Table of Contents
History of Nintendo in China - iQue Company
Part 3. iQue DS
Full series of articles about iQue:
Which consoles did iQue release?
History of Nintendo in China - iQue Company
History of Nintendo in China - iQue Company. Part 2. iQue SP
History of Nintendo in China - iQue Company. Part 3. iQue DS
History of Nintendo in China - iQue Company. Part 4. iQue Micro, AGS-101, iDSL
History of Nintendo in China – iQue Company. Part 5. Company Problems and iQue Wii
The second part of iQue's history ended with the release of the iQue Game Boy Advance SP AGS-001. Now we will move on to the history of iQue DS.
However, before that, we need to touch on another console that was developed from around November 10, 2003, to August 13, 2004 (based on the dates in the CVS repository of this project). I'm talking about the iQue Box. According to the idea of BroadOn Communications, the iQue Box was supposed to become the GameCube 2, but in the end, it became the Nintendo Wii (note, not iQue Wii, but Nintendo Wii).
Let's take a short pause here. You probably want to ask, what is iQue Box, and who is BroadOn Communications? Let's start with the company. It turns out that there were not two iQue organizations, as we wrote earlier (in the article «The Emergence of iQue Company»), but there was also a third company that developed both separate parts of consoles and completely new products for iQue and Nintendo. You can read more about this in the article: «iQue Company. Part 2». This third company was called BroadOn Communications. They developed the iQue Player and worked on the iQue Box. By the way, the closest analogue to the iQue Box is the Panasonic Q.
Of course, BroadOn wanted to make a more advanced device, but the concept is very similar. And it's not certain that they would have succeeded. Their plans were truly Napoleonic.
You can read more about the iQue Box in the article: «The Closed Project GameCube 2 - iQue Box».
But let's return to the history of iQue DS.
Development of iQue DS
When we talk about iQue DS, it may seem that it's just a console with a different logo. For example, the iQue Game Boy Advance SP was an exact copy of the Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP, except for the logo, the label on the back, and the color of the cartridge slot (white in iQue, black in Nintendo).
But no, the first impression is wrong. The iQue DS console, although generally similar to the Nintendo one, has significant differences.
First, it had built-in Chinese language support (instead of Japanese). Because of this, the Firmware FLASH chip was changed from 256 KB to 512 KB;
Second, the logo on the console and the label on the back were changed;
Third, the RAM was increased from 4 to 10 megabytes (however, this is not confirmed information, I did not find 100% confirmation of this data);
Fourth, for the first time, a region lock appeared on the iDS console. Cartridges from iQue DS could not be launched on Nintendo DS consoles. In my opinion, this was done solely to combat parallel imports. Due to the ability to run localized games, users were expected to prefer iQue DS.
But these changes are not significant enough to dwell on the development history of this console, as we did, for example, with the Nintendo DS. You can read more about the history of the Nintendo DS in the article: «History of Nintendo DS».
Therefore, let's move straight to the appearance of the console and the events that, according to iQue, were supposed to increase sales of the new console.
Appearance of iQue DS
Perhaps the first starting point for the appearance of iQue DS can be called the secret trip of Satoru Iwata to China. I already wrote in the article «History of Nintendo in China - iQue Company. Part 2. iQue SP» that on November 3, 2004, a large delegation from Nintendo arrived at iQue. Despite the fact that this meeting was secret, only the lazy did not know about it, and all news agencies wrote about the discussion of the launch of iQue DS.
But from November 3, 2004, to March 27, 2005, there were no official news. That is, iQue did not confirm in any way that iQue DS would appear on the market. However, on March 28, they announced that the ChinaJoy 2005 exhibition would host the ChinaJoy CGT (Console Game Tournament).
Moreover, out of four competitions, two would be held on iQue DS! And the winners of the finals could even win this console.
However, only the final of the event was supposed to take place at the exhibition itself, and the qualifying events were held earlier, from June 4 to 19, in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Chengdu.
In total, four games were presented at the championship:
Dr. Mario 64 (on iQue Player);
WarioWare (on iQue GBA SP);
Daigasso Band Brothers (on iQue DS);
Ridge Racer DS (on iQue DS);
Regardless of whether the game had multiplayer, the competitions were held in single-player mode (whoever scored the most points won).
Here's how it looked on June 18 and 19 in Shanghai.
The winners received their certificates and prizes.
And the journalists were upset because the consoles used in the qualifying games were not iQue DS, but Nintendo DS.
It was a bit of a blurry impression of the console's launch. I find it hard to understand why they couldn't announce the release of the console first and then hold various events!?
