{"id":2495,"date":"2013-06-29T00:44:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T00:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/?p=2495"},"modified":"2013-06-29T00:44:40","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T00:44:40","slug":"3ds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/2013\/06\/29\/3ds\/","title":{"rendered":"3DS, and DSLite. A comparison, or something."},"content":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned in my last post, I got super spoiled last week. I’d like to blame that for my lack of productivity here, but I’ve been having some motivation and clarity issues. And a few depression issues. <\/p>\n

Also, I’ve been trying to clean a little. Cleaning meant I found my camera, my card reader, and the charging cable for my camera. <\/p>\n

Now we’re in trouble….<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have no transition here, so let’s just jump right in. <\/p>\n

Back in 2006 [or so the internet tells me], I got a black DSLite. There wasn’t really a reason for it. I’d been avoiding the DS, because I hated the shape of the original. I didn’t want a DSLite, because it was white, and I don’t like white tech. <\/p>\n

Feel free to make a racist joke there. <\/p>\n

The black and the pink, I think, were released on the same day. And that’s right around when I got it — release day. I probably put down five bucks at the nearby GameStop — actually, I’m pretty sure I did. And I specified black.<\/p>\n

I remember the guy working that day saying, “You obviously want a pink one, right?” <\/p>\n

Obviously, I did not murder him for that. You can tell by how I’m not currently in prison. <\/p>\n

I must’ve gotten a couple of games that day, but I’m no longer sure which ones. Possibly Big Brain Academy and Animal Crossing. <\/p>\n

PicrossDS came later, after the DSLite earned the rank of ‘Hunter’s most played handheld ever.’<\/p>\n

All that use wore out the touch screen, and caused one of the hinges to fail. I was able to repair it, though, thanks to DealExtreme and incredible overconfidence. <\/p>\n

This turned my once standard Black DSLite into a Super Awesome Custom Green and Black DSLite.<\/p>\n

Then, maybe two years ago, it broke again. In ways I didn’t think I could fix.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The other hinge — the important hinge, that held important wires — started coming apart. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

With the failure of that hinge came what I call ‘Cancer of the Top Screen’. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As you can see, it’s pretty much terminal. <\/p>\n

Well, mostly terminal. I managed to keep it going with a clear case [it helped to brace the hinge, which kept the cancer from spreading for a bit], and the battery — the original battery — is still amazing. The thing hasn’t been plugged in for over a year, which is amazing<\/i><\/p>\n

Nintendo make some impressively hardy hardware. This thing has outlasted almost all of my iPods.<\/p>\n

But, it’s obviously on its last legs. Hell, the problems it was having? I hadn’t played it for quite a while. I’d only recently resorted to borrowing Gremlin’s DSLite [which has probably only survived this long because it didn’t get used as heavily as mine] because I’d purchased Picross3D.<\/p>\n

I love me some Picross.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, Gremlin surprised me with a 3DS — a system that I was avoiding partly because fuck 3D, and also fuck I missed the Legend of Zelda Special Edition. With a pretty heavy side of ‘can’t justify that expense.’<\/p>\n

And I’m repeating myself. But I think it’s probably necessary, somehow. <\/p>\n

He got me the Aqua one, because, according to Photoshop, it’s close to the teal I use in a lot of things. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here they are, side by side. <\/p>\n

Initially, I thought the 3DS was bigger…but apparently not. I figured this out when I discovered that it fit into my DSLite’s zipper case — and that thing was a tight fit with the Lite. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s where the differences start to come in. <\/p>\n

The most obvious difference is that the 3DS lacks a slot for GBA games. This is slightly annoying, if you don’t have any other way to play the old Gameboy games. <\/p>\n

The headphone jack is different. There’s no extra thing, whatever that<\/i> was for, and it’s right in the middle. Also, the volume button has moved. <\/p>\n

And the wrist strap [not included] is on the front of the 3DS…in a slightly weird position, if you’re actually supposed to, like, use it to prevent accidental droppage or whatever. It might get a little weird if you’re right handed and using the stylus. Might. I haven’t tried it yet.<\/p>\n

I guess it’s fine if you’re a leftie, but I am not. So I’ve put my Gir cellphone charm thingie on it. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And here’s where the hilarious fuckups start, because, look, the power switch has been replaced by the WiFi on\/off switch. I’m pretty sure I hit that thing a dozen times and sat, confused, waiting for it to power the fuck on. <\/p>\n

Also, note that the stylus is not here.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s back here, instead. <\/p>\n

Somehow, I adjusted to that very quickly. I only tried to cram the stylus into the side twice, and only clawed futilely at the side about four times. Maybe five. <\/p>\n

The charging port is on the opposite side, and it’s different. The 3DS charging cable [I’ve got a picture of that, but I’m going to post it a bit later] is bigger. The end bit, I mean. Also, there are these two little contacts on either side, which are important. <\/p>\n

There’s a game in the 3DS — PicrossDS. It plays DS games, which is good. Another ‘Nintendo doing it mostly right’ thing. And I really can’t fault them for dumping the GBA backward compatibility. <\/p>\n

