A tribute to our Nintendo DS Lites

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 I believe I got my blue DS lite when I was in grade 6. I don't remember if my father bought it for me or how I got it. 

This blog post is a tribute to our Nintendo DS Lites, the gray one being my cousin's. Both of these were stored in a cabinet for the longest time. I can't remember why I asked my cousin for his DS back then. I sold them recently as I work towards minimalism and getting rid of my previous material from hoarding. This post is so that I remember my days and time with my Cobalt DS Lite.

This portable handheld gaming device was revolutionary at the time because you could play in the dark, adjust the brightness, the volume, and it didn't run on AA batteries. All of these conveniences meant that it was easier to access and discreetly play anywhere. This is where the job of the parent to monitor their kid's activities came into play. Although, this was so new that some parents didn't know how to react.

I remember around this time was when people were looking at video games as being potentially good for you, with games such as Brain Age coming out on DS. There was also Wii Sports and other games that required you to move on the Nintendo Wii. Maybe I'll have to write a post on the Wii sometime. I should probably write one on the Xbox 360? While I'm at it, maybe a short post on the PS3 as I had one at one point too.

Back in the day, I used Pictochat in my desk and communicating with my friends across the room during class in elementary school. I remember it being May because the sun was out and we were in a playful mood. 

One of my first DS games was The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass which was a great first DS game. It was the continuation of Wind Waker from the Gamecube. I know for sure that I beat this game, and that didn't happen very often with my games. Another DS game that I remember owning was Pokemon Diamond. I don't recall what other games I had, but maybe it'll come back to me eventually and I'll add to this paragraph.

I played a lot of my GBA games on my DS. I still had (I still have) my GBA at the time, but I stopped using it since there was no use for it. The GBA can play Gameboy color games while the DS Lite cannot. We are holding onto the GBA (for now?) for nostalgic sake and in the hopes of it becoming an antique item.

Without going into too much of a tangent, the GBA game that I played the most was Pokemon Emerald. I remember seeing over 326 hours played on a certain save file. Unfortunately, that game went missing after I lent it to my best friend at the time. I just kind of let it slide... but wow, there goes over 326 hours of my life?? (13 days and 14 hours).

During two different occasions, I had a R4 chip which let me customize my DS and allowed me to download games. I don't think I really took advantage of this as I ended up giving the first R4 chip to one of my friends whose sister ended up keeping it. I seemed to have lost all of my DS games actually. I didn't end up selling any official DS games, I only sold a R4 chip that I couldn't figure out how to program.

Here are a few model shots of our DS Lites... as you can see they were collecting dust. They were in great condition, though.

I had asked my mother back then to help me attach the Wii Remote strap to my DS.

This is the photo that I attached to the listing. I sold all these items in the photo for $135 CAD. Although I felt a little sad selling some of my stuff from childhood, I knew that it was for the best.

In the past, I downloaded emulators on my computers to play GBA, GameCube, and DS games. I could do it again if I really wanted to, but I don't. I've played enough Pokemon in my life and I don't necessarily feel the need to show Pokemon to DJ. We'd actually prefer for him not to play video games at all.

Eventually I'll write one or a few posts about video games. I've been wanting to write a post about my favourite video games of all time for so long. I'm not sure if any DS Lite games will make it onto the list though, I suppose it depends on how big the list will be. I think writing that post will help me move on for good from video games, even though I've really already stopped playing them. I could potentially write a post about why I quit video games. Chess has become my new video game and social media. I am still working on the Chess post by the way...

Thank you, Nintendo, and thank you to my Blue Cobalt DS Lite. I hope you are in better hands now.