Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Gameboy Emulation on your MP3 Player

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-thats-what-i-wanna-see-more-of dept.

webmind writes "As some may know there is an open source firmware for the Archos jukebox and the iriver h1x0 harddisk mp3 players called Rockbox. now for the iriver version there is also a gnuboy port.. no more lugging around loads of gameboy cardridges, just upload and play."

77 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds great by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These things always sound great.. and then the control sucks. SNES emulation on pocketpc's sounds like it would be awesome as hell.. until you find out the direction pad can only press one direction at once and therefore can't get diagonals..

    --

    --

    WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
    1. Re:Sounds great by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      --
      |
      |
      --
      |
      |
      --> Nothing wrong with no diagonal control ;)

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Sounds great by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      yeah. can't understand whats the point of the limitation to limit it to 4 intentionally(instead of 8).

      with phones too(s60, n-gage has non-selfblocking direction pad so you can get the diagonials, but 6600, 3650, 6630, 7610 have self blocking direction pad. it's a design choice, kicker is that there's no need for it to be self blocking to help the menus and such, as programs on s60 start by default with keyblocking enabled on all buttons and the software can ask for nonblocking mode).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Sounds great by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      My Motorola phone (V300/Triplets) also has a multidirection input keypad. Problem is, since it's not standard it's not part of the spec and it's handled in an additional Motorola API, kind of like sound on Nokia is handled by Nokia-specific APIs, or at least traditionally has been. (I have some Nokia games that work on my Moto, and some that don't.) Consequently, I don't have any games that actually use it, even Splinter Cell or Rainbow Six 3 (and I've tried like four different versions of that.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Sounds great by sH4RD · · Score: 1

      That's only crappy old iPaqs and some other models. My Dell Axim (yes, yes, I've turned to the dark side, whatever, I can't help the awsome multi-media features, no, I don't want to start a PocketPC vs. Palm debate), so to continue, my Dell Axim works fine with SNES emulation. And damn is it fun.

      --
      WASTE - The Secure P2P
    5. Re:Sounds great by heavy+snowfall · · Score: 1

      On my palm zire 72s snes emulation is fine too, with nice diagonal control goodness. And To all you palm users who are stuck paying for various emlulators, check out http://yoyofr92.free.fr/ljp/ , the swiss army knife of emulators, with gb, gbc, nes, snes, genesis & master system emulation.

      try udmh (google) if you don't have enough memory to run snes roms.

  2. Ow. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Talk about horrible controls. It's makes the original NES controller look comfortable.

    1. Re:Ow. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The original NES controller WAS comfortable. The Famicom controller was a little less precise and didn't have the same feel IMO, but the original NES controller was a joy to use. You just had to develop a useful strategy for holding it. :) What other controller allowed you to get good results in button-mashing games by putting your thumbnail between the buttons and rubbing it back and forth like you were trying to polish something?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Ow. by superpulpsicle · · Score: 1

      No way. The only thing more uncomfortable than NES controllers was Atari wrist sticks. The NES 2 button wasn't even diagonal at an angle, your wrist really hurts after a while.

      Only thing good was that it was tough as nails. I have never heard someone needing a NES controller replacement. Nowadays controllers are toast after a year.

    3. Re:Ow. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1
      Dreamcast controllers are horribly uncomfortable as compared to the NES pad. Maybe you were pressing too hard. You don't have to grind it into powder to move your characters around.

      The durability of course WAS the best thing about it. I used to bang mine off the floor when I was really pissed off at a game. BANG! It would sound like something broke, but the controller was fine.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Ow. by Grym · · Score: 1

      Are you kidding?

      I used to rub my left thumb raw on the old NES controllers all the time. They were only good for on run through Contra... tops.

      -Grym

    5. Re:Ow. by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Ouch,

      never mention the Dreamcase controller again.

      I still have blisters from the memmory card holder hitting my knuckles.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  3. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just buy a gameboy. They're affordable and play all of the games perfectly.

