#43704 - Gillz - Wed May 25, 2005 9:06 pm
All right, I've been reading about the whole DS hacking thing for quite a while. I understand flash carts, PassMe, and the wireless PassMe. I am a bit confused about something.
I saw a site that had the E3 Nintendo DS demos avaliable for download. Of course, they're in .nds format. Now, I always thought you could put those NDS files on a GBA flash cart, and launch them. Apparently, its not that easy....
| Quote: |
| PassMe is a device which, when combined with a regular DS cart (like, say, Metroid), tricks the DS (by modifying the cart header) into loading code from the GBA cart slot. |
So, if im understand this correctly, you would need pass me to run the NDS files that are on the GBA flash cart. Fair enough.....but....
| Quote: |
| PassMe DOES NOT work with Commercial dumps! |
So, now im confused. Now i can't run the E3 Demos?
Basically, I'm just asking what I would need to run those demos on my ds. I'm gonna get a GBA flash card soon, hoping that I would be able to load DS games onto that, and play them.
#43706 - Abcd1234 - Wed May 25, 2005 9:17 pm
Yes, I see your confusion. First, to answer your question, yes, you can play the demos using *Me.
To explain why, you have to understand that on a real, commercial DS game, it expects to run from the NDS cart slot. It will attempt to load graphics and code from there, since, well, that's where it's supposed to run from.
Code that's been downloaded, OTOH, is designed to run from WRAM. So, when the code is downloaded, the DS first downloads the cart header. The header tells the DS where to save the ARM9 and ARM7 image it's about to download, and then where to begin execution. So, the DS downloads the code into WRAM, then gets the ARM7 and ARM9 going at the correct addresses.
With the *Me solution, what we do is place the normally-downloaded code in the GBA cart along with a loader. The loader copies the code into WRAM and sets the ARM7 and ARM9 executing at the correct addresses. In essence, it's emulating the Download Play functionality. BUT, understand, this works specifically because the code was designed to work in this environment. Real commercial NDS games can't be run from the flash cart this way.
#43707 - Quirky - Wed May 25, 2005 9:17 pm
The 'commercial dumps' referred to there are the rom dumps of Super Mario DS and Metroid cartidges, not the wifi demos.
#43709 - Gillz - Wed May 25, 2005 9:25 pm
So, I can run the wifi demo's with *Me and a flash card.
But what about future games? Like, lets say someone extracts the nds file from a game, like Meteos. I wouldnt be able to put that game on a flash cart and run it with *Me?
#43710 - josath - Wed May 25, 2005 9:30 pm
No. Commercial games like Super Mario etc load additional assets from the DS Card Slot, BESIDES just the arm7 and arm9 binaries. the commercial wifi demos have ONLY the arm7 and arm9 binaries, with no additional stuff.
#43711 - Gillz - Wed May 25, 2005 9:37 pm
What are the additional stuff that it adds on?
I understand it better now, but I still dont know how you would go about playing official commercial games running on the DS, without actually buying them of course.
#43712 - cocole - Wed May 25, 2005 9:47 pm
| Gillz wrote: |
| I understand it better now, but I still dont know how you would go about playing official commercial games running on the DS, without actually buying them of course. |
Steal them off of Best Buy's shelves and run like hell ?
You can't and that's a good thing. We are not a forum dedicated to warez. We make games for fun. Some of us make game for a living... You see my point ?
#43713 - Gillz - Wed May 25, 2005 9:49 pm
O.K. I understand your a forum dedicated to homebrew games and such. I get your point. The homebrew games like Darkains look really good, like minesweeper. Im so hooked on that game.
its just I dont have that much money, so I cant go all willy-nilly buying WIreless Ethernet cards, Flash cards or PassMe's :P
But thanks for the help :D
#43718 - cocole - Wed May 25, 2005 10:17 pm
Anyway, I am going to answer your question.
Right now, there are only 2 commercial game dumps. They were done by DarkFader of this very board. One of them you already have if you live in Europe or America : Metroid Prime 1st hunt. The 2nd one is Mario 64 DS.
The only way you can play these commercials releases is with a neoflash kit. Neo flash kit is starting at $200. It can playing the dumps mentionned (well, patched dumps indeed).
So hum, let's see : neoflash = $200. Play metroid I already have. So basically it's $200 for Mario 64 DS. Add the fact that saves are redirected to another DS cart which looses its saves then.
I think I'm gonna buy Mario 64 DS preplayed at ebgames and stick away from the neoflash kit.
Maybe in the future, it'll able to dump, play dumps, etc... But not right now !
#43730 - Gillz - Thu May 26, 2005 1:54 am
Oh ok. I really understand now. I was so confused before :P
But yeah, I just need to buy a passme and Flash card...I have some money, but I dont know if I wanna spend it on that. I mean, I'd love to play the homebrew games, and Darkains Gmaes (darkain kicks ASS!! :D), but I dont think I wanna spend too much on a flash card. Thanks again for your help!!
#43735 - assassda - Thu May 26, 2005 2:42 am
neo flash CAN play the metroid dump?
do they patch the rom to look in the ds slot? wouldnt that work for passme too?
or is there a chip on the neoflash for temp storage of textures etc?
#43737 - Jimbeam - Thu May 26, 2005 3:15 am
neo flash is just a passme and a XG2 turbo..
#43739 - assassda - Thu May 26, 2005 3:27 am
thats what i thought therefore either cocole's post is false or we are wrong
#43747 - cory1492 - Thu May 26, 2005 6:06 am
its been my understanding that with a passme and a .ds rom you can add the ndsmall.bin to the front of it (copy /b ndsmall.bin+rom.nds outfile.ds.gba) and be able to play it (as long as you have a cart with correct save mem space in the passme).
of course, youd have to get those golden patched roms from somewhere, and there are only the 2....
#43748 - cocole - Thu May 26, 2005 6:14 am
| cory1492 wrote: |
| of course, youd have to get those golden patched roms from somewhere, and there are only the 2.... |
Yep. From my understanding they are the DF dumps patched and "rebranded".
#43756 - d3tr0it - Thu May 26, 2005 8:54 am
Well the GST releases doesn't work with my Flash2Advance + Flashme.
So I guess they are only patched to works with the XG2 / Neoflash?
#43777 - privateers69 - Thu May 26, 2005 5:51 pm
| d3tr0it wrote: |
Well the GST releases doesn't work with my Flash2Advance + Flashme.
So I guess they are only patched to works with the XG2 / Neoflash? |
From what I gather it works with a *me / XG2 cart
* = flash or pass