Homebrew Just starting to get into emulation

[Domo]

So I've had a DS and a flash cart for a while but I've never really got into the emulation scene until now. I downloaded some NES and SNES games + their respective emulators, but the quality is rather.. bad..

Is it just me or is this generally how emulating on the DS is going to always be?

Just for an example, what I mean by "bad" is: Choppiness, low FPS, poor resolution, and some visual glitches.

 

[_Chaz_]

Depends on the games, but for the most part it's going to be that way forever or quite a while at least.

 

[FluffyLunamoth]

Until the DSi is cracked, it's not going to get better. But really. Why in the world is it taking so long for them to crack the DSi? It cannot be that hard...

 

[_Chaz_]

Until the DSi is cracked, it's not going to get better. But really. Why in the world is it taking so long for them to crack the DSi? It cannot be that hard...

This made me think of the Sonic Classic Collection...

I keep hearing that the emulation for that game was done fairly well. So why not take that emulator, add sound support, and replace the roms? Sounds simple enough...

 

[Domo]

Truthfully the only good quality emulation I get is with GB and GBC games. Everything else is generally to some extent poor in many aspects. Kinda sucks

 

[VmprHntrD]

That's odd as I used to have a kit for my GBA and there's PocketNES on that and it like runs 99% of the games out there damn well, with audio, and full speed. That's a sad thing if the DS can't match that.

 

[choconado]

nesDS for slot-1's has slightly smaller compatibility (like 97% ish) and runs fine. And also has a rewind button, or as I like to call it, Best. Cheat. Device. EVAR.

I don't understand why they can't get a worthwhile snes emulator yet. Especially since I've heard the GBA ones work better.

(point of order: How well do the gba-snes emulators run on a slot-2 device? )

 

[Rayder]

Until the DSi is cracked, it's not going to get better. But really. Why in the world is it taking so long for them to crack the DSi? It cannot be that hard...

This made me think of the Sonic Classic Collection...

I keep hearing that the emulation for that game was done fairly well. So why not take that emulator, add sound support, and replace the roms? Sounds simple enough...

It's called jEnesisDS (v0.74 is the newest, I believe...someone correct me if I'm wrong), you should give it a look.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

GB and GBC run perfect.
NES has the occasional glitches.
SNES gives some problems. Sometimes major.
Genesis/Mega Drive is fine, with occasional glitches, same goes for GameGear.

I don't really use other emulators often, so I don't know about those.

 

[Rydian]

Why in the world is it taking so long for them to crack the DSi? It cannot be that hard...

If you've never done something you're in no position to judge it's difficulty.

I present to you: "DSi Encryption Put In Perspective", also known as "I Love Crushing People's Dreams".

The DSi uses 128-bit encryption (IIRC).
How do you break it? You find the correct encryption key.

How many encryption keys are there? 2 (binary, a bit) to the 128th power (number of bits).
That's so many that the calculator that comes with windows (at least XP) can't even display the number without reverting to scientific notation. Google even shows it in scientific notation.

64-bit? 18,889,465,931,478,580,854,784 keys.
70-bit? 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 keys.
86-bit? 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,336 keys.
The actual number is less since a key will be a certain number of digits and be designed to not have repeating segments, but thus puts it in perspective.

Add a bit and you double the previous number, exponential growth.
I'm too lazy to figure the exact number, but 128-bits is a bit more than...
340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
A third of a duodecillion.

Even if I remember incorrectly and DSi uses 64-bit encryption, that's still a god-awful number (18 sextillion, I think the name is) of possible keys to try.

But wait, how did they break other systems? If you can get a direct copy of the encrypted data and compare it to a copy of the unencrypted data, that goes a long way towards figuring out the key without having to try all possible combinations. The problem is you'd need to take a DSi apart and fuck with it's insides while it's on to try to get a copy of the data while it's unencrypted (since the DSi will unencrypt what it needs on the fly in order to use it), and usually when you're done with that the DSi's pretty broken and in no shape to game, or even to be experimented on a second time! This process can be hampered by the internal design of the system, so you may need to take apart many systems before you even figure out how to read some of the data, let alone get a full copy of it, and last I checked DSi's don't cost $5.

 

[ProtoKun7]

nesDS for slot-1's has slightly smaller compatibility (like 97% ish) and runs fine. And also has a rewind button, or as I like to call it, Best. Cheat. Device. EVAR.

This. :yaynes: I've got a game of Galaga going on, and I'm on like, level 58 or something high like that

 

[DanTheManMS]

I don't understand why they can't get a worthwhile snes emulator yet. Especially since I've heard the GBA ones work better.

(point of order: How well do the gba-snes emulators run on a slot-2 device? )

Where does this idea come from? I'm only confused because this isn't the first time I've heard it being said.

No, the SNES emulators for the GBA are not at all better than the ones for the DS. Check out my two (horribly outdated and crappy) videos I made in demonstration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaBG8iC2ErA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHq2OzO0m2s

You'll notice a few key things missing, such as sound and full speed. You get those with SNEmulDS or SnezziDS.

 

[choconado]

well, I seem to recall back when PH's compatibility lists were accessible that there were many cases of games working fully playable on the most recent snezziboy build but not on the snezziDS one.

 

[Domo]

What would be the best NES and SNES emulators to use now aday?
Also, where can I find compatibility lists to know which games work and which don't?

 

[choconado]

get nesds for your nintendo needs.

Outside of some minor complaints (bad control and touchscreen mapping for instance) it's great. And you'll learn quite quickly how much you love the rewind button.

 

[DanTheManMS]

well, I seem to recall back when PH's compatibility lists were accessible that there were many cases of games working fully playable on the most recent snezziboy build but not on the snezziDS one.

I can possibly see that happening back when SnezziDS was more or less a pure port of Snezziboy, or in other words, back when Bubble2k still only worked on Snezziboy and Gladius ported it to the DS. After Bubble2k took over work on SnezziDS however, things improved quite drastically. Unfortunately the PocketHeaven SnezziDS mirror is down or I'd link you to the latest release of SnezziDS, v0.28 I believe. Granted, SNEmulDS is still better in most regards, so it would only be for the sake of curiosity that I would link it.