DS #XXXX: Nintendo DS System BIOS GBA Mode (Europe)

[B-Blue]

^^ndsrelease-4408^^

 

[Densetsu]

What is this?

 

[m3rox]

What is this?

Something that I'm sure is going to get nuked. The NDS doesn't have a GBA mode outside of the actual GBA games.

 

[tinymonkeyt]

... a GBA mode?
like..it plays GBA games?
i r confused.

EDIT: nvm, i are thinking too much
its like some kind of a system jumper, whatever that is.

 

[Normmatt]

This sounds like the gba bios has been dumped from the nds and been released, wow seriously like there aren't tools for people to do this themselves ffs.

 

[FlyingPretzel]

what ?

 

[Densetsu]

What is this?

Something that I'm sure is going to get nuked. The NDS doesn't have a GBA mode outside of the actual GBA games.

You're probably right. I was thinking "We have ROM dumps, hardware dumps, and now...mode dumps?!"

 

[Keylogger]

I think it's the NDS System menu (BIOS) that has been dumped into .gba format.

 

[elfsander]

People, just read the NFO. It's a GBA bios dump from the GBA bios in the DS.

 

[FAST6191]

"In the BIOS, a single byte in a formerly 00h-filled area has been changed from 00h to 01h, resulting in SWI 0Dh returning a different BIOS checksum."

http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm#dsback...mpatiblegbamode

Go people.

 

[Fabis94]

But what can you do with it? Can you play GBA games without Slot2 card or something?

 

[raulpica]

But what can you do with it? Can you play GBA games without Slot2 card or something?

Nope. It's just a GBA Bios that says to the GBA apps that run on it that they're running on a Nintendo DS in GBA mode, and not a GBA

Except that, it's just a simple GBA bios. So this won't give any breakthru on running GBA roms from Slot-1.

 

[FAST6191]

@Fabis94 the BIOS on the GBA holds several functions beyond that of the PC style BIOS (decompression is good example but there are many other things: http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm#biosfunctions ).

Assuming you do not want to reverse engineer it then the only use is for some emulators that support it; when making an emulator you have to write code to mimic the BIOS functions but if the BIOS already exists and your emulator is good enough then you can dodge having to write an alternative BIOS or emulate the functions contained within it.

This being said most GBA emulators across all consoles I know of emulate the BIOS well enough to play games and then some, it is more for those that require "flawless" emulation (some coders need it). These days it probably has a negligible effect but there was a speed boost of sorts for some emulators once upon a time.

 

[gbaelink]

Just try?The file in .bin format, don't know how to work~

- Title: [BIOS] Nintendo DS ARM7TDMI (GBA Mode) (World)

- Details:
----| File Data |--------------------------------------------------
System: Nintendo Dual Screen
File: GBA_BIOS.BIN
Length: 16384 Bytes
CRC32: A6473709
MD5: 1C0D67DB9E1208B95A1506B1688A0AD6
SHA1: C11531D5261006810CDC954BD4BEC0AFE3187B35
-------------------------------------------------------------------

- Description:
Team Cosby included the GBA BIOS from a *GBA* console in their
Nintendo_DS_System_BIOS_NDS-COS/cos-bios release.

This GBA BIOS comes from a *DS* console (Black EUR USG-001, doesn't
really matter). There's nothing special with this dump, just 1 byte
different from the TS2/Cosby dump, probably just to account for the
system jump, as suggested by an aquatic friend of mine.

 

[Canonbeat234]

So basically this 'rom' is not useful!

 

[Golds]

it'd be nice if someone could use this to create a .nds emu file that holds lots of gba games. kinda like the gba NES emus do, copy a ton of NES games to create one .gba file that holds all of those games.


This would be wonderful for the DSi

 

[TravisTouchdown]

slot 1 only gba emu incoming?

 

[Gamer]

slot 1 only gba emu incoming?

Oh God, here we go again....

 

[FAST6191]

How has this thread got over 1000 views?

@Canonbeat234 yeah it is for collectors, GBA emulator authors and the few who want to use it with an emulator (unnecessary and in the case of the GBA it has been for some time).

Back on topic we have had the GBA BIOS as well as the SDK for using it for years (and tools to dump both this and the DS version for years too) and as people have mentioned this is no different in any way that matters.

GBA emulator:
Not going to happen, have a read:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=72623

re "bundling them into a single file" have a read as well as the thread above:
http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=130924&hl=

 

[Covarr]

This is mildly useful simply because we know it works. There are so many incorrectly dumped GBA BIOS files on the web, and getting this specifically labeled one is a surefire way of making sure you get a good one.