Homebrew GBA Emulator for DS? With extension pack?

[Jakob95]

Ok guys I know that its inpossible to emulate a Gba with a Slot 1 card. I know it won't work cause of the Ram of the DS. I know that GBA games have there own Ram built in them selves that is more than 4mb of ram. But what if we use the Memory Expansion pack (official one not EZ-flash) can we use that one? Since the Expension pack gives the DS 8Mb of ram more maybe it can play some GBA games.

Or can you use the Nintendo Memory Expansion pack the one that comes with the DS browser as a Ez-Flash 3-in-1? Like can you make GBA Explorer work on it?

 

[DanTheManMS]

I know that GBA games have there own Ram built in them selves that is more than 4mb of ram.
No they don't. GBA games are ROMs just like anything else. It's just that running them requires the media you're using to have a very fast response time, something with SD and CF cards cannot offer, so therefore many slot-2 devices copy the game into fast RAM before executing. The alternative is NOR flash, which also has a fast response time. The GBA game itself doesn't have anything to do with RAM.

QUOTEBut what if we use the Memory Expansion pack (official one not EZ-flash) can we use that one? Since the Expension pack gives the DS 8Mb of ram more maybe it can play some GBA games.

Or can you use the Nintendo Memory Expansion pack the one that comes with the DS browser as a Ez-Flash 3-in-1? Like can you make GBA Explorer work on it?

Unfortunately this is not possible. In theory it would be able to work just like the 3in1 in that regard, but the design of the Opera RAM pack prevents this from being possible. In short, the portion of the RAM that you can write to begins at memory location 0x9000000, while the GBA itself begins execution at 0x8000000 as soon as it boots up. Thus, there's no way to store the GBA rom in the location it expects to launch the game from.

 

[Jakob95]

Is there a hack or something to make it run on the memory location 0x9000000? Or is there any program that let you use the Gba games from 0x90000000?

 

[anandjones]

No.

 

[Jakob95]

So whats the point of having the Expansion pack? Is there another point of it instead of just the Browser? Can it be used for some homebrews? If it can what homebrews?

 

[p1ngpong]

So whats the point of having the Expansion pack? Is there another point of it instead of just the Browser? Can it be used for some homebrews? If it can what homebrews?

Theres a few that use the extra RAM, but not many as far as Im aware. Theres a build of QuakeDS which does and you do see an increase in performance due to it. http://quake.drunkencoders.com/exram.html

 

[Alexrose]

Quake 2 DS is the only use I've seen for it.

People should just get the GBA expansion cards instead..

 

[chazam1337]

I think GBAtemp would have a large topic on this if there was a way without a slot 2, because i think alot of people have the ram expansions.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Some homebrew can use the Opera RAM pack, including SNEmulDS, DSLinux, Quake I DS (not Quake II DS since that requires 12 MB and the Opera pack only has 8), and a couple others I'm probably forgetting. But there is no way to make it run GBA games.

 

[Jakob95]

Are there any more Homebrews?

 

[DanTheManMS]

Moonshell can use it for decoding large JPEGs I believe. ANS-PDF might use it in the future for PDF decoding, but not at the moment.

 

[Jakob95]

Why can't you use regular gba games for a expansion pack? Like pokemon emerald.

 

[Minox]

Why can't you use regular gba games for a expansion pack? Like pokemon emerald.

Because those are ROMs (ROM = Read Only Memory).