cabel.name: Inside the DS Download Station

Recently, Nintendo began rolling out Nintendo DS Download Stations to a variety of retail stores. The idea is simple: you stroll into your favorite store, avoid the strategy guides at all cost, flip open your Nintendo DS, and quickly and easily download one of many Nintendo DS game demos into RAM over WiFi. Heck, you probably don't even need to go in the store at all. Then, as long as you don't turn off your DS (hooray, sleep!), you can enjoy — or not enjoy — a free game demo. Nice idea.

So, when my local store got their mysterious white Download Station, I was intrigued and excited, thanks to a life-long instinct to always, always want to see what's inside the box. So, what magical Wi-Fi game distribution technology could be waiting inside?

Was it a dedicated tiny PC? A souped-up wireless router? An exhausted, drunken leprechaun holding magic leprefoil?

Nein. It's just, perhaps unsurprisingly, a Nintendo DS.

It obviously has a special cart that acts as a basic server. It keeps stats on every successful (or unsuccessful) download, presumably for later rep review, and supports up to 15 simultaneous connections/transfers. The options page let you reset the statistics, among a few other things. And that, kind folks, is ds_demo_server.srl rc1.

I realize I may be the only person on earth to find this interesting. So don't even bother bustin' my chops!

(And yes, my final DS Lite video review — not that there's much left to talk about, but hey — will drop on Monday!)

45 Comments:

I dugg it.

Peter Hosey 4/20/2006 7:46 PM

Well, I find this interesting. I went down to my local best buy last weekend to try out the download station. I didn't see any white box and it seemed that the download station was running off the demo DS that is set up to play demos. I could be wrong on this, but I seem to remember the top screen saying 'DS Download Station'. Anyway, I downloaded Brain Age and found myself yelling colors at my DS. I'm sure I frightened some of the younger patrons. Oh well. Looking forward to the final DS Lite review.

Brian Middleton 4/20/2006 7:49 PM

That's pretty sweet. It kind of cracks me up that inside the mysterious white "DS Download Station" box is just a regular old DS.

Makes perfect sense, though. It saves them the money and time to design a new machine, and new technology, to communicate with DSes when they've done all that work once already. I guess Nintendo really does have some ingenious folks working at their business.

mDuo13 4/20/2006 8:21 PM

I personally find it hilarious and amazing at the same time. Nintendo was wondering what they should use, and tehy were like "let's use a DS!" It really shows the versatility and trust they have put into the product.

Danny Cohen 4/20/2006 10:46 PM

So, how on Earth did you get the white box and how did you get inside it?

Matt 4/21/2006 2:09 AM

Press L+R+A! I wanna see the options menu!

Nick 4/21/2006 10:55 AM

Actually, I found this interesting myself. Cabel? You're my DS hero. Looking forward to Monday.

Anonymous 4/21/2006 3:36 PM

That's pretty awesome.

Wevah 4/21/2006 6:38 PM

Is that your ds with the picture of all the things you can download? If so how did you get such a good picture of the screen without those lines going down it?

Chandler 4/22/2006 5:02 AM

Chandler, that's actually a screenshot taken from nintendo.com, on the page about the DS Download Station.
http://www.nintendo.com/dsdownloadstation/
I think the only way to be able to take a screenshot of that quality would be to find an adaptor that'd let you view your DS' display on a computer, or by running it through some kind of emulator... but a photograph of a screen could (probably) never be that good.

insaneidiot 4/23/2006 1:42 AM

It's monday!

Hurry and post the final ds lite review. The first 2 were so damn brilliant, I can' wait to see the next!! :)

§ 4/24/2006 8:25 AM

yeah, I think my local Bestbuy has one now. I think I have all the games though, but Metroid and that is just a movie.

courtney 4/25/2006 10:59 AM

I want one of those carts, that would be fun job to "retire" my DSheavy into when I get my DSlite

Davin 4/26/2006 8:07 AM

Thank you! I have been looking for a new game site that was actually interesting. You are my new fav. Keep it up.

Kat Hunter 4/26/2006 10:14 AM

WHY DOES NINTENDO JUST NOT MAKE A SITE WHERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD LIKE A P2P NETWORK LIKE LIME WIRE SO YOU CAN JUST PLAY WIRELESS ONLINE AND ABLE TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING FROM THAT PLACE ALL YOU NEED IS A DS WIRELESS ROUTER HIGHSPEED INTERNET A PC AND THE PROGRAM THAT THEY SHOULD MAKE THEN IT WOULD BE WAY BETTER XBCONNECT.COM HAS ONE FOR PSP AND XBOX

Anonymous 5/05/2006 3:06 PM

Cant wait to see the final ds lite review, the first 2 were great. I cant believe my birthday is so damn faar away!

mutant piggy 5/08/2006 12:20 PM

hey now, i find this actually really interesting, i figured they had a router inside the box too, huh, that surprised me.

Anonymous 5/22/2006 2:32 PM

Nice pictures. Interesting to read about technologies like this.

Is this coming to Europe and more specifically the UK anytime soon?

Plus, how much ram is the actually in a DS?

Anonymous 6/04/2006 8:59 AM

is there any other difference between the DS and Lite besides the fact that the Lite is lighter and brighter?

