The system's code name was Nitro. The console's name officially refers to "Dual Screen", the system's most obvious feature, and "Developers' System", in reference to the new game design the system was meant to inspire.

On March 2, 2006, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS Lite, a redesign of the Nintendo DS, in Japan. It was later released in North America, Europe, and Australia in June 2006. The DS Lite is a slimmer and lighter version of the Nintendo DS and has brighter screens. Nintendo of America now refers to the older model as the "original style" Nintendo DS.

On November 13, 2003, Nintendo announced that it would be creating a new console for release in 2004. Nintendo said that it would not be the successor to the Nintendo Gamecube or the Game Boy Advance SP, but rather it would be considered a "third pillar" alongside the two consoles. On January 20, 2004, the console was announced under the codename "Nintendo DS".[9] Nintendo chose to release very few details at that time, only saying that the console would have two separate 3 in. TFT LCD display panels, separate processors, and up to 1 gigabit of semiconductor memory. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said "We have developed Nintendo DS based upon a completely different concept from existing game devices in order to provide players with a unique entertainment experience for the 21st century." In March, the codename was changed to "Nitro" and a document containing most of the console's technical specifications was leaked. In May, the codename was changed back to "Nintendo DS" (DS standing for Dual Screen) and the console was shown in prototype form at E3. All of the features of the console were released by Nintendo at E3. On July 28, 2004, Nintendo revealed a new design, one that was described as "sleeker and more elegant" than the one shown at E3. The codename "Nintendo DS" became the official name of the console that day.

The Donkey Kong version of the Game & Watch

The Nintendo DS bears a striking resemblance to Nintendo's first handheld, the Game & Watch, specifically the multi-screen versions such as Donkey Kong.

On September 20, 2004, Nintendo announced that the Nintendo DS would be released in North America on November 21, 2004 for US$149.99. It was set to release on December 2, 2004 in Japan and in the first quarter of 2005 in Europe and Australia. The console was released in North America with a midnight launch event at Universal City Walk EB Games in Los Angeles, California. The console was launched quietly in Japan compared to the North America launch; one source cites the cold weather as the reason. In January 2005, the Australia release date of February 24, 2005 and the Europe release date of March 11, 2005 were announced. Regarding the European launch, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said:

"Europe is an extremely important market for Nintendo, and we are pleased we can offer such a short period of time between the US and European launch. We believe that the Nintendo DS will change the way people play video games and our mission remains to expand the game play experience. Nintendo DS caters for the needs of all gamers whether for more dedicated gamers who want the real challenge they expect, or the more casual gamers who want quick, pick up and play fun."

The Nintendo DS stylus used for games played on the touchscreen

The lower display of the Nintendo DS is overlaid with a pressure-sensitive touchscreen, designed to accept input from the included stylus, the user's fingers, or a curved plastic rectangle attached to the optional wrist strap. The touchscreen allows users to interact with in-game elements more directly than by pressing buttons; for example, in the medical drama game Trauma Centre: Under the Knife, the stylus may be used as a scalpel to cut an incision in a diseased patient, or in the included chatting software, PictoChat, the stylus is used to write messages or draw.

Traditional controls are located on either side of the touchscreen. To the left is a D-pad, with a narrow Power button above it, and to the right are the A, B, X, and Y buttons, with narrow Select and Start buttons above them. Shoulder buttons L and R are located on the upper corners of the lower half of the system. The overall button layout is similar to the controller of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Famicom in Japan).

The Nintendo DS features stereo speakers providing virtual surround sound (depending on the software) located on either side of the upper display screen. This is a first for a Nintendo handheld, as the Game Boy line of systems has only supported stereo sound through the use of headphones or external speakers.

A built-in microphone is located below the left side of the bottom screen. It has been used for a variety of purposes, including speech recognition (Nintendogs), chatting online between game play sessions (but not during game play) (Metroid Prime Hunters), and minigames that require the player to blow or shout into the microphone (Feel the Magic: XY/XX, WarioWare: Touched!, etc.).

