GameBoy Web Server

Huma79 writes "Adrian O'Grady has successfully gotten TCP/IP and PPP working on his handheld Gameboy Advance for a web server. Pictures of the server running and a telnet session to it can be found at fivemouse.com."

Comments

Uhhhhhhhhhh

[cscx]

Wonder how fast it gets Slashdotted!

Re:Uhhhhhhhhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

well it's still up now.

Re:Uhhhhhhhhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

cscx is a known troll and idiot.

If it's not an ignorant pile of tripe, it's karma-whoring.

Re:Uhhhhhhhhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you mean, --cscx?
Bitch.

Re:Uhhhhhhhhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, that is good practice, modding depending on how others percieve the user, not the quality of his comment.

You, my friend, are an idiot and your kind is the greatest threat to any kind of grading system.

But why?

[groman]

Why? WHY!? I mean, yea it's sorta cool, I guess I could run a webserver on my microwave or my TI-89, but wouldn't buying an old-ass Sparc 5 for $100 serve better as a webserver? Sure there are those who are pushing the limits, and asking the question, but some people seem to be misinterpreting that. You have to push the limits of that which is sane and accepted, not push the limits of that which is practical.

Re:But why?

[Kronovohr]

maybe he intends to build a beowulf clu*WHACKWHACKWHACK* OW DAMNIT! I didn't say it! I *SWEAR!*

Re:But why?

[Moonshadow]

Because you can.

The motto of all true engineers.

Re:But why?

[ryants]

Why? WHY!?

It's a Zen thing: if you have to ask, you'll never understand the answer.

You have to push the limits of that which is sane and accepted, not push the limits of that which is practical.

Is this an attempt at a koan?

Re:But why?

[groman]

nevermind, after actually reading the article it is pretty fucking cool. [goes to get a GBA]

Re:But why?

[cscx]

Wrong! The motto of true engineers is "do something the easiest and most cost-efficient way" and in the least amount of time. Obviously working for hour upon hour to write a web server for a freakin' Game Boy that no one will use will ever fit any of those categories. Remember, there has to be a need for something too.

Re:But why?

[ryants]

... after actually reading the article ...

What a concept.

Re:But why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, that's more the motto of all true hackers, hardware and software varieties.

Re:But why?

[the_2nd_coming]

sorry, he ment " because you can, the motto of a true hacker (in the classical sence of thew term)"

Re:But why?

[pennsol]

/me attempts to troll...

But Why? Why?

Re:But why?

[ciole]

Me and my homeboy back in the admin lab almost ten years ago, fixing 286s or 8088s, i forget, got the idea to see how many monitors and separate video cards we could put in one box. When our supervisor walked in, he said "Are all those monitors running off that one computer? Why do you have three monitors attached to it?"

We replied, "Because four wouldn't work."

Re:But why?

[minusthink]

for the same reason writers write novels and not instruction manuals.

or something.

Re:But why?

[Lumpy]

Ok we can explain this easily...

If you wanted to write a comms protocol for the GBA that was a standard (TCP/IP over ppp) to write a game that can play against multiple players you (if you have a brain) use an established and open protocol. now you need to figure out how to write clients and servers... well the easiest thing to write is a http server.

this guy wrote it for learning.. he now has the tools to make something really cool for the GBA.

this is why.. edu-ma-cation and learning and research.

why did we go to the moon? we knew what was there. so why did we kill 3 astronauts, and waste gagillions to do it? we could have just bought a 30 billion dollar telescope to look at it.

understand now?

Re:But why?

[EvilGwyn]

Hell yeah. I heard someone actually wrote a version of the UNIX kernel that would run on home PCs. Like anyone would ever use something like that.

Re:But why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll tell you why. If programmers would stop assuming we all have 2GHz Pentium 4 computers w/ half a gig of RAM and write all code like it *has* to be run on something slow with little memory, the state of the software industry would be much more impressive than it is now.

Re:But why?

[Waffle Iron]

Obviously working for hour upon hour to write a web server for a freakin' Game Boy that no one will use will ever fit any of those categories.

It's called play. Most curious people learn through playing. A few people with Eric Cartman-like personalities, however, can't understand the concept.

Re:But why?

[Moonshadow]

Actually, in my experience, engineers will spend more time, money, and effort developing an easier, faster, more cost-efficient way than if they had just done it the normal way in the first place. :)

Re:But why?

[packeteer]

there is always the old 'because i can' but that sometimes gets kinda dull...

the feat here is not that the is a webserver running here its that the author was able to run an embeded proegram on a non pc system...

whether it is a webserver or whatever else doesn't matter the point is that this is one step in the right direction formany other things such as maybe a gameboy emulator...

these baby steps are the way reverse engineering is done and i amhopeful that this could lead to many other cooler GBA programs or GBA devices for use in a pc environment

Re:But why?

[Anonymous Coward]

It still baffles me how they did this. I'd like to know how to do this on a Nintendo 64.

Re:But why?

[DaCool42]

The sheer joy of it of course! If you think webservers should only be on full-fledged computers, then kiss all those embeded web devices goodbye.

Re:But why?

[SkewlD00d]

License to "Be Silly": $0
Skills learned: priceless

Hands on tinckering is a good way to learn, even if the result is silly.

Yeah, but a webserver on a PIC is a much cooler thing. Yes, even your watch could have a web server. I'm thinking that building something cool and useful is even more l337. I think that a line of sight optikal ethernet link is pretty kewl (and useful!).

That's just my 10b cents.

Re:But why?

[MaxVlast]

Um, did you read the article? They explain how they did it pretty clearly.

Re:But why?

[MaxVlast]

"why did we go to the moon? we knew what was there. so why did we kill 3 astronauts, and waste gagillions to do it? we could have just bought a 30 billion dollar telescope to look at it."

Because the Soviets put the first satellite and astro/cosmonaut in orbit?

Re:But why?

[user32.ExitWindowsEx]

TI-89.....
*thinks*
*laughs evily*
*disappears into darkness*

Re:But why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes.

