Feature: Touch And Go!
Posted 11 Nov 2004 at 00:12 by guest
A closer look at the DS: the wireless communication
I would just like to say welcome to the second of the (hopefully!) fortnightly article which looks as close as it is humanly possible at the new Nintendo DS. In this I hope to explain to you how all the different functions work, how we can expect to use them and what I believe the games developers out there will be able to achieve.
Today we will be looking at the wireless function. Now, a lot of people out there seem to be confused by all of this, there not sure how it works or how it goes on the internet and so on. Well that's why I'm here, to aid you through the various steps of the wireless play and talk about it in an in depth and simple fashion as possible. I hope it works and I hope you understand. Any more queries after you read this article then please don't hesitate to e-mail me.
So let us begin, and first up a small technical thing. The wireless on the DS uses the same wireless protocol as any other standard computer and wireless hub, which is the 802.11b rather than the 802.11g standard. Nintendo have confirmed that up to 16 people can join together wirelessly at any point during a game or a session of Pictochat, whereas other companies have been able to get up to 32 maybe 64 people at any one time in their games. One such game is Ping Pals by THQ, they have confirmed they can achieve 64 players, this, they hope, being its selling point.
Some of you I'm sure will not quite know how wireless works, well it's simply like putting a cable between two computers or more and creating a network between them, but by using invisible cables which also allow you to walk through; great fun.
Wireless PictoChat - the DS' trojan horse?
Now whether the DS will be able to go online is so far unconfirmed but there have been quite a few murmurings from many parties. Some people from Nintendo have spoken about how the DS will be able to use its wireless capability and link to a wireless hotspot to connect to the internet. For those of you who don't know what a hotspot is well then let me tell you. For example, when you make a wireless connection between two computers and you would wish to share the broadband connection available (yes it will only work through a broadband connection, sorry) you should use a wireless broadband router, which splits the connection up and sends the information to the receiver within the computer. The area within which the computer can receive this information and maintain a connection with the router is called a hotspot. If you already have one of these at home, then you are indeed lucky people as your all set up to go. On the other hand the rest of you will either need to make your way to a friends house with a wireless network set up, or go into an area which has a hotspot (such places are internet cafes, some libraries and for some reason, some McDonalds), most of the time these will cost you.
When the whole LAN thing was first announced by Reggie himself, some of us (read: me) were guilty of getting a bit overexcited at the idea. "Play against anyone in the world on your DS!" Ahem. It's not quite as grand as that, but is nonetheless and smart and quietly clever feature.
It means the death of cables. You know, those tiresome, muddling contraptions which did little else besides annoy? The cables that got in the way and meant you could only play with someone if they were with you, in the room. No more, my friends. The DS is too good for that kind of ridiculousness. It just simplifies the whole process, backing up the whole DS philosophy of getting back to basics, back to design ideas that just make sense.
This is helped tremendously by two things: the apparent lax requirements for multiplayer and the 'sleeper' aspect (a wonderful little touch). Some games only require one copy of the game to launch a multiplayer game, with the necessary software 'beamed' into other DS consoles. The specifics of this aren't, of course, clear yet. How many DS' can be supported by one game? What games will support this? But the idea itself is great, yet again making things simpler. And the sleeper function breaks down yet more barriers between gamers, making initiation of multiplayer criminally easy.
The end result? Multiplayer is simpler and more exciting. No cables, no awkward multiplayer challenges, just you, other gamers and your DS telling you you just can't say no.
-Conor
It's not so simple to say the DS can straight away connect to the internet through these means, what will be needed is some kind of server which will allow all these people around the world to meet up. As far as we know the closest thing to this will be DemaSked. This hasn't been confirmed by anybody and is purely speculation on my half. DemaSked has been created by those clever people over at Warp Pipe who gave the chance for Gamecube owners to go online with their LAN based games and meet thousands of other enthusiasts and play a good old online game of Mario Kart, simply can't be beaten.
Apart from the internet side of things the wireless capability will be used to connect up to 16 DS' (so far) together to play some crazy multiplayer games and also have chats via Pictochat. One of the games from Nintendo that will be using the wireless link up will be Mario Kart, as you can tell I really do like this game, but via 1 game card you will be able to play up to 4 people at the same time. A very good use indeed of the wireless ability, especially allowing the one game card to upload to 4 other DS'.
Multiplayer MK sans cables - should be great fun
Another game which will use the multiplayer wireless connection will be Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt; so far this is only a demo. The game will be packed with the DS itself to demonstrate how affective this option will be, and how much fun it will be to kick your friends arse with only one finger.
Now this leads me on to the sleep mode and the smart feature involved in this. If you select the appropriate option on the internal DS menu and you walk past somebody who also holds a DS, while in sleep mode, your DS will wake up and inform you another player is near by, just in case you fancy a game with them. Now it may not seem like a lot but I feel this is a clever idea, and one that no other hand held has so far.
Their doesn't seem to be too much more developers can do with the wireless feature but the amount of games in which this can be utilised should vastly increase to allow for more multiplayer games, or even if DemaSked works as I would like to, for gamers to play each other from all across the globe, we can only hope.
Happy gaming then, and mark Sunday the 21st down in your calendars! Only 11 days left, people!
