The Nintendo DS Web Browser

[@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.

[@Varooooooom]

That’s actually fucking incredible, and I’m glad the DS was able to make your life better in that respect. I also remember getting a surprising amount of connectivity with others when browsing the internet with it back then.

[@herobrine1847]

@@Varooooooom sheet music man is here?!

[@zaxmaxlax]

I feel you. I didn't have an abusive childhood but I didn't have a computer or cell phone until my uncle gave me an used HP ipaq PDA back in 2006. I was amazed by the things I could do on it, I used as a MP3 player and web browser to read manga. I could even do some school work on the fly by modifing power point, word and excel documents since it was basically a windows machine. When the iphone and smartphones came out a few years later It blew my mind how people could praise an inferior product, iphone didnt have java suport for videos or even a file manager explorer LMAO

[@sctv2127]

Were u gay or something? 😂

[@luwado]

geez, man. stay strong

[@aliceseu]

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

[@X150t]

Lmao

[@Hyuduro]

Makes me happy it's not just me that does this.

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@seasonsarecool]

​@@e_s.0848why are you posting this under every single comment here?

[@e_s.0848]

@@seasonsarecool Why not? It's a good message. Besides, it can help someone

[@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.

[@koumer]

god i wish that were me

[@AlexandruLipan]

In 2008 I moderated a forum for a whole month using a DS Lite borrowed by a friend, because at the time, my LG343 clamshell phone had no data, and my PSP was in repair. So I was in the rural areas of Romania, using the barely reachable WiFi of a local school, to tap furiously on the screen to parse dialogues of people and guard a community of ~50 people.

[@taebeebee]

omg sameeee and i used the wii as well. these two were my only form of internet acess

[@vortexlisa]

@@taebeebee oh yeah Wii was for the bigger pages. I can't remember if the wii browser could do youtube...

[@wendysremix]

@@vortexlisa Yes it could it even had it's own version for the wii called KZbin XL Wii. I used it all the time. Even the desktop version of youtube worked perfectly.

[@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.

[@SuperTort0ise]

psp too, you can play "videos" on it ;) i never did that, i just know ppl did.

[@JoeyPerleoni]

I remember playing Club Penguin on the Wii Browser! It would crash after going through a couple rooms though.

[@MajinBoowomp]

@@SuperTort0iseI remember never being able to get the PSP online, even back when it was still Sony’s main handheld.

[@SuperTort0ise]

@@MajinBoowomp really? you can still use it today, I think it's only WPA but it's not that hard to set up at least as far as I remember.

[@chemergency]

@@SuperTort0ise I was never able to get online video to play on PSP but I liked looking at pictures of uh... *things.*

[@theguitargamer1]

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

[@wojtekpolska1013]

The small RAM size is precisely why the memory expansion pack was needed :p

[@savagesarethebest7251]

Not impressive compared with older devices that could run Opera..

[@weegeenumberone2]

@@savagesarethebest7251 It is, because it’s hilarious that a web browser could run on a handheld that had a terrible cpu and ram size.

[@gamepunk7963]

@@weegeenumberone2 EXPANSION PACK! ITS NOT THE CONSOLE'S RAM!

[@richieqs7789]

@@gamepunk7963 The latency for that kind of memory should have been terrible, that cartridge slot was meant for ROMs, with what I guess a very limited bandwidth

[@kirishima638]

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.

[@THE_flushingtoilet]

Fun fact admin admin is also a default router password for certain wifi routers

[@charm3979]

u can complain that the modern web is bloated but TLS1.1+ and other security cert are NOT one of them

[@kirishima638]

@@charm3979 Every website you visit now uses cookies and makes you jump through hoops for them, to adhere to the GDPR in the worst possible way. Most websites tracks you or bug you to log in/create an account. Ads and popups are out of control. The problem isn't the technology, it's lazy developers using bloated frameworks and unnecessary animated bling.

[@nixel1324]

@@kirishima638 I remember when you could press f12 on a webpage and actually make sense of how the HTML was put together. I remember learning about avoiding div soup back in college. Now youtube """needs""" more divs for a single comment than I used for entire multi-page websites.

