Nintendo has a DS Lite "Lite" redesign ready to go?

[Duobix]

I'm wondering how they're going to do expansions whitout expansion port. It will be ok if there would be a SD card slot, but miss of GBA? That's extremaly stupid. the other thing is, if there will be bigger screens it means that it will be next gen DS rather than redesign.

[sboi]

The new ds will be release next year E3.

[Eyedunno]

Nintendo DS by design must have almost all of the hardware for playing GBA games. That means that this redesign removes the ability to play GBA games without really reducing the production cost. It's GB Micro all over again but worse. And although GB Micro got a lot of hype it didn't actually sell that well.

DS Lite was a good redesign since it did improve the quality of the platform (better screen, larger capacity battery, etc) but this one is just taking away stuff to make a relatively small handheld even smaller. I guess small sells but I think people need to get over it because the trend is leading to a lot of sacrifices, like small screens, small buttons, and removal of features like this.

I mostly agree with you, except that I think the Game Boy Micro is awesome. Aside from the fact that it's supremely tiny, and thus among the most portable of the portables, it doesn't have a cramped feel like the GBA SP, and it uses rechargable batteries and has a backlit screen, unlike the original GBA.

Plus the Micro is what got me into this whole portable homebrew/emulation scene, as the lack of original Game Boy support led me to buy a flashcart.

But having said all that, there seems to be little to recommend the new DS, if this rumor is even true.

[wiggy fuzz]

removing the gba port must mean things like the official ds rumble pak or the opera ram expansion pak won't work. and what about upcomming stuff like the slide controller and the camera? would they all be built in to the game?

this is interesting, because less than a month prior nintendo said something about making a virtual console style game pak that'll allow you to play some GBC games on the ds - legally. iyou don't reckon they'll expand on this to accomodate GBA games, too, hence the reason they're removing gba cart compatibility?

[Jeric]

not sure really, but i'm kindof on the 'wait and see' fence here as it just feels like they're torching their own current setu phere by excluding the possibility of addon paks. then again who knows, they might have an even better solution in the work that isn't hampered by the limitations of the gba cart design.

[Steely]

Uh, no GBA, bigger screen, built-in storage..?

How is this still a DS?