Nintendo Patent Application Hints At New DS Cartridge Design

GPS accessory?

Tilt-cart?

Looks like a first generation PassMe.

Return of the Super FX Chip!

It probably is a tilt sensor… Looks too much like a normal DS cart with something added on it.

For a motion track like on those apple device?Maybe?

Looks like one of the first-generation PassMe carts.

This won’t be for a DS followup. If you look at the side, there’s a latch on the part of the cart that goes fully inside the console to keep it in place. You press the button higher up to push the latch in and let it out.

As such the large bit at the top cannot be contained inside the formfactor of another console as it’d be impossible to remove it (and they wouldn’t let carts stick out in an ugly way).

Refference design for companies that need carts with sensors (tilt, gps etc.) built into them is most likely.

Only thing better than this comment is your name/avatar!!!

a game enhancement like the N64 and its N64 expansion pack maybe DS expansion?

yeah, that is what it looks like to me as well.

If this is an enhanced DS cart, then I don't see the successor of the DS coming any time soon, as it would be strange for Nintendo to release this new type of cart and then the next DS.

Hmm. First thing I thought of was “Bigger cart = more expensive to produce / license, right?” Let's hope that isn't the case or we'll be kissing even more game localizations goodbye.

As for what it is…I doubt this is some sort of “regular” enhanced cart like the NAND ones they mentioned in the WarioWare interview. If it really does stick out like that, it isn't very conducive to portability and I'm sure they understand that. My guess is, it's for a DS successor and slides all the way in. Perhaps the extra space isn't for tilt control, but rather for increased range when communicating locally with other systems?

I really wished to express my thoughts about this cartridge like you, in fact I had some words but not in english.

In certain way, the first thing that crossed in my mind was 90% the second paragraph.

I kinda thought of the GameBoy ones, there were these Giant cartridges that had many games on them, I used to play a Gremlins one a lot when I was 6-7 ahhh good really old times

Never came across those games, but this one did remind me of Pokemon Pinball on the Game Boy Color. It had a little hump used to rumble the system.

It also reminded me of the Microvision.

I reckon it's for the next “DS”. A bigger card makes sense, especially if they're moving to HD graphics.

TomTom DS would be awesome…

It's ooooobviously the new e-Reader-i.

This is a Nintendo developer cart used during game development. It looks almost exactly like the existing DSLite ones flashed with prototype roms during development. I'm guessing it's for the DSi or DSiXL. The only addition to the case profile over existing ones is the two little protruding nubs (top one a button?) at the mid and top area. Everything else is the same.

Accelerometer. Calling it now.

Space/time-travelling device.

I wish these handhelds had like a 10 year cycle…. I hate buying one just to find out that a better one is about to come out like now!

No sera este tipo de cartuchos mas bien el sensor de movimiento que se rumorea que anda suelto por los labs del equipo que desarrolla los juegos de pokemon…

Recuerden que nintendo trata de cambiar el tamaño de los cartuchos para hacerlos mas pequeños, no mas grandes.

Nintendo always change the size/shape of the game cartridges when moving to their next generation of handheld consoles. This is definetly a prototype for the “DS 2″.

I hope not, seeing how it was a nightmare to complete the Pokedex back in Gen. III, and the fact that a lot of the event Pokemon required certain cards didn't help, either.

No sera este tipo de cartuchos mas bien el sensor de movimiento que se rumorea que anda suelto por los labs del equipo que desarrolla los juegos de pokemon…

Recuerden que nintendo trata de cambiar el tamaño de los cartuchos para hacerlos mas pequeños, no mas grandes.

Nintendo always change the size/shape of the game cartridges when moving to their next generation of handheld consoles. This is definetly a prototype for the “DS 2″.

I hope not, seeing how it was a nightmare to complete the Pokedex back in Gen. III, and the fact that a lot of the event Pokemon required certain cards didn't help, either.