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GameBoy Web Server

Posted by michael on from the why-ask-why dept.

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."

10 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. But why? by groman · · Score: 0, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:But why? by Moonshadow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because you can.

      The motto of all true engineers.

    2. Re:But why? by ryants · · Score: 5, Insightful
      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?
      --

      Ryan T. Sammartino
      "Ancora imparo"

    3. Re:But why? by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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?

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. Re:People have too much time on their hands by ryants · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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....

    --

    Ryan T. Sammartino
    "Ancora imparo"

  3. Re:ok.... by sydneyfong · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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 ;-)

    --
    Don't quote me on this.
  4. AMEN - Because you can... by GrendelT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "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

  5. Re:*sigh* by welshsocialist · · Score: 2, Insightful

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

    --
    Support the Chagossians
  6. How does one measure usefulness? by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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....

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  7. Re:GBA programming by Canis · · Score: 3, Insightful
    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.