    1. Re:Why? by someme2 · · Score: 2, Funny
      and maybe a fourth [PC] for viewing my desktop background.
      I have one of those! It features advanced super thin display technology. I glued it on the walls of my bedroom and installed "chipwood.jpg".
      --
      You can attach boosters to anything. It just costs more. -
      Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 07, @12:26PM
    2. Re:Why? by ChaosDiscord · · Score: 1

      Why?

      Are you mad?

      Because it's there.

      If you can't understand that you have my sympathy for the death of your spirit of adventure. Pushing technology to do completely inappropriate things is part of what makes a hacker a hacker.

      --
      Search 2010 Gen Con events
  4. GB mono emulation on GBA by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    no more lugging around loads of gameboy cardridges, just upload and play.

    This has been possible for a long time. The Game Boy Advance with a GBA flash cart can emulate the Game Boy monochrome system; a single flash cart can hold up to 32 MBytes or 64 MBytes of GB ROMs.

    There is also something called the GB Bridge, which translates between GB mono/GBC wire protocol and GBA wire protocol, letting the GBA run GBC games using its GBC hardware, but it doesn't work with most of the newer flash carts.

    1. Re:GB mono emulation on GBA by BluhDeBluh · · Score: 1

      The GB Bridge never worked properly in the first place. I bought one for cheap, but it has never worked properly and is very easy to crash.

      And regarding the original article:
      A beowolf cluster of these would probably be able to emulate a SNES or something.

    2. Re:GB mono emulation on GBA by tepples · · Score: 1

      or you can just stick your GB and GBC carts into a GBA

      Ummm... read the blurb: "no more lugging around loads of gameboy cardridges"

    3. Re:GB mono emulation on GBA by Fjornir · · Score: 1

      ...why would you lug all of them if you'd flashed them onto a single cart?

      --
      I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
    4. Re:GB mono emulation on GBA by tepples · · Score: 1

      Which was the entire point.

    5. Re:GB mono emulation on GBA by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      no shit? and palm too before gba.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  5. yes but.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    a cooler hack would let me play mp3's on my old gameboy.

    1. Re:yes but.. by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

      a cooler hack would let me play mp3's on my old gameboy.

      For the old Game Boy systems, there is an MP3 player called SongPro. For the GBA and GBA SP, there is the GSM Player, which uses GBA flash carts.

    2. Re:yes but.. by webmind · · Score: 1

      uhm.. well you'd need a mp3 decoder, a DAC, a compactflash or sd adapter and some basic rom code for the interfacing.. would be my guess

    3. Re:yes but.. by saskboy · · Score: 1

      Didn't the original GB have an 8MHz CPU? Somehow I doubt even a 96Kbps MP3 would be playable on a processor that slow, and the speaker probably isn't capable of such fine sound output.

      --
      Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
    4. Re:yes but.. by Hard_Rock_2 · · Score: 1

      I actually got something like that from bestbuy, its called music player advance. It only has 48MB of space though, sounds choppy and cant fast forward or rewind.

    5. Re:yes but.. by Askjeffro · · Score: 1

      As mentioned by temples, Songpro is a cart capable of playing mp3s that accepts SD cards (2). It can support up to a total capacity of 512 MB. As far as I know however it only works in the GBA, not the GB. I own one and it has worked quite well for myself.

    6. Re:yes but.. by Leroy+Brown · · Score: 1

      Don't worry -- your Britney Spears albums will sound virtually the same in 2-bit mono gameboy sound... at least to me.

    7. Re:yes but.. by tepples · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure there was a SongPro for Game Boy a long time ago, but it came out so close to the release of the GBA that people forgot about the GBC version entirely.

    8. Re:yes but.. by noidentity · · Score: 1

      You can't play mp3s with a GameBoy; not enough CPU. The best you can do is use the GameBoy as an oversized remote control and power source for an mp3 player (which is what these players do).

    9. Re:yes but.. by tepples · · Score: 1

      The best you can do is use the GameBoy as an oversized remote control and power source for an mp3 player (which is what these players do).

      The GSM player decodes GSM Full Rate audio in real time in software.

