#38888 - Sausage Boy - Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:30 pm
I had this nice idea, that instead of paying $60 for a flashcart, I'd just bend up one of the games I don't play anymore, solder wires to the different pins, make little holes for the wires to go out through, and connect the whole thing to the serial port.
What do you think?
Is there any software that can simulate a cartridge?
If not, is there any place with detailed information of all the pins and how they work etc...
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#38906 - tepples - Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:51 pm
| Sausage Boy wrote: |
| I had this nice idea, that instead of paying $60 for a flashcart, I'd just bend up one of the games I don't play anymore, solder wires to the different pins, make little holes for the wires to go out through, and connect the whole thing to the serial port. |
The PC serial port is much too slow to act as an EPROM-emulator for the GBA cart bus. If you want to develop on a tight budget, I'd suggest building an XBOO cable and sending .mb programs.
| Quote: |
| If not, is there any place with detailed information of all the pins and how they work etc... |
http://www.ziegler.desaign.de/GBA/gba.htm
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#38909 - Sausage Boy - Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:58 pm
Sadly enough, I plan to do DS development. I can't believe Nintendo didn't put a link cable connector on it! Seriously! And the wireless can't even simulate one! Pfffft... It's madness I say, pure madness.
Anyways, which are the cheapest flash carts with some quality, and that won't require a link port?
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#38912 - ampz - Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:32 pm
| Sausage Boy wrote: |
| Sadly enough, I plan to do DS development. I can't believe Nintendo didn't put a link cable connector on it! Seriously! And the wireless can't even simulate one! Pfffft... It's madness I say, pure madness. |
The wireless can't emulate a link port because it is a technical impossibility to emulate the GBA link port over any kind of network. Including WLAN.
This comment, and the fact that you actually considered trying to emulate a GBA flash cart using a PC serial port suggests that you have alot of reading up to do on the basics of digital electronics, computer architecture, computer communication, and most importantly: The FAQ.
Along with the hundreds of previous threads in this forum on the same subjects.
Sorry if I seem a bit hard, but that's what you get when you refuse to read the FAQ and do a basic search on previous discussions on the subject.
#38955 - Sausage Boy - Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:06 pm
Oooops....I said serial port...
I meant the parallel port, really, but that was before I counted the pins. :P
How about a PCI slot then? You think I might have more luck with that one? Shouldn't it be fast enough?
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#38957 - ampz - Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:27 pm
| Sausage Boy wrote: |
Oooops....I said serial port...
I meant the parallel port, really, but that was before I counted the pins. :P |
Serial port or parallel port makes no difference.
| Sausage Boy wrote: |
| How about a PCI slot then? You think I might have more luck with that one? Shouldn't it be fast enough? |
No.
#38963 - tepples - Sat Apr 02, 2005 4:23 pm
By the time you've done all this, you could have dropped $100 for a flash cart and $20 for a PassMe.
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#38968 - Sausage Boy - Sat Apr 02, 2005 5:41 pm
| Quote: |
| Serial port or parallel port makes no difference. |
Knowing the fact that the serial port has 2 useful pins, while the parallel has like, 16, it should make some difference. 16/2=8, so, 8 times faster.
| Quote: |
| Quote: |
How about a PCI slot then? You think I might have more luck with that one? Shouldn't it be fast enough? |
No. |
You don't seem to think my ideas are any good (probably because they aren't...). What are you, the owner of a flash cart company or something?
| Quote: |
| By the time you've done all this, you could have dropped $100 for a flash cart and $20 for a PassMe. |
Probably. But, I am a cheap bastard you know (not to be confused with rom kiddie). Also, we can't forget the cool factor, taking the computer to a Lan and have 25 wires connected to a gba cart at the back of the computer. And pulling out the DS with a PassMe (one of the big passthroughs would be even cooler, but those seem a little hard to get your hands on) and begin to play my homebrew games. Mmmmm....
And also, if I don't remember wrong, passme games are loaded into the RAM before executing. I wouldn't need as much speed for that, would I?
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#38969 - Dwedit - Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:14 pm
I've heard most passme games are NOT loaded into ram first, they execute directly from GBA address space.
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#38971 - Sausage Boy - Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:20 pm
Aha, sorry. Don't know where I got it from...
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#44122 - ZeroX - Mon May 30, 2005 3:45 pm
Actually, the parellel port only has 8 data pins that can actually send data, and if you set the bi-directional bit set, those 8 pins can read signals. There are remaining 4 control pins, which are also used to send data, and 5 status pins, which can only read signals. Remaining 8 pins are ground 0V. At any given time, u can only send 8 bits of data, the control pins excluded.
The GBA cart interface is memory mapped, 24 pins bi-directional for ROM access (16 pins for use of addresing and data transfer, remaining 8 is for extended addresing A16-A23,and also for data transfer through RAM). The 8 parellel port pins are not enough. there are also other pins, like Chip Select. Please correct me if im wrong, im writing through memory.
Even if u design the hardware and wrote some software, you will be severely dissapointed cause the parellel port is just not fast enough. The speed is around 50-150 Kbytes per second in SPP mode. Even in ECP and EPP modes, it wont work.
My apologies for spoiling your ambition, but you know what? your idea using the PCI slot might just work. Why not use the AGP slot? Maybe PCI-EXpress!!!. that one is FAST. Well.........seriously, it is possible if you devote your time to it. Heh. :)
P.S. Dont be pissed with Ampz, he was actually being nice.
#44140 - tepples - Mon May 30, 2005 5:50 pm
Realistically, given the high speeds involved, the only way an EPROM emulator for the GBA would work is if it had enough RAM to hold a whole GBA ROM. By then, you might as well put a CF interface on it and call it a SuperCard.
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#49317 - dovoto - Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:11 pm
You could make a small board that sets up and loads a rom from the parallel port very easily and with very little in the way of hardware. A small eeprom (which contains some firmware) and cpld and parallel port header are all you need. This would require a more than far amoung of hardware skills and digital logic design but I use this exact method (via my xport) quite often. Loading a file into the DS's spacous ram is very doable and infact a great way to develop hands free. And passme roms usualy do not exicute from gba rom space. They are loaded totaly into memory unless they have some sort of file system on board (which you can also easily simulate over the parallel port). As for actual cart emulation over parallel port, this is (of course) not possible do to the numerous reasons allready stated.
All that being said it will be cheeper to buy a flash cart as making a single pcb, cpld programming cable, eeprom burner, and breaking a few cplds is going to end up costing more than you think :)
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#49445 - Shoxz - Fri Jul 29, 2005 7:25 pm
The XGflash Turbo 2005 edition works just fine with the DS.. It comes with a little slim writer, and is probly the cheapest flashcart their is, yet works perfect..
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#49549 - Cyberman - Sun Jul 31, 2005 1:27 am
the original author was thinking GBA not DS however.
Cyb
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#49553 - tepples - Sun Jul 31, 2005 2:26 am
| Cyberman wrote: |
| the original author was thinking GBA not DS however. |
In that case, MBV2 or XBOO it is.
_________________
-- Where is he?
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-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#49864 - Sausage Boy - Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:47 am
Actually, I program for the DS. But this was a while ago, and I have now bought a wireless card and YodaNC flashed my DS when I was in France, so it worked out. I'm still planning to buy a cartridge and a passme.
When I browsed to board and saw Author: Sausage Boy, I was like. Eh? WFT? Imposer? Then I read it and recognised it.
I'd also like to say that I were never mad at anyone or anything, just slightly disappointed that my ideas were unrealistic.
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