Hacking Supercard DS TWO DS-GBA Linkage?

[Dimensional]

I also highly doubt this could ever be done with the GBA emulator due to the amount of ram it would take. And the GBA emulator can barely stand up, I don't think it's going to be juggling and doing backflips anytime soon.

I was thinking this over, and I came to think about the DS Web Browser. That required a slot-2 Memory expansion. That got me thinking more about this. The DSi has a built in web browser, but wouldn't it also require the same amount of RAM as the DS Browser? How would it be able to load faster than the DS one if there was no slot-2 to put a memory expansion in? The answer wasn't all that clear, but I figured that it would be possible if in place of a slot-2, Nintendo instead just used that space for an extra RAM module. After all, someone said that the DSi has all the same hardware except for the Slot-2, so that would mean there would be an empty space where the slot-2 would have been, and they would have filled that up with something. So I'm thinking that the DSi has more RAM than the DS, which means that if that is true, then it most definitely has more than enough RAM to do this, the Supercard DS TWO firmware would just have to be programmed to be able to access this additional memory if it is in fact there.

Also, your probably saying that a DS game uses all the RAM in a DS or DSi. Okay, then how is a flashcart able to be accessed? How is the Supercard DS TWO able to access one of it's menu's when your playing a game? How can Flashcarts inject a soft-reset code into the system if the DS games use ALL of the RAM? If a DS game uses all of the RAM, then the reset code would be over written or the game would behave badly all the time because of that code, and not because it's scanning the memory, like in Zelda: PH when you get a piece of map. The answer: There IS enough RAM. There's more than enough.

Lastly: I believe the DS games don't tell the DS to look at and execute the GBA code. It only asks for the header data from the GBA game, which would just be read and returned, so it would use only a very small amount of ram when doing that. Then when the DS game sees that the GBA game's header data matches one in it's records, it will then either execute a certain code in the game to unlock an extra feature, or like Pokemon, it would then request the RAW data from the GBA save data and interpret it in the DS game. Nintendo would have done this to save as much memory as possible. An emulator is required to PLAY, AKA execute or run, a GBA game, not to read it like a plain text document.

Edit: Oh, and something else I thought about. The reason why GBA code can't be run on slot-1 is because of hardware interpretation. The emulator would be needed to reinterpret the GBA code. You see, DS games on the old 1st gen flash carts that were for slot-2, those still required a slot-1 pass-me, something that would allow DS code to be executed from Slot-2, something that would cause the hardware in the slot-2 to interpret the data using the slot-1 information. I was looking on a site about the old slot-2 flash carts, and it said it required a pass-me because DS games were encrypted while GBA games were not. It would also be a thought that the slot-1 was designed to only run DS encrypted games, and encrypting a GBA rom on slot-1 flash cart would cause a ton of reading errors. The emulator would just be like an encapsulating layer between the DS decryption and the GBA rom, similar to WINE for Linux or those GBA/DS emulators for the PC.

Now, I probably got some of this wrong, but at least I'm trying to think of something to make this idea work, instead of just blowing it out of the water saying it will never work when I wasn't the one who made the DS or the flash carts. I've already sent an email to the Supercard team back on the 25th about this idea. I was told the programmers are looking into the idea, but got no other response besides that. Hopefully I'll get something back sooner or later.

 

[Matt140]

I also highly doubt this could ever be done with the GBA emulator due to the amount of ram it would take. And the GBA emulator can barely stand up, I don't think it's going to be juggling and doing backflips anytime soon.

I was thinking this over, and I came to think about the DS Web Browser. That required a slot-2 Memory expansion. That got me thinking more about this. The DSi has a built in web browser, but wouldn't it also require the same amount of RAM as the DS Browser? How would it be able to load faster than the DS one if there was no slot-2 to put a memory expansion in? The answer wasn't all that clear, but I figured that it would be possible if in place of a slot-2, Nintendo instead just used that space for an extra RAM module. After all, someone said that the DSi has all the same hardware except for the Slot-2, so that would mean there would be an empty space where the slot-2 would have been, and they would have filled that up with something. So I'm thinking that the DSi has more RAM than the DS, which means that if that is true, then it most definitely has more than enough RAM to do this, the Supercard DS TWO firmware would just have to be programmed to be able to access this additional memory if it is in fact there.

