One of the great ironies of gaming is the little-known fact that the original Nintendo Entertainment System (8-bit) was designed to include modem functionality. The U.S. model that conquered the interactive entertainment industry and redefined mass market sales for game designers never actually implemented the feature, nor did Nintendo ever create the dial-up service that they had planned for their users that might have been a mini-equivalent of a fledgling AOL (then known as QuantumLink and PC Link).

On May 11, 2004, Nintendo unveiled their new DS or Dual Screen handheld. After resisting the urge to jump into connective games in the 16-bit Era (Sega Genesis launched a 300 bps modem in Japan with almost no game support and failed miserably.), Nintendo waited until Sega Dreamcast had proven that a web-based game service was only going to be interesting if there were sufficient interesting games to support a user base. This reporter found himself mystified when Nintendo launched the GameCube without web capability.

Now, Nintendo seems to have entered the market with the right product at the right time. Although we have not been able to test the machine at this time (we expect to get hands-on time May 12), it appears that DS users will be able to connect via Bluetooth and create both the equivalent of wireless LAN gaming sessions, as well as reach the web. We will update you on interesting details for the machine as we find out. In addition, the DS has a significantly better form factor than the Nokia n-Gauge, its only real competition in this handheld wireless market place except for a confusing array of mobile phone games that are distributed via cellular phone carriers and keep the game and game design market divided. The market has needed a giant to step into the breach and aggregate the best games to one platform. It looked like Nokia was going to be that giant, but now, even their next generation machine looks like it may have trouble moving past its first stutter step of a start.

Of more relevance for Pocket PC Users, this reporter saw an interesting game that is two years in development. Though the raw game is designed to be played on the web through the PC as a massively multiplayer game, the designers are building the game with components to be able to keep up with game assets via their Pocket PCs. They want gamers to be able to check on game status at any time. We are seeking permission to reveal more about this game (genre, style of play, revolutionary differences, advances in technology) and expect to unveil more of the story as the week progresses.

Meanwhile, the most important portion of the pre-show days for this reporter was attending the Education Arcade sessions hosted by Leapfrog and M.I.T. Comparative Studies. Attendees included: professionals from both the game industry and the United States Department of Education, local teachers from the Los Angeles Unified School District, scholars from Georgia Tech, Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, University of Southern California, and the University of Wisconsin, and those who, like this columnist, are interested in the teaching value of games. The Education Arcade was a diversified conference in which varying agendas accented alternate perspectives like the selected ingredients of a delightful and experimental cuisine. The most valuable session for this reporter was one on which outlined tools for making games that teach. We urge anyone interested to check out www.muzzylane.com or http://mit.edu/starlogo to see why this reporter was so excited. More professional game developers were excited about the fact that Carnegie-Mellon has started to support Disney’s Open Source 3D tools, known as Panda 3D ( http://www.etc.cmu.edu/panda3d ).

The most entertaining bit in the conference was an answer about real-world influences of games that Will Wright (SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt, SimLife, The Sims) gave in the closing session. Will told the story of a 12 year old boy from New Hampshire who invited the candidates for mayor to his house to play SimCity. The candidates were invited to play the game with the boy and then, the boy was going to write about it for the school paper. The incumbent mayor refused to play until the boy sent him all of the rules in advance. The candidate who was a total environmentalist played the game so that he built plenty of green spaces and avoided certain pollution making activities. The candidate who was an urban planner created a very nice, functional city. The boy wrote it up and the urban planner won. This was a case of a model of the real world affecting the future of the real world.

Watch this space for more about handheld and mobile games unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition in Los Angeles. The show officially begins today, May 12, 2004.

By Johnny L. Wilson