Microsoft, under the direction of Bill Gates, wrote a version of UNIX (called Xenix) that would run on 'Home Computers' (the IBM PC, and other 8086 based boxes) back in about 1980. Microsoft's Xenix was the first port of UNIX to the x86 architecture, incidentally.

Other people have done the same. Gates and Microsoft moved on to other things.

Re:But why?

[alex_ant]

They would? Oh wait, this is Slashdot.

Re:But why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to sarcasm.

Re:But why?

[user32.ExitWindowsEx]

Correction: That last should be *returns to TI-GCC* instead of *disappears into darkness*. I'm sorry for any confusion this might have caused.

Re:But why?

[Anonymous Coward]

That more sound like the motto of all true hackers. Not all engineers occupy themselves with childish bs like this.

Re:But why?

[alvi]

If IE's Windows integration is a monopoly, then I'm all for the removal of Konqueror from KDE.

Just a side note, completely OT: Are you aware that your signature is ridiculous? 'IE Windows integration' has nothing to do with 'monopoly'.

Re:But why?

[Paul87]

From the proposal link on the guy's site:

I have chosen to work on this project, as I am keen to learn about development for non-Intel based systems and I am very interested in low-level networking. This project will allow me to explore both areas of interest while still only working on one project.
An extra advantage of this project is that it ties in very well with the rest of my course as I am also studying Computer Networks: Principals and Applications (CNPA) and Distributed and Parallel Systems. My project and the CNPA course will complement each other very well, as I will be studying some of the required protocols in details as part of the course.
From the work I do on this project, the main area in which I will expand my understanding is in the functionality of a number of network protocols. This knowledge should be very useful for any future project I wish to undertake which involve the use of network functions.
This project will also fit in with my specialist award as I'm aiming for a Computing and Networking specialist degree.

Re:But why?

[PerryMason]

why did we go to the moon...and waste gagillions to do it?

Bah! The US Gov'ment pocketed the gagillions and got Hollywood to fake the whole thing! ;)

Re:But why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hence the "if"...
;-)

(btw, I'm not the one with that sig; just another AC)

Re:But why?

[Darren Winsper]

Wow, next time I need to tell the time, I can look at http://watch.dwinsper.org instead of going to all the effort to move my arm.

Re:But why?

[metacell]

Nah -- a *real* engineer is at the peak of motivation when people say it *can't* be done.

HA

[Anonymous Coward]

DMCA bait

Microwave webserver?

[cybermint]

Where can I get one of these?!?!? I will pay PHAT $$$ for a microwave/webserver combo!

Re:Microwave webserver?

[Anonymous Coward]

I will pay phat $$$ if you take my microwave! Now that I have my Athlon XP, it's redundant. I'll even buy you a GBA webserver, please, anything to take it!

This is all well and good

[Saint Aardvark]

until the damn thing crashes and loses your high score for SuperMarioLand. You listening, Adrian? Don't come crying to us then, sucker!

People have too much time on their hands

[cscx]

Why?!? This is oddly reminicent of the legOS web server for your Lego® Mindstorms kit. I mean, I guess it's cool, but what have you proved? You can write a TCP/IP stack for some processor on some platform? Yeah, we all _know_ that can be done, but, why waste your time doing something useless? It's not like someone is going to throw out their NT or Linux server and replace with a GameBoy Advance or Lego brick anytime soon.. er... ever! There is simply no use for this in the world. There, it had to be said.

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[Anonymous Coward]

bah, like everything you do helps mankind in some profound way...

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[ryants]

You can write a TCP/IP stack for some processor on some platform? Yeah, we all _know_ that can be done, but, why waste your time doing something useless?

I'm willing to be the guy learned a great deal by doing this. A while ago I wrote a spaceship flying demo in OpenGL. Utterly useless. It's been done before. But hey, I learned a lot about OpenGL in the process.

If you're just going to sit there doing only "useful" stuff that's completely original, you aren't going to get much done.

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[Tazzy531]

I mean, I guess it's cool, but what have you proved? You can write a TCP/IP stack for some processor on some platform? Yeah, we all _know_ that can be done, but, why waste your time doing something useless? It's not like someone is going to throw out their NT or Linux server and replace with a GameBoy Advance or Lego brick anytime soon

Quite true that this is useless to you/the world, but to him, the person that did this, he has learned a great deal. I mean, what have you done? what "valuable" asset have you produced? [I'm not saying this to say that you are worthless, but to point out that big things tend to start out small. Look at Napster for example, I don't think Shawn Fanning sat down one day and decided to make an P2P app to turn the record industry on its head...]

In addition, it just shows that the same thing that all these bloated programs/os's that we have out there can be done on a rather small device with limited hardware. I remember back in the days when the ultimate thing was to be able to design a graphic intense demo using only 640K. I keep seeing it all the time and it's just getting worse. Lazy coders and uneducated programmers don't bother writing code that can be done with 25% less lines or 25% less resources just because right now there's no need. The hardware is far ahead of the software demands. This typically leads to bloat.

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you sure have a creative mind. There has been some other proposals in this story of using the newly created TCP stack for peer-to-peer gaming, as if directly connected. And no it didn't have to be said, you said it because (insert personal attack here).

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[cscx]

So what you're saying he learned a lot about writing web servers for GameBoy Advance? Great, I hope that information helps him in life.

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[zaffir]

Yes, every implementation of TCP/IP is perfectly unique. Nothing similar AT ALL between the TCP/IP my Mac box and my FreeBSD box use. Nope, all completely unique, nothing uniform about this so-called "TCP/IP standard".

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[ryants]

I detect a hint of sarcasm.

If all you can see is he learned about writing web servers for GBA, and you think this is not a very marketable skill, then you are very myopic.

I prefer to look at it this way: the guy probably learned a fair bit about embedded programming (on a very constrained system no less), along with networking.

The Next Big Thing for console games (disclaimer: I work for EA) is going to be to get them online and networked.

Hmmm.... put those two together, and I'll bet even you can figure out where I'm going with this....