[@kirishima638]

@@nixel1324 exactly! It’s all auto generated bloat

[@munchlax633]

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.

[@Solaceon]

I'm amazed by how well Facebook worked (think it still does) on the DS series. I used the 3DS browser for Facebook until 2019 🤣 Back in the day, my Facebook device was the Xbox 360

[@ScriptCatz]

Lol I used my dsi to check Facebook in 2021 and it worked surprisingly well

[@theo5675]

I used PSP web browser back in the day for MySpace lol

[@MoonSarito]

Facebook still works pretty fine on the 3DS

[@AlexiaTheFX]

I used to check my hotmail on my DSi, back in the day

[@X150t]

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

[@EmmBee27]

I borrowed my brother's PSP and was blown away by the internet browser on it at the time. I saw the DS browser in stores and thought it'd be similar. Thank god my parents didn't listen to my begging lol

[@Solaceon]

Lol my parents didn't want me online in any capacity until I was 19 but I always found ways to work around it. in this case I traded my copy of Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends for it when I was like 12 and when my parents finally noticed they were piiiissssed. 🤣 this thing sucked but it served me well until I got one of those Windows CE netbooks which was honestly leagues better. At least it had KZbin.

[@Ferrichrome]

I got this as a kid. It fucking sucked, incredibly slow but it was fun to mess around with. I remember once the 3DS came out it was awesome, you could actually browse KZbin on it but by that time I had a smartphone

[@MoonSarito]

Gosh, I remember how much I wanted this, I had my little DS Lite and used it for practically everything (I even remember that I used some homebrew to use MSN, Skype and Orkut (which was a very famous social network here in Brazil ) and I wanted more than anything to have a Browser in it but I couldn't find any homebrew for that at the time ) this certainly awakened several memories of mine. Years later I got a 3DS and even though Smartphones got a little more popular at the time I still spent hours and hours using the Browser on my Nintendo 3DS and even using Facebook on it, it was a fun time.

[@Player-fg4ub]

"to the two people that asked this question" you are the lucky one

[@N0GIY]

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.

[@seer6961]

DS was a good PDA.

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@rosshimes9908]

@@e_s.0848 I am James. Brother of the lord Jesus Christ

[@silence___]

​@@e_s.0848no the FUCK he does not

[@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 KZbin 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.

[@beardalaxy]

the PSP in general was an absolute beast. i used that thing for web browsing, for watching movies, emulating NES and SNES games, and it was my de facto mp3 player as well.

[@renakunisaki]

Yeah, it was amazing for the time. There were also some homebrew apps that wrapped the browser in a nicer UI. Only problem I had was it choked on certain invalid certificates and wouldn't load the page. One of those was the login portal my school forced you to go through. They weren't willing to fix it or add an exception. I had to use a laptop to spoof its MAC address just to click that damn button.

[@meisterwu8922]

First iPhone was weird. That damn thing couldn't even record videos. Only photos.

[@fwestah]

Omg, and then the long ipod nano which can only record videos, no pics. Horizontally for some reason. i still cherish that cobra starship purple one but it’s pitiful and doesnt have an off button

[@HistoryandReviews]

Okay no you did not download NOTHING with 2kbps download speeds

[@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.

[@s6edge7]

Can it run on a 333 G3 tho?

[@s6edge7]

@novakd1530 instant regret asking what tgey watched as a teen.....

[@henrikjohansson9826]

@Novak D 👀

[@thetricksterpill]

​@Novak D 😳

[@ps5hasnogames55]

i browsed e621 on my 3ds :3

[@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.

[@weberman173]

FUNFACT there was also an offical one(not usre if the buffalo one was the "officaly licensed one" or not) as well AND on the topic of that USB wifi adapater nintendo quite recently(like last year iirc) issued a warning that people should Stop using that damn thing because it has legit zero security nowadays given its ancient encryption protocol . Meaning SOMEONE had to have been using it, and ask nintendo about something related to it for anyone to realize "oh shit people are still using this thing"

[@kaitlyn__L]

We bought that. But then it didn’t work because our ISP was AOL, which didn’t share the connection from its client with Windows. (To prevent bypassing the net nanny.) Funnily enough my desire to play Mario Kart online got us to switch to BT internet lol. But then the adapter was useless, because the BT bundled router was still WEP-only. Then I sold the adapter on eBay to recoup a bit.

