Code Retard

If you check out Nintendo Japan’s corporate press release for today, you’ll find something quite interesting that WASN’T revealed at E3, the biggest gaming convention of the year- a stunning picture of a slick black Wii. While it’s certainly not the biggest news of the year, the fact that the Nintendo Wii is getting a new black paint job is still pretty big news. Just like the old DS Lite got a color makeover from the original polar white, the polar white Wii will now be sold in black as well. It goes on sale in Japan on August 1 later this year. Not to leave those who seek absolute matching accessories in dismay, Nintendo will also release black Wii remotes and classic controllers.

Also making headlines is a new color for the DSi. Though the news isn’t as big as we already get our choice of two DSi colors, the bold red portable gaming device would make a handsome addition to any gamer’s collection. Though on second thought if you had to stare at it gaming for a few hours you’d probably tire your eyes out.

Read more »

According to Develop magazine, Nintendo recently held a top-secret Nintendo Developer Conference earlier this week and asked its attendees to think of the DSi as the “first choice above any others for those looking to pursue new avenues for games design and ways for developers to make money.” That sounds very much like Apple’s App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which has been a huge boon for Apple and SDK developers. The Nintendo DS/DSi has long been the king of the handheld console market, but now it seems Nintendo too wishes to venture into the general app market and cash in on its newfound popularity.

Read more »

According to Nintendo UK general manager David Yarnton, the company will most likely phase out the DS Lite handheld if the upcoming DSi ‘thrives.’

Yarnton would not commit the company to any such plans, but did note that if enough buyers purchased the updated handheld, the DS Lite would most likely be discontinued, just like its fatter brother, the original DS, was.

“We’ll let the market decide,” he said. “We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS — the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive.”

The DSi is slated for an April 3rd release date in Europe followed by a North American release two days later.

The system will cost $169.99 USD in North America and will cost around GBP 149 in Europe, both 50 dollar premiums over the current model, the DS Lite.

The new Nintendo DSi has sort of quietly been forgotten here in the States since it was released last year exclusively in Japan. But no more! The shipping embargo is going to be lifted this coming April 5, 2009 — just two months away. Don’t miss out on your chance to be the first gamer on your block with the latest and greatest portable gaming gadget from Nintendo.

The Nintendo DSi is fully compatible with all DS games and boasts larger screen size, better audio quality, built-in front and back cameras, AAC music playback support, and SD card expansion slot. Currently it’s available for pre-order on Amazon for $169.99 which is cheaper than the Japanese unit which retails for around $189 when converted to USD. The DSi will be region-locked so you can’t go out and buy an imported DSi and expect your US games to work on it. It’s going to be available initially in two colors: matte blue (pictured) and matte black. Limit two per household, get your DSi pre-orders in now before they go out of stock.

Image/Amazon

It’s over now… for Nintendo that is. The newest Nintendo handheld, the DSi which is currently only available in Japan, has finally been hacked with a flash cart. This means that like its predecessor, the DSi will also have a wonderful host of homebrewing and hacking options once other DSi hackers catch on. We reported previously that the DSi had been hacked in just days after its release, but no solution was available that employed the flash cart. The DSi flash cartridge was developed by Acekard, and will be dubbed the "Acekard 2i."

Read more »

Hands on with the newest Nintendo DSi just released in Japan!

It’s official: the Nintendo DSi has already been hacked a mere days after it has gone on sale in Japan. Though no current generation DS homebrew flashcart will work on the new DSi, this video proof shows that there is definitely some weakness in the DSi that can be exploited to run custom homebrew. Though it’s not very fancy, I’d still give mad props to anyone who can hack a DSi to display every hacked device’s first words: “Hello, world!” The hacker to credit? Yasu, the author of YSMenu. Check out his YouTube video above to see it in action. Nothing interesting is happening on the touchscreen… yet. Like a tiny seed grows into a magnificent tree, this little app will soon be blooming beautiful homebrews left and right.

If you’ve been eagerly anticipating the launch of the new Nintendo DSi (now out on sale in Japan), you may want to take back that wish. The folks at Hacken.cc did some comprehensive testing of flashcart compatibility with the latest and greatest handheld from Nintendo and found out that it rejected all 11 homebrew flash cartridges that they tried. As you may know, the new DSi won’t have a Gameboy Advance slot so trying to use your old GBA slot-2 flashcart like the Supercard or M3 Perfect won’t work either. A list of all flashcarts that failed to work with the new DSi follows.

Read more »

Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata announced the DSI handheld will be coming to North America and Eurpoe in August of 2009. The DS is on sale right now in Japan, to test the market and to combat the slowing sales of the current Nintendo DS. The current Yen price is JPY 18900 or approx 192 US dollars.

All DSi software will be region-locked

Nintendo has confirmed to Eurogamer that any new software created for the new DSi handheld will be region-locked and that NA, EU, or J software will only work on consoles sold in those specific regions.

Current DS and GameBoy Advance handhelds are region-free meaning consumers can purchase software from other regions and it will play just fine.

Nintendo says the DSi is region locked “because DSi embeds net communication functionality within itself and we are intending to provide net services specifically tailored for each region”.

“Also because we are including parental control functionality for Nintendo DSi and each region has its unique age limit made by different independent bodies.”

Existing DS software will still be region-free, noted the company.