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[mgv]

Quite true that this is useless to you/the world, but to him, the person that did this, he has learned a great deal. I mean, what have you done? what "valuable" asset have you produced?

Yes, I'd agree. Probably the most useful things I did was to write a ROM ripper for the C-64 to read game cartridges, and a graphic printer driver for the MPS 802 printer (No mean feat - it only had one 8x8 graphic character per line - boy did that print head fly with all those carriage returns).

Point is, neither of those things were terribly useful. So what. They were fun. I don't look back at my youth with regret because I could have done something else with my time.

To be truthful, I'm rather envious of Adrian for having the skills to do this sort of thing.

Michael

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[Anonymous Coward]

>There is simply no use for this in the world

that is totally untrue;
imagine a webserver that can look like R2-D2 / imperial walker / etc and actually waltz around your office (with wireless networking, or dragging along a cat5)

you can also program it to bring you coffee and stuff.

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[Anonymous Coward]

The main page said that he was doing it as his final project at his university. Not everything that is done for a class is entirely usefull (as a CS student now, I can attest personally to this). But doing this does teach much about coding and web servers. just a thought.....

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably the most useful things I did was to write a ROM ripper for the C-64 to read game cartridges,

C-64 ga,e cartridges are a little board with a standard EPROM on them. I remember at one point that they had a particular C64 cartridge on closeout at Target for $1. The cartridge's board had a socketed 2764 EPROM in it. I bought as many as they had (at the time $1 for a 2764 eprom was a very low price.)

In other words, anybody with an EPROM burner could 'rip' a C64 cartridge. I build my first EPROM burner using the expansion interface connector on a TRS-80 model 1 and an 8255 PIA chip.

Re:People have too much time on their hands

[mgv]

In other words, anybody with an EPROM burner could 'rip' a C64 cartridge

Getting off topic here, and replying to an AC post as well, but the aim was to copy the ROM to tape or disk and then run from RAM, so you didn't need any extra hardware.

Michael

FEAR

[fliptw]

the asome power of a cluser of GBAs!!!!!!!

Re:FEAR

[lunadude]

I didn't know you could get Beowolf for the GBA!
LOL

GBA.battle.net

[Vardamir]

I'd like to see a program written for the Gamecube and/or PC(this includes macs, etc.) that allows you to connect your gameboy advance (for the gamecube there is already the GCN-GBA link) and play with other GBA players over the internet (when the NIC for the Gamebue is available) as if GBA's were directly linked.

Right now, I'm mainly thinking about playing Golden Sun against other people.

Re:GBA.battle.net

[cscx]

That is sooo not practical. The lag would be unbearable. You're better off playing chess with someone in Europe by writing your each individual move on paper, putting it in a glass bottle, and throwing it into the North Atlantic.

Re:GBA.battle.net

[Sludge]

Uh, the guy said Golden Sun. It's turn based combat. I'm pretty sure my cable modem could stand up to the bandwidth needed to play those sorts of games.

Re:GBA.battle.net

[Anonymous Coward]

You're better off playing chess with someone in Europe by writing your each individual move on paper, putting it in a glass bottle, and throwing it into the North Atlantic.

I tried that once, and almost had a checkmate. Thanks Él Niño for ruining my game!

Re:GBA.battle.net

[IanA]

i'd like to see world peace, end to suffering and hunger, blah blah blah.

Re:GBA.battle.net

[TheOnlyCoolTim]

But, El Nino is in the Pacific!

Tim

Re:GBA.battle.net

[alvi]

North Atlantic

I claim that the North Atlantic has more bandwidth than your cable modem. The latency is another story though.

this is cool 8)

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see now: Access Denied. You are not allowed to view /personalrecords.pl until you have successfully found all 6 Diamond Crystals and converted them to Gaia Armor or until you have beaten stage 4 in the Darm Realm, "Ville of the Damned." add more excitement to that dull intarnet!

*sigh*

[beowulf_26]

Does anyone else hear the rumble of Nintendo closing in on this poor chap? I think it's sad when I read something like this and I first think "Oh cool. That's really smart, useless but cool." and then I cringe thinking about people like him getting squashed in litigation. I got five bucks that says he gets a cease and desist letter...

Heh, that or I've been successfully turned to /. pessimism. You decide.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, Ninty are gonna close him down as they were planning on creating a Webmaster sim for the GBA.

Maybe they could hook up with EA... The Sims: In The Server Room

Re:*sigh*

[anticypher]

He is using a FlashLinker from Lik-Sang in Taiwan. Covered before on /.

Fortunately, the UK doesn't (yet) outlaw a simple data cable as a DMCA circumvention device, unlike other countries with far fewer freedoms for CompSci students.

So when the UK gets its laws in order, then Nintendo can crack down on eeeviiiilll hackers like Adrian, who obviously are going to use this webserver as a warez site :-)

the AC

Re:*sigh*

[welshsocialist]

I see no problems for the lad as long he doesn't reverse-engineer the GBA.

Re:*sigh*

[cb0y]

Hey, how about australia, the land of convicts and criminals that legalizes everything including POT in 2 states.

I wonder when USA will wage war with bombers on .AU because we sell too much cheap lamb to merikons.

DMCA cannot touch .AU

Re:*sigh*

[vtechpilot]

How about a romz site instead of a warez site. Ultimate Irony, Download the Super Mario Bros. Rom and Nesticle off a Game Boy Advance. Sweet sweet irony.

Re:*sigh*

[Anonymous Coward]

There's stacks of other GBA hacking projects going on, some of them much more likely to receive litigation type attention.

Such as an Infocom adventure player, an ebook reader and Wonkie Guy, a platform game.

Likely Nintendo wants a few $$ for everything developed on the GBA, and a few $$ for every game sold/distributed/given away, so they'll no doubt be pretty pissed about all these hacks.

Re:*sigh*

[mikael_j]

Actually, they made Salvia Divinorum illegal quite recently...

GBA programming

[Anonymous Coward]

It's amazingly easy to write programs for the Gameboy Advance. Since it has an ARM processor, gcc is readily available, and there is a strong developer community. Even a programming novice could probably write a few decent demos or games. For anyone who is interested in game programming, check out gbadev.org.