[@King_Kong_Song]

The adapter also suffered from security issues, defeating the purpose it was made for

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@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.

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@rafaelluciano5596]

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.

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@siljeff2708]

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!

[@videotape2959]

I had to do something similar when I connected my Toshiba laptop to the internet. Mmmh, all those radio waves in the air frying your brain..

[@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).

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@thehylian6984]

@@e_s.0848 swag

[@borrellipatrick]

At the time, "mobile" versions of websites were more common and the ds and later dsi web browsers were just fine visiting mobile websites. I used it alot for Facebook and just checking my emails

[@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

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@TripleJumpYTP]

Wow, using the GBA slot is actually a really clever way to add more memory to the DS, it makes sense given that it is it's own storage receptacle thingy and if the GBA slot is not in use they can create a use for it

[@X150t]

This reminds me of the first time I opened a web page on one of my parents original Motorola Razr phone probably back in 2004/05. It was the first time I had ever seen Yahoo and Google mobile and I was blown away that loaded. Thinking back, I don't think they even had a data plan or anything at that point so they probably got charged a lot of money just opening one page 🤦

[@Xenotypic]

Similar experience for me, I loved my Razr, but mobile browsing was so primitive back then lol.

[@belstar1128]

Any portable internet was mind-blowing back then .most people where stuck to their desktop at home .

[@Xenotypic]

@@belstar1128 yeah it really was. I remember browsing online with old PDA's and thinking it was amazing. Razr browsing was all but useless + expensive.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Yeah I did the same, on a PAYG sim. Had £10 credit before, loaded Google, had £2 credit. Never again lmao

[@YS420X]

I used to pay $99 a month as a teen for mobile web on my phones of that Era. It was limited to I think 50mb but I was the ONLY person I know who could access the internet from my phone. It was a cool time

[@tomrow32]

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.

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@tOSdude]

Looks like DSiPaint still exists, one of the few pages made specifically for this browser (well, the DSi browser, but close enough). Might be nice to get a few people in the chatrooms after 5-10 years

[@dirtydirtsgt4751]

What are the other pages?

[@tOSdude]

@@dirtydirtsgt4751 Honestly, I don't know. I just assumed there were others.

[@iamzsdawgy]

DSiCade and DSiBook were two others that i distinctly remember, but I think DSiPaint was the most fleshed out of any others

[@jimmyscringlo]

@@tOSdude There was a whole subculture centered around minimalist websites for the DS browser. DSiDie, DSiBook, DSiCade, DSiMap, DSiHub, etc. They were generally just chatrooms with a couple basic minigames thrown in for variety, and most of them died after 2011. DSiPaint was by far the best and it's nice to know it's still up, all these years later.

[@CP0]

@@iamzsdawgy dsi pad too i can’t remember what was on that site though.

[@pootan517]

I remember they made a couple of websites specifically designed for the ds browser. It had tons of viewable gifs and other things like super downscaled manga/comic pages lol.

[@MoonSarito]

Gosh, I remember how much I wanted this, I had my little DS Lite and used it for practically everything (I even remember that I used some homebrew to use MSN, Skype and Orkut (which was a very famous social network here in Brazil ) and I wanted more than anything to have a Browser in it but I couldn't find any homebrew for that at the time ) this certainly awakened several memories of mine. Years later I got a 3DS and even though Smartphones got a little more popular at the time I still spent hours and hours using the Browser on my Nintendo 3DS and even using Facebook on it, it was a fun time.

[@NFJaed]

DS Organize had a built in web browser that was better than this and required no memory expansion. DSO and Beup Live made staying in touch with friends possible when going on holidays

[@brandonupchurch7628]

I swear just about every Crimson/Black DS Lite ever has a broken hinge, I don't know what it is about that color specifically that seems to be more prone to breaking.

[@therealdatenshi]

This is so nostalgic for me lmao. Once, my parents took away my phone and computers etc so I had to use my Wii U to watch KZbin and whatnot. Had this as well - don’t really remember using it though cos I had a DSi though lmao.

