Homebrew Why the DS can't emulate GBA

[lolzed]

If only we had access to dsi mode, it would turn the impossible to less likely, huh?

Getting data to be refreshed constantly on a standard DS sounds like the only option of playing an actual gba rom, however how will one get around this, seems like really hard work and may turn out to be impossible.

the use of 16mb of RAM the DSi has still can't emulate the GBA perfectly(saying that an emulator WAS made)

 

[heartgold]

If only we had access to dsi mode, it would turn the impossible to less likely, huh?

Getting data to be refreshed constantly on a standard DS sounds like the only option of playing an actual gba rom, however how will one get around this, seems like really hard work and may turn out to be impossible.

the use of 16mb of RAM the DSi has still can't emulate the GBA perfectly(saying that an emulator WAS made)

I know it wouldn't be perfect, least it will emulate small size roms that the standard DS couldn't, won't be playable anyhow

 

[Juanmatron]

Only one word.

RAM.

 

[Saddamsdevil]

Only one word.

RAM.

What are you talking about? Random Access Memory are 3 words.

 

[Jamstruth]

Throughout the GBA's lifetime people constanly flamed and trolled users inquiring about the possibility of emulating SNES on the GBA. They all said it was impossible: This proved them all wrong. So please stop saying that something is impossible when it cleary is not. Difficult? Unlikely? Yes, seeing as you can just get a slot 2 cart, but certainly not impossible.

Not the same thing for a few reasons:-
1. Power wise the SNES is less than a calculator as it has a 3.57MHz CPU in it, the GBA has a 30MHz (I think) so the GBA is 10x more powerful than a SNES. There were the SuperFX chips to bring the SNES to 13MHz but they aren't emulated on DS or GBA
2. RAM was not an issue. GBA flashcarts loaded ROMs into a RAM on the cart which was just as fast as the normal GBA Carts (except the Supercard...) so all the code could run straight from there and not have to be loaded into RAM.

Comapre this to a DS which has only 3 times the power of a GBA and carts which load a lot slower meaning data has to be placed in RAM to run fullspeed and you've got a coding nightmare to get anything even passable (without iPlayer help of course, that cart is a hell of a lot more powerful than the DS itself)

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Technically speaking you would literally need to go into the code and write a statement telling the code to refresh after 4MB of usage (kind of like a Disc uses the data stored on the disc from a different spot constantly) meaning youd have to make the emulator THINK its a disc iso. This way it could grab info and put it back on the fly. It SHOULD be possible if you do it that way. Just cant think of exactly how youd do it (first year uni computer science has made me think of theories, just dont know if they work lol)

I already said that >.>

Surprised nobody's mentioned specs. DS has 90MHz of power while the GBA has about 33MHz I don't think the power difference is enough for a decent emulator (the iPlayer has its own processor of 400MHz so the cart is actually more powerful than a DS)
Also on top of only having 4MB of RAM you must reserve say 1MB for the emulator's programming to run in (this is why JenesisDS can only run ROMs

 

[Arkansaw]

Doesn't need to, DS can play GBA games...

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Doesn't need to, DS can play GBA games...

Not pirated GBA games.

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

 

[Llama Riot]

Doesn't need to, DS can play GBA games...

Not homebrew GBA games.

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

fix'd

 

[Arkansaw]

Doesn't need to, DS can play GBA games...

Not pirated GBA games.

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

use a GBA flashcart, duh

 

[DeltaBurnt]

Doesn't need to, DS can play GBA games...

Not pirated GBA games.

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

use a GBA flashcart, duh

That's the point, people don't want to buy another flashcart.

 

[epicCreations.or]

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

I don't want to know how; I want to come up with a solution. Besides, I'm just going to do it for the sake of doing it.

 

[Jamstruth]

Doesn't need to, DS can play GBA games...

Not pirated GBA games.

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

use a GBA flashcart, duh

*facepalm*

 

[DeltaBurnt]

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

I don't want to know how; I want to come up with a solution. Besides, I'm just going to do it for the sake of doing it.

By know how I more or less meant your solution.

 

[epicCreations.or]

By know how I more or less meant your solution.

Oh.

 

[Arkansaw]

Doesn't need to, DS can play GBA games...

Not pirated GBA games.

He's wants to know how to play GBA games with a normal slot-1 flashcart.

use a GBA flashcart, duh

That's the point, people don't want to buy another flashcart.

You mean those pple didn't exist when GBA was around?

 

[epicCreations.or]

Or, maybe they just don't feel like spending money. Or perhaps they didn't know about homebrew then?

On topic... I think that if the DSi could be broken into, this would be a much more simple job, and would probably make me get a DSi... What have they tried so far to break in? I've heard they managed to get code in the form of a save file to run, but I haven't been able to get any more information on that.

 

[DeltaBurnt]

You mean those pple didn't exist when GBA was around?

No, I mean that people buy flashcarts to pirate meaning they don't like spending money that often (or sometimes a different reason). So if they don't want to pay money, they don't want to spend money on a slot 2 expansion or gba flashcart.

 

[macgeek417]

Heres an idea: Execute the ARM7 code on the ARM7 CPU - Like a virtual-machine instead of an emulater!

 

[epicCreations.or]

Heres an idea: Execute the ARM7 code on the ARM7 CPU - Like a virtual-machine instead of an emulater!

Hmm. I don't know the exact workings of the ARM7 CPU (considering it is a secondary) but it would be a good idea to look into that...