The
Nintendo DS, or simply the
DS, is a foldable handheld game system released by
Nintendo in 2004. The Nintendo DS is Nintendo's sixth handheld system, being the successor to the
Game Boy Advance. It features two three-inch screens. "DS" stands for "Dual Screen" (though, at its conception, it was intended to stand for "Developers' System"). The system introduces many new features to the Nintendo handheld lineup, including a resistive touchscreen, visible operating system GUI (in the form of the main menu), stereo sound output via both the built-in speakers and 3.5mm headphone jack (a first for Nintendo handhelds, which previously sported a single mono speaker despite supporting stereo through the headphone jack), audio input via a pinhole microphone, and wireless connection capabilities. It is also the first Nintendo handheld to natively support 3D polygonal graphics as opposed to only sprites, making it similar to the
Nintendo 64 in terms of graphical capacity. The DS also introduces a feature known as sleep mode, where one can close the console and preserve its battery life, and in
Super Mario 64 DS and
New Super Mario Bros., closing the system is accompanied by
Mario saying,
"Buh-bye!" The DS (and by extension the
DS Lite) provides backwards compatibility for Game Boy Advance games (though this does not work with the
Nintendo DSi models), although only limited to single-player experiences as the
Game Link Cable and
Wireless Adapter support are missing. The DS is the first Nintendo system to include wireless functions, allowing it to link up with other DS's without any wires or add-ons. This was also the first system Nintendo made to go online, via
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, of which
Mario Kart DS was the first to utilize.
