DS Camera Debunked – For Now...

Internet forums spew fake – closer than realised.

Posted by Staff
DS Camera Debunked – For Now...
If you had a boring weekend, you might well have been surfing Internet gaming forums like our very own. This being the case, you may well have come across various reports referring to the little image included with this story, purporting to be a grab from a pop-up advertising a camera add-on for the Nintendo DS.

Well, it’s not. It was made by some punk kid with a copy of PhotoShop - a shame, as the Japan-only pink lettering really did fire the imagination for three and a half minutes.

However, the fake that has done the rounds does jog SPOnG’s memory, taking us back to 2004 when we were granted access to a preview of the DS, just weeks before E3, which outlined how the DS would be pitched to non-gamers as an alternative to what was and would be on the market. A camera was specifically mentioned, so perhaps this could be one of the packages that will be shown in Los Angeles this May.

Indeed, the concept of an opt-out console, complete with its touch panel, decent art package, simple movie editing and whatnot, is as appealing to the hardcore gaming community as it would no doubt prove with non-gamers looking for a portable digital entertainment solution.

Expect something along these lines - something that has been mistakenly touted as a hard fact over the weekend - to appear in tangible form within months.
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Comments

Crocomire 22 Mar 2005 13:42
1/9
If anything like this does show up at E3 then it would be really interesting. I would probably consider purchasing one myself in fact.
kid_77 22 Mar 2005 15:33
2/9
Crocomire wrote:
If anything like this does show up at E3 then it would be really interesting. I would probably consider purchasing one myself in fact.


Would be quite a bulky digital camera though.
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soanso 22 Mar 2005 18:19
3/9
I love all these rumours. they are really great. it's like everyday is april fool's day. But it amuses me that the jokes that were pulled by Digitiser on teletext and some print magazines, things like "nintendo launch new console with sega games" all seemed to have come true.
Pandaman 22 Mar 2005 19:27
4/9
C'mon guys...when was the last time Nintendo put a camera on a handheld? That's just silly.
Crocomire 22 Mar 2005 21:42
5/9
That would be the Game Boy Pocket.
Greg2k 22 Mar 2005 22:07
6/9
Much as I'd like it, and probably buy it, it won't stand a chance of becoming a hit, for one main reason: storage.

Nintendo doesn't use an open format for data storage on the DS, such as an SD slot, making it mandatory for there to be either an SD slot on the camera itself or a Wi-Fi application to send the pictures; too awkward.

There's where the PSP has the advantage. As much as the Memory Stick is a proprietary format, it's easily read by most PC card readers, plus you can just connect your PSP to the computer and transfer from there. Not to mention the screen is more suitable for displaying photos than either of the DS's
Pandaman 23 Mar 2005 00:51
7/9
Ah, yes...but what if you could take your photos that you take and send them wirelessly into the rumored hardrive of your Revolution, which is confirmed to also connect to your computer as well as your television?
fluffstardx 23 Mar 2005 17:14
8/9
I'd have said Memory Stick was a hindrance, not help; a lot of people who use portable smart media hate Memory Stick due to unreliability and breakability, and rank it with Atrac on the scale of Sony crap.

Don't forget, as well, that Nintendo have already promised us a multimedia addon. Obviously, this will have to have either storage onboard or have an SD slot or the like. As such, maybe this is where the camera comes in... maybe you can just use your camera's storage card in the multimedia addon, or even use a USB port on it?
BraveArse 23 Mar 2005 18:17
9/9
fluffstardx wrote:
I'd have said Memory Stick was a hindrance, not help; a lot of people who use portable smart media hate Memory Stick due to unreliability and breakability, and rank it with Atrac on the scale of Sony crap.

Don't forget, as well, that Nintendo have already promised us a multimedia addon. Obviously, this will have to have either storage onboard or have an SD slot or the like. As such, maybe this is where the camera comes in... maybe you can just use your camera's storage card in the multimedia addon, or even use a USB port on it?


yup - the Play Yan takes SD cards so storage will not be a problem - especially given that SD is by far one of the cheapest forms of generic storage available at the moment. I can see people really going for a DS cam especially if any decent non-gaming online browsers / apps break out in the next year or so.

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