DS Download Station is an in-store demo service launched by Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

 in early 2006. As the name implies, these are stations that can be used to download game demo

Game demo

A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full version....

s and trailers to a Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

. The range of a Nintendo DS Download Station is approximately 65 feet. The games can be downloaded by going to DS Download Play on the Nintendo DS's main menu and choosing the DS Download Station (if in range). From there it would load a simple menu & loader application to facilitate loading the demo of the player's choice. The demos remain on the DS until the power is turned off.

The download station is actually nothing more than a standard retail DS hidden inside a sealed box with a special DS Download Station cartridge inserted in it. The cartridge acts as a server for customers to download new game demos or videos. When Nintendo releases a new demo cartridge to retailers they simply load the cartridge into the DS locked in the sealed box. A DS Download Station can distribute only one game at a time, but send the demos to up to 15 DS systems simultaneously.

The US and European version of the DS Download Station are completely different than the Japanese version. The Japanese version uses 3 PCs, each connected up to an Internet connection. The difference in design was due to most retail locations in the US do not have an available Internet connection, and therefore, a self contained solution was necessary.

Versions

Thus far, there have been seventeen different versions of the DS Download Station, with each version different in terms of content between North America, Europe, and Japan. These downloads are actually physical game cartridges for the Nintendo DSes that deliver the downloads. Although the cartridges are not for resale, some have appeared on various online auction sites.