[@arthurfelipemuckenheim851]

So your parents took away your phone and computer but not your videogame console. That looks like a tablet. Parents logic in a nutshell right here.

[@therealdatenshi]

@@arthurfelipemuckenheim851 lmao yeah it was kinda stupid so i took advantage of it

[@Solaceon]

@Arthur Felipe Mückenheim my parents tried putting a pin on the 3DS and Wii, but little do they know that a certain someone could call Nintendo for a master key

[@arthurfelipemuckenheim851]

@@Solaceon how old were you?

[@someoneelse4811]

@@arthurfelipemuckenheim851 24.

[@terje2005]

I remember using Opera Mini on an old Nokia phone. Somewhat aceptable solution as it would let me browse normal websites, the built in browser would only let me acess wap sites which were kinda forgotten about by then. "A beta version was made available in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland on 20 October 2005.[20] After the final version was launched in Germany on 10 November 2005,[21] and quietly released to all countries through the Opera Mini website in December, the browser was officially launched worldwide on 24 January 2006".

[@mr_ice117]

Same here, it was acceptable enough

[@mjdxp5688]

I've been looking for some good footage of this browser for a while, but this is my first time getting a good look at it. I remember I used to spend hours browsing the Web on my Wii U and my New 3DS when I was younger, because I didn't have a good laptop. The Wii U browser actually worked pretty well, I think it even had support for KZbin video playback. Unfortunately it doesn't really work today.

[@laggianput]

Wii u and (new) 3ds browsers, while far from great, can work today. As recently as a few months ago, u've watched yt videos and read fanfiction on the (new) 3ds browser, and well into the release of breath of the wild, i would use the wii u browser for shrine guides and stuff, or in later years, the terraria wiki

[@mjdxp5688]

@@laggianput I remember trying to do a few things in the Wii U browser a couple months ago and having some trouble.

[@laggianput]

@@mjdxp5688 yeah, its been getting worse as security tickets and different webcode variants fuck stuff up on older browser.

[@supersmashmaster43]

I remember when the Wii U was new a lot of people were praising the web browser on it. Sucks to hear it’s not that great anymore but it also makes sense.

[@CCClarinet12]

3DS supports KZbin also but the 3DS browser is so annoying

[@catholiccontriversy]

I used this all the time as a teen. It was pretty great for reading forums and wikipedia, and if you were patient enough great for image websites. It even worked with hotmail html and I remember writing blogs while on vacations and sending them to myself to post when I got home.

[@im_amil]

I’m glad someone actually got use out of it. I grew up with both the ds lite and 3ds and i vividly remember using the 3DS browser to look up wikis on my favorite games

[@e_s.0848]

Jesus Loves you

[@flouserschird]

Kids today don’t understand that internet on a mobile device in 2006 was a huge deal

[@AaronMT]

Just as painful as trying to browse the web on some of the early Android devices too. Remember the Motorola Droid and using the pre-Chrome built-in Android WebView browser?

[@nicks4802]

I had an LG bliss. It was both slow, AND expensive to bring up facebook. Never used it again after getting in shit for that.

[@PongWithBreakout]

It was also when it wasn't common to have mobile version of website, so all you got is a small page on top of using like 3.5" display.

[@joojoojeejee6058]

Opera Mini browser in Nokia Symbian devices was actually pretty usable. Even KZbin worked on my low-end Symbian device. KZbin supported an appropriate protocol back in the day.

[@Pasi123]

I used Opera Mini a lot on my Symbian devices in 2010-2012. Because of how Opera Mini works on the server side it's still able to open many modern web sites. I did also have a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet which had Linux based Maemo OS and full Mozilla based web browser MicroB. It was even able to run the full KZbin desktop site and play flash videos. Sadly it can't open modern web sites anymore.

[@calebbenedict5587]

When I was 8 this was literally the EXACT thing I wanted to have! I always dreamed of having a browser on my DS or GameBoy. I had no idea this ever existed. 8 year old me would have been blown away by this.

[@FilFee]

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

[@Ozzianman]

You were not bullshitting. Kinda cool it is still up.

[@PathfinderfromSplatoon]

Link?

