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[Shiggy]

Saw this on the Nintendo Channel, I haven't even seen an announcement before. Nintendo of Europe wants to release "100 Classic Book Collection" on December 26th. Originally announced under the title "DS Novel", it was developed by Genius Sonority and features 100 classic books.
This software will be available in English only.

* Contains 100 classic books from authors such as Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare
* Adjust text to small or large size to suit your reading preference
* Search for books that match your mood or time constraints
* Bookmark feature allows you to save your place in a book
* Download 10 additional books through Nintendo Wi-Fi connection

A full list can be seen here:
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/100_classic_book_collection_10283.html

Quick details from the copy I received yesterday:

- 13 different background themes to listen to whilst you read (14 if you include 'No BGM'!), e.g. Easy Listening, Beach, Airport and Summer Day.

- Change font size from small to large (small is probably more like a 'medium' - no strain on the eyes)

- Can choose to just show the current page number, or show page number and total pages (for those that want to know how long is left)

- Use either the D-Pad or L/R buttons to change pages (remember the DS is held sideways, like in Brain Training and Hotel Dusk to emulate a real book!)

- The DS orientation can be changed to suit left-handed people

- Local Wireless: Send a trial version to another DS ('Send Trial', 'Send Book', 'Receive Book')

- Wi-Fi: Download New Books (ten available right now - seems like there's about 1MB of free space on the cartridge and the books are less than 100KB - took about six seconds to download a 70KB book and a further five to save it to the DS card), and Update Rankings (book popularity - ranked by users of the game or categorised by ten different user-attributed criteria, such as 'Exciting', 'Shocking', 'Profound' and 'Bizarre')

- Tutorial: tap either edge of the touch screen to change page or slide stylus across screen to flip pages back and forth. Tap the bottom of the screen to bring up a scroll bar that lets you jump to whatever page you want. Tap the top of the screen to bring up a menu that lets you bookmark the current page (automatically removed when you go back in and change the page) or exit the book.

- Books that have been read will be highlighted with an 'R' on its spine in the selection screen.

- Quiz feature: The in-game owl asks several questions ('What did you dream last night', 'What is your favourite colour', etc) to determine what books will most likely be interest to the user (for me the three were 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination', 'The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes' and 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'!)

- Choosing books is as simple as going to the in-game bookshelf and using either the stylus (slower) or scroll bar at the bottom (faster) to browse what's on offer. When a book spine is tapped on, its specific menu pops up, where users can read the book, learn more about it or learn about its author.

- Search and sort functions also exist by tapping the top of the screen in the bookshelf mode. Search Alphabetically, By Length, Genre, Era, My History, Ratings and/or Description. Sort by Author or Title.

Now excuse me whilst I go relax and read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to the sound of an open fire in a living room

Price: EUR 29.99
Stupid to release right after Christmas...

 

[JonathanEx]

Right.

So they're releasing it after Christmas.


And making you pay £20 for something to read public domain texts.


Well done, Nintendo. Well. Done.

 

[Woo-Fu]

And making you pay £20 for something to read public domain texts.


Well done, Nintendo. Well. Done.

Yeah, they should pay you take the software, that would really boost their margins.

 

[SovanJedi]

Genius Sonority? I guess they were making this instead of trying to improve the console Pokemon games they'd churned out so far.

 

[NotWii]

If you have a flash card for homebrew purposes, you could just get the public domain ebooks and movies (like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, which George Romero forgot to copyright XD) from moonbooks.net

 

[JonathanEx]

Yeah, they should pay you take the software, that would really boost their margins.

Well, it's just that £20 seems a bit expensive for the ability to read books available for free on a crappy tiny screen.

 

[Xater]

Wow :lol

Well can't blame them this is basically free money.

 

[Somnid]

Pretty handy if you don't have a portable E-book reader. It's obviously a lot easier and cheaper than paperbacks.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Well, it's just that £20 seems a bit expensive for the ability to read books available for free on a crappy tiny screen.

So how much would all 100 books cost in the current editions available from book publishers? Or how much better is it reading them on my computer monitor using the free, lousily formatted download txt files from, say, Project Gutenberg?

20p a book and the ability to take all of them for reading on the go - even on a pair of small LCD screens - sounds pretty good to me.

 

[JonathanEx]

I suppose for some people, then yes, it's good value - and it's a good money maker for Nintendo, I just think it's a bit naff.

 

[Haunted]

So how much would all 100 books cost in the current editions available from book publishers? Or how much better is it reading them on my computer monitor using the free, lousily formatted download txt files from, say, Project Gutenberg?

20p a book and the ability to take all of them for reading on the go - even on a pair of small LCD screens - sounds pretty good to me.

I like using Project Gutenberg.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

I suppose for some people, then yes, it's good value - and it's a good money maker for Nintendo, I just think it's a bit naff.

