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DS development > A cart question for way down the road

#32853 - DalaiLiam - Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:45 pm

Ok... This'll take a sec to explain and is an inquery about the possibilities of several DS features(that I know are not very far in development) but I'm curious to see if this is theoretically sound.

I know it's possible to reflash an Xbox bios easily, with only minor modifications to the Xbox's Mobo. Now should the reflashability be able to be added to a DS cart with similar modifications? I know they initially have to flash the things in the factories, so figuring out which points to bridge should give us the same ability right?

Now I know that your going to have to have some software to flash said cartrages with whatever data. However the wifi abilities allow you to DL content from other sources and execute programs.

It would take some actual home-brew apping but on down the road would it be possible to d/l an FTP (host/client) app via Wifi from the computer, have the computer running some sort of FTP program(Host or client), and flash whatever recieved data to the cart? This would make home dev really easy w/o the need for an expensive flash-cart.

So in short it would be a prossess something like this:
1) computer sends downloadable content to DS via WiFi
2) then executed downloadable content (App) grants DS abilities to flash cart with data provided from PC over the wifi connection

I think the only things that would go into account here now would be how big is the onboard memory for downloaded content on the DS(Which may mean wiping off pictochat, Oh damn.) and what is the coppacity of X cartridge. The other things seem well with in grasp of future dev.

Also, anyone figgured out how to open one of the carts with out destroying it? I'm trying to find a use for the metroid demo on down the line when the full version of hunters comes out.

#32857 - tepples - Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:29 pm

DalaiLiam wrote:
I know it's possible to reflash an Xbox bios easily, with only minor modifications to the Xbox's Mobo. Now should the reflashability be able to be added to a DS cart with similar modifications? I know they initially have to flash the things in the factories

Not necessarily, for any of three reasons:
  • Perhaps the package on the Nintendo DS board containing the BIOS doesn't include the flash memory's write enable or erase enable pin (called "OTP").
  • Perhaps the memory is of a physical type that physically can't be erased (such as PROM).
  • Perhaps, as on the GBA, the DS BIOS isn't writable memory at all but instead mask ROM.

_________________
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-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

#32873 - DalaiLiam - Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:16 pm

True. Didn't think about that.

#32909 - TJ - Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:28 am

At this point, I don't think there is any evidence that the DS has it's BIOS in anything but a Mask ROM.

However, while your DS user settings (time, name, color, etc) are backed by the main battery, the language you select the DS to run in is NOT backed by the battery.

I.E. When you remove the battery for long enough, when you turn the DS back on it will go through the initial setup like the first time you turned it on, except this time it won't ask about a language. It will still be in the language you set it in.

Anyone know why this is?