A fond farewell to the weird and wonderful Nintendo DS

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

In December 2004, my boyfriend showed up at my apartment door carrying a box. "I brought you a present!" he said, clearly excited. "Open it!"

'Tis the season, I thought, unwrapping it. I turned the box around. "A... Nintendo... DS? Is this, like... a Game Boy kind of thing?"

As I fought my way through layers of cardboard and plastic to open my new toy, he pulled a matching unit out of his own messenger bag, opened it up, and began to explain. I had never owned a portable console-I'd barely ever even owned a regular console, I was a lifelong PC gamer-and while I tried to greet the gift with good cheer, I bluntly had no idea why on Earth he had given it to me.

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