A recent Federal Communications Commission filing made by Nintendo has been the source of no small amount of speculation over the past few days. The seemingly innocuous entry on the FCC's site was submitted to get the Nintendo DS Wi-Fi card approved for U.S. distribution -- however, the image submitted alongside the filing (which has since been removed) is believed by some to give a few hints about the internal composition of the Nintendo 3DS.
Digital Foundry has a great breakdown of the image, which appears to exhibit the motherboard of a DS test kit or development kit. The tech site points out that one of the screens adheres to the 4:3 aspect ratio of current DS models, while one screen appears to be substantially wider. If this is a stripped-down version of the 3DS, this could indicate that only one of its two screens uses 3D display technology.
Also worth noting is the "CTR" designation the hardware is given in the FCC listing. As Digital Foundry points out, each model of the DS has had a three-letter codename for internal use: The DSi was called "TWL," the DSi XL was called "UTL," and so on. CTR is a whole new callsign, which may indicate that this is a whole new piece of hardware. We've contacted Nintendo to see if we can get a comment on the filing -- at the very least, we should learn the accuracy of this speculation during Nintendo's E3 press conference on June 15.
Reader Comments (61)
Posted: May 17th 2010 5:00PM Drakkenfyre said
It's a devboard. It's meant for developing and testing games.
The GameCube dev kit was a pc tower with controller ports on it, and game development used hard drives to simulate loading times for discs.
Reply
The GameCube dev kit was a pc tower with controller ports on it, and game development used hard drives to simulate loading times for discs.
Posted: May 17th 2010 3:11PM jceggbert5 said
Didn't the DS Phat say NTR on the sticker? IIRC, it did... CTR isn't much different...
Posted: May 17th 2010 3:37PM Raster said
Here there be The Module...
Posted: May 17th 2010 3:55PM Duke said
OK Tigre, you want to troll the PS3, lets also be fair and say that they just showed the 360 doing 3D now and a partnership with LG.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/11/xbox-360-3d-gaming-a-reality-with-lg-partnership/
As far as the guy saying no glasses 3D is a gimmick, that is nuts. No glasses makes 3D less of a problem to me and more interesting.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/11/xbox-360-3d-gaming-a-reality-with-lg-partnership/
As far as the guy saying no glasses 3D is a gimmick, that is nuts. No glasses makes 3D less of a problem to me and more interesting.
Posted: May 17th 2010 4:21PM therandomizer said
"Tetero @ May 17th 2010 11:04AM
Who would want to play lame graphic games in 3D??? and no glasses??? that's like the biggest gimmick ever"
Do you hear that? That's the sound of me not caring. Why don't you go to the "Sony-is-better-than-Nintendo-based-on-the-biased-opinion-that-HD-graphics-somehow-makes-us-better-than-everyone-else" fan page and complain to someone who gives a crap? You, sir, shouldn't be allowed to walk within 3 meters of ANY computer.
Who would want to play lame graphic games in 3D??? and no glasses??? that's like the biggest gimmick ever"
Do you hear that? That's the sound of me not caring. Why don't you go to the "Sony-is-better-than-Nintendo-based-on-the-biased-opinion-that-HD-graphics-somehow-makes-us-better-than-everyone-else" fan page and complain to someone who gives a crap? You, sir, shouldn't be allowed to walk within 3 meters of ANY computer.
Posted: May 17th 2010 4:23PM therandomizer said
*Sigh* Another reply fail, courtesy of joystiq.
Posted: May 17th 2010 5:36PM wcarnation said
After the near perfection of HD gaming, 3D gaming is the rising and logical next step. It's been in the works for years, and if you see it as just another gimmick, I'd have to say you are mistaken.
At first, yeah, it'll probably just be a neat little gizmo, and a neat visual effect, but in time people will start adapting it as part of the gameplay and it will grow.
Then one day we'll suddenly have holograms.
At first, yeah, it'll probably just be a neat little gizmo, and a neat visual effect, but in time people will start adapting it as part of the gameplay and it will grow.
Then one day we'll suddenly have holograms.
Posted: May 17th 2010 7:24PM (Unverified) said
This kinda scares me...
If Nintendo doesn't put PSP-PS2 level graphics in this I will be dissapointed.
If Nintendo doesn't put PSP-PS2 level graphics in this I will be dissapointed.
Posted: May 18th 2010 2:35AM (Unverified) said
thanks... now is more clear... well, at least, we are going to have a JOYSTIQ... and yes... im from Mexico... sorry 'bout my english...
Posted: May 18th 2010 3:21PM Triscuit said
No one (well, one guy has noticed) is noticing one of the most important things that is on that board: an actual joystick as opposed to a d-pad. Off the bottom left corner of the lower screen. This is also next to 12 buttons. So we're getting a D-pad, the normal face buttons (A, B, X, Y, Start, Select, L, R), and a joystick. Also, is that a USB port off the bottom right of the lower screen?
Posted: May 18th 2010 6:14PM AquaRhapsody said
I think that the 3D will only occur on the top screen because think about trying to touch a 3D object and the effect dying even for those few seconds, but what I'm wondering is whats gonna' happen when you play regular DS games? Will there be little black bars on the top screen? Also not to be a fan boy but I want a port of Final Fantasy 6 on this, even if its not PSP/PS2 graphics I still would like to see it on the 3DS :)
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