Homebrew GBA on DSi?

[YueFairchild]

I think I read somewhere that it would be possible to run Game Boy Advance games on the DSi because the extra RAM would be able to simulate a Slot-2 card. Is that true, or am I just being stupid?

Sorry if this has been asked before!

 

[Toni Plutonij]

Nah, nothing is confirmed...That's all speculations, and theories....People are guessing it'll be possible..

But we won't know for sure until someone gets hands on it, and actually try something..

 

[Mei-o]

MAYBE it could be possible with the memory card slot.

 

[Tormendo]

I think you can download the GBA-Games over the Shop

 

[Shardnax]

I figured Nintendo would be selling GBA games for download, not being able to play gba on it would be a pretty big turn off.


Edit:
I was beaten to the punch

 

[Hadrian]

The DSi is out in Japan next month so hopefully some questions will be answered. I dunno if it has the GBA chips inside, on one hand it'll make it cheaper to produce the handheld without them and on another Ninetndo could do with them so they can offer downloadable GBA games and make a load of money for nothing.

 

[Tormendo]

Yes, you right. Waiting is the best idea.

 

[Shardnax]

That's why I assumed they'd sell them online; it'd make them more money

.

We can't do anything but wait, anyone know when the US release is scheduled?

 

[jan777]

does anyone have a dsi to tell the o.p.?

no?

i figured that

 

[Tormendo]

after the eu realese it's in Summer 2009, Eu Spring 2009

 

[Lumstar]

We know parts of the GBA hardware will be there. DS games require it to function. The question is how much.

 

[Tormendo]

The Arm7 can be inside

 

[Scorpei]

The Arm7 can be inside

It should be, AFAIK games use it (hence the arm7 patch for example). Could be me though

.

 

[elixirdream]

From the press conference i read they had removed the GBA slot for DSi.. and because of that it is slightly slimmer ~!
to further support what i said, you can see from the press release pictures... no GBA slot on the bottom

So, i think the only way to run GBA would be crack it and hope a homebrew for GBA will come to rescue

 

[Narin]

There is no way you can emulate GBA advance games on the Nintendo DS. Think about it, we have RAM expansion packs, some giving the user up to 32 to 64 megabytes of extra RAM while the DSi will only have 10 megs of RAM. Now if we don't have a GBA emulator with 32 Megs of RAM, how do you suppose we'll have one with just 10? The problem here isn't the RAM but its the processing power of the DSi. Currently theres no way to run a GBA advance game from the Nintendo DS. To naively run GBA games on the DS, you have to place them in the bottom slot (Slot 2) and boot up the Nintendo DS in GBA mode which can't be done with slot 1 cards.

So unless Nintendo has changed the hardware and firmware in a way to be able to start up GBA games from the Nintendo DS, it would be impossible to play them on the DS. You could technically emulator GBA games, but they would never run at full speed. You'll most likely get them playing at 1-5 FPS at best.

Now for all of you saying "The DS still has the hardware", yes, it still has the hardware because normal Nintendo DS games require them, though it doesn't mean that the processor still have the routines to play GBA games. Currently they work two ways, when you boot a Nintendo DS game, one handles displaying the images on the screen while the other handles the sound and processing power while if you boot the hardware into GBA mode, they mimic the hardware in the original Gameboy Advance console. So technically, the Nintendo DS have two modes of use with the GBA functionality having a chance of being removed as well as the GBA slot.

 

[elixirdream]

Thanks for the TIP & Knowledge

 

[Shardnax]

Long rant I'm sure all of us have read in one way or another.

My thought that they would be downloadable was assuming a change of the hardware and firmware had to be done to allow for it. I'm pretty sure Nintendo knows what they're doing in those respects

. It was a pretty safe bet that the DSi wouldn't get a big enough power boost to emulate.

Edit:
Spelling and grammar, the bane of my existance.

 

[silent sniper]

If the DSi's firmware is hackable and can be made to play GBA games, then I'm getting one. NO fucking question about it.

 

[Slyde1052]

I'm sorry to ask, as I'm sure it has before, but is there a way to "trick" the DS into going into the GBA mode after loading a GBA rom from a slot 1 device? Something akin to how the Wii handles VC games (as in having the crack/trick to run the software (except in this case the hardware) built into the rom file itself.)

I heard in the early days of DS emulation, everything was run from the second slot. (My example being the now defunct Heretic DS) If slot 2 can access DS hardware, what is preventing Slot 1 from accessing the GBA stuff. I'm not making an argument, I really don't know.

 

[Shardnax]

An argument that will result in your head being gnawed off by certain members.