[@thawkade]

Oh wow, what the hell lmao

[@vittosphonecollection57289]

Never checked it, I'm gonna try on DSi, but they probably left it for New 3DSes. If the Wii is still able to connect in its browser, the 3DS, should be able too, right? So it could be that someone is still going on Facebook on at least SOME kind of DS

[@EmmBee27]

6:00 I can remember Mario Kart DS being my first online game experience. Had to ask my brother to figure out all the internet shit for me because I was clueless. Then at some point I guess we updated our internet because I couldn't get online anymore. Always bugged me as a kid that my DS worked fine online for years and then just stopped seemingly out of nowhere.

[@sanekibeko]

Same here. By the time my house got a new router it defaulted to WPA2 by default which I had no idea what any of that was.

[@vittosphonecollection57289]

Same here but I had no idea Nintendo WFC was dead when I tried it LMAO Seriously why did they close that so early? Like I'd understand if the 3DS was its own thing, but A LOT of DS games were played on 3DS systems so for me they should've kept it. Granted it would still be dead by now, but it could've stayed until like 2019 or something

[@JosephOrnelas-gd9rn]

I love the DSi’s web browser. I like how private it is. No accounts to log into, no parental controls. It’s fun when I have a whole web browser all to myself with people just thinking I’m playing a game.

[@nak_vgm]

I’d love to see a video exploring some of the Homebrew that takes advantage of that increased memory.

[@seantheguy1391]

What I discovered as a kid was that the dust cover has a blank circuit board in it. It just has the gold pins and ends a few millimeters after that in the back of the cartridge. It just seems silly to waste the resources on putting a circuit board in a dust cover.

[@Elmantukas]

Glad to see that me going with a psp back in the day instead of a ds was a great idea. Well, it absolutely was a brilliant piece of kit, powerful browser, great games and lots of homebrew options. Over 15 years on i still have a go on it from time to time, obviously its extremely obsolete these days, but still quite good.

[@TVClipsDeutschland]

I remember when i used the DS Browser sometime in the late 2000s. At home we didn't have internet so i used the unprotected Wifi from my neighbor to browse in the internet using my DS Lite and the DS Browser. Sometimes i stood outside in the garden right infront the neighbor's fence with my DS. Crazy times. 2 oder 3 years later the neighbor unfortunally protected his Wifi and since then i never used the DS Browser again... Thanks for the video and bringing back the memory! Little extra info: In the late 2000s the DS Browser cost arround 10€ here in Germany....

[@avws536]

It's always a good day whenever Michael uploads.

[@RossComputerGuy]

True and I'm going to Japan today, just 1 hour and 8 minutes

[@Inserteggpunshere]

Nope

[@Inserteggpunshere]

@@TacoDoesShit He's going to Japan today

[@kriswhite9324]

@@RossComputerGuy Have a great time in japan!

[@ataturkkkada]

​@@lakitopuswhat was the comment

[@chrisjohnson9802]

Back in 2006, we only had a family computer, and my phone didn't have WiFi, so the DS Browser was the only way for teenage me to access the internet without my parents hovering over my shoulder.

[@JarHead3894]

This makes WebTV look almost competent, which is quite funny since the oldest boxes have less than half the RAM of the DS + Expansion Pak

[@belstar1128]

But when the web tv was new the internet was a lot more optimised. this would be like if there was a game boy colour browser. even wifi did not exist yet or was just invented.

[@JarHead3894]

@@belstar1128 Even nowadays, WebTV runs smoother on the same sites shown in this video. To be fair, the DS does have half the clock speed of the WebTV box, but images causing that much of a hit to performance is still pretty funny

[@Laz3rCat95]

I never used that, however I did sometimes use the internet browsing app on my 3DS to go on Facebook when I was in high school. Before my parents finally bought me my first smartphone my senior year.

[@ring_row]

a channel who talks about weird old tech stuff?! subscribed.

[@HHog]

I had the Nintendo-brand Wi-Fi dongle, but I could never get my DS to properly connect with it. I also remember back in the day, Nintendo advertised that every McDonald's restaurant would have a DS-compatible Wi-Fi network available. Long story short - my family's sporadic McDonald's visits were some of the only times I was able to properly play a game of Mario Kart DS online, and use the web browser. I loved my DS, but man, that internet functionality. The world wasn't ready yet.