Fair enough - and anyway for a lot of people, the best, cheapest option is going to be to get the books from their local library!

I like using Project Gutenberg.

I still use PG, but the formatting leaves a lot to be desired. Their HTML ebooks are a bit better but even the best HTML typesetting still pales alongside properly set and printed text, or even properly formatted ebooks in other formats.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Day one for me...hoping this makes it to NA soon.

 

[TJ Spyke]

100 books (including some really good ones including A Tale of Two Cities and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) available whenver you want, even on a small screen, is a really good value. If it's $20 in the US, I will get it.

 

[dk_]

Books>Ebooks

Case closed.

 

[Fularu]

Books>Ebooks

Case closed.

DS + cart while travelling > 110 books in yoru luggages

Case closed

Are people really this stupid? Can't you see that this isn't intended for home reading?

 

[grandjedi6]

Books>Ebooks

Case closed.

.

 

[dk_]

DS + cart while travelling > 110 books in yoru luggages

Case closed

Are people really this stupid? Can't you see that this isn't intended for home reading?

Err, you read 110 books while travelling? You're one heck of a reader. Learn to choose.

Also:

 

[Deku]

Right.

So they're releasing it after Christmas.


And making you pay £20 for something to read public domain texts.


Well done, Nintendo. Well. Done.

Boxing day in the UK is on the 26th.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

And making you pay £20 for something to read public domain texts.

*snort* What kind of loser would pay money for Shakespeare? *snort* Nobody does that!

 

[hokahey]

Do want in NA. Day 1 etc.

Great idea really.

 

[[Nintex]]

Where's Kirby dammit,

I could import... but still it sucks that they haven't released it here.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Reading a lot of text on screens like that is total and utter shit. I love the DS, but it's just not a fun option.

 

[jamesinclair]

A bit too much Shakespeare for my tastes.

Since this costs Nintendo around 2$ to make, they should have stuck in more books. They should have also gotten more recent stuff, and by that I mean as recent as copyright allows.


Also, :lol at the rating.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Books>Ebooks

Case closed.

Yeah, we all buy and read paper books. Nobody is arguing that. But this is another option to keep in my DS case for times when I want to read a little something. Kinda like what I sometimes do with my iPhone. Here's is hoping the GUI is nice and slick.

 

[JonathanEx]

Boxing day in the UK is on the 26th.

Yes.

But a week earlier, to hit the last minute present market, could help sales. And it'd still be new and right there visible in the January sales.

 

[TJ Spyke]

The application (unlike stuff like Brain Age, this actually can be called a non-game) will probably still require a ESRB rating unless Walmart and other stores won't require it. Still, it's odd to see a un-rated game released for the DS.

 

[Koren]

Err, you read 110 books while travelling? You're one heck of a reader. Learn to choose.

I'm usually reading ~3 books a week abroad, and when I'm leaving for three-four weeks, with the limit on luggages in plane going down, it's becoming a big issue. So I'm interested in ebook readers (though e-ink, not DS... I don't like reading on my PDA). Should scientific reference books and datasheets be available on numeric version, it would quickly become a must-buy.

But reading on a LCD 240x192 screen seems not really great to me.

 

[Fularu]

Err, you read 110 books while travelling? You're one heck of a reader. Learn to choose.

I read about 100 books a year and I spend 2 of those months travelling

The choice is obvious.

And right, I'm sorry at your inability to grasp basic logic

 

[swerve]

Is there any mention of downloadable updates? The Japanese version had new books released via DS Station (and I guess via 'everyone's nintendo channel').

Either way, definite purchase for me now that it's in English. There are plenty of books there that I should have read in high school but was too busy with SF2 and Mario World.

 

[Firestorm]

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, just download Stanza from the App Store for free.

They should release a major release on Boxing Day sometime. That'd be fun.

 

[Visualante]

How is Amazon kindle doing, again?

 

[Nif]

Reading on a normal LCD screen is terrible. Good luck to anyone who buys it.

 

[swerve]

How is Amazon kindle doing, again?

Is it GBP 15?

Because this is (assuming you're one of the millions of Britons who already have a DS)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001LK6XKE/

 

[ivysaur12]

It's only worth it if you can use the stylus to underline and make notes in the margins.

 

[MrHicks]

I read about 100 books a year and I spend 2 of those months travelling

The choice is obvious.

And right, I'm sorry at your inability to grasp basic logic

that i suggest you get something like the amazon kindle or any of the alternatives

i cannot imagine reading a book on a shitty ds screen

 

[swerve]

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/ybnj/index.html

There's the Japanese site. It worked pretty well when I tried it.

 

[Opiate]

Well, it's just that £20 seems a bit expensive for the ability to read books available for free on a crappy tiny screen.

By this logic, why would anyone ever buy one of these books ever again? And yet people still do buy Shakespeare and Austin and Tolstoy. There are literally millions of works in the public domain now, including the Bible. Should no one ever buy these books again?

