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Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project
- qbasic_forever 6y agoI'd bet this was a feature to support their in-store kiosks where people could play a DS and see the output on a TV. It'd be a lot cheaper and easier to pull some DS machines off the production line and reflash the firmware than to engineer entirely new units just for the kiosks.
- jsheard 6y agoI don't remember there being DS kiosks with TVs attached, but DS devkits did support external displays so maybe it's a remnant from those https://cdn.retrorgb.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/10100846/NitroDSEmulator.jpg https://cdn.retrorgb.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/10100846...
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoThe article says that the devkits used different circutry.
- jsheard 6y agoThat'll teach me for rushing to post a cool photo before reading the article :)
- djmips 6y agoI enjoyed your photo despite this. ;-)
- Lammy 6y agoThere was also a third-party USB video capture mod for original "phat" DS models (and amusingly not the DS Lite): http://www.3dscapture.com/ds/ http://www.3dscapture.com/ds/ The fun thing about the developer units is that the handheld part can be switched out. The photo above shows one with a phat DS controller, compare to one with a DS Lite attached: https://cooltrainer.org/nitro-capture/ https://cooltrainer.org/nitro-capture/
- Tijdreiziger 6y agoThe circuitry inside the 'handheld part' of the devkits is totally different from a retail unit, as indeed it doesn't contain any processing. So if you had, say, a 'phat' devkit, I don't think you'd be able to fit a Lite as the controller (unless you also had a Lite devkit and swapped the two controllers, I suppose).
- Lammy 6y agoYeah, the latter. The PSP kit is the same way.
- qbasic_forever 6y agoThey were definitely out there, I remember playing some DS kiosks at Target. This circuitry is specifically for the later DS lite models that came out in the later days of the DS line: https://consolevariations.com/variation/kiosk/nintendo-ds-kiosk-new-super-mario-bros-editon https://consolevariations.com/variation/kiosk/nintendo-ds-ki...
- post_break 6y agoI just wish I picked up a DS. The prices for them now is ridiculous.
- s5300 6y ago? They seem to be quite cheap on eBay unless I'm missing something
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- codetrotter 6y agoI bought a couple of Nintendo DS Lite consoles at the beginning of the corona virus but found these to be too small to be enjoyable so I bought a Nintendo New 3DS XL instead. The New 3DS XL was pretty decent. I played quite a few games and finally sold the New 3DS XL as well as the DS Lite consoles that I had bought. Something worth keeping in mind is that if like me you don’t intend to keep them but only want to play with them for a few months, then I suggest you do like I did, stay on the lookout for a while to get a feel for how much people are asking and how much people are paying, when you then later find one at a decent price you will know that the price is decent. You buy it you play with it for a while and then you sell it for somewhere around what you paid for it. Try asking for a higher price first. But even if you sell it at a small loss, you (hopefully) got entertainment value out of it and it was worth it. I was extra lucky with mine because after I bought the New 3DS XL, someone listed quite a few DS games and a couple of 3DS games that they were giving away for free in a neighboring city to mine. So I went and picked up 12 or 14 games or thereabouts, that was given to me for free. Maybe 2/3 of the games were low quality games that I only played a little, but there were some gems too. And when I sold the DS consoles I bundled the games with them, distributing the games I liked and the ones I did not like so much evenly. And still not asking much more for most of the consoles, just a little extra. And this way it also became a good deal for the buyers that bought them from me. I probably would have held onto the New 3DS XL if I could afford to, but realistically even if I hadn’t needed the money I feel that I was done with it, and was not planing on devoting more time playing it in the near future. Better then to sell it to someone else. I get the money and they get to enjoy it.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bogwog 6y agoAnd to think Nintendo wants these to end up in a landfill. Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles (that is, modifying hardware that you own however you want), were actually legal. Old consoles like these could continue to provide value to owners via competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features like the OP, etc. All of that could happen without infringing on Nintendo's rights, or requiring them to do anything in any way. But the DMCA doesn't allow it.
- LeoPanthera 6y ago> Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles were actually legal Is it not?
- denkmoon 6y agoObviously depends where you are. DMCA legislates against circumvention of copyright protection mechanisms.
- surround 6y agoSo if I make a modification to add “competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features,” how does this violate DMCA?
- SilverRed 6y agoIf you have to break DRM features to add your app store then you are in violation of the DMCA technically. But there is no reason you should care if you are outside of the US
- DanBC 6y agoCircumvention of technical measures is part of law in many countries. See this example from the UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technological-protection-measures-tpms-complaints-process https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technological-pro... > Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) (also known as copy protection measures or DRM) are often used to protect copyright works, for example, through encryption on DVDs. TPMs can have a important role in enabling copyright owners (rightsholders) to offer content to consumers in different ways, as well as protecting against unlawful copying (piracy). UK law protects the right of copyright owners to use TPMs to protect their works, and circumvention of such technology is illegal.
- marinhero 6y agoCould this be one of the first iterations of the Switch?
- fredoralive 6y agoNintendo have offered handheld-on-TV options before with the Super Game Boy for SNES and Game Boy Player for Gamecube, so them considering a TV output for a DS wouldn't be entirely out of the question, although the dual screen / touchscreen nature of the DS would make it rather awkward. Although as others have noted, adding it to the chipset might have been intended to make store demo units or developer / reviewer test units simpler to make, and not something for general public use.
- lapetitejort 6y agoNintendo also offered the Wide Boy 64 [0] to devs and journalists to capture GB/GBC/GBA footage. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Wide-Boy64 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Wide-B...
- cbanek 6y agoI wish I could have decent output of a 3DS! I was looking into it and apparently it is really hard and one of the small setups modding them in Japan recently closed down!
- SilverRed 6y agoI think most people just use an emulator when they want to record/stream 3ds games.
- bpiche 6y agoKind of serendipitous but I have been getting really into DSi, N3DS, and PSP hacking recently and just watched this video last night. Take a look. I think it will blow your mind. I didn't make this video, of course. "N3DSXL Hardware Mods Part II, Including Wireless Streaming" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7lGI3yGzPQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7lGI3yGzPQ
- cbanek 6y agoWow that's really cool - thanks for sharing. This almost makes me want to get a new 3ds! I just have an old one. But I can't think of any other reason to upgrade. These days I'm living on the switch :)
- SilverRed 6y agoIt always blows me away when people work out this stuff so long after the product comes out. This hardware sold hundreds of millions of units and yet no one noticed it had a video output inside it? Just goes to show how complex this stuff is I guess.
- accrual 6y agoI'm sure the internals were photographed and dissected a long time ago but maybe someone is just now getting into the guts of the SoC. It's fun to imagine all the interesting things we might have laying around that are hidden by a $DEBUG=0 flag...
- SilverRed 6y agoThere was a blog post where someone reverse engineered the IR protocol of the pokewalker and found that it had a bunch of commands which were never used but are still active in the firmware (some likely were planned for events)
- MarioMan 6y agoIt’s a good read. Here’s a link to the write up: https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=28.%20pokewalker https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=28.%20pokewalker
- jwitthuhn 6y agoReminds me of an interesting feature(?) of the old DS Phat. If you held it close enough, analog tv antennas could pick up the video signal going to the top screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VlCpZkVss4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VlCpZkVss4
- Pet_Ant 6y agoNow if you could drive the lower screen with an iPad then you have a real winner and great accessibility for the disabled.
- fmj 6y agoAt that point I think it'd be easier to emulate a DS on the iPad and stream the top screen to an external display.