Table of Contents
Nintendo DS with One Screen
Nintendo DS with One Screen (Not Macro Mod)
The most frustrating thing about Nintendo is that not all content reached our country. Just imagine that there was a Nintendo DS with one (!) screen, and we didn't even know about it.
And no, this is not a clickbait title, Nintendo really released such a model of the Nintendo DS, and it was called the Nintendo Zone Box!
This is what the console looked like:
It had one screen, a cartridge slot, and that's it. It had no control buttons or anything else.
Why was such a device needed? For cost-saving purposes. But to understand why they needed to save money and release such a version of the console, we need to delve into Nintendo's services.
Video Review
Distribution Cartridges for Game Boy Advance
Even during the Game Boy Advance era, Nintendo distributed additional content not only through cartridges but also through various devices like the Nintendo E-reader. If there was an official Nintendo event, special cartridges were made to distribute mini-add-ons for games. The process looked like this:
1. Nintendo would insert a cartridge into the console.
2. They would connect a wireless network device to the back.
3. When you came to a Nintendo event with your console, you could join this network and receive a bonus.
This is what the bonus distribution device looked like:
Nintendo DS Download Station
With the advent of the Nintendo DS, this idea naturally evolved. Given that this console had built-in Wi-Fi, all that was needed was to create a special access point, and anyone could receive nice bonuses.
How were these access points set up? It's very simple—just multiple Nintendo DS consoles in one box.
Friends, now you can actually create your own Nintendo DS station, and all the following videos were recorded directly from a homemade Nintendo DS station! So we'll combine history and a mini-guide in one story.
A cartridge was inserted into the Nintendo DS, and the system loaded into a special menu. This cartridge is the main part of the Nintendo DS station, and it can be launched from any regular Nintendo DS.
To launch such a DS station at home, just download the archive of ROM images "Nintendo DS Download Station" and write any of the 19 images (there were 19 released in total) to a flash cartridge and simply launch it like a regular game.
Any ROM image of the station loads into this menu, and at the bottom, you can see the available content from this Nintendo DS station:
After that, if you came to a place where the station was installed, you could connect with your Nintendo DS and download a demo or, for example, an ad for a game:
And then you could launch such a demo:
Or watch an ad:
Nintendo Zone
Nintendo Zone is the next step in the evolution of distributing additional content. As the name suggests, special zones were created where you could connect to a Nintendo Zone Box device and also receive nice bonuses.
However, this technology worked differently. If before you transferred content from cartridge to cartridge, now it was just an access point where you could go to a specific page and do something there. Moreover, the security system of such an access point was based on checking the Wi-Fi SSID (the name of your network). So if you renamed your network to, for example, "BestBuy," your console would think it was in that store and give you access to the program that allowed you to view additional content.
The main sadness is that Nintendo discontinued support for Nintendo Zone, and now, even if you can open the program by hacking the console, you can no longer view the content.
Epilogue
And let's return to where we started.
The Nintendo Zone Box is indeed a real Nintendo DSi. You can launch any games on it, but you can only play those that had touch controls. This console was heavily cut down, and it made sense because installing a full console where most functions are simply not needed is extremely stupid and wasteful.
