Rumble Pack for DS?
I was reading hands-on impression of Metroid Pinball for DS, and people are saying that some of the demo units had a rumble feature in it, coming from a GBA cart.
here’s is a quote from PlanetGameCube
One major surprise is that some copies of Metroid Prime Pinball on the show floor featured rumble capability. Yes, rumble as in force feedback like Pokemon Pinball. This obviously couldn’t be built into the tiny DS packs, so I had a look underneath the DS playing the game and it had a GBA cartridge plugged in as well. I figured that the GBA cartridge was the one doing the rumbling, and this was later confirmed by PGC chum Chris Kohler. Apparently Chris saw someone booting up a DS with Metroid Prime Pinball in it, and the initial selection screen said that there was a “GBA Option Pak” in the GBA cartridge slot. I’m not sure whether or not Nintendo will sell this standalone Rumble Pak for use with rumble-enabled games, but it definitely exists. Hopefully it will be a pack-in when Metroid Prime Pinball is released, because it works like a charm.
This could be interesting if more game uses it after that. But i wonder how it will affect the battery life.
source: PlanetGameCube
Edgar - May 20th, 2005 - 
Dejital on May 20, 2005 at 11:27 pm
We knew there would be a Rumble Pack ever since that one guy got the “Would you like to enable the Rumble Pack?” message on the Alarm clock. The question is, when.
SILVERSURFER on May 20, 2005 at 11:36 pm
I knew it that the gba cartridge slot will be for more than that, the rumble pack is one of them , also they could add more memory to the DS like The memory pack for the N64, the possibilities are unlimited ; camera, play-yan, …etc, I call that “nintendo smart”…
Philosopher on May 21, 2005 at 12:13 am
I recently purchased a GBA Movie player from Lik Sang and when I got it home, I had a bit of difficulty figuring out which way to put it into my DS. After a couple of tries, I inserted it the correct way, but the CF card was in backwards. When I turned it on, the GBA section of the Main page listed the GBA Player as an “Option Pack”, if I recall correctly. When I saw this, the possibilities began to fly about my imagination.
If anyone else can get this to happen, let me know so that I know I am not crazy!
btnheazy03 on May 21, 2005 at 1:01 am
3 questions:
1) How bulky is it?
2) How dramatic is the effect to battery life?
3) Price point?
vakerorokero on May 21, 2005 at 1:07 am
well, for that size the are probably using cellphone vibration system, so that thing won’t hit the battery time.
I wonder how long until we see something like this on the PSP…
SILVERSURFER on May 21, 2005 at 1:19 am
let’s see…..never!!!!
Kerry on May 21, 2005 at 1:58 am
Yea, I don’t thing the PSP is capable of something like that, though it would be nice.
Anyway, I think it would work brilliantly. Why?
Well, if I remember correctly, they bundled wireless link cable things for the GBA/SP…for free with some Pokemon game…I don’t see why they wouldn’t do the same with MPP. It just makes sense, and Nintendo is known for doing those things…being consumer friendly.
Jacob on May 21, 2005 at 2:07 am
I like cosumer friendliness.
btnheazy03 on May 21, 2005 at 3:40 am
Nintendo ROCKS :’(
tim.e.boy on May 21, 2005 at 4:27 am
“If anyone else can get this to happen, let me know so that I know I am not crazy!”
i can get it to happen, with me ez flash memory. it says “would you like to activate rumble pack?” before the alarm clock sets.
eza on May 21, 2005 at 9:36 am
good stuff…silent alarms are handy… and games could utilise it in sleep mode when another DS walks past to help initiate multiplayer gaming, like the nintendogs bark. i’ll pre-order as soon as it’s on lik-sang
Ben on May 21, 2005 at 12:35 pm
I guess it could be a bit fun but I’ve never really rated rumble that highly. Could be fun if it makes some precision touch screen games a bit more difficult.
Zork on May 21, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Ever since rumble became standard on all systems, I stopped noticing it all together. I remember thinking it was kind of a neat idea when it came out for N64, but now my mind just tunes it out.
LSK on May 22, 2005 at 9:58 am
I already knew about option packs, thanks to my broken Golden Sun 2 cartridge. When you try to play it in a GBA, it desn’t work. When you try it in a DS, it registers as an option pack…