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View Full Version : Do you think it would be possible, to Rom the DS browser?



chemical
August 6th, 2006, 23:05
Hey,

First off i'd like to say i'm not posting this for illegal reasons, I can afford the browser :rolleyes:

But I was thinking, if you could make a rom of the DS internet browser, and put it on a apadater device, you'd have pretty much the ultimate portable system, as you could put the browser, all homebrew apps, games, NDS roms, GBA roms, etc. Video, Music and every other thing for old DS onto your devices, meaning on the go you'd never have to take any cartridges out, and it would just be cool :cool:


I have some doubts if it could be done because on videos i've seen, its released with a GBA and DS cartridge, which makes me think it mustnt be as easy as the average Wifi NDS game, but if anyone has anything to say about this i'd be intrested to hear it.

Quay Cur
August 6th, 2006, 23:47
The GBA pack you saw was the 4MB RAM card. The browser uses that for cache and such and cannot work without it. You can definitely get a working rom of the DS game card, but it will never work without the RAM pack. Some DSLinux guys were working on making bigger RAM cards from what I would guess are flashcarts. They could really use more RAM because it would allow them to do more stuff and possibly make a GUI. So, it may be possible to make your flashcart partially or wholly a RAM card, but I don't think this has happened quite yet. And I'm rambling.

No, you can't run a rom of it, it must have the GBA RAM pack.

deviouscontrol
August 7th, 2006, 00:18
The sc cards do have built in ram don't they? 32mb if i remember right. The rom itself is only 8 meg, so it seems very feesable to me.

The Hombrew Hunter
August 7th, 2006, 00:29
...Sorry for being off topic, but does the DS opera browser support java?

chemical
August 7th, 2006, 01:07
Thanks for the replies, and THH from what i've seen in reviews, it unfortunatly does not support Java :(

AvengedSevenfold Fan
August 7th, 2006, 01:24
i stopped using my ds about 9 months ago when i got my psp, because i relized all that it cannot do that the psp can. what can the ds do?

deviouscontrol
August 7th, 2006, 01:52
play fun games

Junixx
August 7th, 2006, 02:37
play fun games

Wow thats specific lol

The homebrew may not be as big as the PSP one is,but there are quite a few great commercial games

The Hombrew Hunter
August 7th, 2006, 02:39
And Lupidan will make the DS homebrew coolest over all PSP! Just with the zelda game!

metroplex2k7
August 7th, 2006, 02:50
Here's what it can do...

Walk down your local EB Games aisle, you'll see maybe 20 games for PSP and about 5000 movies.

But you'll see about 200 DS games. In my opinion, DS is better.

Quay Cur
August 7th, 2006, 03:01
The sc cards do have built in ram don't they? 32mb if i remember right. The rom itself is only 8 meg, so it seems very feesable to me.
Rom size doesn't matter if it doesn't have the RAM. Unless the Supercard actually has 32MB of real RAM built in to it, you won't be able to run the rom properly. And if any model of the Supercard had more than 4MB of actual RAM in it then the DSLinux guys wouldn't be struggling to make their own large capacity RAM cards.

To run the rom you need your flashcart, for the rom to run it needs a RAM card right where your flashcart is.

Oh, and Homebrew Hunter, it can't do Java, but I'm pretty sure it does Javascript.

brennxn
August 7th, 2006, 03:01
There are already DS borwser roms floating around.

The Hombrew Hunter
August 7th, 2006, 03:42
javascript?

Should be enough, I guess.

deviouscontrol
August 7th, 2006, 04:39
Rom size doesn't matter if it doesn't have the RAM. Unless the Supercard actually has 32MB of real RAM built in to it, you won't be able to run the rom properly. And if any model of the Supercard had more than 4MB of actual RAM in it then the DSLinux guys wouldn't be struggling to make their own large capacity RAM cards.

To run the rom you need your flashcart, for the rom to run it needs a RAM card right where your flashcart is.

Oh, and Homebrew Hunter, it can't do Java, but I'm pretty sure it does Javascript.


Supercard has "32Mbyte (256 Mbit) of SDRAM" according to the supercard.cn forums.

