What The Original Nintendo DS Could Have Looked Like

By Spencer . March 27, 2009 . 12:35pm

What The Original Nintendo DS Could Have Looked Like

Let’s travel back in time to a day before the Nintendo DS flew off store shelves. Behind the scenes Nintendo was experimenting with a touch screen adapter for the GBA. This technology was later used for a new handheld which we know very well now. However, a patent application filed by Nintendo in 2004 shows a different concept for the hardware.

 

An early Nintendo DS only had the top screen flip up and a different button layout. The X and Y buttons aren’t in this prototype. A speaker takes up that spot. Game Boy Advance backwards compatibility wasn’t part of the plan either. DS cards plugged into the bottom and there wasn’t a second slot. Actually, this early design looks a lot like a rectangular Game Boy Advance with a second screen.

 

What do you think of this Nintendo DS? If Nintendo released it would it be as successful as the DS Phat pictured below?

 

 

What The Original Nintendo DS Could Have Looked Like


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  • http://whatistheexcel.com James A. Calwell III

    I would have hated having the buttons that low.

  • http://myanimelist.net/profile/Kuronoa Kuronoa

    ugh, I'm glad they went with the current designs.

  • daizyujin

    It may just be lines drawn for indentions but it appears this was meant to fold into a cube. The sides look like they would have bent back. Regardless, the extra buttons and GBA compatability are welcome additions. Unlike many others, the only real complaint I have the original DS is the screen. Otherwise I love the design. It is small enough for me at least and the durability can't be beat. I let my mother play the damn thing and it still runs. That is saying something right there.

  • daizyujin

    Also when I look at that card, it looks more like an SD card than the traditional DS game card. Makes me wonder if they might have originally been thinking of using MMC/SD like the N-Gage did.

  • Chow

    The design looks very old, like something out of the early nineties, though.

  • http://www.infinite-bits.com NickyD

    Maybe I'm just used to the over-complicated controllers nowadays, but I don't think I'd like a DS with just an A and B button. It was cool for the NES and adding a C button the Genesis was neat, but anymore I think four face buttons are not just standard, but necessary. Else we'd have a lot of R-trigger + A button commands.

  • http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5663007 Snesboy

    I like the design, I hate the button placement.

  • matty

    It looks like a hybrid of Game Gear and N-Gage.

  • MisterM

    The DS cartridge in that diagram isn't a cartridge at all, it's an SD memory card which is now used by the new DSi. It's interesting to see that Nintendo has been kicking around that idea for years.

  • Joanna

    no, it's not slick enough…haha. Yes I like nice looking devices :P

  • Nyanyaan

    That look makes a lot of sense considering how the initial stories were of something called the GBA2….and Big N has even called the DS a line of product 'independent' of the GBA.

    Wish there was evidence that at some point they'd been considering a thumbstick ala that wonderful little one on the NGPC.

  • Nyanyaan

    That look makes a lot of sense considering how the initial stories were of something called the GBA2….and Big N has even called the DS a line of product 'independent' of the GBA.

    Wish there was evidence that at some point they'd been considering a thumbstick ala that wonderful little one on the NGPC.

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