The Nintendo DS (ニンテンドーDS,Nintendō DS?, lit. full known as; Nintendo Dual Screen), sometimes abbreviated NDS or DS, is a seventh generation era dual-screen handheld game console devoloped and manfactured by Nintento. The Nintendo DS has been released on November 21, 2004. The console features a clamshell design, with two LCD screens inside - one of which is a touch-sensitive screen. The Nintendo DS is the first Nintendo video game console that has been released outside of Japan, which it went first on sale in North America.
It had been announced on November 13, 2003 by Nintendo that they would release a new game product that make it's release in 2004. Nintendo didn't gave any information about their new project and stated that it would not succeed the Game Boy or the GameCube. On January 20, 2004, Nintendo announced the console under the codename "Nintendo DS". Nintendo only gave few information about their project, saying that the console would have two separate, 3-inch TFT LCD display panels, separate processors, and up to 1 gigabit of semiconductor memory. The name got changed into "Nitro" in March 2004 which also the document containing most of the console's technical specifications was leaked. The project name went back to "Nintendo DS" in May 2004 and a prototype was shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo better known as the E3. Nintendo revealed on July 28, 2004 that the Nintendo DS has gotten a new design and the name of the console is the same as that of the project name.