Don't be intimidated; the webserver looks like it took a lot more work than it would take to create a game. The hardest part for his project was probably establishing a PPP link.

Re:GBA programming

[Canis]

Yup, there's plenty of emulators available to get started with and if you want to see stuff running on actual hardware, all you need is a multiboot cable (you can get them from Lik-Sang). Because the GBA allows multiplayer games to run with only one cartridge, it already has a protocol in place for transmitting programs from one GBA to another -- the MB cable simulates this from a PC, allowing you to upload your software to the GBA, which is pretty damn cool. Later, you may wish to get a flash-cart writer which allows you to dump your software into flash RAM in a GBA-compatible cartridge, which gives you more space to work with and you can take it with you instead of being tethered to the PC... however you may want to watch that DMCA if you're in the USA as this may be classed as a 'circumvention device' (sigh).

Another interesting handheld console to check out is the GP32 (Note: site's mostly in Korean). I think it's been mentioned on /. before. Very similar layout to GBA, but where the GBA runs at ~16mhz, the GP32's ARM processor can have its clockspeed set by software up to 133mhz (though obviously this drains batteries faster). It doesn't have any custom graphics hardware, you just write 16-bit RGB colour values to a linear frame buffer, but even at the more-usual 60mhz clock speed, it runs Doom very nicely. Oh yes, and the screen is 320x240 as opposed to the GBA's 240x160.

Of course, it's not a Nintendo, so it's almost guaranteed to fail, as Ninty have that market pretty sewn up. Still, if you just want to write something for your own entertainment, the GP32's sweet.

All I can say is...

[Hercynium]

Damn! Damn damn damn! Damn diddly wow! Wow fucking wow! Wow fucking damn penguins flip diddly-doo! This is the coolest, geekiest, most useless console hack yet. I lay down my crown to all that is dweeb on this earth and prostrate myself in worship. Damn flippin' diddly-doo squat icki-icki-icki-ziiiiiip putang putang oliv-zim-ani-see a-booey!!!! Won't the real Hercynium be PISSED when he finds his karma in the gutter! (hehe, naughty boy, can't hold his liquor, BITCH!)

You da man!

[BerserkDog]

I once made a mansion of toothpicks...it wasn't nearly as cool as O'Grady's Gameboy Advance, though...

Re:You da man!

[Anonymous Coward]

offtopic my ass...that was called sarcastic humor...

Re:Fuck all y'all bitches!

[Anonymous Coward]

Note to moderator: You just moderated up a troll, and will therefore never get to moderate again! :) (by the way, it truly was funny, but that's just the way stuff works around here...)

let's hope

[Squareball]

Let's hope that since his site is now posted on /. that he isn't running his website THROUGH his GBA web server ;)

Re:let's hope

[sinserve]

Oh my gaaaaaaaawd, you are so funny.

you just made my day, thank you, bye bye ok, I love you funny boy :-P~~

--

Re:let's hope

[Anonymous Coward]

That is GOOD! Thanks!

GBA....good server?

[Sir Homer]

The server is running faster then slashdot currently is.

Other GBA hacking projects....

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't heard of Nintendo exactly "closing in" on other projects for the GBA, such as an NES emulator or the Afterburner front-light mod....

By the way, the NES emulator alone is worth getting a GBA for - not some dumb old webserver that nobody (especially not the Big N) is going to care about :)

AC

ok....

[papasui]

The problem with this is that it still requires an additional computer anyways. Yes it is cool and I find it interesting as I used to develop gameboy color stuff, but I'm having trouble seeing it as pratical or useful. It's great that he took the time to do it but I'm not gonna use it only gba. Feel free to mod me down.

Re:ok....

[sydneyfong]

I'm having trouble seeing it as pratical or useful

So do I. Because it's not intended to be any of those. Why does everything have to be USEFUL? I bet the guy had loads of fun hacking this thing together. And besdies, it's damn cool. Oh well, I guess it should be useful to the guy who made it, since he'd have learnt a great deal in the process.

On the other hand, I fail to see how your comment is useful or practical either. It's great that you took the time to write it but I'm not gonna take it. Feel free to mod me flamebait ;-)

Whats at the end?

[tbx2000]

PPP on a gameboy? What's next? I know I, for one, will not be happy until somebody TCP/IP-izes my old Atari 2600...

Re:Whats at the end?

[Juln]

A gameboy would be one thing... the original gameboy sucked. HTis hardware, though, is a 32 bit computer... way mroe powerful than a atari 2600, a gameboy or even A gameboy color.. they're actually the most interesting thing in gaming for people who like old 8 bit games the best.

Not as cool as...

[ralian]

the Spud Server!!

Re:Not as cool as...

[quantaman]

Which reminds me, how the heck are we supposed to /. this thing if he doesn't post a link?!? Anyone find a link to the actual gameboy?

Re:Not as cool as...

[FattMattP]

I think you mean this link for a webserver that's really powered by potatos: http://world.std.com/~fwhite/spud/

Re:Not as cool as...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you had looked at the page you would know
a) it was a ToTL joke
b) your page was linked from the ToTL page.

Cheers.

Re:Not as cool as...

[Anonymous Coward]

supposed to be http://gba.fivemouse.com but doesn't appear to be there yet.

Finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

An answer to the question nobody asked!

So how much is it going to cost a month to be hosted on a GBA? Now that there's some serious competition, current hosting prices are sure to fall.

Now all it needs...

[IronTek]

Now all someone needs to do is make an 802.11b adapter in a gameboy cartridge and you could serve pages anywhere while kicking ass in Tetris!

Re:Now all it needs...

[TibbonZero]

802.11 would be cool. Play tetris across the room from others.

dave

Apache?

[Galahad2]

Yeah, echo server is all and good, but I'd like to see them get Apache 2.0 on there.
Oh.. that's right... no mod_pearl. Oh well.

Re:Apache?

[Anonymous Coward]

pearl...?

Re:Apache?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, pearl, as in "pearl necklace."

