#8292 - Snoobab - Mon Jul 07, 2003 12:14 pm
Hi, I recently found schematics on the 'net for a PC-to-GBA multiboot cable (named "The Dumb Cable") I'm going to build it but havent started yet 'cuz I'm not sure if there is any software outthere which will support it. Has anyone here built one of these cables before? If so, what software do you use to send your ROMS (ROMS<256K) to the GBA? The compiler I'm using is DevKitAdv, would I have to change some of the compilation settings in it in order for my programs to work on the GBA hardware? I heard that one has to use some sort of ROM header, could someone tell me more about this?
Thanks a lot.
- Ed.
#8296 - niltsair - Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:21 pm
You must compile your program as 'multiboot'. I've never done it myself. but you can do a search for it on this website, or under the doc section of the main website (www.gbadev.org)
#8299 - Wanderer - Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:06 pm
I've made one of the dumb cable designs I found on the internet... can't remember which one it was (there were a couple of designs out there when I did it). Software to support them is thin on the ground, but I found some for mine.. might still have it somewhere.
As niltsair said you'll need to compile the code as a multiboot image (it sets a different entry point for the code) using DevKitAdv you just need to include the line | Code: |
| int __gba_multiboot; |
in your program to do this.
You will need to bear in mind that reliability will probably be an issue, due to timing problems images may only load once every 5 trys or something like that. Also be aware that because there are potentially a number of different versions of the cable design software written for a different dumb cable design porbably won't work.
You'll also need a utility to open up low level access to the parallel port under modern versions of windows. I used a tool called "UserPort" to do this.
Wanderer
#8302 - Snoobab - Mon Jul 07, 2003 7:56 pm
Thanks for the info guys. I've got another question =) Which is the best GBA accessory to get the connection to the link port from? There are a lot to choose from! What methods do you guys use to run ur GBA programs/demos, emu or hardware?
Thanks again.
- Ed.
#8306 - Wanderer - Tue Jul 08, 2003 12:41 am
If I remember correctly I used an adapter that came with a spare GBC link cable I had kicking about. It was intended to adapt a GBC plug (which will fit into a GBA) to an old GB style plug - a larger but similar sort of thing. The advantage to me was that it didn't require me to hack up a functional cable, on the down side it was probably slightly more work getting the wires all in the right places.
For making a dumb cable anything that lets you connect to the GBA will do *provided* it has contacts on the necessary 'pins' (I say this because my other old GBC cable only had contacts on a few of the lines so was unusable).
These days I'm using a Xtreme linker to get my stuff onto cart, and generally testing most often with Boycott Advance and VisualBoy Advance before going on and testing on HW. I don't know if these are the best emulators to use but they seem to do the job. The Xtreme linker was my choice because it used USB (I already have enough things vying for my parallel port as it is).. it works quite well but seems to have 'issues' under Win2k where it keeps claiming to have been unpluged when it hasn't (leads to annoying pop up warnings).. so I generally unplug it when I'm not using it (causing no pop up ;)) which works fine.
Another option if you're happy with 256k for now is the MBV2 (MultiBootVersion 2) which is a smart multiboot cable available from http://www.lik-sang.com/ (MBV3 available elsewhere is not more recent just a cleverly named rip off)
Wanderer.