The Nintendo DS Scene is Underrated

[Technicmaster0]

There were however at least 3 cart hardware emulators... NDS-GBA for iPlayer, the proprietary thing the EX4DS uses, and TempGBA (previously NDSGBA) for DSTWO. And none of them are particularly good. Easily beaten by GBAR2/3. But hey, at least the DSTWO still gets some credit for having CATSFC, the only remotely usable SNES emu on DS (still not great).
P.S. an EZ4 is harder to find and usually as expensive as a base Omega now, and loads slow as hell compared to it, and lacks RTC, and uses SRAM (most needing a battery replacement now, oh, and the battery is a soldered CR2020), so it's really not a good option anymore.

Don't forget the ismart mm
I think that the iplayer was a beta to the dstwo and the ismart mm and the ex4i are rebrands of iplayer

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2024

Didnt it get cancelled?

There is a playable demo for DS which is pretty polished

 

[church_foster]

The only mod I can think of for the DS/DS Lite is video out, and that recently became surprisingly straightforward for the DS Lite.

The DS lite can output both screens? How's the video quality when streaming?

 

[Indy13]

There were however at least 3 cart hardware emulators... NDS-GBA for iPlayer, the proprietary thing the EX4DS uses, and TempGBA (previously NDSGBA) for DSTWO. And none of them are particularly good. Easily beaten by GBAR2/3.

GBAR 3 is under development so at the moment it's difficult to speculate on it but regarding GBAR 2, personally I don't think it easily beats TempGBA. For me, at the moment, GBA emulation on DS Lite involves juggling three software programs if you want to have a truly optimal result. The first is indeed GBAR 2 which works without additional peripherals but if you really want a slightly more complete emulation, you will have to add GBAexploader with an EZ Flash 3in1 and TempGBA with a DSTwo(+), it is only by combining these three options that we obtain a satisfactory result, there are things which work with TempGBA but which do not work with GBAR 2 or with GBAexploader and vice versa.

On the other hand, it is true that SNES emulation is currently the most advanced on DSTwo(+).

With its additional chip, the DSTwo(+) also offers things that other linkers cannot do such as MAME emulation, FBA or the optimization of DOS emulation with DS2x86, without forgetting DSTwo Linux beta which still allows a lot of things even if it is not very stable.

Of course this will depend on the support that we will use, on a 3ds it is obvious that the DSTwo(+) is obsolete but on DS Lite or DSi, this flashcard can still bring a lot of things

 

[Janni9009]

I think that the iplayer was a beta to the dstwo and the ismart mm and the ex4i are rebrands of iplayer

EX4DS isn't iPlayer related at all. It's from the R4iLS tree (same as GWBlue and Ace3DS+), but with extra hw. It's the origin cart of the AOS launcher. Even managed to get modern AOS and AceWood running on it. (boot file expects the OGR4 enc key, funnily enough the stock launcher then proceeds to use the R4iLS enc key for everything else booted from it)

GBAR 3 is under development so at the moment it's difficult to speculate on it

Test builds are available, and they perform pretty well. It's a bit fragmented for feature support still, and you do need to launch it with argv due to lack of any UI.

but regarding GBAR 2, personally I don't think it easily beats TempGBA

GBAR2 can actually run FZeroMV without frameskip (keep in mind, you need to use the DSL-enhanced fork on flashcarts, otherwise you will run into some jank, like awful audio playback), so far every other emu has failed at this, and this is a game that runs flawlessly on a GBA SuperCard patchless... TempGBA has a few compatibility points over it, mainly towards RPG romhacks abusing hicode, or outright breaking hardware limits, but it loses hard in playability for any action game.
As for GBAExpLoader, I haven't seen a single major issue with it, other than lack of RTC (M3 GEP/M3 Perfect have it, but can only be used from YSMenu or TouchPod/Sakura), also not emulation at that point. And a better option nowadays would be the EZODE anyway if you wanna go the native route.

On the other hand, it is true that SNES emulation is currently the most advanced on DSTwo(+).

Yes. It's still not particularly great, but it's a heck of a lot smoother than SNEmulDS.

 

[SDA]

I don't know you, but I don't really think the Nintendo DS scene is "underrated". It's the most popular handheld ever, and people still keep doing homebrew and translation patches for the games that never came out of Japan.

I mean, even AGT Team knows that. Then why most of their translations (including those to come) are for this console?

 

[Kwyjor]

For me, at the moment, GBA emulation on DS Lite involves juggling three software programs if you want to have a truly optimal result. The first is indeed GBAR 2 which works without additional peripherals but if you really want a slightly more complete emulation, you will have to add GBAexploader with an EZ Flash 3in1 and TempGBA with a DSTwo(+), it is only by combining these three options that we obtain a satisfactory result, there are things which work with TempGBA but which do not work with GBAR 2 or with GBAexploader and vice versa.

I suppose there might be things that can't be loaded into the 3-in-1, but that's why it's easiest just to go with an EZFlash IV or similar product and avoid having to mess with it at all. As far as running GBA games is concerned, the only advantage to the 3-in-1 is that it doesn't have another SD card that you have to load up separately. Perhaps it is cheaper?

