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DS Misc > false RAM Card r4ds web browser

#152049 - SG1anubis007 - Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:11 am

I posted a topic a while ago about formatting an old gba game to be used as a RAM card. I got a response that it would only yield about 32kb or so and something about SRAM cannibalism. I was just thinking. Is there any way to pass a file from a slot 1 cartridge to a gba game using the r4ds. This file would be some sort of patch that makes it look like the RAM card for the retail browser, so that r4ds users without a slot 2 card can use the opera web browser.

#152061 - tepples - Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:54 am

SG1anubis007 wrote:
I posted a topic a while ago about formatting an old gba game to be used as a RAM card. I got a response that it would only yield about 32kb or so and something about SRAM cannibalism. I was just thinking. Is there any way to pass a file from a slot 1 cartridge to a gba game using the r4ds. This file would be some sort of patch that makes it look like the RAM card for the retail browser, so that r4ds users without a slot 2 card can use the opera web browser.

I assume you're talking about the following procedure:
  1. Insert R4.
  2. Run Nitro Hax.
  3. Eject R4 and insert an authentic Nintendo DS Browser card into SLOT-1.
  4. Select a patch for Nintendo DS Browser that allows it to use a third-party RAM pak in SLOT-2, such as SuperCard or EZFlash.
  5. Boot SLOT-1.

Such a procedure would not work for a GBA Game Pak. Here's why: Official GBA Game Paks with SRAM have 32 KiB of RAM. The Nintendo DS Memory Expansion Pak has 8,192 KiB of RAM.

Why are you trying to use a RAM pak other than the Memory Expansion Pak that came with your authentic Nintendo DS Browser card? Is it that all copies of Nintendo DS Browser in your region have the smaller Memory Expansion Pak for DS Lite and you have an original style DS?
_________________
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#152067 - HyperHacker - Sun Mar 09, 2008 5:43 am

You can't format or erase a GBA game. It's ROM, as in Read-Only Memory. SRAM is the small rewriteable area used to save game progress, but like tepples pointed out there's very little of it.
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#152097 - silent_code - Sun Mar 09, 2008 10:35 pm

no personal offense, but this smells a lot like piracy... why whould someone who owns a legitimate copy of the browser not use his orignal cart?

#152105 - tepples - Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:39 am

silent_code wrote:
why whould someone who owns a legitimate copy of the browser not use his orignal cart?

Here's why. Not all regions got the Nintendo DS Browser with the physically larger Memory Expansion Pak that the original style DS needs.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

#152162 - SG1anubis007 - Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:27 pm

sorry guys, i know it may look like piracy but no. I understand what you think though. I use mr R4 purley for homebrew. When my friend lost his RAM card I asked him if I could have it because I thought there may be some way to fix it being that I like DIY projects, but I suck at programing which is primarily why I subscribed to this forum. Being that I dislike the fact of feeeling unwelcome to this forum I wish to clear up this subject.

Thanks

#152170 - Sweater Fish Deluxe - Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:09 am

Well, if this were possible, we'd do it just because we could, all questions of legality aside.

However, like others have said, it's not possible because GBA games are made of read only memory (aside from the very small section of SRAM for saving), so it wouldn't be possible.

Along these lines, Neo Geo Pocket carts apparently actually are using some kind of flashable memory to hold the game ROM as well as the save memory and there was some work done on turning commercial NGPC carts into flash carts, but it never really came up with anything since there's some protection bits set on the majority of the memory that won't allow you to re-write the chips without a hell of a lot of work.


...word is bondage...

#152178 - HyperHacker - Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:17 am

Speaking of which, I was thinking about something the other day. What does Opera use that RAM for? If we can hack it to use the RAM of some other slot-2 card, with 32MB instead of 8, I wonder how hard it would be to hack it to use all 32MB, or if that would even do any good?
_________________
I'm a PSP hacker now, but I still <3 DS.

#152188 - tepples - Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:01 pm

Quote:
my friend lost his RAM card

Fair enough. You have two options:
  • Buy a replacement RAM card from Nintendo. (Search)
  • Buy a SLOT-2 SuperCard or M3 (which also lets you run homebrew) and use Chishm's booter.

As far as anybody who has posted here can tell, Opera uses that RAM to cache the downloaded documents that make up the page.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.

#152240 - silent_code - Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:34 pm

good point!
i'm sorry i didn't know that.
@mod: delete my old post if you like to.