DS Download Service Launches in Japan

http://ds.ign.com/articles/591/591129p1.html?fromint=1

This could be a really neat way of distributing game demos, addons (in the case of Band Brothers, or even upcoming games), or even full games themselves - like the FDS kiosks with less piracy! I just hope it makes it to the 'states, as this has some cool potential.

 

bummer, no download points where I live I would have liked those extra songs for band Brothers.

Yakumo

 

wow! pretty cool indeed! but i wonder where do you download those ''add-ons''. i mean, there's no memory cards for DS. right?
i hope they could somehow make a new downloadable bios with a built-in gbc\gb emulator in it. what? can't i dream a little?:smt083

 

It's already been done - there's a GB/GBC emulator on GBA (homebrew coded), and DS is backwards compatible with GBA, so all you need is a GBA flashcart.

So basically, the game must support it (and have some flash memory to save stuff in), or else the downloads go into RAM and get wiped when the DS is turned off.

 

Does this mean you unlock those music tracks in Band Brothers, rather than actually downloading them? (much like those Dreamcast 'download content' a few years back) Or do you actually store all the song data on the SD card?

 

yeah, but you can't use real cartiges, and it is not something official.

 

Either way you're going to need some flash ram (to switch between locked/unlocked or to save actual files). The most logical would be to have it unlockable.

 

The way it works is that it uses the DS' Download Play setting, which is similar to the GBA's ability to store games in RAM without a cart for multiplay on only one cartridge. As the article said, the demos will me lost when you turn the power off.

The songs for Band Brothers, apparently, are actual downloads to the card, which wouldn't have been hard at all if they had planned this functionality from the start. Merely having them be unlockable... I dunno, it sortof sounds like it would defeat the purpose of the technology.

 

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You can bet your ass it wont come to the UK though :smt071

 

:smt1069i imagine them making demo carts with a special number that needs to be activated online each time you want to play...and after a defined number of tries, the cart would be obsolete. Nah.... this isn't the type of ninty, it's just my imagination....well, i hope so.

 

I imagine there will be some pretty cool downloable stuff that might get lost in the ether until a later date. LIke some of the BS SFC titles.

 

those things need to be saved and stored before they can't be accessed on the network anymore.