Gaming Has anyone realized this?

[reaperman@home]

agreed.  The DS may only have been designed to be able to address out that far but nothing says that's a limit.  The path is well worn with all the 'backup' cards we have.  There's no real rule that says a legit cart can't do it too.  On previous systems, similar techniques were used quite a lot to increase space.

No, the current maximum for a DS card is 128 megabytes, or 1024 megabits.
Curiously, reaperman has said "On previous systems, similar techniques were used quite a lot to increase space.", without mentioning what techniques these are. Do you mean bank switching?
@OP: FFanboy.

bank switching is the general idea. both NES and GB/c, for example, used cart-side memory controllers to greatly expand the ROM access capabilities of the system. Really about half the systems I can think of use some form bank switching to get past previous limits. I see no reason at all why people view NDS's 128mb as a solid limit when we see our backup carts accessing far more every day without breaking a sweat. Yes they're more expensive to make than standard carts, but probably not by much at all.
so exactly why are we now seeing address limits as unbreakable barriers? An effect of getting used to games on optical media?

old FF games are certainly possible. lame, but possible. is this the best you can dream up? Let the past stay in the past where it belongs. There's no (technical) reason that I can see why commercial carts don't come with microSD slots for saving downloadable content. MMO gaming in dynamic worlds even seems possible. why not have a big dream instead of a crusty old RPG you played through and got sick of?
Go back and play FFVII some time. you'll see that it belongs in the past, and resources are better spent on the future.

 

[SynGamer]

Seeing as the FF7 game span out on 3 CDs, that would be impossible unless it goes for the Xenogear (or was it Xenosaga?) route and REALLY downgrade the game. Besides, the PSP can run PSX games recently.


dont know what you were talking about here the games are totally different.

and as for ff7 it could be possible, if it was redone, the screen is smaller so fmv wouldnt have to be as big as well as the sprites and graphics. i believe 512/1gig can fit on a ds cart if they really wanted to

You make a great point about the FMV's being smaller. As well as the sprites and such, i am looking at a DS case right now (where the cartridges are held) and if they remove (or move) the Nintendo DS logo imprinted on the plastic, they could fit 2 carts side-by-side. If they remove the GBA holder perhaps room for 3? With i believe roughly 15 million DS's sold, S-E could easily sell millions of copies of this a FF7 remake (or FF8/FF9

 

[semantic]

All they would need to do was use the gba slot for fmv loading and the ds for the main game - linkage like this has been done in opera for example.

 

[SynGamer]

All they would need to do was use the gba slot for fmv loading and the ds for the main game - linkage like this has been done in opera for example.

I don't think GBA carts are enough to hold the FMV's...though it depends on what the resolutions are for the FMVs on the CD...even if they are half the size, with todays compression perhaps it would work. Either way, i think it would be successful if S-E remade FF7 for the DS now that the PSP can play PS1 games (no need for a remake on the PSP...though the PS3 would still be nice)

 

[Destructobot]

Modern video compression uses huge amounts of processing power to achieve higher compression ratios. The PSX needed a dedicated video decompression ASIC to play video at that level of quality, and as far as I know, the DS has no such hardware. I doubt the DS could even match the FMV performance of the PSX, much less exceed it by the factor of 8 or so that would be required to fit FF7 on a DS card.

 

[glitchbit]

heh lol, my PDA has a very similar ARM processor in it that is 3 years older than the DS. It is also clocked at 400mhz, it can play PSX games and their FMV sequences without a hitch. It can also play wmv and avi(divx) without issue. And I do not believe it zaps that power as much as you would think.

 

[SynGamer]

Still, the FMV's take up a good chunk of space on the CDs, so if they were reworked down to the DS's screen size (just 1 screen), that should save a considerable amount of space...

 

[Destructobot]

Still, the FMV's take up a good chunk of space on the CDs, so if they were reworked down to the DS's screen size (just 1 screen), that should save a considerable amount of space...

The DS is not as low res as you seem to think. I don't remember the PSX's resolution off hand, but it was definitely not more than 320x240 for the FF games. The DS screens are 256x192. That's 76800 pixels on screen for PSX and 49152 for the DS. That difference might get the game down to 2 CDs instead of 3, but that's still 10 times more data than you can fit on a DS card.

 

[SynGamer]

Still, the FMV's take up a good chunk of space on the CDs, so if they were reworked down to the DS's screen size (just 1 screen), that should save a considerable amount of space...

The DS is not as low res as you seem to think. I don't remember the PSX's resolution off hand, but it was definitely not more than 320x240 for the FF games. The DS screens are 256x192. That's 76800 pixels on screen for PSX and 49152 for the DS. That difference might get the game down to 2 CDs instead of 3, but that's still 10 times more data than you can fit on a DS card.

Even so, DQ9 is rumored to be on 2 carts, the game has to be rather long...

 

[iamwhoiam]

Even so, DQ9 is rumored to be on 2 carts, the game has to be rather long...

That or the fact that it's in glorious 3D. Which gets me excited about FF:CC =]

 

[SynGamer]

Even so, DQ9 is rumored to be on 2 carts, the game has to be rather long...


That or the fact that it's in glorious 3D. Which gets me excited about FF:CC =]

But back to the point, if SE is able to make DQ9 as long as has been rumored, they must be able to make FF7 for the DS somehow. One question that would be awesome to be answered, how large are the FF7 characters on the PS1? File size/polygons/pixels? And then do the same for characters in FF3 on the DS...