Gaming NDS cartridge MAX filesize?

[Alex658]

I've always wondered what's the max amount of data a NDS cartridge can have..

So far I've seen ROMs with 8MB, 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB as their filesize.

Does anyone else knows if there's more to this? thanks for any reply ^^

 

[The Pi]

The biggest so far is 512MB, there is no known limit.

 

[Darksage098]

I believe that 256MB is the largest an NDS Rom can have. Usually games that go this far have 3d environment and characters.

Edit: Really The Pi, I didn't know there was a NDS Rom that went up that high.
Edit2: Wow, i just checked and there are ones that go that high, i just never saw them.

 

[Snailface]

Its currently 256 MB, and talk of 512 MB soon (The Last Story).

 

[Alex658]

The biggest so far is 512MB, there is no known limit.

Oh my god.

What kind of games use 512MB?

Just name the game(games). I know giving roms away is against the rules xDDD

Wow, there has to be a limit. I can't even imagine the disgrace a >512MB or >1GB Rom could bring...

QUOTE(Darksage098 @ Dec 4 2010, 02:31 PM) I believe that 256MB is the largest an NDS Rom can have. Usually games that go this far have 3d environment and characters.

I know, I know. but damn.
256MB games are pretty common these days.
My poor R4 can't handle much of those games. (had to reduce to only like 15games)

 

[Codc]

Can't believe none of you posted about ASH, which is on a 2gb cartridge.

 

[Mario92]

"Cards currently range from 64 megabits to 4 gigabits (8–512 MB) in size (although the maximum capacity is unknown)."
-wikipedia
I remember there was Level 5 game which was 1 GB but I'm too tired to google. Remember there are also save partition which can be at least from 512 KB to 32 MB.

 

[The Pi]

Hakuouki DS
Love Plus +
Tokimeki Memorial - Girl's Side 3rd Story
Inazuma Eleven 3 - Sekai he no Chosen!! Bomber
Inazuma Eleven 3 - Sekai he no Chosen!! Spark

All Japanese

Can't believe none of you posted about ASH, which is on a 2gb cartridge.

That's 2 gigabit not gigabyte

It was just the first 2 gigabit rom

 

[SuperBlooper057]

Remember, Nintendo said the 3DS filesizes would be 2 gigabyte max at launch!

Source: http://e3.nintendo.com/3ds/

 

[dysan]

the biggest rom size known yet is bound to be "ninokuni" by studio ghibli...

the game's so big they're using 2 CARTRIDGES FOR THE WHOLE GAME
so if they had to use 2 game cards I guess the cartridges have a size limit after all?

btw,ninokuni is said to be released on 9 december 2010 (which is in 5 days!) in Japan

but we're getting an english version as well sometime

 

[Rydian]

the game's so big they're using 2 CARTRIDGES FOR THE WHOLE GAME

Waitwhat. Source.

This is the first I've heard of that.

 

[The Pi]

the game's so big they're using 2 CARTRIDGES FOR THE WHOLE GAME

Waitwhat. Source.

This is the first I've heard of that.

Same here.

It's going to be another 512Mbit IIRC

 

[Rydian]

Yeah, it wasn't mentioned anywhere in any of the hype/info threads.

In fact there were people saying that DQ9 was going to be a 2-cart game and that turned out false as well.

How would you even transfer the save? It's stored on the cart, not the DS.

I wonder who's spreading these rumors?

 

[Schlupi]

Yeah, it wasn't mentioned anywhere in any of the hype/info threads.

In fact there were people saying that DQ9 was going to be a 2-cart game and that turned out false as well.

How would you even transfer the save? It's stored on the cart, not the DS.

I wonder who's spreading these rumors?

Actually, I did hear about this Studio Gibli game having two carts as well. It was posted on Gbatemp at the beginning of the year. Either two carts, or a 4 GB sized game cart or something like that. Let me see if I can find the article...

Yep. a 4 GB sized cart, not two. source.

You're right. I dunno how two carts could work.

 

[emigre]

I was under the belief cartridge space was due to the cost of flash memory. In theory it can go up to anything but developers/publishers are unwilling to go up to that due to the cost of memory. For example, it seemed the max space for DS was 128mb a few years ago, but it was becasue companies were unwilling to spend more on memory. But as memory as gotten cheaper and cheaper, we're now seeing game size increase. Officially there isn't a max filesize but unoffically its related tot eh cost of memory.

 

[dysan]

Yeah, it wasn't mentioned anywhere in any of the hype/info threads.

In fact there were people saying that DQ9 was going to be a 2-cart game and that turned out false as well.

How would you even transfer the save? It's stored on the cart, not the DS.

I wonder who's spreading these rumors?

Actually, I did hear about this Studio Gibli game having two carts as well. It was posted on Gbatemp at the beginning of the year. Either two carts, or a 4 GB sized game cart or something like that. Let me see if I can find the article...

Yep. a 4 GB sized cart, not two. source.

You're right. I dunno how two carts could work.

ohhh...so it's just 1 cart? pity lol
but easier to crack I guess

 

[FAST6191]

http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm#dscartridgeprotocol

The read protocol is 32 bits according to that (real world stuff on gbatek has been hazy in the past though, see GBA save types and protocol, so consider not taking it as gospel)

2^32~512 megabytes give or take header and other overheads.

However pokemon demonstrated they can and will twist a existing bus for other ends- bankswitching commands themselves need not take a super fast. Indeed our own flash carts can twist things in that arena and if you look back at the GBA in the likes of the shrek gba video (GBA cart reads have to be considerably faster- it is one of the reasons DS slot emulation is not very feasible and the reason GBA flash carts are somewhat tricky/expensive/size limited) and some of the things pogoshell was up to at the end.....

As others have said cost and aggro associated with it. As for dual carts while hotswapping is probably not viable I would not put a simple dongle past the (a la pokewalker). Not for a recent console but I recall something like that in the distant past for something although that might have been a terminate stay resident type thing.