  6. So does that mean... by game+kid · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...people will actually play Tetris with something besides the classic tracks? BLASPHEMY! (Unless it's a Lil Jon song that says YEEAAAHHHH after every 4-line combo.)

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    1. Re:So does that mean... by tepples · · Score: 1

      No, it means people will start using covers and ReMixes of the classic tracks.

  7. Tetris by Idimmu+Xul · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd love to see the Rockbox port for the H3x0, who cares about diagnol controls, being able to play Tetris, possibly against multiple opponents using the USB port and hub that it comes with would be totally awesome!

    --
    The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
  8. I love Open Source. by michelcultivo · · Score: 1

    This is another way of using Open Source to difuse the use of hardware and earning $$$ money without the software license.

    --
    http://www.michel.eti.br
    1. Re:I love Open Source. by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 1

      Yes, I'm sure all the ROMs people are using on this are the freely developed, open source kind. Yes. Surely.

      --

      --

      WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
  9. What I Want... by SubDude · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can I get my Gameboy to emulate a cell-phone?

  10. WarioWare by tepples · · Score: 1

    You can play parodies of cellphone games on your GBA.

  11. iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by vision33r · · Score: 4, Informative

    I've owned 3 ipods that I had to get rid of because of consistent freezing and deteriorating battery life. My iRiver iHP-120 over 1 yr just performs rock solid. Yes, it is not white so noobs thinks its not a MP3 player but I don't have to take out of my pocket and finger circle to find songs. Just 1-2 clicks on the iRiver remote control does a dandy job. Now with people working on modding the firmware this little gem of a MP3 player is like the Linux of MP3 player and Ipod is the Windoze.

    1. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by FidelCatsro · · Score: 2, Informative

      I have a G1 ipod that works nearly as well as it did on day one as it does now.
      Conversly my iriver has been repaired 4 times due to failures.
      Also if you wish to see moded firmware , the ipod has its fair share of projects
      http://ipod.hackaday.com.nyud.net:8090/ just have a look there.
      irivers are fine players ,lets not sully things with an " A is X and b is Y " argument

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    2. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by Stinking+Pig · · Score: 1

      Absolutely -- I love my 120 passionately. Better sound quality than an iPod, doesn't need iTunes, doesn't need DRM, and continues to work just great after a year of daily use.

      I'm a little confused by this whole article though, as I thought Rockbox was for the Archos, not iRiver. Can't say that I'm likely to replace firmware anyway, as the iRiver firmware is working just fine. The most I'd look for in a different firmware is better fonts.

      --
      "Nothing was broken, and it's been fixed." -- Jon Carroll
    3. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by goMac2500 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thats funny. My iPod has an Apple supplied remote too, so I don't have to take my iPod out of my pocket either...

    4. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by goMac2500 · · Score: 1

      Oh... I forgot to mention the iPod can actually run Linux too. :)

    5. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by DWIM · · Score: 1

      That is funny. How much extra did it cost you?

    6. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by radish · · Score: 1

      Shame it doesn't have a display...the iRiver remotes are great (I don't have one - I'm a Rio fanboy).

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    7. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by mickwd · · Score: 1

      Rockbox for the iRiver isn't finished yet, but it's coming on nicely.

      The status page for the porting effort is here.

    8. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by goMac2500 · · Score: 1

      Came with my 3G. Got an extra one when I bought replacement iPod headphones.

    9. Re:iRiver one of most under-appreciated MP3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I think that you mean under appreciated over here (the states). It seems to be doing well on the other side of the pond.

      I just got a 320 when my old 120 lost all vital signs after a trip through the clothes washer. As it was under warranty, I had little incentive to see if I could fix it, and returned it to the store still damp :)

      Some of the lesser known (or glossed over) features of the 3x0's

      Plays movies if you flash the Korean bios.
      Has USBOTG* (with Korean bios)
      FM tuner
      Color screen

      *USB On The Go which allows you to use the iRiver as a USB hub. Very cool.

  12. Path of Technology by page275 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, it will come to the point where there is a portable device that contains all features of a PDA, a cellphone, an mp3 player, a game machine ...

