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ohzopants
February 1st, 2008, 03:07 AM
Can the nintendo DS run Google's Android platform?

If it can, I think it would be pretty weet.

I would pay to be able to do these 3 things nicely with my DS:

- Nicer browser. Opera for DS sucks balls.
- Skype. Some games have voice support so skype shouldn't be a problem.
- Media player. This requires storage, which is easily done through the cartridges used to run homebrew apps, since they all use some sort of flash storage.
- GPS + Google maps. I read on some guy's blog that he had succesfully read the output from a GPS unit connected to his DS.

There are a number of problems with running Android on the DS however. These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

- Battery life. My battery is only good for about 5 hours of play time, which is nothing compared to the battery life of a cell phone.
- Nintendo needs to open the specs for the DS so that the necessary drivers can be wirtten.

What do you guys think? Could this work? Would it even be worth the effort?

Polygon
February 1st, 2008, 03:18 AM
its not really worth the effort.

the media cards for the ds are most likely expensive and hard to get, and dont hold that much memory

if the opera browser is anything like the opera browser for the wii, its an excellent browser. if you want to see a bad browser, look at the PSP browser.

running android on your ds would most likely lower the battery life of the ds, since its more intensive running an entire os rather then just a game or a menu.

nintendo will never open the specs up of the ds.

ohzopants
February 1st, 2008, 03:39 AM
I actually have the Opera browser on my DS and my Wii. I agree that the Wii version is an excellent browser, but the DS one is so terribly slow that is unuseable.

I don't think the battery life would be as bad as you project. Some DS games are actually graphically intense, so I imagine it runs at pretty much full power during those games. And I think you're forgetting the suspend mode that the DS already has when you close the lid.

The media card I have for my DS wasn't that expensive. I bought an R4DS for CAD$60 and it came with a 2Gb microSD card.

Nintendo has been pushing the DS as a multipurpose tool more and more lately: they have a deal with a few stadiums in the US where you can view stats and replays of the game you are at on the DS. Disney is launching a program that lets you use the DS as an interactive map and guide.

I'm not sure if Android licensing allows them to, but maybe Nintendo themselves could develop and market this. Sony is getting skype on the PSP, so it's not unthinkable.

joezamboni
July 3rd, 2010, 02:44 PM
test

Stancel
July 3rd, 2010, 03:05 PM
The 3DS probably would be able to, but I doubt the current DS can run something of that magnitude.

There is a project called DSLinux, but considering the hardware it's using, it's not a good OS, the GUI is terrible, and from what I heard, it's slow.

dragos240
July 3rd, 2010, 03:13 PM
2 year bump

MaxIBoy
July 3rd, 2010, 03:14 PM
If what joezamboni says is true about only having 4 Mib of RAM, then indeed you won't get it running without a *LOT* of work. The kernel itself if likely to be *at least* a few hundred Kib without any graphics stack or graphics drivers at all. No way you could get a GUI in something that small, or even a Java VM, let alone a full Android stack.

You might get a CLI only interface with no sound or graphics, *if* you are lucky and are capable of writing or finding a driver for the framebuffer.

Can't game cartridges supply their own RAM as well? You might find a flash-storage cartridge which will increase your RAM to something more tolerable.

ubunterooster
July 3rd, 2010, 05:15 PM
The DS does not have enough memory - Only 4mb. I don't know of any android device that has less than 64.
DSi now has 16.

Some Cartridges have been made to give more RAM in the GBA platform

johnpeterson
December 2nd, 2010, 10:25 AM
that is nice. now i can store videos and a lot of music.

Spice Weasel
December 2nd, 2010, 10:51 AM
I think this is the limit of the Nintendo DS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSLinux