Administrator
07-06-2006, 01:57 PM
Black is Beautiful
While the US was enjoying a nice, mellow Nintendo DS Lite launch on June 11th, the European market had to sit tight for another two weeks waiting for the release of the system in that territory. It was so agonizing a wait for some that my buddy in Norway PayPal-ed me some Kroners to go out to Best Buy and pick up a unit and mail it off to him when we got ours.
The problem, though: Nintendo of America only released the system in one color: Polar White. For the Euro launch, there would be two: white and black. My Norwegien buddy didn't mind the white one, not that he had a choice. Besides, he got a free copy of Brain Age out of the deal thanks to Best Buy giving a copy away on launch day.
But I, of course, couldn't let the black go unpurchased when it launched overseas. So I pickpocketted Rupert Murdoch's wallet and used the money to pick up a unit from a UK distributor. More than a week and a half later, the package showed up. Wow, you guys are slow. And suspicious! The package clearly had a nice time going through several hands at customs.
Anyway, the Black system is exactly what you'd expect: the same sleek and sexy system, but with the ability to absorb all the colors of the light spectrum, producing a black appearance with a nice, healthy reflective sheen.
I think the most hilarious element of the European system is your laughable AC adapters -- a device that could truly kill a man if thrown with casual effort. I'm guessing you probably feel like Dr. Frankenstein plugging in the power conduit inserting one of these babies into a wall outlet with a nice, meaty "kachunk."
The AC adapter is so freakin' huge that the European boxes have to be nearly twice as thick as the US and Japanese ones just to pack them inside.
Luckily the US adapters work perfectly fine with European systems, so keeping my black DS Lite all charged up for play is no problem at all.
For more higher res pictures of the black system, hit this link right here.
Edit: I seem to have gotten a black DS system with a bum D-pad -- it doesn't like diagonals. The D-pad plastic "pops" when trying to move up + left, down + left, up + right, or down + right. Eventually the game will recognize that the two contacts are being pressed, but it takes effort. I may have to disassemble it and see what the problem is.
While the US was enjoying a nice, mellow Nintendo DS Lite launch on June 11th, the European market had to sit tight for another two weeks waiting for the release of the system in that territory. It was so agonizing a wait for some that my buddy in Norway PayPal-ed me some Kroners to go out to Best Buy and pick up a unit and mail it off to him when we got ours.
The problem, though: Nintendo of America only released the system in one color: Polar White. For the Euro launch, there would be two: white and black. My Norwegien buddy didn't mind the white one, not that he had a choice. Besides, he got a free copy of Brain Age out of the deal thanks to Best Buy giving a copy away on launch day.
But I, of course, couldn't let the black go unpurchased when it launched overseas. So I pickpocketted Rupert Murdoch's wallet and used the money to pick up a unit from a UK distributor. More than a week and a half later, the package showed up. Wow, you guys are slow. And suspicious! The package clearly had a nice time going through several hands at customs.
Anyway, the Black system is exactly what you'd expect: the same sleek and sexy system, but with the ability to absorb all the colors of the light spectrum, producing a black appearance with a nice, healthy reflective sheen.
I think the most hilarious element of the European system is your laughable AC adapters -- a device that could truly kill a man if thrown with casual effort. I'm guessing you probably feel like Dr. Frankenstein plugging in the power conduit inserting one of these babies into a wall outlet with a nice, meaty "kachunk."
The AC adapter is so freakin' huge that the European boxes have to be nearly twice as thick as the US and Japanese ones just to pack them inside.
Luckily the US adapters work perfectly fine with European systems, so keeping my black DS Lite all charged up for play is no problem at all.
For more higher res pictures of the black system, hit this link right here.
Edit: I seem to have gotten a black DS system with a bum D-pad -- it doesn't like diagonals. The D-pad plastic "pops" when trying to move up + left, down + left, up + right, or down + right. Eventually the game will recognize that the two contacts are being pressed, but it takes effort. I may have to disassemble it and see what the problem is.