    ... Well, just sounds like a notebook with a telephone attachs to it.

    1. Re:Path of Technology by Kris_J · · Score: 1

      You just described the N-Gage, but it's a lot smaller than a notebook PC.

  13. Get a smartphone by tepples · · Score: 1

    You're thinking of smartphones. They are PDAs with cellphones, and most of the newer ones can play MP3 audio. The only things keeping them from being game machines are bad controls (what's comfortable for use as a replacement for a Game Boy isn't comfortable for use as a phone) and lack of titles (due to phone network operators that own your phone and the lack of Nintendo branding).

  14. Size constraint of wearable computing by tepples · · Score: 1

    Only a small number of devices and media will fit in a given person's pockets. Didn't you see "no more lugging around loads of gameboy cardridges" in the blurb?

    1. Re:Size constraint of wearable computing by tepples · · Score: 1

      get an ipod (smaller than an archos crapbox) and a gameboy. use a eprom cart and writer

      Can a fellow even buy GBC flash carts anymore? All that seems to be sold nowadays is GBA flash. GBA flash works only with GBA games and with emulated GB mono games, not with GBC-only games.

    2. Re:Size constraint of wearable computing by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      I got the best of both worlds.

      Whoo-Pah!

    3. Re:Size constraint of wearable computing by tepples · · Score: 1

      F2A is for GBA games. What is for GBC games?

    4. Re:Size constraint of wearable computing by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Haven't found one for GBC yet, but there must be one out there...

      F2A+GB Bridge works for original GB games (though I seem to have trouble with saving... odd)

    5. Re:Size constraint of wearable computing by ashridah · · Score: 1

      Rockboy already supports gameboy colour games. it just looks like ass because they've only coded support for one-bit of greyscale into the lcd driver (the iriver supports two bits of greyscale).

      it's entertaining when you look at it and you get basically a giant black screen with a few clear patches :)

      ashridah

    6. Re:Size constraint of wearable computing by ashridah · · Score: 1

      "get an ipod (smaller than an archos crapbox) and a gameboy. use a eprom cart and writer"

      This doesn't actually RUN on the archos, the archos is a sh-based cpu running at some pokey little MHz (like 10MHz or something). The iriver has the capability of running at 140MHz (although the best speed for heat/power usage/etc is 96MHz apparently) and uses the same size hard drives as a standard ipod.

      It's also possible for it to potentially run on the gmini, since that also has a reasonably beefy processor.

      ashridah

  15. ipod by Ethoscapade · · Score: 1

    right, now let's see this working on the ipod. sure, it's only got two directions instead of four, and just two colors ("on" and "off", as it would happen), but it's got buttons to spare (well, one). ..okay, bad idea. but some games (tetris, notably) would actually work. what kind of processing power does the ipod have, anyway?

    1. Re:ipod by sH4RD · · Score: 1

      Gameboy Emulator for iPod. It's in progress anyway.

      --
      WASTE - The Secure P2P
    2. Re:ipod by ryan42 · · Score: 1

      What about the iPod photo? And how about a controller that would plug into the docking port of the iPod photo and give you a GameBoy like button layout and maybe even a cartridge slot. the iPod photo screen is similar size to a GBC screen.

    3. Re:ipod by Storlek · · Score: 2, Interesting

      just two colors ("on" and "off", as it would happen)

      The mono iPod has four shades at least. The borders between the days in the calendar are a light gray; and the back of the cards in solitaire are a darker gray. Add "on" (black) and "off" and you have four colors. (Incidentally, the Gameboy uses a four-color grayscale display as well.)

      EveryMac has some very detailed tech specs about the iPod; the fourth generation model has dual 80MHz ARM processors and 32 megabytes of RAM, which I would imagine is more than enough to emulate the Gameboy's 8MHz with 64k RAM. The button limitation would require some creativity, but it wouldn't be impossible.

      --
      Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards.
    4. Re:ipod by Ethoscapade · · Score: 1

      wow, that's actually much more processing muscle than i would've expected. heck, the DS runs on something like a 33mhz ARM7 and a 70mhz ARM9. well, why has nobody done this yet?