[@Ayelmar]

I had one of these! And yes, it sucked....that WEP only connectivity made it kind of useless in most cases -- but it was still better than the text-only "browser" on my Nokia phone.

[@Mike--Oxmall]

This always bothered me, the original DS was capable of playing back videos hardware wise but they just didnt invest it in the browser. I used to download movies, convert them into the correct format, put it on my M3/R4 and watch them at night in my bed. I think there must have been a homebrew app around that allowed KZbin to work. I remember the PSP was the same way, you had to mod it and download homebrew apps.

[@NinjaPastry]

Ah, watching adult content on my dsi and it being my first time watching adult content.

[@lunabolt]

I do remember finally being able to connect my DS Lite (Silver guitar hero edition) to the internet... I ended up getting a bonus mission for pokemon ranger shadows of almia. I can't remember if it let you capture Palkia or Dialga but, I remember being in a desert. This was awesome!

[@ericcrafton8417]

Ahh this was a trip down memory lane. I got this web browser for my DS Lite on Easter inside my Easter basket. I do strongly remembering it being slow and not having flash player capability so I couldn’t watch KZbin. But as a kid I thought it was cool at the time.

[@COFFEEWSUGA]

Listening to you talk about the internet frustrations reminded me of the D/P/P HG/SS B/W Event spoofing for Pokemon. Because I didn't have access to the 3DS software PKSM (which has a way easier way to acquire those event pokemon), I had to use the custom server host. I ended up running my phone's wifi hotspot (only allowing one connection) and using that to get the event Pokemon.

[@brett9000]

I originally bought this when it came out just for the expansion pack as I had a M3 Simply card and used it for homebrew stuff but eventually I got as M3 real Card with the rumble/expansion pack card which expanded the memory further than the browser expansion card did. I still have the card in my DS Lite.

[@Miss-Foe]

This thing saved my ass back then. I only had a flip phone , some consoles, and a gaming desktop, but I was living in a very rural place where only satellite was available. Satellite was slow as hell and capped at 100MB per day so it was basically unusable sharing it with the 40 or so people who i shared that cap with. However, i could take my DS with me down to McDonald's 40 minutes away and browse the internet on my DS and it wasn't the best experience in the world but it was more than good enough to post to 4chan and that was 90% of what i wanted to do on the internet back then anyway.

[@LaskyLabs]

I've been using the DSi browser a lot lately to see how well it works. It can load the old net and that's about it. It struggles with almost anything you throw at it, and the 3DS browser is only marginally better... At least the DSi can connect to secure networks. The original DS can't even do that!

[@justin6581]

Even back in 2004, WEP was deemed insecure, so I wonder why it can’t do WPA at least.

[@LaskyLabs]

@@justin6581 the DS was being worked on through 2002-2003. That's probably why. Also, cheap piece of hardware. I just wish that the secure networks you could use on the DSi worked on DS games, but no, DSiware only...

[@justin6581]

@@LaskyLabs Even back in 2003, WEP was considered insecure

[@alejandravega4060]

Back in like 2011 i was able to use twitter on my dsi which was cool

[@choroc_minecraft]

3:29 It's pretty wierd. It might not work with the cartridge, but it worked on my Hacked DSi XL.

[@gdcalamity]

i actually never used this. i had a dsi which came with its own browser

[@SiegmundFretzgau]

I remember having to disable the encryption on the router to get the DS online. The Picross game had downloadable levels (some made by the developers, some player submitted contest winners) with regular updates for years.

[@Creeper_ofDoom]

8 Megabytes a ram for a Web Browser. yeah that rarely would work i bet

[@belstar1128]

Plenty in 1995 but not enough in 2006.

[@Techno-Universal]

The DSI also came with the DS browser built into the operating system from the factory by what I remember! :)

[@BraveLeeDX]

Remember guys. The ds got a browser but the switch still hasn’t

[@hermitgreenn]

Man, at that time Opera Mini seemed like wizardry. On cellphones of the time, you basically had the entire then-internet at your fingertips. That's because Opera's servers were converting webpages to be digestible by the J2ME based web browser and it worked like a charm for the most part!

