Individual Project - Nintendo 3DS

by Jovialis Jill N. Yeung (2013-72341)

Year  2044

“Dad, what’s this?” 12 year-old Nathan asks, holding up what looks to be a plastic and metal folding contraption with buttons.

“Oh, that’s a gaming console. Back in my childhood that’s what we used to play with, it’s a Nintendo 3DS,” Nathan’s father replies.

“This weird thing? How did you play games without virtual reality?”

“Bring it here, I’ll show you…let’s see if it still works…”

Nathan hands over the console, and surprisingly the screen comes up. His father explains its features but he isn’t impressed, the graphics are bad, the screen is small, and everything’s just so limited. His dad doesn’t seem to mind though, completely engrossed as he is in his nostalgia.

He leaves the attic for his room, and decides to search the internet about the early generations of gaming consoles. He’s disappointed to find results that show even more low-tech consoles than the one his dad owns.

“Kids back in the 1970’s must’ve suffered a lot with the lame technology they had,” Nathan mused, as he prepared to go to bed.

That night, Nathan dreamed of an unfamiliar world.

‘Everything looks like the pictures in history books’ Nathan thought to himself, walking around the streets before making his way to a secluded park.

He sees a boy sitting on a bench, playing with a rectangle hunk of plastic, but upon closer inspection is actually one of those ancient handheld gaming consoles with pixilated screens he saw on the internet.

“How could you stand to play with that junk?” Nathan asks suddenly, startling the boy.

“W-what?” the boy stutters.

“I’ll show you a real toy.” Nathan sticks his hand into his pocket, but instead of the familiar shape of his portable virtual reality simulator he feels a heavy plastic rectangle.

It’s the Nintendo 3DS.

Before he could curse his luck, the boy (who calls himself Kyle), is already fawning over the “new” toy. Nathan decides to play along.

“This is a real gaming console!”

Kyle’s enthusiasm affects Nathan too, and soon enough he’s babbling off every feature he remembers his dad telling him while demonstrating each function as he talks.

“It has a 3D screen, a touch screen, motion sensors, you can access the internet, connect with other people who also have 3DS’s, take 3D pictures and videos, play games from older DS models….”

Kyle doesn’t seem to understand anything but looks awed anyways by the colorful images on the screen. 

Nathan teaches him how to play and without them noticing, the sun has started to set.

Nathan can feel himself waking up and when he opens his eyes he sees not a park lighted by the fading sunlight but instead he sees the blue ceiling of his room.

‘What a weird dream,”  he thinks ‘maybe old technology isn’t so bad after all…at one point in time it would be the best, and decades later it would also become old…even the virtual reality I have now may become outdated in the future. The world’s always changing.”

Reference List:

(No Author), (No Date). See What The Nintendo 3DS Family Can Do. Nintendo Official Website. http://www.nintendo.com/3ds/features/#/3d-features.  February 21, 2014.

Scullion, Chris, 2013. A New Look at the Nintendo 3DS. ComputerAndVideoGames. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/397289/features/a-new-look-at-the-nintendo-3ds/. February 22, 2014.

NGamer Staff, 2011. Nintendo 3DS: 22 Things You Should Know. ComputerAndVideoGames. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/294588/features/nintendo-3ds-22-things-you-should-know/. February 22, 2014.

Oxford, Nadia, (No Date). Everything You Need to Know About the Nintendo 3DS. About. http://ds.about.com/od/nintendods101/a/nintendo3ds101.htm. February 23, 2014.

Benedettl, Winda, 2012. Six Things to Love (and Hate) About the Nintendo 3DS XL. NBC News. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/six-things-love-hate-about-nintendo-3ds-xl-945334. February 25, 2014.