The Nintendo DS Web Browser

Back in 2006, Nintendo released a browser for the DS. For around the price of a regular DS game, you could do all the web surfing you wanted. Except... not really. Because this browser was met with pretty negative reviews due to its limitations. So you know I had to buy a copy!

(I'd recommend looking at eBay as well)

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#MichaelMJD #NintendoDS #WebBrowser

[mahoubox]

I would not have escaped my abusive childhood home without this web browser as it was the only contact I had with the outside world when my Mother cut off all contact I had with anybody I knew. It's just a tiny web browser, but I am forever grateful for it no matter how awfully it worked in hindsight because it technically saved my life. It's amazing how such weird pieces of technology can make such huge differences to people around the world.

[aliceseu]

Doing all my banking on the DS browser like a true adult

[vortexlisa]

Back in 2007 this was a life saver for me... no computer no internet (there was an open neighbors wifi near by...) it was how I stayed in touch lol using the old mobile sites you used to get.
Would chat on AIM and MSN for hours using my DS.

[theguitargamer]

It's pretty impressive considering the DS CPU clock and RAM size.

[chemergency]

The Wii and PS3's web browsers were surprisingly decent. They were at-least competent enough to play online video and basic flash games from the time.

[munchlax]

I've used the Nintendo DS Browser to check my emails and Facebook when I had no smartphone for a month (for a defect that needed repair/change) in I believe 2016. Was still pretty usable.

[Xt]

I remember really wanting this so bad as a kid. I had just gotten the Nintendo wifi kit and was so excited. I'm glad I never ended up getting it because it probably would've been used just a few times due to how limited it was

[kirishima]

It wasn’t that bad back in 2007. The web has become incredibly bloated since then, requiring high end systems to browse all but the most basic sites and verify certificates.

Unprotected WiFi hotspots were also still relatively common then. I distinctly remember walking around London and finding no shortage of unprotected hotspots. And when they had passwords it was usually admin/admin.

[NGIY]

This was my first internet device... I used this to talk to my friends on AIM, created and used EMAIL, as well as read text! I used the crap out of this thing! Also, later on, if I got grounded from the Internet.... Parents NEVER remembered this thing! I also used it as a noise generator, there was a website that let it play white noise. Literally thousands of hours and it never gave up lol.

[c_miraa]

I had this as a teenager! I remember sitting on the cold stairs to the basement browsing the web - we did not have Wifi in the whole house yet.
Sure, it was not great to use, but i still had a blast exploring websites with my DS! Good memories.

[GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

It's kinda crazy just how competent the PSP was at web browsing.
I remember navigating to PSPiso and downloading anime, CSOs, and roms all day long, reading Digg and ancient Reddit back in 2006-2008 in college.
Homebrew scene had a YouTube player as well. PSP was kind of insane considering the iPhone didn't even come out until 2007 (and it wasn't exactly that great until the 3GS).
PSP introduced a basic browser with Wipeout Pure in 2005 and had an official browser soon after. Not even the Blackberry had remotely usable web until the Pearl in 2006.

[PashPaw]

There was a USB Internet adapter from Buffalo for the Nintendo systems that shared a connection from a Windows PC. My family got one because we weren't willing to change the encryption on the network from WPA to WEP for a game console.

I didn't have the browser but remember trying to play Mario Kart DS with it. Good times.

[Bendaak]

This brought back some memories for sure! Back in Xmas 2006, I bought my ex girlfriend a DS Lite and she ended up getting this web-browser because we were young and didn’t have smartphones back then. I remember it being slow but not painfully slow. Standards were different back then because mobile devices with web-browsing ability were extremely rare so I guess it got a free pass. She did use it a fair amount whenever she did not have her laptop with her. It did go on most websites and ran fine when loading pictures too, they were just extremely low resolution. It was a great little add-on for the pre-smartphone era.

[rafaelluciano]

I used to use this daily back in the day. Once you know it's limits, it was pretty fantastic for text and image based experiences. I would use it for my nightly readings and forum posts.

[juicybullfrog]

I remember buying this thing at my local Walmart in 2007.

That time, I didn't know how Wifi actually works.

When I purchased this, I thought that was going to have internet on the go without connecting to Wifi.

I was so frustrated that whenever I scan for Wifi, there's was no wifi in the area. Even in the mall.

Wifi needs to be open or being WEP in order to see wifi list on DS.

Never forget when I try connecting to Wifi for the first time in my life on mall food court.
Still remember the sound when the DS connect to wifi successfully, the joy 🥹.

[catholiccontriversy]

One thing the ds web browser was really handy for was checking sketchy sites. It was basically impossible to infect since there wasn't a hard drive to install malware on and all temp files were deleted on power off, and even if there was a way to infect it no one bothered to because the install base was so low (like the whole "mac's don't get viruses" thing was true for a while because no one had a mac and it wasn't worth making viruses for).

[siljeff]

Because I just had to get the Manaphy in Pokemon Diamond back in the day, I remember buying a BearExtender USB dongle to create a WEP network inside of my parents WPA network to get that giveaway. I felt like an absolute IT Wizard when I got that to work!

[tomrow]

You might want to try this out with the WebOne proxy server running on a PC on the same network. It uses the PC's HTTPS system and passes page contents through to the DS withoit encryption.

[FilFee]

Fun fact:
Facebook still has the DS version of their website up! Just add a "d." as a sub-domain. :)

[Doegiz]

Running an internet browser on ur consoles or ur mobile systems like a PSP was always a really neat feature to have for all of us kids who grew up with that one and only family computer. Especially when the whole idea of Wifi was brand new to me in 2006, the fact that this even worked on the DS and the PSP had my mind absolutely blown by this functionality at a time when people loved buying linksys routers to go with their 1 mb internet speed haha