The system's 3D hardware performs transform and lighting, texture-coordinate transformation, texture mapping, alpha blending, anti-aliasing, cel shading and z-buffering. However, it uses point (nearest neighbour) texture filtering, leading to some titles having a blocky appearance. The system is theoretically capable of rendering about 120,000 triangles per second at 60 frames per second. Unlike most 3D hardware, it has a set limit on the number of triangles it can render as part of a single scene; the maximum amount is about 6144 vertices, or 2048 triangles per frame. The 3D hardware is designed to render to a single screen at a time, so rendering 3D to both screens is difficult and decreases performance significantly. The DS is generally more limited by its polygon budget than by its pixel fill rate. There are also 512 kilobytes of texture memory per screen, and the maximum texture size is 1024x1024 pixels.

The system has two 2D engines, one per screen. These are similar to (but more powerful than) the Game Boy Advance's single 2D engine. However the cores are divided into the main core and sub core. Only the main core is capable of vertex 3D rendering. There is also 656 kilobytes of Video memory.

The unit has compatibility with Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b, but only supports the WEP security. Nintendo has no plans to implement the stronger WPA security at this time. The unit also supports a special wireless format created by Nintendo and secured using RSA security signing (used by the wireless drawing and chatting program PictoChat for the DS). Wi-Fi is used for accessing the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, where users can use the internet or compete with other users playing the same Wi-Fi compatible game.

Nintendo DS games are on small, thin "game cards", as opposed to the larger cartridges used by the Game Boy line and other previous Nintendo systems

Games use a proprietary solid state ROM "game card" format resembling the memory cards used in other portable electronic devices such as digital cameras. It currently supports cards up to 2 gigabit (2048 Mb or 256 MB) in size. The cards always have a small amount of flash memory or an EEPROM to save user data, for example progress in a game or high scores. The game cards are 33.0 × 35.0 × 3.8 mm (approximately half the width and half as thick as Game Boy Advance cartridges) and weigh around 3.5 g (1/8 ounces).

Based on a blog on IGN by the developer of MechAssault: Phantom War, larger (such as 128 MB) cards have a slower data transfer rate than the more common smaller (such as 64 MB) cards. However the specific rates were not mentioned.

The system's code-name was Nitro, which is where the letters NTR in the serial number written on the back of game cards and the system itself come from. NTR-XXX indicates the model numbers found on the original style Nintendo DS and its accessories.

The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is a free online game service run by Nintendo. Players with a compatible Nintendo DS or Wii game can connect to the service via a Wi-Fi network. The service was launched in North America on November 14, 2005 with the release of Mario Kart DS and Tony Hawk’s American Sk8land.

A web browser, the Nintendo DS Browser, was later released to allow for web surfing on the handheld.

With select titles (such as Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Bros., and Meteos), it is possible for users to play multiplayer games with other Nintendo DS systems using only one game card. Players must have their systems within wireless range (up to 100ft) of each other. Guest systems can download the necessary data from host system by selecting the DS Download Play option on the main menu.

Many stores that sell DS games have DS Download Stations where users can download demos and videos of DS and Wii games. However, due to memory limitations the downloads are erased once the system is powered off.

PictoChat allows users to communicate with other Nintendo DS users within local wireless range. Users can enter text (via a small on screen keyboard), handwrite messages or draw pictures (via the stylus and touchscreen). There are four chat rooms (A, B, C, D) in which people can go and chat. Up to sixteen people can connect in any one room.

The Nintendo DS is compatible with Game Boy Advance (GBA) cartridges. The smaller Nintendo DS game cards fit into Slot 1 on the top of the system, while Game Boy Advance games fit into Slot 2 on the bottom of the system. The Nintendo DS is not compatible with games for the Game Boy Colour and the original Game Boy, due to a slightly different form factor and the absence of the Zilog Z80-like processor used in these systems.

The handheld does not have a port for the Game Boy Advance Link Cable, so multiplayer or Gamecube-Game Boy Advance link-up modes are not available in Game Boy Advance titles.

The Nintendo DS only uses one screen when playing Game Boy Advance games. The user can configure the system to use either the top or bottom screen by default. The games are displayed within a black border on the screen, due to the slightly different screen resolution between the two systems (256 × 192px (approx. .05 mega pixels) for the Nintendo DS, and 240 × 160px (approx. .04 mega pixels) for the Game Boy Advance).