Haven't you seen that video floating around of Larry Wall giving one to Rob Malda? I think its available here.

Re:Apache?

[twoshortplanks]

The URL

http://perl.apache.org/dist/mod_perl-1.99_01.tar .g z

has entered CPAN as

file: $CPAN/authors/id/D/DO/DOUGM/mod_perl-1.99_01.tar.g z
size: 368151 bytes
md5: 8db81a4cc572544eb427f2beb1beceea

This is the first public release of mod_perl version 2.0-tobe.

Apache version 2.0.35 or higher is required.

Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

When will they port linux to the gameboy advance?

Re:Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux is already ported to the StrongARM, the processor in the GBA. It's the processor in those Corel NetWinder boxes, ya know.

But if I had a StrongARM based box, I would run NetBSD on it.

MOD PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

It at least deserves a +1, interesting. That NES emulator he linked to is damn cool.

next.

[BenTheDewpendent]

TCP/IP is cool and all for a GBA. but since its a strong arm processor why not port/figure out how to load linux on a cart? I think this is a very cool step in a good dir for GBA. if nintendo doesnt stomp it out 1st.

Re:next.

[darc]

Basically, porting linux would be fairly difficult. Since the GBA doesn't have an MMC, you can only port embedded versions, like ucLinux, without serious work. The hardware is also totally foreign, so in the end, it's pretty damn hard to do.

Not impossible, but still really hard.

Question about OSS

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there anything but "beta", "alpha" etc. programs out there? Seems like nothing is considered stable, which is a good cop-out.

Poor mario...

[42forty-two42]

If he didn't have a super mushroom he'd never survive all those SYN packets...

You, sir, are a treacherous bastard

[Anonymous Coward]

My hat is off to you.

fa!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's just blooding fascinating.

It Had to be said...

[halo8]

Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of These!!

Re:It Had to be said...

[Anonymous Coward]

it was already said you fat dumb baby

coding stylee

[Anonymous Coward]

RedHat is not Linux, it is a distribution based on the Linux kernel. The Linux kernel is a complex program which provides the underlying services to the rest of a Linux distribution. But it is easy to add new features or improvements to it as, unlike commercial operating systems like Windows 95 or MacOS, the source code is freely available. It is common practice with a Linux based operating system to recompile the kernel from source and much effort has been put in to make this a realitively user-friendly experience.

Why Compile a New Kernel?

You may be thinking "But why recompile it? It works fine as it is." There are three reasons for a recompile. Firstly, you may have some hardware that is so new that there's no kernel module for it in on your distribution CD. Secondly, you may have come across some kind of bug which is fixed in a revision of the operating system. Lastly, you may have some new software which requires a newer version of the operating system.

Read The Rest & Comment...

Hey, It's Not As Bad As It Sounds!

[Eddy Johnson]

Everyone's favorite ISP, AOL, has just released a press release that they are switching to Game Boy Advances for their servers.

According to the press release, it will increase server output by 300%.

Oh yeah!

Re:Hey, It's Not As Bad As It Sounds!

[Anonymous Coward]

my my, did you have to work on this, or are you always this funny?

-sinserve

Wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

The engineer's motto is to , "find a beter way to choose a lunch spot that all will agree upon."

Re:Wrong

[MaxVlast]

Yep. And the result of that? Connecting three or four monitors to an IBM PC/AT (see previous post.)

wehavethewayout.com

[Traser]

In related news, port scans of wehavethewayout.com indicate that it is running on a GameBoy Advance. It is reputed to be much more stable than the Windows IIS put in to replace the FreeBSD box.

Re:wehavethewayout.com

[Eberlin]

Shhhhhh, when too many people find out, they'll switch to an X-Box server!!!!!!

Pays an homage to saint Linus...

[anticypher]

If you look way down on his web page, back to the october days, he starts by creating a multi-threading kernel, and then writing alternate A's and B's to the screen. This is what Linus did when he was testing his first attempt at multi-threading two processes.

If you read through the site, you get the idea he is learning all kinds of requisite CompSci skills along the way. That's good enough reason to do a project like this.

From a late night hacking session on 3rd April 2002: I believe this may be a world first. My GBA is currently connected to the Internet (yes, if I gave you the address, you could access it right now!).

Now, if he only would post that IP address, we could see how it stands up to the /. effect :-)

the AC

Re:Pays an homage to saint Linus...

[dozing]

Can you just imagine a Beowolf cluster of these?

(I'm so sorry, but somone had to say it.)

Big deal.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I hacked up a 802.11 card for mine.

Re:Big deal.

[redcliffe]

Got a website about that? I'd like to see how you built it....

Re:Big deal.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

While this was meant as a joke (and moderated as "Troll"... do they hand out free crack with the 5 points?) I could point you in the right direction. Personally, I've been into hardware hacking for about 3 years now, and I have tried my hand at 10baseT. Good thing I'm an amateur too, sucess rate has only been about 50%. 802.11 is something else entirely though... I know *just* enough to know that I'll never be any sort of RF engineer. This doesn't seem as important at first, providing that you can get ahold of some sample chips, it's not like you're designing a fancy antenna, right? The thing is pretty much a 1 chip solution. The problem is, that the whole pcb itself tends to affect the signal in ways that I just can't understand, no matter how I try. I'm one of those guys, that all the physics I know, I learned from star trek (another joke, crackmoderator... besides, I just got my karma up to 40, have fun trying to knock me down).

Now... have someone figure out the RF aspect of it, and I might have a shot. It wouldn't be the best designed 802.11 card ever, it would probably even be pretty skanky, but I might manage a functional design. And since this guy already has a tcp/ip stack written...

