Nintendo DSi Browser

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The Nintendo DSi Browser is a free application downloadable from the Nintendo DSi Shop. It is capable of browsing the internet, but only with some plugins, including Javascript. Adobe Flash is not compatible with the application. Though Flash is not supported, sites such as DSiCade and DSiPaint have took advantage of the Javascript functionality and created games and applications, similar to ones created for Adobe Flash.

Changelog

29/30 July 2009 version (507)

  • Reducing the size by 3 blocks

First version (483)

  • First release

Features/Limitations

Feature Supported
Audio No
Canvas Limited
CSS2 Yes
CSS3 Partial (test here)
DOM Yes
DOM2 Yes
Javascript Yes
File Download No
File Upload No
Flash No
HTML5 Partial
Plugins No
SVG No
Video No
XHTML Yes
XMLHttpRequest Yes

User Agent strings

Sample DSi Browser User Agent Strings :

  • Opera/9.50 (Nintendo DSi; Opera/483; U; en-US)
  • Opera/9.50 (Nintendo DSi; Opera/483; U; en-GB)
  • Opera/9.50 (Nintendo DSi; Opera/507; U; en-US)
  • Opera/9.50 (Nintendo DSi; Opera/507; U; en-GB)

Tips

Vertical mode

To active the vertical mode automatically, add one of the following tags between <head></head> :

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=240">

Using device-width will adapt the page to the width of other mobile devices.

You can test this mode with the following demo page: here

THE ABOVE LINK IS DEAD. DON'T BOTHER.

Detect User Agent

To detect if the user agent is Nintendo DSi Browser :

<script type="text/javascript">
     window.onload=function() 
     {
         if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf('Nintendo DSi') == -1) //If the UserAgent is not "Nintendo DSi"
         {
               location.replace('http://www.dsibrew.org'); //Redirect to an other page
         }
     }
</script>

Key Codes

Code Button
13 A
37 Left
38 Up
39 Right
40 Down

Notes :

  • Only A, Up, and Down normally emit codes
  • Left and Right can be read only if L or R are held
  • Holding L or R disables the A button

Screen Resolution

The DSi screen resolution is 256x192. However, the viewable area in the browser is only 240x176. Both screens provide the same viewable area.

In vertical mode, you can have a page span both screens. However, the browser will behave as if the bottom screen is the only active screen and the top screen is scrolled off. This is important when computing CSS coordinates. Items positioned from "bottom" will be positioned based on 176px and not the full 352px of both screens.

Using Both Screens

Here's how your webpage can span both screens:

  1. Use the meta tag to set vertical mode
  2. Ensure that your page takes up exactly 240x352 pixels.
  3. Add the following JavaScript just before the </body> tag:
<script>document.body.scrollTop = 176;</script>

Generally the easiest way to accomplish the correct layout is to create HTML elements that "contain" the top and bottom screens. Here's an example:

<html>
  <head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=240">
    <style>
      body { margin: 0px; }
      #topscreen, #bottomscreen { width: 240px; height: 176px; overflow: hidden; }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="topscreen"> < meta name="keywords" content="whats in your site" >

< link href="css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" / > < meta name="viewport" content="width=240" >Top Screen</div>

    <div id="bottomscreen"> < meta name="keywords" content="whats in your site" >

< link href="css/main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" / > < meta name="viewport" content="width=240" >Bottom Screen</div>

  </body>
</html>

This scheme allows the page to be easily manipulated through JavaScript.

Example Sites

See also