[@Sakurina]

To be fair, this was a great thing to have at the time, because websites made for the pre-iPhone mobile Web worked great on it. Was a fantastic way to stay connected while on school trips and such before smartphones were commonplace.

[@belstar1128]

They didn't work great most sites where made for a desktop pc with at last 800x600 resolution and it didn't support flash or and sound or java and you needed that stuff in 2006. but it was still great because it was one of the few ways to get portable internet.

[@DominicMGeehan]

Found this at FYE for $10 for the DS Lite and it was my first foray into the internet.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I like how you were as charitable as you could be to this thing, comparing against phone browsing with WEP. It’s a shame they never configured the DSi DS mode to always think it had an expansion pack inserted. But I guess since the DSi had its own browser (IIRC), they thought it’d be redundant. I really wanted this before I had my own (bottom price) laptop. Until I read the reviews.

[@shadesoftime]

The memory expansion pack works different to just more ram that the DSi has, the software would have to be rewritten to use the DSi mode and judging by how much of a flop it was, they just didn't want to put in the effort

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@shadesoftime you misunderstand me. I’m not talking about a rewrite to take advantage of DSi mode, I’m talking about Nintendo taking the time to build in Memory Pak emulation into their DS mode!

[@shadesoftime]

@@kaitlyn__L the memory pak is only used by the browser so that's pointless

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@shadesoftime you may notice I said that in my original post :P there was no reason for Nintendo to spend that time. Nevertheless, given the homebrew which uses it requires a real DS(lite), I retrospectively feel it’s a missed opportunity.

[@bobjoe3492]

I remember using the web browser on my DSi to watch adult content when I was 13 lol

[@Yoshibyte]

What happens if you put it in a Gameboy Advance?

[@shadowcore94]

There was a PC accessoire, that created a DS compatible network. It was even nintendo branded.

[@HouseOfFunQM]

The answer is yes - even in 2006 it was dog shit! It was a cool toy though - but I think a lot of parents(?) maybe assumed they could buy it and play the Cartoon Network Flash games, and shit like that, which obviously it would get nowhere near.

[@fromvault801]

Ooh now I can use Myspace to pick up some 2007 shorties

[@Cyx12]

What would happen if you put it in a 3ds or 2ds

[@masterbawler]

I assume it won't work because you can't plug in the gba expansion

[@PathfinderfromSplatoon]

I want to know that too

[@Emil215p]

I tried it, doesnt work, still asks for the RAM card.

[@bellowick]

Hearing your frustration about trying to play MKDS online bought back vivid memories of the exact same issue 12/13 year old me had. The only time i could play the game online was in the middle of the night, I used to sneak downstairs, load up the family pc and turn off wifi security just to play the game online.

[@ExperiencersInternational]

To be honest, I wonder whether there's an exploit with this awful web browser, like the Wii Us.

[@fenrir5741]

The ds has only 256 kilobytes of memory and just enough room for the bios and pictochat you can flash the bios but that only changes the region of the ds if you really wanted to play the Chinese ique ds firmware I guess

[@VGamingJunkieVT]

Its biggest contribution was probably the GBA cartridge, since it improved the DS' RAM. It was useful, for the homebrew scene, and Quake 2 required it.

[@dittm3r]

$30 for a web browser.

[@oqocraft2661]

better than edge

[@anshulsinghai]

For real

[@back-titration-fan6436]

For real

[@ArchLars]

This one is so nostalgic for me, because my computer scientist Linux loving dad was dumb founded that you had to buy the browser for the DS, haha. He wasn't much of a gamer, if using Linux in the early 2000s didn't tell you that already, but he genuinely didn't believe me when I told him I wanted to _buy_ this.

[@blackghostcat]

I watched so much porn on the ds back in the day

[@Doggy_Mation]

What the fuck!

[@Archived_Rem]

😂 bro I swear, I was reading through the comment just EXPECTING to read this

[@blackghostcat]

@@Archived_Rem lmaooooo

[@robiocraft]

It’s a comparable performance to the DSi internet browser. I remember the New 3DS browser being fairly quick, it even supported video playback, due to this reason I used it now and again when needed to look something up.

