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Beginners > GameBoy ROMs on GameCube via the GameBoy Player?

#84723 - bpsperan - Wed May 24, 2006 11:55 am

I happen to have the Gameboy Player accessory that attaches to the bottom of the GameCube so as to allow owners to play GameBoy games through the console. Unfortunately, I don't have the hardware to burn rom images onto chips/carts.

So, I was wondering if there are any methods of playing GameBoy ROMs (specifically, GameBoy Advance) through the GameCube. After looking a while, it appears that there are very few (if any) options.

I've read on some sites before how some have been able to get the GameCube to run some ROMs and even some applications via mods or a PC-to-GameCube interface. But it was made pretty clear that the GameCube is much more difficult to get ROMs and custom software to run on than either the PS2 or the XBox.

Still, it seems such a shame that there isn't a method of getting GameBoy ROMs to run on the GameCube via the GameBoy Player. :cry: The emulator is already there in the form of hardware! All that is needed is some method of forcing it to load the ROM image from a custom disk or memory card. Well, that and a method of saving the game saves to the GameCube memory cards.

I figure that should not require much in the way of coding... (Would it?)

I read on the forums of gcdev.com that nobody has done much coding for the GameBoy Player because there's not much that can be done with it. From a hardware perspective, it's essentially a true GameBoy and NOT an emulator. All the GameCube does is act as the interface between the GameBoy Player and the TV monitor and game controllers. Further, they said about the only possible thing to modify is to create a custom GameBoy Player startup disk.

Well, I took a look over at Zophar's Domain (Zophar.net) and I did find something. There is mention of the GBQ GameBoy emulator for the GameCube. However, it said that it was still in very early development stages (Alpha? Beta?) and does not yet support sound. At least there is some hope, but the last update was back in January of 2005. There doesn't appear to be a website, either.

Also, there used to be a project called aGBe (A GameBoy Emulator) for the PSx. Unfortunately, the project was abandoned by the author back in June or July of 2004 before a fully functional version could be released. (He got a job developing games and couldn't continue the work for legal reasons.) The project was made open source, but nobody has yet tried to continue where he left off...

#84815 - tepples - Wed May 24, 2006 10:09 pm

bpsperan wrote:
I happen to have the Gameboy Player accessory that attaches to the bottom of the GameCube so as to allow owners to play GameBoy games through the console. Unfortunately, I don't have the hardware to burn rom images onto chips/carts.

That hardware is easy to buy; check the Flash Equipment and Retailer Feedback forums.

Quote:
So, I was wondering if there are any methods of playing GameBoy ROMs (specifically, GameBoy Advance) through the GameCube.

I'll assume that by "ROMs" you're talking about GBA homebrew.

Quote:
Still, it seems such a shame that there isn't a method of getting GameBoy ROMs to run on the GameCube via the GameBoy Player. :cry: The emulator is already there in the form of hardware! All that is needed is some method of forcing it to load the ROM image from a custom disk or memory card.

Custom disk exists. Buy a GBA flash card, or buy a GBA Movie Player (CF adapter) for $25. That will let you load "multiboot" programs into the GBA's built-in 256 KB RAM, and then the program can load additional data from the CF card.
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#84883 - bpsperan - Thu May 25, 2006 9:21 am

Quote:
That hardware is easy to buy; check the Flash Equipment and Retailer Feedback forums.


True. But the hardware is also rather expensive.

Quote:
Custom disk exists.


Really? Custom Startup Disks? I tried doing Google searches such as [Gamecube "custom startup disks"] and variations thereof (like "Start-up" or "Boot Disk"), but could not find anything remotely like that - at least nothing that mentions "Gameboy Player".

Speaking of which, the optical disk format it uses is rather unique and designed to thwart piracy. Anotherwords, it's nearly impossible to burn such disks or even read the data from them. No wonder that hardware hobbyists had to resort to a PC-to-Gamecube interface. BTW: Does the Gamecube support an external hard drive accessory like the PS2?

#84976 - tepples - Fri May 26, 2006 5:38 am

The GameCube uses an SPI-like I/O bus. As SD memory cards run on an SPI bus as well, Nintendo saw fit to make and sell an official SD adapter that fits into a memory card slot.

Advance Game Port anyone?
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.