Hardware Why no GBA backwards compatibility ?

[xalphax]

They'd rather play Tetris :\ It takes no skill(...)

[youtube]jwC544Z37qo[/youtube]

'nuff said

 

[pachura]

It's 2011. Get over the GBA please.
I'm sure the catalog will be on the 3DS eshop later on in its life, or on its successor.

It's 2011. Why the hell are they bothering with providing GB and GBC emulation ?

In short, the answer to the topic: Because GBA doesn't use the same hardware the DS/DSi/3DS uses. ARM7 is NOT ARM9.
DS does use ARM9 and ARM7 at the same time to run DS games.

You can be fairly sure that if Ninty creates a 3DS revision a couple of years from now, it won't have DS BC anymore either, especially if DS games are no longer produced at that time.

I can agree. The main reason for providing backwards compatibility with DS it to support the weak initial 3DS lineup (not too many games) with titles from the previous generation. As soon as enough 3DS games in each genre is published, they'll probably drop DS BC. Which is good, because then they could free some internal space an install another camera (for 3D chat), second slidepad, or just make the console lighter (IF the DS emulation is done via additional hardware).

QUOTE(TwinRetro @ Feb 9 2011, 12:13 AM) Would the average kid rather play this? Or this?

They would play NSMB, the DS version. C'mon guys, black&white gaming is thing of a past, it's just geeks and hobbyst (no offence) who are interested in it...

QUOTE(shinkukage09 @ Feb 9 2011, 12:21 AM)

They'd rather play Tetris :\ It takes no skill, no brainpower, and probably would cost them a buck on Apple's store full'a crap. Tetris is casual. Too many people play casual games.

Since when playing SMB requires high IQ ?

 

[DiscostewSM]

Much of the hardware used for GBA playback on the DS still exists on the DSi, as the hardware sets itself up to act like a GBA when put in that mode. The main component lost was the cartridge slot, which pretty much removed that compatibility altogether. That in itself took up a good portion of space in the unit.

With the 3DS, DS games can be played through the same exact port that 3DS games are inserted into, and most likely, the 3DS doesn't contain DS-specific hardware that wouldn't be used for 3DS usage, much like the DS didn't have GBA-specific hardware (excluding the cartridge slot) when it could manipulate its own to represent the GBA specifications. This is why I think that even in later revisions, DS playback will still be there.

 

[wchill]

Much of the hardware used for GBA playback on the DS still exists on the DSi, as the hardware sets itself up to act like a GBA when put in that mode. The main component lost was the cartridge slot, which pretty much removed that compatibility altogether. That in itself took up a good portion of space in the unit.

With the 3DS, DS games can be played through the same exact port that 3DS games are inserted into, and most likely, the 3DS doesn't contain DS-specific hardware that wouldn't be used for 3DS usage, much like the DS didn't have GBA-specific hardware (excluding the cartridge slot) when it could manipulate its own to represent the GBA specifications. This is why I think that even in later revisions, DS playback will still be there.

This is correct. The DSi/3DS actually continue to have the processor that the GBA used, just clocked at a higher speed and running as a coprocessor.
In fact, given the 3DS's amount of RAM, I'm thinking it's possible to create a GBA hypervisor for the 3DS... it would require some work because you'd need to have games execute from RAM and run on the PICA graphics on the 3DS, but it's not impossible.

 

[Nollog]

It's 2011. Get over the GBA please.
I'm sure the catalog will be on the 3DS eshop later on in its life, or on its successor.

It's 2011. Why the hell are they bothering with providing GB and GBC emulation ?

Because Gameboy and Gameboy color games are older than 10 years, which makes them "retro".
It's only special to re-buy your old games when you haven't played them in half your life.

It's different for kids, but the feeling of nostalgia is what Nintendo are offering with the Virtual Console, not just backward compatibility.