Also, your probably saying that a DS game uses all the RAM in a DS or DSi. Okay, then how is a flashcart able to be accessed? How is the Supercard DS TWO able to access one of it's menu's when your playing a game? How can Flashcarts inject a soft-reset code into the system if the DS games use ALL of the RAM? If a DS game uses all of the RAM, then the reset code would be over written or the game would behave badly all the time because of that code, and not because it's scanning the memory, like in Zelda: PH when you get a piece of map. The answer: There IS enough RAM. There's more than enough.

Lastly: I believe the DS games don't tell the DS to look at and execute the GBA code. It only asks for the header data from the GBA game, which would just be read and returned, so it would use only a very small amount of ram when doing that. Then when the DS game sees that the GBA game's header data matches one in it's records, it will then either execute a certain code in the game to unlock an extra feature, or like Pokemon, it would then request the RAW data from the GBA save data and interpret it in the DS game. Nintendo would have done this to save as much memory as possible. An emulator is required to PLAY, AKA execute or run, a GBA game, not to read it like a plain text document.

The DSi has improved hardware (better processor, more memory), but this hardware cannot be accessed without code running in 'DSi mode' (like the applications available from the DSi Shop). Until we crack the key that will allow us to run our own code in this mode, for now were stuck in 'DS mode' which limits the memory and processor speed to that of the original DS.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

The DSi has in fact got double the amount of RAM a DS has, and if you play a DS game (or use a flashcart) you will be playing in DS mode. DSi mode is the mode used by the DSi Exclusive games and the DSiWare, and that uses all the RAM (or at least, all the necessary RAM to run the game/app). The DSTWO cannot access all the DSi's RAM since the DSi mode has yet to be hacked, there have been made some slight advances but nothing much yet. That is also the reason why DSi Exclusive games don't work on any flashcart, because they need the extra RAM. And the hybrid games (I always forget what they're called) can be played, but without the extra features offered by the DSi, because those require the extra RAM (and most of the times the camera too but that doesn't matter now).

 

[Dimensional]

The DSi has in fact got double the amount of RAM a DS has, and if you play a DS game (or use a flashcart) you will be playing in DS mode. DSi mode is the mode used by the DSi Exclusive games and the DSiWare, and that uses all the RAM (or at least, all the necessary RAM to run the game/app). The DSTWO cannot access all the DSi's RAM since the DSi mode has yet to be hacked, there have been made some slight advances but nothing much yet. That is also the reason why DSi Exclusive games don't work on any flashcart, because they need the extra RAM. And the hybrid games (I always forget what they're called) can be played, but without the extra features offered by the DSi, because those require the extra RAM (and most of the times the camera too but that doesn't matter now).

Well obviously I thought about that one, but what about some flash carts being able to access a menu while playing a game? That would mean there is always a some extra ram there for some more stuff, ie slow motion, soft-reset. And still, wouldn't it just require an update to the firmware or system core of a flash cart to be able to use everything in those DSi Enhanced Game Cards? (That's what they are called by the way. Just looked it up.)

 

[dhjohn]

The DSi has in fact got double the amount of RAM a DS has, and if you play a DS game (or use a flashcart) you will be playing in DS mode. DSi mode is the mode used by the DSi Exclusive games and the DSiWare, and that uses all the RAM (or at least, all the necessary RAM to run the game/app). The DSTWO cannot access all the DSi's RAM since the DSi mode has yet to be hacked, there have been made some slight advances but nothing much yet. That is also the reason why DSi Exclusive games don't work on any flashcart, because they need the extra RAM. And the hybrid games (I always forget what they're called) can be played, but without the extra features offered by the DSi, because those require the extra RAM (and most of the times the camera too but that doesn't matter now).

Well obviously I thought about that one, but what about some flash carts being able to access a menu while playing a game? That would mean there is always a some extra ram there for some more stuff, ie slow motion, soft-reset. And still, wouldn't it just require an update to the firmware or system core of a flash cart to be able to use everything in those DSi Enhanced Game Cards? (That's what they are called by the way. Just looked it up.)

Games do not use all the memory available. Coding a game to use exactly x amounts of ram at all times would be very hard, and a waste of time. The games only use the memory they need, but really, that has nothing to do with soft-reset, and real time menus. That is done by injesting code into the rom's code (most of the time at a vsync command, sense they are called every frame). This all has nothing to do with gba linkage.

On to the update part. It is unknown whether a flash cart could be updated to run in dsi mode because dsi mode encryption hasn't been cracked. (I'd wager that flash carts could be updated if it ever is cracked, but I'm not sure.)