The Gameboy DS?

[WarpRattler]

A lot of GBC games had "Color" in the title, which made some titles pretty awkward to say. I liked "DX," though (R-TYPE, Link's Awakening, Tetris...did they only use that to describe titles that worked on classic GB but had full color graphics on the GBC?).

[Bag of Magic Food]

It's its own thing. When it came out, Nintendo called it the "third pillar", the other two pillars being the GCN and GBA. Since it was its own pillar, the DS is definitely not part of the Game Boy line.

Yeah, that was a clever bit of marketing to make people think the Game Boy Advance wasn't being obsoleted.  Really, they just wanted to discontinue the "Game Boy" name for future handhelds, that's all.

[Luigalaxy]

LD, why do you sign your name at the bottom? And it is officially the Nintendo DS. How is it official? Because I said it.

[missingno]

Yeah, that was a clever bit of marketing to make people think the Game Boy Advance wasn't being obsoleted.  Really, they just wanted to discontinue the "Game Boy" name for future handhelds, that's all.

Had Nintendo not pioneered the name 'Game Boy' as a household name for their handhelds, I would personally mistake it for something pornographic.

[MEGAߥTE]

Yeah, that was a clever bit of marketing to make people think the Game Boy Advance wasn't being obsoleted.  Really, they just wanted to discontinue the "Game Boy" name for future handhelds, that's all.

It was more than that.  They could have continued the Game Boy line if the DS flopped.  But it didn't.

[CrossEyed7]

The DS as the third pillar is like the third handle on the N64 controller, with the stick. If it didn't work, we could just ignore it and go back to the left handle, but instead, the third handle ended up becoming the left handle on the Gamecube. And then the former left handle got integrated into the right handle in a new non-sided handle with the Wii. Don't know how that part translates in the analogy.

[Chupperson Weird]

Obviously we have to wait a couple more generations to figure that part out.

[ShadowBrain]

The DS as the third pillar is like the third handle on the N64 controller, with the stick. If it didn't work, we could just ignore it and go back to the left handle, but instead, the third handle ended up becoming the left handle on the Gamecube. And then the former left handle got integrated into the right handle in a new non-sided handle with the Wii. Don't know how that part translates in the analogy.

Well, it was still a pretty good analogy.

[CrossEyed7]

Maybe the DS will officially become the main handheld, and the Game Boy will be integrated into the next console. That means the DS 2 will be a Game Boy and the Super Wii's controllers will have screens.

(Super Wii probably isn't the actual name, but I'm betting it's the actual concept. Every other generation, Nintendo introduces something revolutionary on the home console, and then the following generation is basically the same thing but with better graphics, a few more buttons, and more ergonomical controllers.)

[MEGAߥTE]

I wouldn't be surprised if next gen or next next gen controllers had some sort of display.  It's already been done to some extent with the Dreamcast, and handheld connectivity has existed with the GC-GBA, Wii-DS, and PS3-PSP.  With screen technology advancing and prices falling, it will become practical to include them as standard elements.

[Shyguy92]

LD, why do you sign your name at the bottom? And it is officially the Nintendo DS. How is it official? Because I said it.

There are four problems with that post:

LD, why do you sign(1) your name(2) at the bottom? And(3) it is officially the Nintendo DS. How is it official? Because I said it.(4)

But that's just me being an ashhole. I actually agree. Why do you do that, LD? Are you trying to bring back the style from the old FF?

[ShadowBrain]

and handheld connectivity has existed with the GC-GBA

I know that was a hassle for a lot of people, but I liked it (as for the Wii/DS connectivity--quit dragging your feet already, Nintendo! There's been like, what, one (lame) game that used it?)

[CrossEyed7]

It really is a shame that the Dreamcast didn't do better. If it had come out one year later, and Sonic Team spent that year intensively studying how to make a good 3D Sonic game, it probably would have been the 360 of last gen. I never had one, but I always wanted one just for the VMUs. But by next gen, color touch screens built into controllers and terabyte hard drives built into consoles will replace them. Still, nothing will be as cool as using miniature Game Boys as memory cards, no matter how prohibitively expensive they were.

That may be why Nintendo's not supporting Wii-DS connectivity very much -- once the standard controllers have screens, console to handheld connectivity will be mostly obsoleted. Guess that's mostly a good thing, since it means you won't have to buy any special equipment to play Four Swords 3, or if someone finally decides to follow up on Nintendo's claim with the Gamecube that you could make a football game that lets you pick your plays without your opponent seeing them, you'll still have analog sticks on all the controllers.