Nintendo 3DS too old for the museum
After 13 years, the Nintendo 3DS mobile console has had its day at the Louvre. It has guided countless visitors through the exhibition.
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(Image: Nintendo)
The most famous exhibit in the Louvre Museum in Paris is undoubtedly the Mona Lisa, which has been hanging there since 1797. Since 2012, the Louvre has also impressed visitors with a modern multimedia guide with an autostereoscopic screen: the Nintendo 3DS mobile console. After more than a decade, it will be retired on September 1. The remaining devices will go back to Nintendo.
The Nintendo 3DS was launched on the European market in November 2011. The Louvre had special software written for it, which has since guided visitors through the exhibition for an extra charge. A map of the building showed where the visitor was currently located and a voice provided information about the respective work of art.
There were also rough 3D representations of exhibited sculptures – where the screen of the small console proved to be an advantage, as it shows 3D images without the need for disturbing glasses (if the user holds the console calmly at a distance of around 30 to 40 centimeters in front of their head). The screen sends an image with 400 × 240 pixels to the left and right eye respectively. There is a second parallax barrier in front of the actual LC display. It ensures that each eye only sees every second column of the LCD. This creates a 3D effect. This was of endless benefit on site, as visitors were able to see the sculpture in natural 3D.
Was also available for home use
However, from November 2013, interested visitors were also able to purchase the museum guide so that they could enjoy the art at home. There was a version on data storage media in the museum store, as well as a version to download from Nintendo's online store. The latter was available for almost ten years until the Japanese manufacturer closed the online store for its Nintendo 3DS and Wii U consoles in March 2023 – after all, the 3DS had already been replaced by the Switch in 2017. In the meantime, Nintendo is already selling its successor, the Switch 2.
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The Louvre is still working on a new audio guide; for the time being, it refers to its website, which suggests three different routes through the museum. The Louvre dates back to the art collections of French monarchs and churches. After the French Revolution, it was opened to the public for the first time in 1793. The huge complex is considered the largest and most visited museum in the world: in 2024, no fewer than 8.7 million visitors came, 77 percent of whom came from outside France. They were able to see tens of thousands of exhibits; the non-public archive is said to contain an order of magnitude more objects.
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