Nintendo DS and emulation

[Anthony1]

You would have to assume that Nintendo is very aware of the whole Flash Cart phenomenon with the GBA.


So you would have to imagine that they have done whatever they can to prevent that on the DS. But the DS does play GBA software.


So the question is, if somebody has a flash cart with Pocket NES on it, and a bunch of NES roms, would they play on a DS?


Will somebody figure out a way to do SNES emulation on the DS? Maybe even N64 emulation?


It's going to be very interesting to see what comes down the line in terms of emulation for the Nintendo DS and PSP.

[Pedro Lambrini]

I don't see why it wouldn't play your Pocket NES stuff. If it's GBA compatible it's DS compatible (apart from the multiplayer aspect).

I'm really looking forward too see how the emu scene develops for the DS and PSP. I have a feeling that the PSP (being more powerful) will end up with the best emus. It's going to be a great irony to see SNES and N64 games playing better on Sony H/W!

[Jive3D]

I cant speak for the SOny Hardware. And I'm SURE that Nintendo has created the DS media so that it will be hard to create "Flash Cards" - but GBA flash cards will work fine.

BUT, even though you are playing the GBA flash card on a DS, the files on your flash card are still limited to only what teh GBA can do and not what the DS can do.

[Flack]

I wouldn't say the DS will play GBA flashcarts FOR SURE until I see it do it. To date, the Gamecube has offered up the best copy protection of any of the big 4 nextgen consoles. Who knows, maybe the DS will be able to detect whether the cart is on an official Nintendo chip or something? You never know what the big N has planned.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's going to be a great irony to see SNES and N64 games playing better on Sony H/W!

Nintendo is recoding Super Mario 64 for the DS, and if anybody else wishes to do the same there's your answer for that point. Furthermore, the PSP will be only marginally more powerful than the PS2, and we're really not sure what that means in terms of processing power. Last time I checked it takes a pretty darn good system to emuate N64 games well enough, and I don't think the PSP will do nearly as smooth a job as games custom coded for the DS. Yes, I'm making a point of missing the fact that we're talking DS emulation versus PSP emulation, and I mean it :)

[Jive3D]

The Gameboy Player for Gamecube plays Flashcarts just fine - I really dont think that they CAN lock our flashcarts from being used on the DS - the only thing that they could do is that - say a GBA game is released and has broad wireless capabilities which can only be used when played on the DS - at that point the rom could be recognised as not having a unique serial number. But other than that, i wouldnt worry about Flash cards not working on the DS. I dont plan on using Flashcarts even if they do become available for the DS - I want to truly support Nintendo in their efforts here. I'll use my GBA flash cart though.

[soniko_karuto]

marginally more powerful than the PS2,

oh shitz my 2112 mhz athlon xp laptop pwns my 2000mhz athlon 64!!!11!

PWNED!!!11!!

(hope you saw the sarcasm).

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, I saw the sarcasm, and I'm glad you agree with me! To clear things up if indeed things need to be, I'm saying the PSP - what we've heard about it - is claimed to be marginally less (I wrote more, originally, but meant less, obviously ;) powerful than the PS2. In terms of a main processor carrying out code this means...what? We don't know for sure, because no programs have been ported and reviewed yet, no benchmarks made available to the public, and I've seen no specifications for the PSP's internal hardware (must admit I haven't looked though) to compare with those of the PS2, outside of some discussion of the unique graphics system which seems to cause things to look like garbage (see link at bottom of post).

So where's the N64 emulators for the PS2, then? Not listed on Zophar's, that's for sure. There's SNES, Genesis and even a TG-16 emulator for the PS2, but nothing much more advanced than that (Neo Geo CD?)

Plus, some (pretty new) side-by-side comparisions of the PS2 versus the PSP, right here.

Doesn't look too promising, overall.

[s1lence]

[quote="Anthony1"]You would have to assume that Nintendo is very aware of the whole Flash Cart phenomenon with the GBA.





So the question is, if somebody has a flash cart with Pocket NES on it, and a bunch of NES roms, would they play on a DS?


Yes pocket NES does work on the DS.

[postulio]

lets start clearing shit up, im pretty active in the scene, i do a lot gba coding, i did some debug work on PogoShell.

a) Gba flash carts work fine on the ds

b) there is a project currently working seeing how a SNES emulator would run on the DS using the gba flash cart, it ran with support for few games on the gba and had major problems, mostly due to hardware contraints, there might be a chance to have it run better on DS. ill keep you updated.

c) the psp uses mini-dvd type things, not carts, so any kind of emulation/flash carts are out of the question, yorue stuck with what you buy. (special type propriatary recorded media, a la GC discs)

d) the DS cards arent that much more advance than SD flash memory cards, so reverse engineering shouldnt be too difficult. expect a flash card soon.

[thegreatescape]

c) the psp uses mini-dvd type things, not carts, so any kind of emulation/flash carts are out of the question, yorue stuck with what you buy. (special type propriatary recorded media, a la GC discs)

Close, but no cigar..

TOKYO--In an interview with Impress Game Watch, Sony Computer Entertainment's chief of network system department Izumi Kawanishi confirmed that the PSP will be capable of both downloading games via wireless LAN and playing them off a Memory Stick.

If you want to play n64 roms on the go, the psp would be the better prospect (dont hold your breath though) because of its superior specs. Imagine that, mario64 on a psp

Linky