Nintendo DS games inserted into Slot 1 are able to detect the presence of specific Game Boy Advance games in Slot 2. In many such games, extra content can be unlocked or added by starting the Nintendo DS game with the appropriate Game Boy Advance game inserted. An example of this can be seen in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, which allows the user to send his or her Pokémon from a Game Boy Advance Pokémon title to the DS title.

Additionally, Slot 2 can be used to house expansion packs, such as the Rumble Pak and the Nintendo DS Memory Expansion Pak, which supplies 10MB of extra RAM for the Nintendo DS Browser.

The Nintendo DS is region free in the sense that any console will run a Nintendo DS game purchased anywhere in the world; it is the same system everywhere. However, the Chinese version games can only be played on the Chinese iQue DS, whose larger firmware chip contains the required Chinese character glyph images. Nintendo DS of other regions cannot play the Chinese games, while iQue DS can play games of other regions. Also, as with Game Boy games, some games that require both players to have a Nintendo DS game card for multiplayer play will not work together if the games are from different regions (e.g. a Japanese Nintendo DS game may not work with a North American Nintendo DS game, though some titles, such as Mario Kart DS, are mutually compatible). With the addition of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, certain games can be played over the Internet with users of a different region game.

Some Wi-Fi enabled games (e.g. Mario Kart DS) allow the selection of opponents by region. The options are "Continent" and "Worldwide", as well as two non-location specific settings. This allows the player to limit competitors to only those opponents based in the same geographical area. It is unknown whether this is based on the region code of the console in use, the region of the game card, or geolocation of the IP address.

Game Boy Advance game slot on Game Boy Advance (above) and Nintendo DS (below).

Although the secondary port on the Nintendo DS does accept and support Game Boy Advance cartridges (but not Game Boy, and Game Boy Colour cartridges), Nintendo has emphasized that its main intention for its inclusion was to allow a wide variety of accessories to be released for the system, the Game Boy Advance compatibility titles being a logical extension.

Nintendo announced at Eł 2005 that it would launch "headset accessories" for voice over IP (VoIP) enabled games. (This will plug into the VoIP plug next to the ear phone jack, not the Game Boy Advance slot.)

The Rumble Pak was the first official expansion slot accessory. In the form of a Game Boy Advance cartridge, the Rumble Pak vibrates to reflect the action in compatible games, such as when the player bumps into an obstacle or loses a life. It was released in North America and Japan in 2005, as a separate accessory and bundled with Metroid Prime Pinball.

In Europe, the rumble pack is available with purchasing the game Actionloop. However it is possible to buy the rumble pack straight from Nintendo.

The Nintendo DS Headset is the official headset for the Nintendo DS. It plugs into the headset port (which is a combination of a standard 3.5 mm headphone connector and a proprietary microphone connector) on the bottom of the system. It features one earphone and a microphone, and is compatible with all games that use the internal microphone. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2006. The headset was released on April 22, 2007 in North America, alongside Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, two of the few games to have built in voice chat.

On February 15, 2006, Nintendo announced a version of the cross-platform web browser Opera for the DS system. The browser can use one screen as an overview, a zoomed portion of which appears on the other screen, or both screens together to present a single tall view of the page. The browser went on sale in Japan and Europe in 2006, and in the U.S. on June 4, 2007.

This accessory plugs into a PC's USB port and creates a wireless access point, allowing up to five Nintendo DS units to access the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service through the host computer's Internet connection. The only operating system fully supported by the Wi-Fi USB Connector's software is Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista support is currently limited to Europe.

The Nintendo MP3 Player (known as the Play-Yan in Japan) was released on December 8, 2006 by Nintendo of Europe at a retail price of €30. The add-on uses removable Secure Digital cards to store both MP3 audio files and select format video files. The Nintendo MP3 Player can be used on any device that features support for Game Boy Advance cartridges, and as such is limited in terms of its user-interface and functionality. Therefore, it does not support using both screens of the DS simultaneously, nor its touchscreen capability. It also means that the device cannot utilize the enhanced power of the DS compared to its predecessors, so video playback is not as robust as it could otherwise be.

Special editions and promotional packages

Nintendo DS Lite

The Nintendo DS Lite

Software development

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