Homebrew .gba to .nds?

[Evermind]

Just a thought I had, would it be possible in any way shape or form to create something that would convert .gba roms to .nds roms which the DS would then think were ds games and play as such (just with one screen blacked out the entire time), thus allowing people without slot-2 cards to play gba games?

I'm sure there are tons of holes in the concept, but I'd like your opinions or explanations as to why it wouldn't work.

 

[BlueStar]

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=57937

 

[Destructobot]

In other words, the answer is no.

Now that that's been answered, everyone that is sick of seeing this question can just move along without turning this into a flame fest.

 

[Nezero]

His questions is slightly different though. Oppose to DOES R4 play GBA roms he is asking is it possible converting GBA roms to NDS roms.
I would say no.

 

[Deleted User]

Yes it could happen. Same with the whole Hypervisor thing. Yes, someone COULD make a GBA to NDS file converter, and yeah, if done successfully would be great. But it won't. Because it'll take so much time to develop (probably about 3 years for max compatibility)

 

[azotyp]

Im thinking that nintendo have a technology, but wont share it, there is a lot of crappy games on nds that looks like gba and dont have any touchscreen usage. Maybe nintendo modify a some gba engines or something but eaven if so they will never give the technology to the world (but what the hell I have ez3in1 and dont give a f.... , only minus is that with 3in1 on slot2 nds eats more energy from my poor batteries (yes batteries , cose I bought two lately and one cradle charger

).

 

[fateastray]

Im thinking that nintendo have a technology, but wont share it, there is a lot of crappy games on nds that looks like gba and dont have any touchscreen usage. Maybe nintendo modify a some gba engines or something but eaven if so they will never give the technology to the world (but what the hell I have ez3in1 and dont give a f.... , only minus is that with 3in1 on slot2 nds eats more energy from my poor batteries (yes batteries , cose I bought two lately and one cradle charger

).

Of course, to run a game is a whole lot different than to emulate it. I'm sure a console can easily be developed, being able to play gba data and ds data. But the medium for the games is different, you can't ever put a ds cart and a gba cart in the same slot. Hence, why Nintendo gave the ds two slots. I don't think they keep pirates in mind as their target audience =p

 

[Deleted User]

Of course it would be physically possible to convert a .gba to a .nds file with practically no problems, but I'll say it again: IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. It'd take about 2 years to program with little problems, and no-one is going to spend their time doing that, seeing as you can just easily pay as little as £10 UK Sterling for an EZ-Flash-3-in-1 that'll let you play GBA roms anyway.

Although it would be nice to have a converter...

 

[Evermind]

Thanks, just thought I'd pose the question.

Also, I have a regular DS, so don't think EZ-Flash-3-in-1 would work for me.

 

[hankchill]

Thanks, just thought I'd pose the question.

Also, I have a regular DS, so don't think EZ-Flash-3-in-1 would work for me.

No, the 3 in 1 is built for the DS Lite. I'm not sure if there are any GBA expansions for the regular DS.

If you plan on keeping your DS Phat and want a GBA solution, might as well get a full GBA solution for it.

--Henry

 

[Rizsparky]

yup there are nds phat 3in1 solutions

http://www.totalgba.com/products.php?ID=32

this shop only ships to europe tho, i think

 

[silverspoon]

.

 

[DanTheManMS]

RealHotStuff also has the GBA-sized 3in1 packs that will work in DS Phats.

 

[Evermind]

Thanks a lot for letting me know. Both places are out of stock right now, but just knowing it exists helps.

 

[matriculated]

I have a 3-in-1 built for the Lite. At the time I had a phat and I had to modify the cart to fit into my Phat. They work in both versions of the NDS.

 

[TrolleyDave]

Thanks a lot for letting me know. Both places are out of stock right now, but just knowing it exists helps.

Try www.Shop01media.com they've definitely got them in stock.

 

[Evermind]

Thanks for the help, but I already looked there and... well, $65 ($38.19 + $2.85 paypal + $23.93) seems like... a lot for a 3-in-1. I still might get it, but I'd prefer if realhotstuff got a shipment in so I can get it for $41.

 

[matthewd997]

i was wondering this too, its a shame it can't be done...

 

[nastybuttler322]

Just a thought I had, would it be possible in any way shape or form to create something that would convert .gba roms to .nds roms which the DS would then think were ds games and play as such (just with one screen blacked out the entire time), thus allowing people without slot-2 cards to play gba games?

I'm sure there are tons of holes in the concept, but I'd like your opinions or explanations as to why it wouldn't work.

Afraid not. I have the SDK for the Game Boy Advance, which came with books on developing for the GBA, and source code for a demo program.

The games are written specifically for the device. Some of the source code uses machine code, some of it uses memory addresses. I only briefly looked at the stuff. I was thinking about doing some homebrew for the system, but its not as simple to program for as I thought it would be.

A lot of that kind of stuff can not be standardized. What I mean by that is this:

Think of each game as a jigsaw puzzle. Each puzzle is cut into unique shaped pieces. The first puzzle is "Sonic Advance". Lets say this puzzle has ten pieces at the top right for " character art", bottom right has 20 pieces for "game physics".

Well in "Golden Sun", the top right portion of the puzzle might be 30 pieces dedicated to an array of items the character can have in his or her inventory, and maybe the entire bottom of the puzzle is dedicated to "game mechanics".

A piece of software can not be written to convert games from the gba to another consoles format. The process simply can not be automated.

There are two ways that it COULD be done, but totally not worth it. A person COULD write a program per gba game to translate the binary into a binary that will work on the nds. But, that would be more work for the programmer than it would be to just translate each of the games themselves.

The other way to do it, is to use artificial intelligence. The a.i. would have to have the gba emulator, and the nds emulator. It would have to have the emulators running in debugging mode, and it would have to already have some underatanding of the ds. That a.i software would be harder to write, than it was to write the a.i. software for googles self driving vehicles.

Another alternative is to write a program that basically tells the system that "this_game is in gba_reader, open gba_system". But then that kind of thing would mess up the 3DS.

 

[SANIC]

Holy fucking shit that necrobump how did you find this thread