[@NatsumenoKage]

I had one of these. I got it for when I was traveling and I did watch KZbin on it there was a workaround to get sound to play. I used it a lot for aim, remnants of the web rings.

[@DdlyHeadshot]

In 2006, routers didn't come with a password by default (at least in the UK) - you had to make a special effort to encrypt your WiFi, so few people seemed to bother (at least in the UK). This meant that wouldn't have been an issue for DS users over here at least (lots of my friends had DSes back then) but it also meant you could WiFi-hop on unsecured networks when you were travelling...

[@10msplits]

Only a few years later and it seemed the opposite lol

[@RyandeSilva]

You sound like Brian from Family Guy explaining retro tech. Love your videos, Keep the good work!

[@trisiegt]

The DSi also had a built-in browser. I'm using it right now!

[@rodneylives]

I had this. I'd still have it except it was stolen out of my car with my other DS games. I still miss it.

[@rodneylives]

(To be clear, I miss my DS. I wish I had it and the other software I had for it, but I wouldn't get much use out of the DS web browser these days.)

[@stevebazin127]

I bought this with grand ideas of playing Runescape from my DS. 12 year old me was quite the optimist

[@ROTMGmimighster]

Wow I had the exact same issue as a kid trying to play Mario Kart DS and thought it was just a weird niche issue with our specific router. This video has brought me peace knowing that it was once again just Nintendo being weirdly archaic in certain areas.

[@yjk_ch]

I remember using Wi-Fi with Animal Crossing(or 'Animal Forest' in South Korea) back in the day, which is a sign that my house Wi-Fi was in WEP mode back then. I always thought DS had trouble with modern WPA/WPA2 networks because it does not support 'newer' encryption methods, but I didn't know that WPA wasn't really new at that time.

[@Mgamerz]

I used this a ton as a young teenager. It was terrible quality but given the hardware it did the job. And the memory stick was great for homebrew.

[@OfficialDiRT]

3:32 The DSi came with a browser already installed.

[@danisanerd]

i used this as a kid! i remember you would have to clear your history and any data constantly as it would run out of whatever memory it had

[@CaptainX2012]

I remember connecting my 3DS to the old DS networks through the hacking needed me to use a mobile hotspot with low security

[@KittenoftheBroccoli]

5:48 I have a vivid memory of my stepdad trying to help me get my DS connected to the internet (for Mario Kart DS of course) and him telling my mom that he'd have to "take down the firewall" to be able to do it.

[@wizzgamer]

I used this as my main portable web browser for 2-3 years was very handy if very slow. The DSi had the same browser but slightly faster for free on the DSi store.

[@bjollnirbjordsen9795]

I had this and used it to browse 4chan when my dad took my computer away for bad grades. Lmao

[@lordtssd]

I remember reading about this in the nintendo magazine as a kid. I wanted it so badly, must have forgotten about by the time it actully came out.Probbely for the best. The DS had alot of great games but I doubt browsing would have been a good experience.

[@cid-ic]

glad you mentioned that the ds only let you connect to really insecure wifi. i had to beg my dad to change our home wifi to wep for like an hour so i could use pokemon's gts features.

[@xmine08]

I actually had this and it was actually ballers for me. I didn't have a smartphone yet and after school I had an hour to kill waiting for the bus. So being able to browse the web in the library was absolutely worth it!

[@Ametisti]

I remember the issue of the DS's WAP only thing, and even moreso, Nintendo's backwards issue with even having that limitation on newer systems running original DS games. I had a good few games that wanted internet for thing, and the only option I had was to go to the library cuz they had open wifi

[@sanekibeko]

I wish I had this as a kid. Sure now Flash support would have sucked but browsing the web was still fascinating to me. However my house hold didn't even get Wifi until 2009 and my first portable browser wasn't until a year later with the DSi XL. I ended up finding a used copy around 2017 for around 5 bucks.

[@ectobeing]

I didn't have this specific browser, but I remember using the DSi browser as a kid before I was allowed a smartphone. It worked perfectly well for reading forums, and even reading webcomics, which were my main uses for it.