The DS lite can output both screens? How's the video quality when streaming?

Not both screens at once. And it's composite video. Perhaps you missed the news?
https://gbatemp.net/threads/team-re...ut-feature-with-cfw-and-circuit-board.583466/

 

[church_foster]

Not both screens at once. And it's composite video. Perhaps you missed the news?
https://gbatemp.net/threads/team-re...ut-feature-with-cfw-and-circuit-board.583466/

Ohhh that's a shame. I guess loopy's mod with phat ds is still the way to go for capturing/streaming.

 

[Janni9009]

I suppose there might be things that can't be loaded into the 3-in-1, but that's why it's easiest just to go with an EZFlash IV or similar product and avoid having to mess with it at all. As far as running GBA games is concerned, the only advantage to the 3-in-1 is that it doesn't have another SD card that you have to load up separately. Perhaps it is cheaper?

The 3in1 can load anything the EZ4 can. Same exact 16MB RAM 32MB NOR layout.
Neither cart is cheap, nor reasonably obtainable these days, and both require maintenance soldering (battery, and for 3in1 possibly reflowing the whole board). EZODE replaced them besides integration with Slot-1 carts and nds-mode (only applied to the original EZ4 miniSD with <=1.72Reset anyway)

 

[Miloemulator]

I'm going to say it right now: I don't know if it's me and how I haven't been interacting with the homebrew/hacking community is, but I strongly believe that the Nintendo DS Scene (not counting the DSI and the 3DS; only the phat DS and the DS lite) is extremely underrated. While I have been tinkering around with my DS Lite with the flashcart that I have, it made me realize: Why does nobody want to touch the support for this console?

We have emulators like SNemulDS (or whatever it's called) that can barely run most of the SNES' Library, GenesisDS having a decent amount but games that are the size of Sonic3&K and above don't work, NES Emulation being alright GBA.... That's the only one that i don't know of.

Now I understand, you can have all of the benefits of the DS more with tbe consoles that came after it, but all I just want for instance is to play GBA games without having to get an ever drive or anything like that. I mean, I do have a flash art thsg exclusively plays GBA games but I don't even want to know the compatibility there because games like Sonic Advance 1 and 2 (not 3 becsuse that one works as intended), and Monkey Ball Jr doesn't even want to boot into the game at all.

Maybe that's where GBARunner2 comes to the kick: playing GBA games natively through what the DS has to offer. But something that I want to ask myself is: why is there less support given on the Dzd ones rather than the DSi/3DS? Maybe I don't know the differences between how they work (I would like to know though) and how it's a little bit difficult to ensure great compatibility with the DS by itself or a lack of people to fix compatibility issues, but... Eh, idk.


I do apologise if this sounds a little bit weird to read, I did make this when I was half-tired half awake lol. If you do have any questions though, I will like to hear.

We do need a good snes emulator

 

[DragonMals]

I don't know where to also say this, but I want to also dedicate this thread to talking about the DSi. What even is a point of homebrewing a DSI?

 

[Xdqwerty]

I don't know where to also say this, but I want to also dedicate this thread to talking about the DSi. What even is a point of homebrewing a DSI?

The dsi might have more potential considering is a bit more powerful than the previous models

 

[Deleted member 702243]

some games do take advantage of the better hardware too, you cant do that with just flashcart (mostly)

 

[Kwyjor]

I don't know where to also say this

You could, y'know, start a completely separate thread for a completely separate subject?

but I want to also dedicate this thread to talking about the DSi. What even is a point of homebrewing a DSI?

You could also spend a few minutes reading up on the subject yourself rather than asking such a broad question?

A homebrewed DSi can run games straight from the SD card without requiring any additional hardware. Also, much like the 3DS, It can also run DS games at TWL clock speeds, which can provide a substantial boost for things like the Gen IV Pokemon games. And of course you can run DSiware, much like you can on the 3DS, though new versions of TWiLight Menu allow you to run many of the same programs on an ordinary DS Lite.

 

[DragonMals]

You could also spend a few minutes reading up on the subject yourself rather than asking such a broad question?

I have already done that, thank you. Although I wished that there's people that can provide the information nonetheless...

You could, y'know, start a completely separate thread for a completely separate subject?

Never thought about that!

 

[SylverReZ]

Don't forget the ismart mm
I think that the iplayer was a beta to the dstwo and the ismart mm and the ex4i are rebrands of iplayer

Post automatically merged: Aug 15, 2024

There is a playable demo for DS which is pretty polished

Yeah, likely the iSmart MM and iPlayer were "beta" models before DSTWO released. EX4i is an R4iLS clone with additional RAM and FPGA with features to compete with the DSTWO.

 

[Technicmaster0]

Yep, the iSmart MM and iPlayer were the true DSTWO clones. EX4i is an R4iLS clone with additional RAM and FPGA with features to compete with the DSTWO.

The iplayer came before the dstwo. It's a "beta" and no clone