And, hey, if I want to be super lazy, I can buy Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons right on my 3DS, from the built in store. <\/p>\n

…wait, I think I just figured out WHY they ditched the backward compatibility. Those filthy capitalists.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There’s the volume. Right where you’ll accidentally hit it when you’re going for those shoulder buttons.<\/p>\n

Which reminds me — I’ve heard a lot of complaints [mostly from Zero Punctuation] about the shape of this thing, and how uncomfortable it is to play anything on it. I haven’t had any problems so far, but I haven’t played anything that required the shoulder buttons.<\/p>\n

Also, there’s an SD card slot, which is kinda nifty. It actually came with an SD card, too. <\/p>\n

That’s not very special, though. I don’t think you can buy a bag of store-brand corn flakes without getting an SD card. Store brand corn flakes might be made out of SD cards. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is kinda crappy. I’m not even sure why I’m including it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More differences. And the source of a lot of hilarious fuckups on my part.<\/p>\n

First, the D-pad. They both have one. Duh. BUT, the 3DS also has that funny round thing, which is…actually, I don’t know what it’s called. I don’t care. But it does roughly the same thing as the D-pad, but better. And more comfortably. I’ve been using it instead of the D-pad in everything I’ve tried so far [PicrossDS, Picross 3D, Animal Crossing]. <\/p>\n

That’s not the bad part. The bad part is…see how there’s a thick strip of something below the screen on the 3DS? Those are buttons. From left to right: Select, Home, and Start.<\/p>\n

And, over there, where the select and start buttons are on the Lite? <\/p>\n

That’s the motherfucking POWER BUTTON.<\/p>\n

I swear and yell because maybe I’ll FUCKING REMEMBER<\/i> that it’s the GODDAMN POWER BUTTON<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Say I need to go do something. For example: say I’ve been told that the corpse of that unicorn that I’ve been leaving passive aggressive notes about is actually mine<\/i>, so I should go do something about it, because, honestly, they smell terrible when they decompose, and it’s been hot the last few days. <\/p>\n

So I go to hit ‘pause’…and I find myself staring at the ‘This is what it’ll do in sleep mode, oh, by the way, touch here to shut off the system completely.’<\/p>\n

Yeah. I’ve done that approximately seven thousand<\/i> times.<\/p>\n

And the select, start, and home buttons are really stiff. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here they are, turned on, and side by side. The home screens are really different. The 3DS has a lot of other shit, including a shop where you can download demos of games.<\/p>\n

You could kinda do something like that from the DSLite, but you had to be near a special spot, usually in game stores, and usually with the shittiest range imaginable. I was able to download a few demos from the comfort and safety of my own sofa.<\/p>\n

You can also buy full games, and there’s that augmented reality thing, which is actually kinda cool.<\/p>\n

I haven’t really played with anything else, though, which is why I could never do a proper review. I’m far too easily distracted…mostly by Picross.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is the charging cable end. I should’ve dug out the DSLite charging cable for a proper comparison, but…yeah, I’m a tiny bit lazy. <\/p>\n

It’s bigger. It’s bigger than MiniUSB, even. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But, y’know what? It’s okay. Because included in the box? Is this. A charging dock. I don’t have to mess with that plug at all — I just place the 3DS into this thing, and a couple of prongs make contact with the flat metal bits on the back, and it charges.<\/p>\n

It’s also a convenient place to keep the 3DS when it’s not in use.<\/p>\n

The thing in the background — the thing that isn’t an unsafe mess of a power strip — is a postcard I got from a friend in chat. A big, scary, thankfully dead<\/i> wasp.<\/p>\n

Paleovespa florissantia<\/i>, if you care.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And here’s a stylus comparison. The green one is the DSLite, and the shiny metallic one is the one that came with the 3DS. <\/p>\n

At first, it seems like the one from the 3DS is shorter, but it extends. It’s actually longer, but I think it might be a bit more slender. And I’m pretty sure it’s actually made of metal, instead of just looking metallic. <\/p>\n

It seems sturdy, but light, and it’s not all that terrible to hold. <\/p>\n

That’s pretty much what came in the box…which seems like very little, right? Because, well, have you seen the box? It’s pretty big, compared to the box the Lite came in.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Oh. <\/p>\n

That’s why the box is so big. The manual is huge. <\/p>\n

I should probably say something about whether or not you should upgrade, but I don’t really influence decisions like that. <\/p>\n

If you are looking to get a new DS, and you’re going from Lite to 3D, expect to accidentally turn off your game a few times, and to go for the stylus in the wrong place. But don’t let the 3D part put you off, because it can<\/i> be turned off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned in my last post, I got super spoiled last week. I’d like to blame that for my lack of productivity here, but I’ve been having some motivation and clarity issues. And a few depression issues. Also, I’ve … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,23],"tags":[66,79,116],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bib","category-reviews","category-with-images","tag-ds","tag-games","tag-nintendo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3bMfN-3ds","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2504,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}