#69399 - Xgame - Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:50 pm
i' ve got an idea: ds can not emulate n64 because it isn' t more powerfull then n64; but if i convert the n64 binary to arm9 bin?
the n64 ram is 4MB(without expansion); so shoul be possible to load rom.
I' ve just found in internet a program very similar to nds tool: it let you to get
n64 rom bin. But the problem are here: i must re-compile the bin for arm.
How can i do it? is possible to get the sound bin and put it into arm9 bin?
#69406 - MaHe - Mon Jan 30, 2006 4:49 pm
You cannot do it. Period.
#69408 - NoComply - Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:08 pm
If it were a simple task of doing some kind of conversion, Nintendo would have done it and you would have seen every N64 game ever made done already so they could make a quick buck off an old game without spending much time or money on it.
#69409 - Xgame - Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:18 pm
but without the source, with only the list of addres used in rom, is possible to convert it in arm9 and arm7?
I' ve found a tool that let you to see the address of rom; can i compile it only with this information?
#69411 - Thomas - Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:25 pm
| Xgame wrote: |
but without the source, with only the list of addres used in rom, is possible to convert it in arm9 and arm7?
I' ve found a tool that let you to see the address of rom; can i compile it only with this information? |
NO, you can't! Exclamation mark.
#69418 - Darkflame - Mon Jan 30, 2006 6:13 pm
Actualy...this has been done on a different format..kinda.
Theres people trying to make Xbox games work on the PC by convert the xbox exe's to standard pc ones. While its still early days I think they proved the technique was doable.
Of course, with an decompileing and recompileing to get an N64 game to work would be far harder. And it would probably take a heck of a lot of manual tuneing per game to get it even remotely playable.
(and this is ignoreing the controlls, screen, and framerate issues)
But i wouldnt say the principle was impossible.
#69424 - HyperHacker - Mon Jan 30, 2006 6:57 pm
It probably is possible, actually, but with a LOT of work, most of which couldn't be automated (you'd have to do it all by hand). Most if not all commercial N64 games are programmed using Nintendo's standard library, and as such, a lot of their code is very similar. If you could write a program that would find and identify the common code in each game, and write DS versions of this code, you'd probably have a good portion of the work done. However, you would need to port the rest of the code by hand, and porting ASM - especially compiled ASM - from one platform to another is NOT easy. You'd need to know pretty much everything about thr N64 and DS hardware (which tend to be poorly documented), and it would simply be a heck of a lot of work. You'd actually be best off trying to decompile your target game into C, and then edit that to work for the DS.
Xbox games can be ported to PC because both use X86 processors. Xbox is basically a stripped-down PC. N64 has a sinlge ~93mhz R4300i, while DS has a 33mhz ARM7 and a 66mhz ARM9. N64 also has a floating point unit, some sort of coprocessor, higher resolution, more buttons, and I think it may have more VRAM and A(udio)RAM. The only real feasible thing to do would be to extract all the resources from the game (possibly modifying them, like reducing polygon count and shrinking images and sounds) and write a new game engine for the DS that plays the same as the N64 game does using those resources. Of course that means needing to know just about everything about the game.
If you are crazy enough to do this, I suggest you start with a later game such as Zelda or Diddy Kong Racing. (Oh, for a DS port of DKR... :() Earlier games like Mario 64 and Mario Kart have crappy programming (early versions of their compilers and libraries, I suppose) that will make it that much harder to do.
#69425 - Xgame - Mon Jan 30, 2006 6:58 pm
so if i have a nintendo 64 game source code is possible to convert it onto ds..
Nintendo can learn from linux!
#69449 - tepples - Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:55 pm
| HyperHacker wrote: |
| It probably is possible, actually, but with a LOT of work, most of which couldn't be automated (you'd have to do it all by hand). Most if not all commercial N64 games are programmed using Nintendo's standard library, and as such, a lot of their code is very similar. If you could write a program that would find and identify the common code in each game, and write DS versions of this code, you'd probably have a good portion of the work done. |
This is called "high level emulation" and was used in the UltraHLE emulator.
| Xgame wrote: |
| so if i have a nintendo 64 game source code is possible to convert it onto ds.. |
You'd need to work for Nintendo to have access to that. If so, then write a proposal for a port and give it to your boss.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#69842 - octopusfluff - Thu Feb 02, 2006 9:04 am
Static recompilation between CPUs isn't impossible, and it doesn't automatically require hand-coding in assembly.
It just takes an awful lot of time and effort to make it work, along with some disgustingly intimate knowledge of the source and target architectures.
Plus a lot of time, and even more effort.
But don't forget a lot of time.
#69864 - NoComply - Thu Feb 02, 2006 2:47 pm
basically a lot of time that could be spent porting n64 games for the ds.
#69931 - tepples - Fri Feb 03, 2006 1:14 am
| NoComply wrote: |
| basically a lot of time that could be spent porting n64 games for the ds. |
But sometimes it costs more to determine who owns exclusive rights in a game and to find a financing publisher than it costs to do the actual port.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#69943 - NoComply - Fri Feb 03, 2006 4:16 am
Ya true, I think that coming up with something original that is based off something you liked on n64 would be a better idea. I think this would be a near impossible project to do. It's like trying to make your own n64 hardware so that it's small enough to be portable yet be exactly the same as an n64. I mean, you could do it, but how long would it take you. And for both projects I think you would need to have very intimate knowledge of the n64 hardware and everything else on the programming end as well.
What he is proposing to try doing requires a hell of a lot of knowledge about both systems, which if you had those skills, could be put into working on something a little more feasible. Like right now people with tons of skill are trying to work on small things like transfer programs, and msdos ports. Just seems like it's shooting a bit too high.