E3 2010: The lid has finally been lifted on Nintendo's newest handheld. Called the 3DS, it sports a screen capable of 3D without the need for glasses.
When you think about technological innovators, Nintendo is not the first name to spring to mind. It's game consoles are usually lowered powered than the equivalent offerings from Sony and Microsoft, but that hasn't stopped the company from bravely employing new technologies in its products.
While Sony and Microsoft were getting all excited over HD graphics, Nintendo decided to push motion controls instead. A few years later both Sony and Microsoft have unveiled motion controllers for their consoles. These are much more technologically advanced than Nintendo's implementation with the Wii, but they still reek of the two companies playing catchup with Nintendo.
Overnight Nintendo has managed a major technology coup. It unveiled the 3DS, its new handheld platform. The most striking thing about this handheld is that it is capable of generating a 3D image without the need for glasses - something that isn't expected to be seen on bigger screens for another five years.
Early reports coming from the press conference at Los Angeles' E3 convention are that the 3DS is stunning in its implementation. The handheld uses a similar dual screen design to its predecessor, the Nintendo DS, but replaces the top screen with what is suspected to be a Sharp-made widescreen 3D panel. The lower screen is 2D only, but retains the touchscreen functionality from the DS.
The 3D effect can be controlled via a special slider on the handheld. This lets you adjust the strength of the effect, or turn it off completely. This is a great idea for both those who struggle with the 3D effect as well as allowing users to decide which games work in 3D. It brings a lot more flexibility to the system and one wonders whether such a slider will become common on 3D capable devices in the future.
Besides the strong gaming focus of the handheld, Nintendo has also announced that the 3DS will play movies, something that the company has never really focused upon. This naturally includes the handful of 3D titles currently about, and it will be interesting to see just how much focus is given to this aspect of the device.
One other groundbreaking thing about the 3DS is its included camera. This is mounted on the lid of the unit and consists of dual lenses. These allow for 3D photographs to be taken for viewing on the device. While it will be lower quality than the current crop of 3D cameras from the likes of Fuji, it will undoubtedly push the concept of 3D photographs to a much wider audience than dedicated cameras will.
There is currently no price or date announced for the release of the 3DS, but we would suspect it to arrive sometime around Christmas (given Nintendo's past habits). When it does launch we would expect quite a few games that take advantage of the 3D functions, maybe even some movies as well. Compare this to the pitiful amount of content available for those expensive 3D TVs released so far and it seems likely that the 3DS will be the 3D killer app that everyone has been waiting for.
This article first appeared on the PC Authority website on June 16.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012