GBA interface possible?


CTLance

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I think this should be doable:
The GBA features an interesting 'remote-boot' mode - if you turn it on and press and hold start and select it tries to download an executable file through it's cable port. Other GBAs can function as game servers this way - not everyone needs to have the game to play it against others - the same mechanism is used in Gamecube games. Due to the very limited RAM size of the GBA the program has to be very small.

GBA specs:
256 Kbyte WRAM (external of CPU)
32 Kbyte + 96 Kbyte VRAM (in CPU)

That makes for less than half a Meg even in extreme conditions.

I think an emulator would be quite feasible to code for this - with nearly 8 Megs of free RAM the GP32 should easily be able to either host GBA games or even participate as 'slave'. It wouldn't be something big, but it could be fun! Imagine a SMC full with more than 200 minigames that could easily be shared with GBA and GP32 owners alike? :eek:

I've seen some pretty fun 'remote boot' games so far.... and they're by no means 'cheap minigames'.
Problems would be the interface. I have absolutely no clue whatsoever what kind of port the GBA uses... and what the exact specifications for the remote boot sequence is. I would volunteer for experiments, provided someone with actual knowledge participates. I have both a GBA and a GP32 and would be willing to sacrifice a link cable and my old mobile phone recharge station (GP32 serial port).
I can code and solder a bit.

Comments? Ideas? Hardware hackers? Anyone?
 
Actually, many of these little games have been dumped, and converted to a standard GBA rom. Take, for instance, the NiGHTS mini game from PSO. It's widely distributed.

You can play it using the GBA emulator, I believe, but I haven't tried it, so dont quote me on that.
 
He means a physical connection between the GBA/GC and the GP32.

I don't see any reason that it couldn't be done. But of course it is going to involve GBA emulation.

While these games are usually not very taxing on the GBA hardware (due to the small amount of memory to work with), the GBA still needs to be emulated with at least marginal speed.

If the GBA can be emulated properly (that's a big IF at this point), I think something of this sort will be developed.
 
CTlance go here: www.devrs.com to find eveything about the link port GBA uses...
And some cool hack to the GP32! :)
 
no emulation. he means feeding games to the GBA from a GP32 through a link cable.

Since the GBA can only play GBA coded games, the only thing it would accept for download and play is a GBA game. To be of any use, the GP32 must be playing the same game, which means that the GP32 has to be able to emulate the GBA to play the game.

You can't have a GP32 version and a GBA version of the same mini game, it would be too time consuming. They have to play the same game, so one system has to emulate the other. And there is no GP32 emulator for GBA even being thought about, so the GP32 has to do the emulating.
 
U dont need a gba emu on the gp32 to send a multiboot file to the gba

http://www.devrs.com/gba/files/mbv2faqs.php#PCSoft

has the source for sending it all we would have to do is make a cable.

having the emu running with the link cable emulation enabled you could play aginst your friend on a gba and a gp32 altho you would prob be slower than him the link play would work ;)

:ph34r:
 
U dont need a gba emu on the gp32 to send a multiboot file to the gba

You don't need to emulate the GBA to send it, but it is going to be pretty pointless to send a program to the GBA and not be able to interact with it on the GP32.
 
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