A Nintendo DS system has been to the top of Mt. Everest, and even faired better than many other electronic devices on the journey.

The Nintendo DS is based on a prototype system called Iris, which was intended to succeed the Game Boy Advance. The name Iris comes from the Japanese Iris plant, or Iris Ensata. This is evident by the name of Intelligent Systems's official DS emulator provided with DS development kits: Ensata.

The 'DS' in Nintendo DS is short for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen".

A trademark filed by Nintendo in 2004 suggests the Nintendo DS was originally going to be named "City Boy," expanding on the Game Boy brand and putting an emphasis on taking the device with you in your everyday life.

In the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Instruction Booklet, the fake WEP Key used is '8675309', a reference to Tommy Tutone's "8675309/Jenny".

If the player keeps a sound clip paused and idle for around a minute in the DSi's Sound Recorder, the DSi will play the Super Mario Bros. Theme Song using a pitch based on the paused sound clip.

There is an unused button called a "DEBUG" which is only present on development units. It is however possible to get this to work under emulation.

In Nintendo DSi Sound, if you play music from the SD Card and choose the 8-Bit Mario Background, there is a slight chance that Luigi will be displayed instead of Mario.

The white Nintendo DS Lite bears a striking resemblance to the Zelda Game & Watch released by Nintendo in 1989.