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DS development > The "I'm incredibly lost" thread

#38935 - Mr. Picklesworth - Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:50 am

Rather than read a tutorial, I may as well ask here because I bet that everybody here except me knows the answers to my question.

Yes, I am completely new to the concept of developing for handheld game consoles whos creators foolishly do not happily support independent game developement.


Data to DS:
In this image: http://www.dsdev.org/gfx/dstetris.jpg
I see a cable going straight into the DS card slot. Presumably, there is a way to transfer data straight to that slot which confuses me to no end about the PassMe, etc.
Um... What is that cable, how do I do that?


Software development:
So how exactly do I develop for the DS?
I know how to program, don't worry :)
I hear talk of Linux, I've checked out DSLinux.org and now am (Surprise!!!) confused. Does the DS natively support any program compiled for Linux?! Or does it take only a particular thing that has to be made in a lower level programming language like c/c++, or what?
Just tell me everything basic here (questions asked, and what is to come).
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#38938 - sajiimori - Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:59 am

It's entirely forgivable since you're new to the homebrew community, but it's customary to consult existing documentation before asking others to dedicate their free time to recreating that documentation in their own words. :)

#38939 - tepples - Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:00 am

Mr. Picklesworth wrote:
Data to DS:
In this image: http://www.dsdev.org/gfx/dstetris.jpg
I see a cable going straight into the DS card slot. Presumably, there is a way to transfer data straight to that slot which confuses me to no end about the PassMe, etc.
Um... What is that cable, how do I do that?

Consider that a PassMe prototype, before the concept was miniaturized to the CPLD and custom board being sold on sites such as dspassme.com.

Quote:
Software development:
So how exactly do I develop for the DS?

The same way as with the GBA: write code, compile and link in devkitARM using the appropriate makefile, flash to GBA cart, run in Nintendo DS.

Quote:
I hear talk of Linux, I've checked out DSLinux.org and now am (Surprise!!!) confused. Does the DS natively support any program compiled for Linux?!

"Compiled for Linux" most often indicates x86, while the Nintendo DS uses an ARM instruction set.

Quote:
Or does it take only a particular thing that has to be made in a lower level programming language like c/c++, or what?

Linux would introduce too much overhead to be competitive with writing custom libraries.
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#38940 - Mr. Picklesworth - Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:02 am

Thanks.
That was very helpful :)
_________________
Thanks!
MKDS Friend Code: 511165-679586
MP:H Friend Code: 2105 2377 6896

#38942 - natrium42 - Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:06 am

Mr. Picklesworth wrote:

Data to DS:
In this image: http://www.dsdev.org/gfx/dstetris.jpg
I see a cable going straight into the DS card slot. Presumably, there is a way to transfer data straight to that slot which confuses me to no end about the PassMe, etc.
Um... What is that cable, how do I do that?

That picture is of my big FPGA passthrough. PassMe is a small passthrough.

The DS has two slots: DS slot and GBA slot. What a passthrough does is allow execution of custom *DS* code from the GBA slot. As soon as you have booted from GBA slot using the passthrough, you can take the passthrough out of the DS slot if you want.

Mr. Picklesworth wrote:

Software development:
So how exactly do I develop for the DS?
I know how to program, don't worry :)

You need a GBA flashcart and a PassMe if you want to run your programs on hardware. After compiling everything into a binary, you put the binary onto the GBA flash cart (using a linker that comes with the flashcart), insert that cart and the PassMe into the DS and then boot.

Visit Dovoto's http://www.drunkencoders.com for more information about software setup and programming.

Mr. Picklesworth wrote:

I hear talk of Linux, I've checked out DSLinux.org and now am (Surprise!!!) confused. Does the DS natively support any program compiled for Linux?! Or does it take only a particular thing that has to be made in a lower level programming language like c/c++, or what?
Just tell me everything basic here (questions asked, and what is to come).

DSLinux doesn't seem to have any capable developers working on it. But I'd like to be proven wrong.

Programming the DS/GBA is all about setting the right registers and copying things (like graphics) into memory. I recommend reading a few of Dovoto's GBA programming tutorials since most of the information found there carries over to the DS.
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