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Any chance a GBA emulator being made?

Started by takuma, February 10, 2007, 05:05:42 PM

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Do you desire a GBA emulator for DS?

Yes
12 (60%)
No
8 (40%)

Total Members Voted: 20

Voting closed: February 10, 2007, 05:07:13 PM

takuma

With all the new slot 1 flashcarts like Supercard DS one and R4DS and M3 simply not supporting gba games does anyone have any idea if a GBA emulator is being worked on?

Also I was wondering if anyone else is also interested like me.

Personally it would be a dream come true if GBA was emulated on the ds and it allowed you to stretch the screen and use wireless for link cable.  Save states would be nice also.

Perseid

I still have my Supercard SD and it isn't going anywhere. A while it's compatibility isn't perfect an emulator wouldn't be either. And it may or may not be possible to emulate a GBA at speed on a DS.

nyuk1998

If it was possible, I'd be all for it.  Unless they're working on GBA compatability issues for the CF and SD.  (Which I doubt they are.)  I get ignored on every website when I ask about it.

Koji

The DS has 4 megs of ram. The DS slot does not work the same way the GBA slot does. Since the DS slot can't access the data fast enough for GBA games (which causes GBA games to crash) the data would have to be loaded into ram, but as previously stated the DS has only 4 megs and the smallest GBA games are 8+megs.

This is where the problem arrises... You either need an incredibly small GBA game, or some sort of ram expansion to do this. No one is going to bother writing an emulator for what are little more then PD tech demos, and the only really usable ram expansions for DS are slot-2 devices, which natively are capable of playing GBA games. Since they can already play GBA games in GBA mode, there is no reason to emulate them.

Besides the constraints of the slot, I honestly can't see what the DS can't emulate the GBA. The DS is just an overclocked GBA with extra ram, if nothing else it shouldn't be too hard to HLE every instruction.

dantheman

Koji, some games are 4 MB in size.  With trimming, they could get down to a small enough size.  I think DS games don't get below 8 MB, but I could be wrong.

Then there are also some games that can be forcibly trimmed beyond their normal capabilities.  The only one I've found to be like this is Dr. Mario and Puzzle League, which can be cut down from 8 MB down to around 3 MB or so, skipping a good chunk of actual data.  Dr. Mario no longer works, but Puzzle League boots correctly.

Doggy124

Quote from: Koji

Besides the constraints of the slot, I honestly can't see what the DS can't emulate the GBA. The DS is just an overclocked GBA with extra ram, if nothing else it shouldn't be too hard to HLE every instruction.

and wii is overclocked GC with extra ram/wifi/bluetooth?


felix

Waiting for M3DSR/the expander from EZ or something would be a quicker solution.
WiFi link does sound attractive though. (Although no one figured out how to do DS to DS wireless in homebrew yet.)
size=8]DS3, FM7, SCmSD1.80/2.60, WRT54GL with Tomato Firmware[/size]

Koji

Quote from: "Doggy124"
Quote from: "Koji"

Besides the constraints of the slot, I honestly can't see what the DS can't emulate the GBA. The DS is just an overclocked GBA with extra ram, if nothing else it shouldn't be too hard to HLE every instruction.

and wii is overclocked GC with extra ram/wifi/bluetooth?

actually that's pretty much right. The controller is completely new technology, but it's seperate from the console in that the console doesn't determine it's location in a 3D space, the controller does all that (with the help of the IR sensor bar).

Besides that, it's pretty much an overclocked wii that "locks in" the GCN framerate in GCN mode.

Hi

You know... I think there may be more reasons for making a gba emulator then just to play gba games...

I've been looking at some gba homebrew. When I do, I just have to say, "Wow! gba homebrew is really developed and professional... amazingly so."

If we could make a gba emu, maybe we could combine gba homebrew with nds homebrew to create some fantastic stuff for the nds.

THAT'S a reason we need an emu. Think of what could be done... the possibilitys are endless... almost... endless...
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