Playing Internationally

Both Char and Earl enjoy playing with Char's Nintendo DS Lite. The DS Lite is a new toy for Charlotte, even if it was discontinued about 8 years ago.

The DS Lite hits a sweet spot in our retro-gaming collection. The Lite's back-lit screen is brighter than the original DS, and the unit is also sleeker than the original. Plus, the Lite plays both DS and Game Boy Advance games. Nintendo produced about 1,700 DS games and 900 GBA games, so that's a lot of bang for your gaming buck. 

PLUS, even though some desirable GBA titles are becoming scarce, DS games are plentiful because they can still be played on the current 3DS. Many used DS titles can be picked up for a few dollars, and the more popular games are less than $20. 

Disclaimer: I am only talking about physical game cartridges. I know nothing about games that are downloaded from the net. I am old.

A used DS Lite goes for about $45 here in Des Moines. But you can get one cheaper if you have some patience. 

Like Game Boy games, the DS software wasn't region-locked by Nintendo. You can play DS games from all around the world on any DS Lite. That also means you can use a DS Lite from another country to play DS games made in the US.

So what? Well, if you can handle the slower speed of international mail, you can pick up a Japanese DS Lite. I bought this one on eBay for less than $15 shipped. It took 11 days to arrive.

Sure, it plays great, but the display is in Japanese. Well, that's not a big deal. You can change the DS Lite's language.

It's a simple process. Here's how I did it on my backup DS Lite from Japan (the weird lines are caused by the camera):

This doesn't work with Nintendo's DSi (the next generation of DS players). That software is region-locked. I made a mistake and bought a DSi LL from Japan. I can't change its language, and it won't play American DSi enhanced games (but we only own one - de Blob 2).

The DSi LL does play the standard DS games from the US. So, I can still enjoy playing Space Chimps on the larger screen.

That wasn't a joke, by the way. I really like playing Space Chimps.