AboutHelen Joan Casper Expertise Ever since I played "Pong" in the early 80's, I've been a video game aficionado. I can answer hardware & games questions about PSP (PlayStation Portable), all PlayStation (1,2,& 3), Wii, Wii Fit, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Nintendo (NES), Super Nintendo, Gameboy/Gameboy Advance, and antiquated systems (ColecoVision, Atari, Sega, etc). I can answer hardware questions about all systems (including PS1 - PS3, Wii, NES, SNES, PSP, DS, GBA, GB, Xbox and Xbox 360). I can also answer PC game questions, especially CounterStrike: Source, Vampire: Bloodlines, Half-Life 1&2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, and all Sims & Sims 2 questions. I am ESPECIALLY knowledgeable in Square-Enix (formerly SquareSoft) games such as ALL the Final Fantasy games (I can even tell you really obscure things about these games). If I haven't played the game yet I will research it and help you find the answer, renting the game if necessary. I can even answer questions dealing with the consoles themselves (hardware questions).
I cannot answer questions about Action Replay. I cannot answer questions about football, basketball, or wrestling sports games. I also have very limited knowledge about Xbox & Xbox 360 games unless they are cross-platform. If it is an independent game that has not been widely published and/or a game only released in some countries, I may not be able to help with it either (sadly!)
Experience I am also an expert here in games/roleplaying games, weddings, childbirth, and doulas. My husband is a computer programmer and one of the forefront coders for CounterStrike: Source scripts & mods. He has his own forums for coders/scripters at Mattie.Info. I have been an expert here since 2000 (under the name of Helen Chipman) and also volunteer on numerous other game-related websites and forums.
Question QUESTION: I'm thinking about buying a Japanese DS lite. I know the DS's are region free game-wise. But say I wanted to play an American game online through the wifi function(I live in America.) Does it connect you to players located in Japan or America?
So essentially, my question is does the DS connect you to players based on the geolocation of your IP address, the region of the console, or the region of the game. This is crucial because I can't buy a Japanese DS if I can't play with my other friends in America, both through the wifi internet capability or through the local networking capability.
Have you encountered any other compatibility issues of any type with your Japanese DS?
ANSWER: I have a Japanese DS so I can answer from personal experience. The wifi function is, essentially, controlled by the game itself. So it's not the nationality of the player as much as it is the nationality of the game. You will connect to other players of that game. So, for instance, say I'm playing Final Fantasy 3 US Version on my Japanese DS. I use MoogleNet to connect to other people who are playing FF3 US- even a person in Japan who happens to be playing the same game because they imported the US version of the game.
I've had my Japanese DS for a little over a year now and I haven't had any problems with compatibility. The only gripe I have is that we have a passcoded wifi network and for some reason, the DS doesn't support some types of secure wifi networks. There is probably a workaround somewhere out there but I haven't gotten around to looking for it. =) Other than that, I have been completely happy with my Japanese DS. I can't register it with my Nintendo USA account but I've never gotten any benefit from registering my games & consoles/handhelds with them yet anyway, so it's not a big issue to me.
Please let me know if I can help you further or with anything else.
Best wishes,
Helen =)
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QUESTION: I see. That is excellent news for my cause.
I only have one last minor question. It does connect to American DS's using it's local connectivity(30-100 feet) feature without difficulty, right?
Answer You mean with Pictochat and whatnot? Honestly, I have not personally tried it because I don't know anyone else with a DS (surprisingly!) However, in theory it should since the operating systems and whatnot are the same. Of course, if you're using a cooperative game like Pokémon where you battle between them, that would be just fine because the games themselves are compatible.
