Nintendo DS Modded to Play GB and GBC Carts
Steve E. writes "Apparently someone has made the first hardware mod to the Nintendo DS. An entry over at the Nintendo DS Livejournal Community gives detailed instructions on how to modify a DS to play legacy cartridges." From the post: "1. Disassemble your Nintendo DS. This step is fairly self explanatory, if you can't figure out how to take your DS apart, you should stop here."
This seems a little suspect, in order for this to work Nintendo would have had to have included the GBC chipset on the DS, then disabled it for some reason. It can't be done via emulation because of voltage differences between GBA and GB carts.
While the ability to play advance games was nice, one thing that really held me back from getting a DS thus far is my large collection of classic Gameboy games (many of which are still very fun! Link's Awakening anyone?).
This isn't the type of news that is gonna make me run out and buy a DS immediately, but it is enough for me to give it consideration next time I decide to spend over a hundreds bucks on a toy.
--- "End Of Line" - MCP
Sounds like another case of Y?BIC (why? because I Can) or DSOTAOS (Do Something Outrageous So I can appear on Slashdot)...
The friendliest digital photography forums on the net!
oops, I guess you can shut up now
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Just FYI it was deleted from a moderator of that community because it's bullcrap.
The bad news is this story is BS.
...And you can take that to the bank!
The good news is, you can play GB and GBC games on a DS if you have a flash cart.
That'd be great, but TFA is a 404 now.
Why didn't Nintendo make the DS able to play GB and GBC games to begin with? Especially since there are still many people who play the old games
because they've still got a shitload of SP units sitting on store shelves and people still need a reason to buy the SP (other than the low price point), I assume.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
not to mention there does come the point where you have to just stop suppporting older models. Some of those cartrages are well over 10 years old now, and GBA's let alone GBC and GBs are a dime a dozen...... ok maybe 20 bucks a dozen, but you get my point.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
The story is indeed a fake, that was so short lived that no one even seem to have a mirror of the original page around.
Yet it got published on slashdot, apparently deemed worthy of it based only on a weblog entry by some random guy, and a few guy backing his assertions.
Even with a defective bullshit detector, the absence of any picture attempting to proving that it indeed worked should have been enough to warrant at least a little wait for some kind of proof before slashdotting this.
Now for a mandatory tetris history nitpick:
The gameboy tetris wasn't the "original" one by any stretch of the imagination, as can be verified there.
I remember playing it on amiga quite some time before everyone started raving about the gameboy version.
I was looking forward to GB and GBC games _finally_ droping in price a bit (you'll still plunk down $30 bucks for a MegaMan game at a lot of places). When I bought my GBA, I was looking forward to lots of cheap, $5 dollar games. These days I'm lucky to find something for $15....
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
The Game Boy Z80 processor and Game Boy Game Paks also run at 5.0 volts rather than the 3.3 volts of the rest of the GBA's circuitry.
Or they were planning on offerign some sort of stacked-cart like the old Game Genie as a "special offer" for legacy players - something very few will want, but might pay a lot for.
It has a history:
that's what you get for not having nothing to do all day other than hitting refresh on slashdot.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
What games are known for [intentionally freezing on Game Boy Player]?
Not "games" per se. Unlike the PlayStation 2 and Xbox video game consoles, the GameCube cannot output Macrovision Video copy protection signals.
it would appear that the community mod deleted the post. however, in the meantime, the original poster has submitted photos and a link where you can read the text of the original mod instructions, along with extra photos.
Let's not forget that the DS is not the replacement for the GBA. It is a 3rd, seperate entity. The "trinity", if you will, of N's battle plan.
Somebody update the link! Don't want to have all the visitors be disappointed by that LJ Error page.
One man's selflessness is another man's annoyance.
Plus you can't sell new copies of old games if the console plays the originals. Just wait, you'll see a Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow cart come out with "updated graphics" and wifi network play for $30 someday soon.
I think your jumping to conclusions in assuming that it can't still play GBA/DS games. He hasn't said if it can, or if it can not. Either way I will definently be watching this guys Livejournal in hopes of finding out!
--- "End Of Line" - MCP
He came back with pictures after being accused of lying, but they have been debunked. Info avaialable here.
The SP is still more desirable for many reasons: smaller size, less expensive, and longer battery life.
I tried to reply to a post, but it told me that Anonymous posting had been disabled for that thread. *Shrug*
If you're too lazy to read the debunking, here's the rundown. You have to break your serial number sticker to even get at the screws to open the DS, and the pictures don't show a broken sticker. As for the screenshots with Pokemon running, they're taken using an emulator called Goomba. You'll notice that the game supposively running on the DS isn't colorized even though the GBA automatically colorizes GB games. Goomba doesn't.
Most damning of all, the connections this guy says he's making are actually on the the wireless adaptor, not the CPU.
... it already did. It's called FireRed and LeafGreen, AND it comes with a wireless adapter. Of course, it's for GBA.
I think [GBA Video titles freezing on Game Boy Player is] less about videotaping and more about publishing rights.
I suspected that too until I read this:
Unlike on the Xbox and PlayStation 2, there is no Macrovision chip in the GameCube.
bigredpmp! you da man....
um, spike666 here from #dsdev
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
For anyone reading this, hopefully you read this, and this
[an error occured while processing this directive]