#55059 - furrykef - Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:18 am
I'm somewhat new to all this, not new to programming at all but I'm relatively inexperienced with homebrew, my experience being limited to hacking around with GBA demo stuff late last year. I could do that on an emulator of course, but I know that emulation of the DS is incomplete. So I want to understand a few things... I know some answers are on the web, but I want to figure out what's best for me, and some answers I couldn't find. Here goes:
1. How complete is emulation support, anyway? I know that commercial games won't run, but is that due more to encryption issues or to unemulated features or what? I know I'll need to get a flash setup but I want to know what I'll be able to do before I settle on one.
2. I want to develop a complete, commercial quality game in the hopes of getting it published. I know this is an unrealistic hope (especially if you know how lazy I am), but a guy can dream, can't he? The design I have in mind will probably require a gigabit and will require save memory (I don't know how much but to be safe I should assume the maximum). So...
2a. Does the current devkit support ALL of the DS' features? In other words, could I conceivably use to it to do anything a big development studio can do?
2b. What's the best setup to use to play my game on the DS? I'm thinking I'd be unable to save the game if I use Wi-Fi, correct? Should I get a NeoFlash Magic Key 2? If so, what should I get to go with it -- the flash device and the card for it?
- Kef
#55070 - deltro - Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:25 am
NeoFlashes are for pirates, and rich people. Get a PassMe, and a GBA FlashCart- I've heard good things about X-Rom, cheap and compatible. I think 256m is the max, without bankswitching.
Or you could get a GBAMP and a Wi-fi card it looks to me like the GBAMP may be the way of the future for DS dev. (or at least that what I am hoping, because I am cheap :>)
#55071 - furrykef - Sun Sep 25, 2005 4:28 am
| deltro wrote: |
| NeoFlashes are for pirates, and rich people. |
Oh, I'm rich. Or at least I have $7000 to play with if I wanted. :3
- Kef
#55073 - Wckd_Spn - Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:24 am
I hate you.
I don't wanna help you now...
Nah, I'd recommend a Movie Player, M3 or any CF/SD card reader, as that will give you more space to work with. IF you ever get the attention of a publisher, then you'll get access to an official dev kit and can go from there.
Of course, by yourself, you're not likely to be able to pull that off. You need a team, and a good WORKING idea. A lot of people who talk like you do have RPGs in mind... DON'T. They are ridiculously tedious to make, and publishers aren't likely to be interested.
#55076 - furrykef - Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:46 am
| Wckd_Spn wrote: |
I hate you.
I don't wanna help you now... |
I got it from gambling. I can't actually spend much of it because it's my bankroll. ^^;
| Quote: |
| Nah, I'd recommend a Movie Player, M3 or any CF/SD card reader, as that will give you more space to work with. IF you ever get the attention of a publisher, then you'll get access to an official dev kit and can go from there. |
Which brings up a question I forgot to ask: it should be easy enough to convert from a homebrew setup to the official kit, right? If it wouldn't work almost "out of the box" I'd have to keep that in mind as I code.
| Quote: |
| Of course, by yourself, you're not likely to be able to pull that off. You need a team, and a good WORKING idea. A lot of people who talk like you do have RPGs in mind... DON'T. They are ridiculously tedious to make, and publishers aren't likely to be interested. |
Heh, it was indeed an RPG initially but by now it has evolved into its own thing :P (And taking into account the DS' hardware it's going to evolve even more!) And yeah, I do know the kind of thing I'm getting into, and I don't expect success at it. I just have somewhat speculative hopes and want to have a little fun on the way. :)
- Kef
#55077 - tepples - Sun Sep 25, 2005 5:56 am
| furrykef wrote: |
| it should be easy enough to convert from a homebrew setup to the official kit, right? |
Two things to keep in mind:
First, DS cards behave more like NAND memory than like NOR memory. (Pocket Heaven has a decent explanation of the difference.) Every DS card has a Nitro-FAT file system, similar in use to the MS-FAT file system on the CF card in a GBA Movie Player. It'd probably be easier to adapt something that uses chishm's GBAMP code than something that uses an appended GBFS.
In addition, Niиtendo wants you to use its own ARM7 code so that the Wi-Fi driver doesn't do anything to break FCC rules. The official emulator (called Ensata) is similar to Dualis in that it uses high-level emulation of the ARM7 side of the system. Don't do any game logic or audio processing on the ARM7.
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#55353 - leoedin - Tue Sep 27, 2005 10:53 pm
If you ahve that kind of money, I'd reccomend an M3 - upgradeable memory (CF) a good company (Neo-Flash hasn't been known for their support) and apart from sticking out a bit, probably the best (and cheapest) proper flash cart.
Leo
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