Hacking DSi played gba dumps?

[TheBuzzer]

Is it possible to get a dsi and a flash cart that supports playing gba games?

Or does dsi completely strip out the gba hardware so only ds games work?

 

[DeltaBurnt]

It doesn't matter if the hardware is completely taken out. That has nothing to do with emulating GBA games.

As long as you have enough RAM and power you could emulate GBA games on a Slot-1 card.

The DSi does have enough RAM (just barely though), but it's not as simple as running a homebrew emulator on your Slot-1 card on a DSi. First we need to crack the DSi and unlock the DSi Mode in flashcarts. Then we have to make a special homebrew emulator that doesn't ask for the GBA expansion and that also uses the DSi's new amounts of power.

 

[Ryupower]

for the most, part
GBA game need a slot-2 card
as the Dsi has NO slot-2 port GBA game WILL NOT run on it

and we CANT use the DSI mode stuff as the dsi Flash card out now only run in DS mode
NOT dsi mode

 

[TheBuzzer]

so right now to get the most stuff it is still better to just get a ds ?

 

[Szyslak]

so right now to get the most stuff it is still better to just get a ds ?

Yes, if you want GBA games, it is still better to get a DS Lite + Slot-1 flashcart (CycloDS, AK2, etc) + EZ 3 in 1.

IF (and that's a big IF) there is ever a way to play GBA on the DSi, chances are:

- it won't be for a long time
- the compatibility won't be nearly as good as what you can already do with a DS Lite and the above setup.

 

[MG4M3R]

DSi probably will emulate GBA, but nearly as good as what you can do with a DS Lite and his Slot 2.

 

[iwakura]

It doesn't matter if the hardware is completely taken out. That has nothing to do with emulating GBA games.

As long as you have enough RAM and power you could emulate GBA games on a Slot-1 card.

The DSi does have enough RAM (just barely though), but it's not as simple as running a homebrew emulator on your Slot-1 card on a DSi. First we need to crack the DSi and unlock the DSi Mode in flashcarts. Then we have to make a special homebrew emulator that doesn't ask for the GBA expansion and that also uses the DSi's new amounts of power.

^ This is true. The other replies are only half-truths

You just need RAM to run GBA games. 32MB of ram, to run any GBA game (the largest games are 32MB, the smaller ones are as small as 2MB).

A DS lite can take a slot-2 cartridge, so you can add in RAM (with something like an ezflash 3-in-1 or something similar). The DSi however, has 16MB built-in RAM. This means it could potentially play games up to 16MB in size, but never have full compatibility. Even then, flash carts and programmers have yet to unlock the DSi's features such as the camera and RAM.

You could do what I did and get a DSi and a micro

 

[porchemasi]

Im sure they can port a GBA emulator to the DSi they already have game boy colour and SNES

 

[George290506]

Do we know when the 1st DSi game will be released...? (or do you mean the 1st DSiware rom to be played in a flashcart?)

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Im sure they can port a GBA emulator to the DSi they already have game boy colour and SNES

You don't understand though. You can't run a GBA Emulator on Slot-1 without extra ram. And currently anything that's put in Slot-1 and ran can only use 4 MB of the DSi's ram. That's not enough to run a GBA emulator. So they won't make one until DSi Mode is unlocked. And that may not be for a long time. Also even if the DSi Mode is unlocked they still have to code a new emulator that takes advantage of this new RAM.

 

[KazoWAR]

You just need RAM to run GBA games. 32MB of ram, to run any GBA game (the largest games are 32MB, the smaller ones are as small as 2MB).

A DS lite can take a slot-2 cartridge, so you can add in RAM (with something like an ezflash 3-in-1 or something similar). The DSi however, has 16MB built-in RAM. This means it could potentially play games up to 16MB in size, but never have full compatibility. Even then, flash carts and programmers have yet to unlock the DSi's features such as the camera and RAM.

Umm, No. that is mostly wrong. It does not need extra ram to run, It cant only read from slot-2 in gba mode. so the slot-2 cards loads the gba file in its onboard ram so when the ds is switched to gba mode and begins to read slot-2 for the gba file, the slot-2 card has it for it to read. the reason it needs ram an not read from the microsd/sd card some of the older slot 2 cards have is because it is not a fast enough read from it as it is from ram.