Anonymous 6/19/2006 10:29 PM

i think that Wii should have an online multi play thing like xbox or you should beable to actually talk to people on wi fi, but either way Wii will be great and the DS Lite is cool.

Anonymous 6/19/2006 10:33 PM

I Think the DS light is awsome because i have one!

dsrdddf rhgvu 6/27/2006 6:11 PM

Well my brother has a ds and i have a psp, so we were trying to find out whitch one is better. I find that the ds even thought it can download stuff is not as neat as the psp. ( no offense) but the psp can keep it no matter what even if you turn it off! You can also just get it wirelessly or off a computer. so it is not the best but i understand that nintendo it trying to make money but they need to up there game to be like sony. ( no offense to anyone i hope, sorry if i did but i was informing you. Good luck with your ds wireless thing.

Anonymous 7/03/2006 12:47 PM

whats the difference between a nintendo ds and a nitendo ds lite

Anonymous 7/23/2006 10:09 AM

a ds lite is way lighter way brighter and way smaller not to mention a square shape not like a hexagon but the speakers are smaller there fore not as loud and the gba game sticks out of the slot

bldgamer 11/24/2006 7:43 AM

i got a nintendo ds lite but its retarded cause it doesnt come with games and the pictochat doesnt work.i also hate that there is no ds download play in my town at least i dont tink there is.well i cant complain i got it for christmas but damn add my msn if u can he me with the ds

eckothug00@hotmail.com my name is brian

Anonymous 12/29/2006 11:22 PM

fuck u all ha ha ha mofo's

Anonymous 1/27/2007 4:56 PM

all of u can suck my dick cuzz i have an x-box 360, PS3, PS2, PS1, nintendo wii, nintendo ds, nintendo ds lite, PSP, gameboy micro, gameboy sp, gamecube, nintendo 64, and sega

so all of u are fucking mofo's

my email adress is robinson834@hotmail.com my name is matt

Anonymous 1/27/2007 5:02 PM

Please excuse Matt (anonymous)'s OFFENSIVE profanity. As we clearly know, he cannot possibly have all that. UNLESS, he gies us some proof.

Anyways, It is an ingenous (Typo?)idea to use a DS that can be used to download to other DS's. The thing I am Having trouble understanding is how they keep it active constantly.

Anonymous 2/05/2007 3:01 PM

A DS is WAY better than a PSP, even though it only has a RAM, you can still buy a DS flash cart. I have one and i have a VOIP telephone on my DS and a Remote computer controller (I can control my computer through my DS).

Anonymous 2/08/2007 9:25 AM

people keep puting stupid coments especially mat the stupid boy or girl

Anonymous 4/09/2007 8:03 AM

what ca i say my ds rocks. i whent to best buy and played (brain age)
it was pritty cool but it wasent my type of game eh!

daniel. S 4/12/2007 7:36 PM

sorry thats caN

daniel.s 4/12/2007 7:39 PM

the wii kind of stupid

Anonymous 8/12/2007 4:01 PM

hey i have a ds lite to its cool.i have the spectrobes game.i went to the spectrobes wibsite and using the wfc thing i was able to play online by transferring the data from my spectrobes game to the spectrobes web site. i can also get downloads and power ups so the ds is cool. i think you can use wfc for all ds games.just call me lilts for now.

Anonymous 10/20/2007 3:33 PM

HEY GUYS HOW CAN I HAVE HE PROGRAM FOR CHATTING WITH ALL THE ONE WHO HAS A NINTENDO DS SO THAT I CAN CHAT WITH THEM WHILE I'M CONECTED TO THE COMPUTER...?PLZ REPLY

Anonymous 12/26/2007 9:11 AM

Unfortunatly, Pictochat(you are talking about Pictochat, are you?) doesn't work on wi-fi, it only works aproximalty 35 meters(that's what the instructions say) away from you.

P.S. Is the DS Download Staion in all/most Gamestop/EBGames? Also, does the Gamestop in Foxvalley Mall have it?

Anonymous 1/04/2008 10:59 AM

All:

Google this:

R4DS

You won't regret it. :)

Anonymous 1/04/2008 2:40 PM

ds is waaaaaaaaaaaaay better then psp because if you drop your psp it has a big chance braking.But with a ds (wich i have one) if you drop that it dosen break because i drop my all the way down the stair and it still works. only if you slam it then it mite break.

Anonymous 2/28/2008 3:16 PM

i hate matt!!!!!anyways my DS lite is cool.It is actualy funny that inside the mysterious white box I see in some stores actualy has a nintendo DS.

Anonymous 4/22/2008 4:07 PM

my ds cool bcause it is lite

Anonymous 4/22/2008 4:17 PM

hello?

Anonymous 8/27/2008 8:23 PM

Can u us the dowload station" at Walmart

Anonymous 9/02/2008 2:26 PM

HOW 2 USE THE DOWNLOAD STATION AT A LOCAL WAL MART

Anonymous 9/02/2008 2:27 PM

i got a ds and i was really happy so me n my friend played ds download i was so excited then dhe left with her game and i thought i could play it still why cat thet actually let you download it.o.0

Anonymous 9/18/2008 2:42 PM

hey i got a ds lite!!!!!!!!!!!!

mini me 4/08/2009 6:15 PM

Inside the DS Download Station

Thursday, April 20, 2006

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