FIGURE C

Is it a GameBoy or a Palm? You be the judge. Click picture for a larger image.

The device is also scheduled to have a microphone for "future" chatting and in-game conversations and a new semiconductor media they claim can hold up to a gigabit (pinch me, we're talking 128M) of information.

With the newly developed graphics engine, Nintendo claims the DS can reproduce impressive 3-D renderings that can surpass images displayed on the Nintendo 64. Games will run at 60 frames per second, and allow details like fog effects and cel shading. The 16-channel sound allows for greatly expanded use of voices and music, and a richer, more immersive game experience. A plug for headphones transmits stereo sound.

"When Nintendo came down and presented the DS platform to us, I think everyone was in shock," says Will Kassoy, Activision's vice president of global brand management. "It was amazing. Our technical guys were drooling at the abilities and wanting so much to dive into programming for the system."

The only problem is, it'll take a while for anyone to do much with the system. Pricing, availability, and even it's official name will be announced some time into the future.

That said, more than 100 companies worldwide have received software development kits and are planning games for Nintendo DS. Games in development by Nintendo include a new Super Mario game, a Metroid game, a WarioWare game and PictoChat, software that lets players send instant text and picture messages. Third-party publishers also have announced games in development, including a Spider-Man 2 title from Activision, a Rayman game from Ubisoft, a SpongeBob SquarePants title from THQ, a Yu-Gi-Oh! game from Konami, a Sonic title from Sega, a Bomberman game from Hudson Soft, a Need for Speed game from Electronic Arts and a Pac-Man title from Namco.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for your SpongeBob fix, you'll have to content yourself with some very, very short videos. You can find them at the end of this article.

The Playstation Portable (PSP)
Next up on our hit parade is the Playstation Portable, shown in Figure D, which promises to be all things to all people, and yet is still, first and foremost, a gaming platform.

FIGURE D

The PlayStation Portable can't yet run the game shown here. Click picture for a larger image.

To be clear, the PSP is a very different beast from the Nintendo DS. The PSP with a 16:9 widescreen TFT (Thin Film Transistor) LCD centered in the unit. The 16:9 aspect ratio, of course, is the ideal aspect ratio for movies, a fact that was obliquely referenced in the press materials.

The dimensions are 170mm x 74mm x 23mm with a weight of 260g (for those of us in America who don't "do" metric, just look at the pretty pictures and you'll see the approximate size). The display is full color (16.77 million colors), showing on a 480 x 272 pixel high-resolution screen. That's pretty impressive for a gaming unit. It also comes complete with the basic functions of a portable player such as built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector, brightness control and sound mode selection. Keys and controls inherit the same operability of PlayStation and PlayStation 2.