3rd party DS stylus/thumb stylus/screen protectors

[Tommy Gun]

There have been some posts about where to get a thumb stylus (you can't buy them). Well I was at Circuit City and grabbed the new DS Lite stylus pack made by MadCatz (ew, but how can they screw up a stylus, right?). I don't have a Lite, but I really wanted the bigger styluses, they're great. It comes with all three colors. I've been using it to play Monkey Ball, and it's fine, my screen isn't scratched (I was a *little* worried).

It also comes with a thumb stylus (they've sold this before with the standard styluses). This one doesn't have a lanyard, it's velcro and goes right around your thumb (I hate the cord anyway). It's a bit different though, it has a point on it, it's not flat like the real one. The only thing that might be a problem is that the point is the same plastic as the body, it doesn't have a smooth plastic tip like the pen styluses. In other words, it looks a bit rough, so it might scratch your screen. It's also just so pointy that I'm afraid I'll press too hard. I think I'm going to sand it down a little and smooth it out, and then it'll probably rock.

I don't think I'm going to bother with the screen protectors, my screen is still fine and I go crazy with Ouendan.

The link is here if you want to see a picture (you really can't see the thumb stylus though), it's $5 for the whole thing, not a bad deal:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Mad-Catz-Stylus-Screen-Protector-Pack-MOV-024130-/sem/rpsm/oid/152024/catOid/-13861/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

[miffy495]

I got one of those a while ago with a pack of madcatz original DS styli. Problem was, the regular stylus scratched up my screen, so I was terrified to try out the pointy-lookin' thumb thing.

[Tommy Gun]

That was a big concern for me, but I really looked closely at the tips to see if they were rough, and they seem to be fine. I wonder if the Lite ones are different than the originals (tip-wise). I'm definitely going to smooth out the thumb stylus before I use it.

[miffy495]

Yeah, I'm already on the back-up stylus that nintendo gave me with my lite, so I'm going to need another replacement sometime soon. Was hoping for first-party, but have yet to see them.

[Erik]

Well, I'm buying the Lite tomorrow (EU release), if it doesn't go out of stock (hopefully it should be available easily here). I never thought about asking about fragility. Didn't know about these screen/styluses problems : thanks for the info guys !

I'll be extra-careful until I find this kind of of accessories in my country.

[Tommy Gun]

I stopped using the MadCatz stylus. I don't know if it was actually scratching my screen (nothing major, so it's hard to tell), but if you look closely at the tip there's a *little* rough spot, and it's making me nervous. I don't want to use a screen protector, so I'm just going back to the standard stylus. Sucks, because I really like the bigger ones. I hope Nintendo releases them soon.

[Thrik]

I'm guessing a lot of people have had scratching problems since the DS Lite manual is full of "DO NOT USE A THIRD-PARTY STYLUS" warnings, which while you'd expect to see anyway, seemed a little emphasised. They seem to stock a load of them in GAME, so fortunately I have somewhere to go should I lose both of the standards.

[Tommy Gun]

I realized that Nintendo.com has all their styluses in stock in their store (including Lite and thumb styluses!), but the Lite ones are white only (honestly, I don't know if it matters, but it actually seemed harder to see when I was playing with the white MadCatz one). I went to GameStop and they had black ones there! I paid $7.99 for two, same as nintendo.com, but then I went to Circuit City and they had them for $5, argh. Oh well. Definitely better quality than MadCatz, although subtle.