Do a Little Stargazing With Your Nintendo Ds

January 22nd, 2009 by: Alisha K.

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Between the inventive homebrew community and all the “practical” software titles available at retail, you can do just about anything with a Nintendo DS these days, and in March, you’ll even be able to use your DS as an interactive star chart. Provided you can read Japanese, of course.

The Hoshizora Navi (roughly Sky Navigator) cartridge contains a positional sensor that follows your movements and the DS, and the software will update the screen as you move, to reflect your current view of the sky and stars. The app is packed with information, too, with a dictionary of terms, guides to our sun and moon, thousands of stars and various constellations. Nor are you limited to the current sky; the app allows you to view any sky between the years 1900 and 2099. That’s the future, folks… but it doesn’t come cheap: Hoshizora Navi sports a hefty price tag at ¥8,190 (more than $90 US). That’s how they’re adding a “gaming” aspect to the software: it’s so pricey that you’ll have to go on some sort of crazy money-finding adventure just to buy the thing.

[Official site via DSF]