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DS Misc > NDS 30mb limit (using ScummVM 0.61)?

#97919 - superdix - Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:05 am

I've been looking everywhere for some information on this and can't seem to find anything.

The ScummVM DS page says that there is a limitation on the GBA bus (30 mb). Now, how come people are able to play games that are over 150mb? (DOTT w/sound and music, for example)? Is the core game (.ds.gba file) at ~30mb, and all sound and music lying around as .wav instead?

My setup is NDS Lite, EZ4Lite (microSD) with EZ-Pass 3. Maniac mansion, Indy 3 works like a charm, but those are small games. When I try to run Fate of Atlantis, for example, the loader stops at 61440kb (it ALWAYS stops here). Any ideas why?

All help will be much appreciated!

#97921 - MaHe - Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:21 am

Most of the GBA slot adapters have built-in 32MB of internal RAM, where binaries larger than 4MB are loaded from the media (because media itself is too slow, in GBA mode, at least). It was pretty much used only in GBA homebrew and early DS homebrew, because there weren't any FAT drivers around (needed for accessing the files on your media). Things changed, but ScummVM DS 6.1 was already released before EZ4 got out. I'm sure agentq will implement EZ4 support in the next release, if the drivers get stable enough. Until then, you're forced to be limited on 32MB ...
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[ Crimson and Black Nintendo DS Lite | CycloDS Evolution | EZ-Flash 3-in-1 | 1 GB Transcend microSD ]

#97923 - superdix - Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:32 am

Thanks, that explains quite a bit.

But what worries me is that the NDS loader on the EZ4lite stops at 61440kb -- it doesn't get to start ScummVM DS at all! I can't see how added support in the ScummVM DS would help? Or am I missing something here?

#97956 - Critical_Impact - Sat Aug 12, 2006 3:20 pm

Instead of having the game + scummvm in the same file it will read the game directly off the cart. Because of the gba file system limitation you can only have a max of 32mb. Assuming he adds in support for you device you will have to add the game onto the root of your flashcart, run scummvm and it will show up. Thats how it works on the flashcart i have(supercard sd)