Clearly there are people who will pay money to own a copy of the work. I really don't see what's wrong with this.

 

[Jocchan]

I guess that's still better than NoA not releasing anything lately.

 

[chuckddd]

that i suggest you get something like the amazon kindle or any of the alternatives

i cannot imagine reading a book on a shitty ds screen

For what that thing costs, he could just have the person sitting next to him to read him a book.

 

[MarzipaNMOS]

Whats so shitty about the DS screens? Its fucking text on a white background, how picky can you get?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Books>Ebooks

Case closed.

I soooo prefer reading on machines. Self-lit, the potential for endless bookmarks, adjustable text looks, and the capability to store thousands of times as much text in a fraction of the space.

Of course for public domain stuff like this homebrew is the great answer (reading text has long been a majority of my PSP's use), but for those who don't go that route products like this are pretty cool.


Hmmm...
http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/100_classic_book_collection_10283.html

Includes works by William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Jules Verne and Jane Austen

But there's no Verne on the list. Must be some of the downloadables.

Whats so shitty about the DS screens? Its fucking text on a white background, how picky can you get?

Pretty much. I used the GBA Movie Player to read text and that involved a hell of a lot of page flipping, but with its greater resolution and two screens this should be much less a problem on DS.

 

[A Link to the Past]

that i suggest you get something like the amazon kindle or any of the alternatives

i cannot imagine reading a book on a shitty ds screen

This may not be a great deal, but I'm not paying that much to read a book.

 

[jesusraz]

Quick details from the copy I received yesterday:

- 13 different background themes to listen to whilst you read (14 if you include 'No BGM'!), e.g. Easy Listening, Beach, Airport and Summer Day.

- Change font size from small to large (small is probably more like a 'medium' - no strain on the eyes)

- Can choose to just show the current page number, or show page number and total pages (for those that want to know how long is left)

- Use either the D-Pad or L/R buttons to change pages (remember the DS is held sideways, like in Brain Training and Hotel Dusk to emulate a real book!)

- The DS orientation can be changed to suit left-handed people

- Local Wireless: Send a trial version to another DS ('Send Trial', 'Send Book', 'Receive Book')

- Wi-Fi: Download New Books (ten available right now - seems like there's about 1MB of free space on the cartridge and the books are less than 100KB - took about six seconds to download a 70KB book and a further five to save it to the DS card), and Update Rankings (book popularity - ranked by users of the game or categorised by ten different user-attributed criteria, such as 'Exciting', 'Shocking', 'Profound' and 'Bizarre')

- Tutorial: tap either edge of the touch screen to change page or slide stylus across screen to flip pages back and forth. Tap the bottom of the screen to bring up a scroll bar that lets you jump to whatever page you want. Tap the top of the screen to bring up a menu that lets you bookmark the current page (automatically removed when you go back in and change the page) or exit the book.

- Books that have been read will be highlighted with an 'R' on its spine in the selection screen.

- Quiz feature: The in-game owl asks several questions ('What did you dream last night', 'What is your favourite colour', etc) to determine what books will most likely be interest to the user (for me the three were 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination', 'The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes' and 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'!)

- Choosing books is as simple as going to the in-game bookshelf and using either the stylus (slower) or scroll bar at the bottom (faster) to browse what's on offer. When a book spine is tapped on, its specific menu pops up, where users can read the book, learn more about it or learn about its author.

- Search and sort functions also exist by tapping the top of the screen in the bookshelf mode. Search Alphabetically, By Length, Genre, Era, My History, Ratings and/or Description. Sort by Author or Title.

Now excuse me whilst I go relax and read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes to the sound of an open fire in a living room

 

[DDayton]

How can something that sounds so incredibly pointless ALSO sound appealing to me?

When it says up to 10 additional downloads, can you continually swap books out?

 

[Mohonky]

Jesus what a pile of shit. I can't believe what the DS has turned into.

 

[El-Suave]

Reading on a normal LCD screen is terrible. Good luck to anyone who buys it.

Sure, but there are co-marketing possibilities in there.

after every 30 minutes, this could pop up together with the usual Nintendo "take a break" suggestion. ;-)

 

[Infernal Monkey]

Jesus what a pile of shit. I can't believe what the DS has turned into.

A handheld device for games and non-games alike? Yeah, wow, and to think the DS used to be a flying tractor that could shoot lasers.

 

[freddy]

I hear they are thinking of having a Snake Oil elixir available for download on New Years too..

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

that i suggest you get something like the amazon kindle or any of the alternatives

i cannot imagine reading a book on a shitty ds screen

Fuck amazon for not satisfying demand. It's on backorder for 13 weeks. You can't get one for close to 3 months because Amazon underestimated demand. And it's $300+. And it's ugly as sin.

I'm not sure how this isn't a great deal.