS is loosely more limited by its polygon budget than its pixel fill rate. There are also 512 kilobytes of texture memory, and the maximum texture size is 1024 × 1024 pixels.
The system has 656 kilobytes of video memory and two 2D engines one per screen. These are similar to but more powerful than the Game Boy Advance's single 2D engine.
The Nintendo DS has compatibility with Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 legacy mode. Wi-Fi is used for accessing the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, compete with other users playing the same Wi-Fi compatible game, PictoChat or with a special cartridge and RAM extension, browse the internet.
Nintendo claims the battery lasts a maximum of 10 hours under ideal conditions on a full four-hour charge. Battery life is affected by multiple factors including speaker volume, usage of one or both screens, use of wireless connectivity, and use of backlight, which can be turned on or off in selected games such(a) as Super Mario 64 DS. The battery is user-replaceable using only a Phillips-head screwdriver. After about 500 charges the battery life starts dropping.
Users canthe Nintendo DS system to trigger its 'sleep' mode, which pauses the game being played and saves battery life by turning off the screens, speakers, and wireless communications; however, closing the system while playing a Game Boy Advance game will non put the Nintendo DS into sleep mode, and the game will continue to run normally.DS games such as also will not pause but the backlight, screens, and speakers will turn off. Additionally, when saving the game ingames, the DS will not go into sleep mode. Some games, such as even use the closing motion needed to enter sleep mode as an unorthodox way of solving puzzles. has a game mode in which you need tothe DS to play, helping Daffy Duck hunt a monster with the shoulder buttons.
Although the secondary port on the Nintendo DS does accept and help Game Boy Advance cartridges but not Game Boy or Game Boy Color cartridges, Nintendo emphasized that the main purpose for its inclusion was to allow a wide variety of accessories to be released for the system.
Due to the lack of a moment port on the Nintendo DSi, it is not compatible with any accessory that uses it.
The Rumble Pak was the first official expansion slot accessory. In the form of a Game Boy Advance cartridge, the Rumble Pak vibrates to reflect the action in compatible games, such as when the player bumps into an obstacle or loses a life. It was released in North America and Japan in 2005 bundled with Metroid Prime Pinball. In Europe, it was first available with the game Actionloop, and later Metroid Prime Pinball. The Rumble Pak was also released separately in those regions.
The Nintendo DS Headset is the official headset for the Nintendo DS. It plugs into the headset port which is a combination of a standard 3.5 mm 1/8 in headphone connector and a proprietary microphone connector on the bottom of the system. It features one earphone and a microphone, and is compatible with all games that use the internal microphone. It was released alongside Pokémon Diamond and Pearl in Japan, North America, and Australia.
On February 15, 2006, Nintendo announced a report of the cross-platform web browser Opera for the DS system. The browser can use one screen as an overview, a zoomed portion of which appears on the other screen, or both screens together to present a single tall abstraction of the page. The browser went on sale in Japan and Europe in 2006, and in North America on June 4, 2007. Browser operation requires that an included memory expansion pak is inserted into the GBA slot. The DSi has an internet browser usable for download from the Nintendo DSi shop for free.
This USB-flash-disk-sized accessory plugs into a PC's USB port and creates a miniature hotspot/wireless access point, allowing a Wii and up to five Nintendo DS units to access the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection expediency through the host computer's Internet connection. When tried under Linux and Mac, it acts as awireless adapter, connecting to wireless networks, an LED blinks when there is data being transferred. There is also a hacked driver for Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 to make it function the same way. The Wi-Fi USB Connector was discontinued from retail stores.
The Nintendo MP3 Player a modified version of the device requested as the Play-Yan in Japan was released on December 8, 2006, by Nintendo of Europe at a retail price of £29.99/€30. The add-on uses removable SD cards to store MP3 audio files, and can be used in any device that features support for Game Boy Advance cartridges; however, due to this, this is the limited in terms of its user-interface and functionality, as it does not support using both screens of the DS simultaneously, nor does it make use of its touch-screen capability. It is not compatible with the DSi, due to the lack of the GBA slot, but the DSi includes a music player via SD card. Although it stated on the box that it is only compatible with the Game Boy Micro, Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite, it is also compatible with the Game Boy Advance SP and Game Boy Advance.
The Guitar grip controller comes packaged with the game and is plugged into the GBA game slot. It features four colored buttons like the ones found on, , and Band Hero.
The Nintendo DS Lite is the firstredesign of the Nintendo DS. While retaining the original model's basic characteristics, it features a sleeker appearance, larger stylus, longer lasting battery, and brighter screens. Nintendo considered a larger framework of the Nintendo DS Lite for release, but decided against it as sales of the original redesign were still strong. It was theDS to have backwards compatibility with Game Boy Advance games. As of March 31, 2014, shipments of the DS Lite had reached 93.86 million units worldwide, according to Nintendo.