New Nintendo motherboard hits FCC with a wide top screen


We all wanted to believe that cool swivel-screen render was Nintendo’s new 3D-capable handheld (not in fact called the 3DS), but of course that was kind of ridiculous. Chances are Nintendo is going to stick with what they know, and <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179334“>a recent FCC filing seems to show just that. The picture shows two screen, the top one in wide format — approximately 16:10 by my measurements. There’s no guarantee that this is the 3DS, but that’s really the only thing that fits the bill.

Others have pointed out that there is what looks to be an analog stick in the bottom center of the motherboard, and also that it’s possible that this could just be an application for updating the wireless in existing handhelds. But the removal of the image from the filing suggests something cooler.

My belief, and you can hold me to this later, is that they’re going to have a single screen for 3D up top, with a secondary display in non-3D below. The 3D technology they’re using can be turned off, as we know, but without knowing whether glasses will be required or not (I’m guessing no, Nintendo wouldn’t like that and parallax barriers have already been rumored anyway), it’s hard to say exactly what the method or mechanism is. Either way, I’m thinking they’re going to retain the dual-screen structure, since that makes it a more compelling handheld to carry around (you still have access to your DS library), and the 3D widescreen top will simply windowbox and add a border when you’re playing DS games, like on Super Game Boy.

Here’s a quick mockup I whipped up to illustrate how it might look. Obviously it’ll actually be different, but you get the idea. I’d say they’ll make the bezels thinner and probably make the speakers better as well. That’s just a guess, though.

Will both screens be touchable? Man, I hope so.

[via Eurogamer and 1up]