Homebrew do nintendo cartridgaes help to run the game?

[LinusRG]

I am just wondering if any of Nintendo's cartridge based consoles actually used the cartridge to run the game.

 

[spectral]

On the SNES some cartridges had extra chips such as the SuperFX chip to add to the consoles capabilities. However it has always been the console doing the work. As far as I know where is no such thing in DS or 3DS carts though. They just store the game data.

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

On the SNES some cartridges had extra chips such as the SuperFX chip to add to the consoles capabilities. However it has always been the console doing the work.

Nes games also have mappers https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Mapper

 

[spectral]

Nes games also have mappers https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Mapper

I wasn't aware of that. Was very much a Sega kid growing up. It's pretty interesting the ways devs have always found ways to get more out of what has usually been relatively weak hardware.

 

[LinusRG]

since ds games only store the game data why is so much extra software need for twilight menu ++ tho run ds games. Why can it not just post the game to the ds twl nand and have it run the game as normal?

 

[spectral]

since ds games only store the game data why is so much extra software need for twilight menu ++ tho run ds games. Why can it not just post the game to the ds twl nand and have it run the game as normal?

I'm no expert so there could be other reasons. However I'd think the primary reason is the hardware isn't designed to read DS games from any other place than the cartridge slot.

 

[Deleted-236924]

On the SNES some cartridges had extra chips such as the SuperFX chip to add to the consoles capabilities. However it has always been the console doing the work. As far as I know where is no such thing in DS or 3DS carts though. They just store the game data.

Some DS cartridges have IR built in, a few have bluetooth. If flashcarts count, some also have dancing LEDs or a built-in cpu that lets it run more demanding homebrew which the DS wouldn't normally be able to run on its own.

 

[AmandaRose]

since ds games only store the game data why is so much extra software need for twilight menu ++ tho run ds games. Why can it not just post the game to the ds twl nand and have it run the game as normal?

Technically speaking only one file in twighlight menu is used to run ds games which is called nds bootstrap. All the other files are actually for the loader you select your games with. But like I said only nds bootstrap is used to actually run the roms.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

In terms of processing the already mentioned SNES enhancement chips are probably the best example [Wikipedia].

Mappers were common in many early consoles as they only could address a very small of (ROM) memory on their own. Some NES cart chips did a little more than providing bigger storage though.

Spoiler: Examples taken from Wikipedia

The Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge uses Nintendo's custom MMC3 (memory management controller) ASIC to enhance the NES capabilities. The MMC3 chip allows for animated tiles, extra RAM for diagonal scrolling, and a scan line timer to split the screen. The game uses these functions to split the game screen into two portions, a playfield on the top and a status bar on the bottom. This allows the top portion to scroll as the character navigates the stage while the bottom portion remains static to display text and other information.

Besides just the different title, Akumajō Densetsu, the Japanese version has several other differences. Most notably, the original Japanese version contained a specialized "VRC6" coprocessor chip. The game's audio programmer, Hidenori Maezawa, assisted in the chip's creation. This chip added two extra pulse-wave channels and a saw-wave channel to the system's initial set of five sound channels. The majority of the music combines the channels to imitate the sound of a synthesized string section. Western versions of the NES did not have the ability to support external sound chips, so the North American release replaced the VRC6 with Nintendo's Memory Management Controller 5 (MMC5). The MMC5 chip's sound channels cannot be used with the NES, and the game's music had to be downgraded by Yoshinori Sasaki to comply with the NES's standard five channels.

Then there are cartridges containing additional hardware providing some kind of data or input needed for the game or providing additional features.

• Clocks (Pokemon, Harvest Moon…)
• Sensors (Yoshi’s Universal Gravitation, Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand)
• Game Boy Camera
• Game Boy Pocket Sonar
• Infrared (some DS Pokemon titles)
• Bluetooth (DS Pokemon Typing Adventure)
• Modem in an N64 cartridge (Morita Shogi 64)

I guess there is more… but that's all I could find/remember for now.

 

[LinusRG]

also what makes a ds console "naturally" be able to only games of a cartridge and not an sd card? What makes ndsbootstrap needed. And why did ndsbootstrap have to have basically have to have a program in it to allow and make sure that all games ran properly and it couldn't just have something that told the twilight NAND to read from a different location?

 

[Craftyawesome]

also what makes a ds console "naturally" be able to only games of a cartridge and not an sd card? What makes ndsbootstrap needed. And why did ndsbootstrap have to have basically have to have a program in it to allow and make sure that all games ran properly and it couldn't just have something that told the twilight NAND to read from a different location?

AFAIK it is just telling the game to read from the sd instead of the cart. There is just not a universal way to do this.

 

[LinusRG]

if that is the case that makes sense, but just for curiosity sake why does each game need specific code telling the game how to run but emulators do not need this?

 

[Craftyawesome]

if that is the case that makes sense, but just for curiosity sake why does each game need specific code telling the game how to run but emulators do not need this?

Emulators control the "game card slot." No patching necessary.