Homebrew Why the DS can't emulate GBA

[DKAngel]

a hello world gba homebreww would be even better

 

[Ace]

Wouldn't you need the BIOS of the GBA to make the emulator run at all? I believe I've seen it float around on some lesser legal downloading websites, but best of luck to ya! Though I'd recommend you get more people interested in this, since it'd take an awesome load off our backs to be able to emulate the GBA on the DS.
I also thought of maybe a GBA ROM trimmer for the PC could lower the filesize of the ROM and making it strain less on the low RAM the DS has.
Are these ideas any good?

 

[Davess]

A Pong homebrew would probably be a good start.
Yes, It would :3

Posts merged

QUOTE(Ace Faith @ Mar 18 2010, 05:06 PM) Wouldn't you need the BIOS of the GBA to make the emulator run at all? I believe I've seen it float around on some lesser legal downloading websites, but best of luck to ya! Though I'd recommend you get more people interested in this, since it'd take an awesome load off our backs to be able to emulate the GBA on the DS.
I also thought of maybe a GBA ROM trimmer for the PC could lower the filesize of the ROM and making it strain less on the low RAM the DS has.
Are these ideas any good?

Found it, At a torrent site >:]

 

[ZeWarrior]

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

Try inserting a GBA Flashcart into my DSi.

Try inserting a NDS Flashcart into my GBA.

What the fuck? I didn't tell you to use a DS flashcart on your GBA, now did I?

 

[MelodieOctavia]

My toaster can run DSi games

 

[Arm73]

Hey guys I got a solution...........
It's a little bit of a stretch but........I was thinking............if some how would be possible to modify a DSi XL case.........and fit in there a DSL motherboard ( which has a gba port ) and connect it with the larger, improved screens....( granted you'll lose the cameras and DSi only features ) maybe, just maybe we could play GBA games natively on the larger DSi XL screens ! That would be awesome, as the screens are not only bigger, but also brighter and vivider than any model of GBA ever came close too.............
I know there are all sort of technical problems that prevent this, but I' ve seen people on youtube with portable N64 or gamecubes or even PSX modified to look like an handled........
One could only ream right ? But I guess the DSi XL must have enough space in the case to hold a DSL motherboard.......if only the connector for the display would be the same.............Arrghhhhhh why did Nintendo not include a GBA port in the first place ! That's driving me nuts !
By the way I'm the first one to come up with such idea and all rights are reserved, I'll make a proper post soon with pictures........

 

[macgeek417]

. . .

 

[DeltaBurnt]

At first I started laughing, then I started crying...

Then I started laughing again.

 

[Cyan]

A very long time ago there was a proof of concept of GBA emulation on the NDS. This would be at least two years+ old, and was shown off here at GBAtemp with video. It was shown playing Wario Land 4 with no sound and if I recall correctly some strange graphical bugs. I've searched many times on Google to find it again, with no luck. I have multiple sources who remember it as well, but can't recall what it was called or where it is now. It was apparently the absolute best you could do with the CPU/RAM constraints for emulation, a pure tech demo that I'm not even sure was released.

Edit: It may have been GBAXDS which was a hoax, but I'm not sure.

I remember it too.
It was even on the portal news.

It was made by hardware mod to redirect the data to slot2 (or something like that) and the author said it wasn't impossible like everyone thought, just that nobody wanted to try developing one because it could be hard to do, but he did.

Now, with software alone, I don't think you can make all games runs smoothly, but you could achieve an emulator wich could read demo and homebrews. (maybe even some simple games)
If this is not fullspeed, who care? (pirate players, right !)
but for spec demo, and homebrew players, I'll be glad to test it, even if it's 1 frame every 10sec or more. It would prove that emulating it's internals is possible.

 

[epicCreations.or]

I'm sorry I'm not a very good programmer yet, or else I would definitaly try to help out more with this project. Right now I'm looking at the VBA source files, and getting myself confused...

That "porting GBA code to ARM7" might be an idea to consider, although I myself still don't understand much about the internals of either machine (looking at GBATEK now).

 

[raulpica]

Another thread of this? Oh please.

Okay, I won't be totally negative this time, and give some pointers.

You're better looking at gpSP ARM sources than VBA's. The iPlayer's GBA emu is based on that. Or so it seems.

You're also gonna need to do some serious voodoo to make up with that clear lack of RAM. As someone said, streaming a ROM directly from Slot-1 isn't possible, as GBA games require REALLY LOW latencies to work. Putting everything in RAM would be your best chance, if only the DS didn't have just 4MBs. And DSi mode hasn't been cracked yet nor it seems to be happening soon.

But as someone in here might know, the iPlayer's also got a 270mhz CPU under its belt. And the DS normally has just got a 67Mhz ARM9. You might think of relying the sound emulation part on the ARM7, but it still won't be that much of a gain. So expect sluggish performances at best.

...And there you have why GBA on Slot-1 without additional hardware won't ever be possible.

Now, if we weren't talking about emulation... well, that's another story, and only Exophase and few others would be able to pull it through, at massive cost for performance.

If you're keen on technical readings, I'll link to some posts here on the 'temp, but I'm pretty sure this will be enough. Enjoy

 

[macgeek417]

Another thread of this? Oh please.

Okay, I won't be totally negative this time, and give some pointers.

You're better looking at gpSP ARM sources than VBA's. The iPlayer's GBA emu is based on that. Or so it seems.

You're also gonna need to do some serious voodoo to make up with that clear lack of RAM. As someone said, streaming a ROM directly from Slot-1 isn't possible, as GBA games require REALLY LOW latencies to work. Putting everything in RAM would be your best chance, if only the DS didn't have just 4MBs. And DSi mode hasn't been cracked yet nor it seems to be happening soon.

But as someone in here might know, the iPlayer's also got a 270mhz CPU under its belt. And the DS normally has just got a 67Mhz ARM9. You might think of relying the sound emulation part on the ARM7, but it still won't be that much of a gain. So expect sluggish performances at best.

...And there you have why GBA on Slot-1 without additional hardware won't ever be possible.

Now, if we weren't talking about emulation... well, that's another story, and only Exophase and few others would be able to pull it through, at massive cost for performance.

If you're keen on technical readings, I'll link to some posts here on the 'temp, but I'm pretty sure this will be enough. Enjoy

No, use the ARM7 for the GBA code.
A virtual machine like VMWare verses an emulater

 

[raulpica]

No, use the ARM7 for the GBA code.
A virtual machine like VMWare verses an emulater

That's what I was referring to with "Now, if we weren't talking about emulation...".
Sadly, that isn't something which is really feasible without extensive knowledge of the underlying hardware and a severe hit on performances.

Have a read here.

Warning, technicalities ahead

 

[redact]

You're better looking at gpSP ARM sources than VBA's. The iPlayer's GBA emu is based on that. Or so it seems.

iirc, iplayer has MIPS, not ARM

 

[Dr.Killa]

it has no ram at all thats why

 

[macgeek417]

it has no ram at all thats why

Read the topic.

 

[raulpica]

You're better looking at gpSP ARM sources than VBA's. The iPlayer's GBA emu is based on that. Or so it seems.

iirc, iplayer has MIPS, not ARM

Nope. It's probably ARM. Exophase himself said that here.

 

[macgeek417]

IIRC it has a ~250MHz ARM, some ~400MHz CPU, and a ~50MHz CPU, but might just be an ARM.