  16. Also on Rockbox for Archos Gmini? by anonieuweling · · Score: 1

    Would this also work on the Rockbox port to Archos Gmini?

    1. Re:Also on Rockbox for Archos Gmini? by Bj�rn+Stenberg · · Score: 1

      Not likely. Since the Gmini cpu (CalmRisc) uses a harvard architecture, it cannot support loadable plugins. All code must be compiled in and I'm afraid RockBoy won't be very high on the priority list.

  17. zerg by Lord+Omlette · · Score: 1

    Thanks for destroying rockbox's website. Does anyone know if the h1x0 port got anywhere or are they still at the "Debugger goes where?" stage?

    --
    [o]_O
    1. Re:zerg by Illissius · · Score: 1

      Site works over here. You can see their progress here.

      --
      Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
    2. Re:zerg by ashridah · · Score: 1

      It's coming along.

      Several people are working on optimising the codecs to run at >100% realtime, and others are poking at the technical issues of supporting audio buffering and playback.
      There's progress being made bit by bit each day as people have spare time from work/lives/family/whatever.
      Don't expect it to happen overnight, or next week, but it'll get there, probably sooner rather than later. (one codec is close to approaching 100% atm (flac i think). Tremor (vorbis) has some weird bottleneck and is stuck at 10% or so tho, needs some profiling (kinda hard on the iriver where you can't just run gprof. we don't actually have gdb yet either... :) )

      ashridah

  18. Don't give them any ideas by tepples · · Score: 1

    Britney Spears albums will sound virtually the same

    Shh! Don't give the NES remixers any ideas...

    in 2-bit mono gameboy sound

    "2-bit sound" can sound better than a CD. Even SACD uses pulse-density modulation at 1 bit per channel, heavily dithered during mastering and low-pass filtered at the output.

  19. Rockbox iRiver port by acb · · Score: 1

    From what I've read, it boots on a H1x0 and runs, though doesn't play anything because they haven't yet coded the software codec infrastructure. (The Archos hardware Rockbox was originally written for uses a hardware MP3 decoder.)

    I haven't had a chance to play with it, though, as I have a H340, which they haven't yet started porting the port to.

  20. Alas, the end is near. by tempest69 · · Score: 1
    With diligence and perseverence, and devices like this; We can finally end the scourge of productivity in our LIFETIME.

    Quick someone nominate the inventor for the nobel prize.

    Storm

  21. No AV120? by hobbes580 · · Score: 1

    The Rockbox firmware linked in the article only works for the Archos Jukebox and Recorder series. Has anyone heard of any similar re-writes for the Archos Multimedia AV120?

  22. Gbits vs. GBytes by tepples · · Score: 1

    I guess you haven't done much research on the subject lately. I have a 1gb flash cart for my GBA

    I knew about the 1 Gbit GBA flash carts, but I didn't mention them 1. because they're expensive, and 2. so as not to confuse. The flash carts marked "1G" are actually 1 giga-bit, or 128 MiB. That is, unless they're CompactFlash adapters such as the SuperCard, which can take Type 1 CF of up to 2 GB.

  23. nifty by mike_d85 · · Score: 1

    no, really just nifty.

    --
    Bang 'ole Bess, man. --BESS
  24. iRiver iH1?0 remote's LCD support not in (yet) by coquelicot · · Score: 1

    whole project looks great, unfortunately I can't use it (yet) on my iRiver-iH120; Rockbox does not support remote's LCD right now (my main LCD is damaged; I really shouldn't put my player into my back pocket and go the party!). As soon as remote is working, I'll give it a shot.

  25. This game works only on Game Boy Color by tepples · · Score: 1

    I know of Goomba, which works for GB ROMs, but for GBC ROMs, I get "This game works only on Game Boy Color."

  26. Ngage? by TLSPRWR · · Score: 1

    Can I get my Gameboy to emulate a cell-phone?

    Sounds like you need to invest in an NGAGE...