And on June 15, iQue announced that they would release the iQue DS console. Frankly, they didn't say much in this announcement except for the fact that they would indeed release iQue DS. But immediately after that, on June 18, 2005, they launched a very interesting auction:
The winner of the auction received a console with a golden iQue logo, serial number XXX000001, a case, and a bunch of goodies.
iQue with serial number XXX000001
The winner was Fan Xuewen, who paid 7,700 yuan for the console (with the regular console price being 1,698 yuan). Considering that in 2005 the exchange rate was 3.5 rubles, Fan paid almost 27,000 rubles. Which was a considerable amount at that time.
iQue donated this money to charity.
And from this moment, things started moving quite briskly.
On July 1, 2005, a Q&A session was held where iQue representatives shared some details. The important points were:
1. iQue DS should appear on sale in July 2005. Events will be held in many cities to mark this occasion.
2. The memory capacity of iQue DS will be slightly increased for future games.
3. At the start of sales, two games will be available: WarioWare Touched! and Polarium. Interestingly, iQue did not manage to release WarioWare by the start of sales.
On July 5, 2005, iQue finally announced that the console would be sold for 1,698 yuan (almost 6,000 rubles at the exchange rate at that time).
And on July 18, 2005, an announcement was made that on July 23, the iQue DS "Touch! China" celebration events would take place. These events would be held in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chengdu, Wuhan, Changsha, Zhengzhou, and Shenyang. Interestingly, iQue timed the ChinaJoy CGT and the celebration events for the start of sales perfectly. It turned out that the CGT winner would receive the console at the same time as the first buyers.
On Saturday, July 23, 2005, in Beijing, after many days of drought, it finally started to rain. And not just rain, but a heavy downpour. Of course, all those who wanted to attend had to huddle under umbrellas and canopies, waiting for the event to start.
iQue did not bother much and held exactly the same events as during the qualifying competitions for ChinaJoy CGT. That is, players could compete in Ridge Racer DS and Daigasso Band Brothers, and the winner would receive one iQue DS game and three GBA games.
As in the previous case, the Japanese version of the console and IS-NITRO-VIDEO were used. And iQue employees recorded the results of players in Ridge Racer DS.
And here's how the game Daigasso Band Brothers looked:
Parallel to all this, there was a lottery where an iQue DS console was raffled off.
And the winner was this girl.
You could also buy the console, and it was sold in a pack with two cartridges for 1,680 yuan (only on the first day of sales).
ChinaJoy 2005
Parallel to the celebration events in the cities, the ChinaJoy 2005 exhibition was held, where iQue presented a huge booth with iQue DS consoles.
Here's how the iQue zone looked. In the background, you can see monitors and consoles where the final part of the competition was held.
iQue brought many different booths with consoles.
Booth with Game Boy Advance SP and WarioWare game
They made a large booth with iQue DS.
A small booth with iQue DS, the image of which was displayed on the screens above.
By the way, did you notice the number of 7-Up vending machines?
This was not accidental.
iQue and Pepsi
In February 2005, Nintendo and Pepsi started a collaboration and agreed to release a limited edition Nintendo DS with an interesting kit.
The console came with a cool case and headphones.
And the console itself had the Pepsi logo on it.
This collaboration was not limited to Japan and smoothly moved to China, especially since iQue had a huge number of promotional events planned.
Initially, as part of the qualifying events for ChinaJoy CGT, they held a separate event where players could compete in the game WarioWare on GBA.
It is said that some players won up to 20 cans of 7-UP in one session.
But the collaboration between iQue and Pepsi did not end there. They released a limited edition iQue DS 7-Up.
Only 15 such consoles were made, and to get one, you had to send 7 7-Up caps to iQue.
Epilogue
The problem with all iQue consoles lies in the games. The iQue DS was no exception. Now I will write you a "huge" list of released games for iQue DS.
At the start of sales, the game Polarium was available.
In December 2005, the game WarioWare Touched! was released.
In February 2006, the game Yoshi Touch & Go was released.
Then there were no games for a year and a half, and in August 2007, two games were released at once: Super Mario 64 DS and Super Mario Bros.
And that's it! 5 games in 8 years (considering that console support was discontinued in 2013).
Simply "brilliant" results.
In fact, it's hard to blame iQue. Piracy at that time reached incredible levels, cartridges were hacked literally in one day, and the production of pirated copies began the next day. Flash cartridges were becoming more and more common every day. And who would want to release licensed games under such conditions?