Actually, there are 2 pico ip stacks that I know of anyway, if that's even necessary. The GBA is pretty beefy, right? No longer the ugly little z80 with 32k of ram. Hell, you might even manage to funk the linux kernel and drivers well enough, to not have to worry so much about drivers. Haha, that might actually be fun, providing you can make it small enough to fit a pass through connector... play multi-player wireless (I'm not so great on the software side of things, but some sort of software shim to make it think that you were using the serial port can't be that impossible). Hell, I might even go for wireless web browsing. Does the color screen do high enough rez to get some porn on it? ;-)

If you're truly interested, email me at john.oyler@attbi.if-u-cant-figure-this-out-i-dont- want-to-talk-to-you.com. I can at least walk you through the process of finagling crystal to send some sample chips (not so keen on hobbyists).

Re:Big deal.

[Anonymous Coward]

And moderated as "Troll"

And i've metamodded it unfair :)

For everyone who is asking why

[Anonymous Coward]

This is taken from an interview with the author http://www.consolevision.com/features/interviews/g ba/adrianon.shtml

"I wanted to write something that was technically perfect but practically useless so that the university couldn't make any money out of my project. "

Bah

[Anonymous Coward]

That's nothing new. Konami had a Web Server for the original Gameboy. You activated it from any Konami game by pressing Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start.

Interesting...

[DamonCanine]

What's next? Linux for Gameboy Advance?

Re:Interesting...

[DarkEdgeX]

Well, supposedly the largest (EP)ROM you can buy right now is 255 Mbit (note, not megabyte, megabit, so 32 megabytes).. can Linux be squeezed into such a small space and still have functionality to boot/etc? Is there even enough volatile memory available in a GBA to work? I know NetBSD was running on a Dreamcast (though I don't think they've (the developers) have gone much farther than just getting it to boot and run), so it seems reasonable to see atleast that running on the GBA's ARM processor...

Does anyone know the minimum memory/media constraints for Linux though? I've never given it much thought. =)

Re:Interesting...

[MrRudeDude]

Look at all the fully functional linuxes that fit on a floppy. There is even one that runs X, and fits on two floppies: 2-disk xwindow linux.

If play around with these small linuxes on old machines like 386 laptops, you will quickly find that squeezing everything on to the disk space is not the problem, the problem is having enough ram. Most of those distros won't run on two megs of ram because they try to make an initial ram disk bigger than that and thus fail right off the bat. However, small-linux will boot a 386 with 2 megs of ram, so if you want something tiny, it might be a good place to start.

Wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

The motto of true engineers is "to get laid with as many chicks as you can".

online gaming?

[kungfooguru]

I dont know about you, but im getting started on the first ever gameboy internet rpg.

Bah

[mlylecarlin]

That's nothing new. Konami had a Web Server for the original Gameboy. You activated it from any Konami game by pressing Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start. (Doh didn't post with my name above)

What, no link?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I would've enjoyed pics of it catching fire from a good old Slashdotting...

Read this for everyone who is asking why

[Anonymous Coward]

blah. This is taken from an interview with the author http://www.consolevision.com/features/interviews/g ba/adrianon.shtml

"I wanted to write something that was technically perfect but practically useless so that the university couldn't make any money out of my project. "

i like girls

the real link here.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://world.std.com/~fwhite/spud/
is a REAL potatoe powered web server
i personally thing this is more interesting than the gameboy one

Dammit!

[leifb]

I hoped the linked site would be run off the Game Boy.

Fastest Slashdotting ever.

This is everything

[Haxx]

This is what it is all about

I Love it

Im so motivated right now I'm tempted to write code to put my Atari 2600 online

AMEN - Because you can...

[GrendelT]

"If you have to ask why, you're not a member of the intended audience. Please go on about your business and accept my apologies for this distraction."
---Bob Zinbinski, author of TTYQuake

I can

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called the "shelf" at Best Buy or Circuit City.

Too easy. Next.

Ping?

[SeanTobin]

If you ping it, will it pong?

Re:nfp

[Anonymous Coward]

notfunnypost

Not a StrongARM, it's ARM7. No MMU, so uClinux.

[Dr. Ion]

It's not a StrongARM, it's an ARM7TDMI running at 16.78MHz. 256K RAM 240x160 LCD.

So it has more horsepower than a Palm, but still no memory manager or cache. This means it's restricted to MMU-free micro-ports of Linux like uClinux.

Like someone else posted.. not impossible, but probably not terribly satisfying as a target. Not to say it wouldn't be a satisfying, educational, or fun project, though. :)

Heh, it balances out

[Wheaty18]

The fact that it can run a web server certainly makes me overlook the "screen is too dark" issue.

WHY??

[rerunn]

Guy writes a TCP/IP stack for GBA. Think about it... how about plugging your gba into your network and firing up a gamespy type utility on your gba and BOOM.. you can play multiplayer over the internet.

Of course someone needs to figure out the fine details and write this shit but nonetheless kudos to the Guy!

Re:WHY??

[saintlupus]

Think about it... how about plugging your gba into your network and firing up a gamespy type utility on your gba

If only I could code worth a damn - this would be a great toy to port tcpdump to. Set it up to fill a flash EPROM and dump it all across the 'net to one of my own boxen, maybe, and leave it sitting in a drop ceiling somewhere.

--saint

oh, of course

[yzquxnet]

soo... what games do you have for your GBA?

games? oh, I never got into the whole gaming thing.

so what are you doing with a GBA?

oh, just hosting a website or two. you know, in my spare time.

http://dunkels.com/adam/uip/

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you happy now?

See, there are creative uses for a flash cart....

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't it a GBA flash cart that was being stopped from being shipped into the US? See, there are uses for it besides copying games....

Read the article

[Anonymous Coward]

You obviously didn't read the article :)

BUt it can't run .NET or MS Site Server ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been given Beta code of this fine new release and it is well worth the effort to port your code from that legacy Site Server 3.0. This tool, with its phenomenal integration with .NET is awesome. IBM Websphere? Give me a break!! .NET is ready to crush all comers with its elegant SDK and Framework. C# is the best language out there. Windows .NET Server will put the mainframe to sleep with its raw power, stability and scalability. Let's just face it here, Microsoft has changed the way we work, think, and play. Give credit where credit is due. To Bill Gates I say: Well done, well done

this is nothing

[squidinkcalligraphy]

bah... I just wrote a webserver for a _windows XP_ box. try beating that.

