Hacking Will we ever see GBA roms on Slot1 solutions?

[tackle]

As the topic says.. is it technically viable to develope an upgraded firmware, as an example, for the R4, which would enable us to load GBA roms from flash memory?

I do know about the Slot2 solutions, but I'm curious if this is expected to happen or perhaps pretty much impossible.

Could it be done through some sort of emulation maybe?

 

[iamwhoiam]

Nope

 

[Codekingmss]

Doesn't the G6 real already incorpoate something like that?

 

[iamwhoiam]

Nope

 

[.TakaM]

I really have no idea when it comes to the technical side of things.. but I still feel like GBA being emulated via slot1 isn't too far-fetched... we've got snes almost perfect, why not GBA?

 

[iamwhoiam]

Technically too demanding for DS processors. Think about the SNES emus, that processor (SNES) was 22mhz @ 16bit with 128kbit DRAM, but the GBA is 17mhz @ 32bit with128kbit VRAM and then 256 kbit WRAM. Given that the SNES games are built with up to 256 colours and GBA up to 16bit (in bitmap), it would be an incredible technical feat which is deemed impossible.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Unless someone figures out a way to use the ARM7 processor on the DS (which is used for GBA processing) from the slot-1. But apparently this is impossible too

 

[tackle]

Maybe we should ask Nintendo for help

 

[iamwhoiam]

\o/

 

[spokenrope]

I really have no idea when it comes to the technical side of things.. but I still feel like GBA being emulated via slot1 isn't too far-fetched... we've got snes almost perfect, why not GBA?

That's still my stance on the subject as well.

 

[KidIce]

Another technical problem is the sorry bandwidth of the slot 1 when compared to slot 2. You'd have to load the entire GBA ROM into memory or suffer (even greater) lag, and w/ the DS only having 4 MB's that would make the choice of ROM's you could run severely limited.

 

[iamwhoiam]

Yeah, you definitely couldn't run the GBA roms on current MicroSD media.

 

[spokenrope]

Unless someone figures out a way to use the ARM7 processor on the DS (which is used for GBA processing) from the slot-1. But apparently this is impossible too

That's probably the closest thing to an actual explanation that I've heard on why this would be impossible. Anybody care to try and explain why it's impossible to use the ARM7 processor from slot 1?

 

[iamwhoiam]

When you have a slot1 device in the NDS, the NDS uses part of the Arm7 for NDS processes (touch screen etc).

Also GBA mode switches of all NDS functions, including access to slot1.

Also as stated before, compact flash and SD and current flash media are too slow for GBA usage.

The only choice is emulation, and the ARM9 processor is not powerful enough to emulate GBA usage. Think of PSX emulators on PC. The PC architecture is way complex/faster than the PSX hardware, but PSX emulators still max out CPUs that are 20 times more powerful than the actualy PSX (which runs at 33mhz @ 32bit by the way)

 

[iamwhoiam]

Here is a low down of SNES vs GBA...

http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/SNES_Advance

As you can see, the tech specs are much higher for GBA (which is more akin to DS specs).

 

[-EX-]

Well, to put it simple. NDS works in two modes - NDS and GBA.

NDS mode has access to all NDS hardware, including both slots. That's why you can play NDS games from slot-2.

GBA mode has access to only slot-2, no extra buttons, no touch screen.

These are hardware limitations which CAN NOT be changed. Unless some modchip is made, which is unlikely. Then again, there would be a big problem with RAM and slot-1 transfer speeds.

People who asking for GBA support on slot-1 are the most retarded fags in the world, period. Get over it!

 

[science]

So why is the ARM9 slower than the ARM7? Shouldn't larger, more complex DS games be harder to run than GBA games?

 

[bennydigital]

damn retared fags.

 

[4saken]

damn retared fags.

Not as retarded as somebody who cannot spell

 

[Destructobot]

So why is the ARM9 slower than the ARM7? Shouldn't larger, more complex DS games be harder to run than GBA games?

The ARM9 is not slower than the ARM7, it's just not fast enough to emulate the ARM7.