The DS And GB/GBC Games

[jamcat]

I read something interesting on the web. It said that the DS cartridge port for GBA is made to only accept GBA games.

Looking at a GBA and GBC cartridge, I noticed that the GBA cart has a small notch on the left and right side of it. The GBC cart doesn't have any notches.

Now since the GBC is basically a NES, and there are emulated NES games for the GBA, I would guess to assume the DS can handle NES games.

Question is, if somebody were to open the DS case and cut off the notches on the GBA cart port, or cut notches into a GBC game, would a GBC game then run on a DS?

Well, if anybody is brave enough to cut up a DS or GBC cart to find out, drop a post if it works. It would be so cool if this did work. If it was found to work, maybe some company could make a GBC adapter for the DS.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I'm guessing it would play them FINE if you could get the carts in. I'm sure there is a valid reason for them to have done this. Perhaps it would not be 100% compatible with GB/GBC, so they elected to make it an all or nothing thing.

However, if you're REALLY that dedicated, spend $100 and get a Flash Cart, and run the excellent GB/GBC emus on there have ALL your GB/GBC stuff on a single cart. As a bonus, you can stock it with your NES games too. That just seems to be the easiest way to do it.

[yuckymucky]

The reason that I have heard/read that GB/GBC games will not work on the DS is that they left Z80 processor off of the system.(It's not auctually a Z80 in the GBA, but a processor that runs exactally the same as it) Other wise the DS would have 3 processors onboard and I'm sure it would be bigger.

The GBA contains 2 processors and they have it at that size so I bet they could have figured a way to shrink the DS to fit 3 or they could have even used emulation. My other guess is that they are saving the GBA/GB stuff because they are going to release those games on multi DS packs.?.?

[kittendaddy]

I'm guessing it would play them FINE if you could get the carts in. I'm sure there is a valid reason for them to have done this. Perhaps it would not be 100% compatible with GB/GBC, so they elected to make it an all or nothing thing.

However, if you're REALLY that dedicated, spend $100 and get a Flash Cart, and run the excellent GB/GBC emus on there have ALL your GB/GBC stuff on a single cart. As a bonus, you can stock it with your NES games too. That just seems to be the easiest way to do it.

Is there a really good GB emu that runs on the GBA? I haven't found one that's supposed to work overly well, though I've only been looking a short while. When I first tried Pocket NES, I was blown away that you could emulate NES on the handheld, but I'd like to consolidate some of my old GB games on the same flash cart, if possible.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Take a peek here:

http://www.gameboy-advance.net/emulated/gb_roms_on_gba.htm

The EZ Flash 3.x client has built in emulation for GB* roms.

[kittendaddy]

Thanks, I'll check it out!

[jamcat]

Ah, so that is the GB to GBA emulator Shane was talking about. Looks fine for classic B&W GB games, but I only have 2 B&W GB games, the rest are GBC with most being GBC ONLY.

And since the info on the emulator states "Some GB COLOR game will work, but the ones that are "CGB Only" will not work", it pretty much makes that emulator useless to me.

I'd rather not bother with a half-assed emulator like that. I'll just wait and see if Nyko or some other 3rd party company will come out with a cartridge adapter.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I'm guessing that the reason it isn't enabled now is some compatibility problem. Easier to disable it than to tech support a half-assed effort of support.