Incredibly off-topic and nitpicky, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Él" with the accent is "He".
"El" with no accent is "The".

You meant "El Niño". :)

Check the what?

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you mean there is a problem with the server? Check the logs? *holds flashlight to screen* ... Can't see anything... *wiggles about in light* ... god damn it!

Hope he modded the screen light in before hand!

Re:Fuck all y'all bitches!

[Traxton1]

Ahh yes, 320x240 pixelated pr0n. Why not just go here and look at some hardcore action? (It's not goatse.cx, I promise.)

Re:Fuck all y'all bitches!

[Anonymous Coward]

WHO THE fucks modearating!!! Pr0n King was modded up for a troll, but poor CSCX was modded down for a funny, ontopic comment!!!! NOTE TO META-MODERATORS: Whoever modded this must lose their priveliges!!

Sure, but nobody likes CSCX!

thinking...

[moose_hp]

nice... time to telnet cyberspace.org and play Nethack via GBA!

How does one measure usefulness?

[NanoGator]

I skimmed some of the posts on this topic and was a little disheartened by some people's reactions to the usefulness of this hack. Let's put a couple of things into perspective:

1.) It's not a product

2.) It looks as though he just wanted to do it for shits and giggles, not seriously trying to solve any probelms other than 'it can be done.'

A lot of things we take for granted today were based on ideas that people questioned the usefulness of. Did anybody think Pong was useful? "Why would I pay $119 for a game that I could play on a pingpong table?"

Consider that usefulness depends on the individual too. You yourself may not care about running a websever on a GBA, but soembody might find an interesting use for it. If I were setting up a brand new network somewhere, I could see the potential of firing up a GBA, getting it on the network, and seeing if I could connect to it. It could be a troubleshooting device, maybe. (Although if it's connected to a Linux machine, that idea seems a little absurd. But if they made the GBA independent of it...)

What of somebody took the code from this project and made the GBA into a VNC client? I think there are sysadmins out there who would find that rather useful. Seeing as how GBA's are $70 nowadays, that could turn into an interesting product. There are some of us out there that would think it was totally cool that I could buy a GBA and get reimbursed from my company with it, heh.

Come to think of it... if the XBOX were a little more open, it could turn into one hell of a sysadmin tool....

Re:How does one measure usefulness?

[alvi]

Come to think of it... if the XBOX were a little more open, it could turn into one hell of a sysadmin tool....

Why is that? And wouldn't it be cheaper to turn an old 700 MHz PC into a sysadm tool? I'm serious, why the heck would an xbox be any good?

Re:How does one measure usefulness?

[NanoGator]

Because I wouldn't have to set the damn thing up?

Re:How does one measure usefulness?

[alvi]

I'm surprised to learn that the xbox comes out of the box with your sysadmin features set up.

Re:How does one measure usefulness?

[NanoGator]

It'd be seperate software. :P

I never said anything about 'out of the box'. Heh.

Re:How does one measure usefulness?

[Toraz Chryx]

Because an Xbox can be had for a bit less than a 700Mhz PC?

because microsoft take a loss anytime someone buys one?

Re:How does one measure usefulness?

[darc]

The xbox is cheaper than a 700mhz pc you can put together, you can run it on a TV, which is usually cheaper than a monitor, and you can knock annoying people unconsious with the controllers.

Somebody needs to get that dude laid.

[LWolenczak]

Somebody needs to get that dude laid.

Re:Somebody needs to get that dude laid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Somebody needs to get this guy to read a book.

Re:Somebody needs to get that dude laid.

[dbazile]

Bah, that was a cheap shot...

Craploads of very useful inventions were built on the guys who stayed up late, ignoring their supple (??) wives/mates, wanting to tinker with their toys a little bit more.

But if you're looking to get someone laid, how about tossing me a bone? :D

sheez

Re:Somebody needs to get that dude laid.

[user32.ExitWindowsEx]

'nuff said.

But while someone's getting him laid, why not get me laid too? :-)

Re:Somebody needs to get that dude laid.

[Anonymous Coward]

But if you're looking to get someone laid, how about tossing me a bone? :D

I think they're talking about finding him a woman.

My web server.

[Anonymous Coward]

I created a web server out of a piece of fairy cake.. which, as an added bonus, also contains the information needed to define the creation and dimensions of the universe)..

.. but too many hits melts the icing.

Re:Not a StrongARM, it's ARM7. No MMU, so uClinux.

[vsync64]

So it has more horsepower than a Palm

Modern PalmOS devices tend to run at 33MHz.

But..

[ByteHog]

If we slashdot it, will it catch on fire? I always wonder what happens to all these little webservers people keep making.. a watch, a gameboy... what will a DoS attack do to it?

Drain the batteries for sure..

Awesome...

[Anonymous Coward]

That

is one of

the coolest things

i have ever seen

Where does Linux come in again?

[the_mystic_on_slack]

He talks a lot about connecting your GBA to a Linux box, yet all of his screen shots are from Win9x. Hrm, can I all BS on this one yet or am I missing something?

Re:Where does Linux come in again?

[Anonymous Coward]

If read the page and look at the screen shots, you'll see that the development was done under win32 mostly in VC++ and a lot of the screen shots are telnet sessions into a linux box called leela.
see http://www.fivemouse.com/gba/win32ip01.png

If that's not enough, you could always just download the server and give it a go for yourself.

Re:Where does Linux come in again?

[Firehawke]

Take a good look at those screenshots. He's using Linux as a proxy for the GBA.

linux-based pda

[benjamindees]

"Umm, no sir that's not a Gameboy, it's a Linux based pda..."

OR

"That's not Tetris, it's our new synergy-building groupware"

aliens

[Anonymous Coward]

now all he needs to do is port the SETI code over to it, so we can have thousands of pre-teens helping the cause to find the E.T.s during those lax cpu cycles...the power, the POWER...the POW-WAH!!

Your Sig

[scotch]

If IE's Windows integration is a monopoly....

