#115857 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:29 pm
Shouldn't something like this be possible?
Since there's a loader to boot NDS files from the GBA slot, wouldn't a loader to boot GBA files from the DS slot be a vaguely similar thing?
I don't know much about the basic hardware functions of the DS, so maybe the one is possible and the other isn't for some specific reason, but I just thought I'd ask.
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#115866 - felix123 - Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:11 pm
No one figured out how to do it yet. Some unreleased cards are rumored to contain this feature.
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#115875 - Firon - Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:55 pm
If it was possible, I'd imagine it would have a Slot-2 cartridge with some PSRAM and nothing more. The ROM would be copied in Slot-1 mode and then it'd reboot into GBA mode.
#115892 - Lynx - Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:57 pm
How can it be possible? Isn't slot-1 disabled when boot into GBA Mode (like Wifi, touchscreen, and the rest of the DS specific hardware). Copying data from slot-1 to slot-2 and rebooting into GBA Mode doesn't seem like a solution anyone would accept.
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#115897 - Firon - Sat Jan 20, 2007 12:29 am
It's the only way they can do it (apart from virtualizing it...), and to be honest, it wouldn't be that bad. You boot into the DS menu, load the ROM, and it just reboots into GBA mode and automatically loads whatever was copied. Would take a few more seconds at best. I mean, even the slot-2 devices had to copy the ROM to PSRAM every single time they booted.
#115900 - tepples - Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:52 am
| Firon wrote: |
| I mean, even the slot-2 devices had to copy the ROM to PSRAM every single time they booted. |
Except multiboots. GBA Movie Player could load a multiboot into the GBA's 256 KiB RAM and start executing it. But the DS-to-GBA mode switch call in the BIOS doesn't allow this, as it erases the GBA RAM before doing anything.
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#115908 - josath - Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:42 am
| Firon wrote: |
| I mean, even the slot-2 devices had to copy the ROM to PSRAM every single time they booted. |
Don't forget the old style GBA flashcarts which actually contained a big block of flashrom inside them. In order to boot a specific game, all that was needed was to toggle a couple bankswitching registers and then a softreset.
But that's just an aside. The main point is, there's no way to boot GBA games without having something in slot-2. At which point, why not just stick with a slot-2 only device in the first place?
#115910 - Lynx - Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:46 am
But, why would anyone want to do that over just buying a GBA Flash Cart and loading the homebrew directly onto it? Why waste space on your Slot-1 media?
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#115925 - Firon - Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:02 am
Because Slot-2 carts are expensive, and people who buy a slot-1 cart might not be able to afford both.
#115957 - tepples - Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:36 pm
| Lynx wrote: |
| But, why would anyone want to do that over just buying a GBA Flash Cart |
Are GBC flash carts manufactured anymore? Will GBA flash carts be manufactured forever?
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#115959 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:39 pm
The obvious answer is that there's no real reason to buy a slot-1 card, just get a slot-2 cart unless you have absolutely no interest in GBA stuff, which would be a shame, but I suppose some people might not.
As for booting GBA files from slot-1, I guess it's not possible then. Just thought I'd ask.
...word is bondage...
#115964 - Dood77 - Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:49 pm
Would it at all be possible to write a gba emulator that dynamically loads the rom when needed? (if its over the ram limit) Would it even be possible on a slot 2 solution? I'm a little dissapointed at my SCminiSD's GBA compatibility.
#115966 - tepples - Sat Jan 20, 2007 7:53 pm
Virtualization might work for multiboots, but for ROM, you'd need something that dynamically recompiles code that is hardcoded to access 0x08000000-0x09FFFFFF to access 0x02080000-0x023EFFFF instead. Not likely.
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#115972 - Firon - Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:34 pm
Wasn't LiraNuna trying to virtualize GBA in DS mode?
http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?p=113886#113886
#115980 - Lynx - Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:50 pm
| tepples wrote: |
| Lynx wrote: | | But, why would anyone want to do that over just buying a GBA Flash Cart |
Are GBC flash carts manufactured anymore? Will GBA flash carts be manufactured forever? |
Ok, but what makes you think a manufacturer is going to want to provide this "special" GBA cart to copy the data to?
And if you have a Slot-1 device and the program requires a device in slot-2 to copy the data to, and then reboot, the cost of both devices is going to be MORE then just the Slot-1 device.
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#115986 - Firon - Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:59 pm
Danny said that the M3 DS Real is going to have an extra memory cart for slot-2.
#116002 - chishm - Sun Jan 21, 2007 12:55 am
| Lynx wrote: |
| tepples wrote: | | Lynx wrote: | | But, why would anyone want to do that over just buying a GBA Flash Cart |
Are GBC flash carts manufactured anymore? Will GBA flash carts be manufactured forever? |
Ok, but what makes you think a manufacturer is going to want to provide this "special" GBA cart to copy the data to? |
For pirates (the majority of their sales), it'll work with Opera warez, work with GBA warez, and have the prestige of a Slot-1 device.
For homebrewers / developers (their supposed customers), it allows the memory-heavy builds of DSLinux to run, it can act as a cache (it'd be quite useful for Quake or SCUMMVM) and it's another interesting device to play with.
32MiB of RAM on a cart shouldn't be too expensive to design and produce.
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