Hardware DS with native gbc support

[Double-L]

As any DS or DS lite or owner can tell you you one of DS’s few flaws is the lack of gameboy or gameboy color support. Nintendo’s website said the reason for the incompatibility is the lack of a “special processor” I was wondering with a large amount of hard modding could that chip be added to the DS PCB and the gba card reader replaced with a original gba reader could one add gbc support !

 

[Elodain]

First Question: Probably not. Where would it be soldered to? How would you get the software to utilize it?

Second question: It's probably the same reader. The GBA didn't just know what kind of cart was plugged into it from the reader itself. There was a physical switch in the cart slot that got pressed down when a GB/GBC cart was inserted in the slot. when pressed down it effectively turned the GBA into a GBC by activating the GBC hardware chips build inside of it. In GBA games there was a little slot in the cart to prevent the switch from being pressed down. If you take apart a GBA and insert a GBA game but press the switch down, it will still kick into GBC mode.

 

[Kwyjor]

With a "large amount of hard modding" you could use your DS as an electric toothbrush.

Considering no one in the last twenty years has done anything like what you propose, it is probably safe to say that it is not possible with a feasible amount of hard modding.

 

[Deleted member 323844]

Yeah, no, that makes no sense. DS not only lacks the Sharp SM83, the processor of the Game Boy, but also the graphics architecture necessary to activate a Game Boy compatible mode. Game Boy Advance has all of that, and that's what you want if you are looking for a more modern Game Boy system.

 

[ghjfdtg]

You can't just add the missing CPU and Game Boy hardware in general. It was part of the SoC (System on Chip) before they removed it from the SoC. The chip is literally set in stone. It's also not that practical having cartridges stick out that much. Too easy to break something.

 

[Double-L]

First Question: Probably not. Where would it be soldered to? How would you get the software to utilize it?

Second question: It's probably the same reader. The GBA didn't just know what kind of cart was plugged into it from the reader itself. There was a physical switch in the cart slot that got pressed down when a GB/GBC cart was inserted in the slot. when pressed down it effectively turned the GBA into a GBC by activating the GBC hardware chips build inside of it. In GBA games there was a little slot in the cart to prevent the switch from being pressed down. If you take apart a GBA and insert a GBA game but press the switch down, it will still kick into GBC mode.

Thanks for your reply

With a "large amount of hard modding" you could use your DS as an electric toothbrush.

Considering no one in the last twenty years has done anything like what you propose, it is probably safe to say that it is not possible with a feasible amount of hard modding.

hey I guess maybe someone with much more modding skills today might make it for “fun” years from now

 

[BETA215]

Thanks for your reply

hey I guess maybe someone with much more modding skills today might make it for “fun” years from now

Maybe it could end up being like those old PCs that had Mac and Windows - they were two PCs but you could change which one was being displayed with a switch.

At that point, just use a FPGA to hardware emulate a DSi, a GBA and a GBC.