You sig doens't make sense to me. Integration isn't a monopoly - I don't think anyone is claiming that it is. Microsft is the alleged monopoly. IE integration is an act which may or may not be illegal under the Sherman Act and other laws.

I suggest changing your sig so it parses correctly.

Re:Fuck all y'all bitches!

[Anonymous Coward]

Web server, not web browser. Tofu.

Other Cool Hacks with GameBoys (not Advance)

[DrD8m]

Connect 2 Gameboys by GSM and Bluetooth: http://www.it.lth.se/it/msprojects/ita/past/playmo bile/
Taking color pictures with GB b&w camera http://www.ruleofthirds.com/gameboy/

Didnt Columbus Say...

[hochy]

If memory serves me correctly, there is an old story about Columbus telling his colleagues about finding America? Went something like This *extremely paraphrased, heh*

Columbus: I found America

Colleagues: So? Anyone of Us coulda done it.

Columbus takes an egg and asks Them to stand it on its end, They all try and fail *must not have been the equinox*. So Columbus takes the egg, crunchs the end on the table and the egg stands up.

Colleagues: We coulda done that!

Columbus: Yes, but you didnt think of it.

Course, im not comparing this to Discovering America or anything.

Also, I wonder how long till the First Code Red Attempt on it, ; )

Windows!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

It needs Windows!

The next steps [random ramblings]

[darketernal]

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to put a CD in your discman with a linux kernel built into it, the latest build of apache, and some sort of static content, hook up the remote jack and convert it into a CAT5 jack on the other end, and bam you have a portable webserver you can play music in? or, you can put a disc full of mp3s into it and put streaming software onto it?

OK, so I'm going over the top here, but the Slashdot community has sure seen a bunch of mighty weird webservers...

legal use of liksang products

[emptybody]

Here is a legal use of liksang products.
to create on a blank cartridge a Linux Distro.
to boot that distro in my kids Game Boy Advance.
And try to port TuxRacer to it.

However, some fool has decided that is an item can be used to break a law that item is illegal.

When can I buy liksang items here in the USA ?!?!?!

I see where your going with this.

[systemaster]

Another source of revenue. Make It so you can charge people to play on your online servers. Making videogames a pay per use item...Sorry to say that, I don't know EAs plans, but if people have to pay any amount however small its too much. Don't take this wrong, I know it hasn't happend yet, I'm just tired of how much our society is becoming a pay-per-use society.
I know this heading off topic but it does apply to the parent and the use of what the entire article is about.

Re:I see where your going with this.

[beable]

Making videogames a pay per use item...Sorry to say that, I don't know EAs plans, but if people have to pay any amount however small its too much. Don't take this wrong, I know it hasn't happend yet, I'm just tired of how much our society is becoming a pay-per-use society.

Maybe you don't remember "The Olden Days", when to play a video game you had to go down to the video arcade and... PAY! You had to pay for every game you played! This changed a bit with the introduction of "TV games", which didn't require a payment for every play, but TV games weren't as powerful as arcade games, and the graphics weren't as good either. If the makers of console games can start getting money for each play of a game, then they can charge less for the game and the console and make up the money through people playing the game.

FTP server on a palm

[SCHecklerX]

What *I* really want is and ftp server, or SMB share, on my Clie (any palm, really). Sure would make grabbing stuff from it or putting stuff on it quite nice. It shouldn't be hard, somebody just has to write it...yeah, I know, but it's not so important to me to take my time away from other projects yet :)

OT:FTP server on a palm

[PenguinDude]

The Sony Clie does support this using the MSImport app (included with all the latest Clie models, I believe).

MSImport allows you to mount the memory stick on the Clie as a removable disk. While it's designed to run under Windows, it works under Linux quite well too. If you run a kernel > 2.4.10, the Clie acts as a SCSI device that you can easily mount and grab files to/from.

See this link for more info.

The real question is....

[MRsackler]

Can we get pr0n on our Gameboy Advance? Theoretically, could one host a pr0n website on a Gameboy Advance. Until these two dreams are realized, the GBA can never be a truly useful mobile computing device.

Sounds like...

[MetalMorph]

Voodoo Extreme may soon find itself a better web server. ;)

mm... Mario Bro's Deathmatch,...

[theolein]

catch the flag and king of the hill! Who say this has no usefull purposes :)

History is being made

[bcaulf]

Could this be el primero español spelling flame on slashdot?

Re:But why? - Lame reason

[voxel]

This is a lame example of reasoning. Going to the moon was done because it was never done before. Writing a HTTP server for a gameboy is a waste of time because everyone knows how easy it is to do. Big deal you compiled some simple code with gcc for a different CPU than intel. It is sad this kind of news makes slashdot, and makes everyone get all excited. You might as well go watch television for 16 hours a day while you are at it. Then post that on slashdot because someone watched television for 16 hours straight. I guess in my book, accomplisments like this are "no big deal". I could of done it in a weekend.

httpd.apache.org has WinApache

[yerricde]

I just wrote a webserver for a _windows XP_ box.

Windows XP is basically NT, and Apache 2 already runs on NT.

Now. LikSang no longer uses UPS.

[yerricde]

When can I buy liksang items here in the USA ?!?!?!

Now. LikSang.com still sells Game Boy Advance development accessories to customers in the U.S. It has just dropped UPS for United States destinations. Just ship your accessories via EMS Speedpost, and you'll be fine.

[ /me goes back to playing his spinning tetris clone on GBA ]

Columbus didn't "discover" anything...

[Anonymous Coward]

he "encountered" what is now North America. There were already people there, you dolt...

that will happen when hell freezes over.

[systemaster]

First, I do remember when arcades where the only good place to play, but they never charged me just to enter the place...the only charge was usage. Its like cars, buy it or lease it, not buy it and pay for each mile. When do you see game makers actually charging less for a game because they can make it up in the playing of it. And even if they did, and I really don't think I'm totally alone in this viewpoint...look at DIVX. Pay less upfront and pay per use, it failed quickly. If they are going to charge per use online, give the game away for FREE. Shoot, when I buy my truck and pay it off, ford doesn't charge me for each mile I put on it.