Quay Cur
August 7th, 2006, 14:01
Supercard has "32Mbyte (256 Mbit) of SDRAM" according to the supercard.cn forums.
Well that certainly shut me up :)

battleroyalex
August 7th, 2006, 16:41
Supercard has "32Mbyte (256 Mbit) of SDRAM" according to the supercard.cn forums.
If thats true then why the hell arent homebrew devlopers using it? They wouldn't have problems with slowdowns in quake and hexen ect. If it says it on their website I will believe it but if some random person from their forums says that it doesn't mean its true

lexluthor
August 7th, 2006, 16:43
If thats true then why the hell arent homebrew devlopers using it? They wouldn't have problems with slowdowns in quake and hexen ect. If it says it on their website I will believe it but if some random person from their forums says that it doesn't mean its true

I dont know either.. but wouldnt a good idea be to go and look it up for yourself then.

Stop bitchin about what this guy has to say. Either believe him or look it up yourself.

battleroyalex
August 7th, 2006, 16:55
I dont know either.. but wouldnt a good idea be to go and look it up for yourself then.

Stop bitchin about what this guy has to say. Either believe him or look it up yourself.

why don't you look it up yourself before you butt into something thats not your buisness trying to start a flame war, read the forum rules before you get yourself banned.

Quay Cur
August 7th, 2006, 17:09
Found this on the gbadev.org forums (http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=5051&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=jpg&start=0):

-----------------------------
Hello guys,

Here are the SC inner pics (attn 56Kers, big pics)

http://if2a.free.fr/Pics/SC_front.jpg
http://if2a.free.fr/Pics/SC_back.jpg

(destructive opening, as everything is glued together so be prepared to glue back if you want to attempt).

The part inventory :
+ Lattice ispMACH LC4128V : CPLD (Mach4000 family)
+ HY57V561620CTP-H (Hynix): 256Mbits SDRAM, 3.3V, PC133-CL3
+ M5M5V208AKV (Mitsubishi): 2Mbit CMOS SRAM , 2.7-3.6V, 70ns
+ 29LV400TC-90PFTN (Fairchild also avail. from Fujitsu): 4Mbits FLASH, 90ns, 3V

FLASH mem means the firmware upgrades are permanent (I thought you had to keep the file on the CF). I also looked at the firmware upgrade binary. Does not seems like a GBA ROM (header is missing, probably hardcoded into the CPLD) or maybe compressed.

My aim is to have a free software SC patching utility and maybe a firmware as well.

Vince
-----------------------------

I also read more in this thread from the DSLinux forums about a guy, Amadeus, who is making his own flash cart for DS and DSL that will have 32MB of true RAM and also use microSD for storage. Should everything work out for him he will have made the thing that DSLinux has been needing since the beginning. As a side note, the DS has 4MB of internal RAM. Here's the thread (http://www.dslinux.org/index.php?showtopic=580).

Also posted by Amadeus in that thread is this:

-----------------------------
The major drawback of most CF/SD card adapters is the usage of the GBA ROM space for I/O. So how to write a SD/CF card driver for linux if linux wants to run from GBA ROM space the same time?

Supercard CF/SD uses 16 MBytes for RAM and 16 MBytes for I/O. Not perfect, but acceptable.
M3 is using 32 MBytes for I/O. Not acceptable.

DSMEM/DSRAM will use the GBA RAM space for I/O. 32 MBytes free for Linux.
-----------------------------

So yes, the SC does have 32MB of RAM but only 16MB is available for use.

If Amadeus' combination RAM/flashcart, recently named DSRAM (I also saw the name DSMEM floating around, not sure how the two are different), is a sucess it will open a huge door for DSLinux and allow many other apps to be made for DS.

Edit: forgot to link to the gbadev.org post, fixed!

Amadeus's blog (http://www.dslinux.org/amadeus/)

TheLamer
August 7th, 2006, 17:51
Yeah but how are you going to modify a commercial rom with no source code , into looking for ram in a different spot than the commercial gba 4 meg cart???

Don't get me wrong I want it bad, but I do not think it is possible.

Quay Cur
August 7th, 2006, 17:55
Yeah, I'd like it too, but you're right. The only way I can see it happening is if some intrepid coder decided to hack away at it. Even then, it would probably only be able to run on a Supercard. Amadeus seemed to think you couldn't do anything with an M3, though, I don't know what the G6 has in the RAM department.

lexluthor
August 7th, 2006, 18:21
why don't you look it up yourself before you butt into something thats not your buisness trying to start a flame war, read the forum rules before you get yourself banned.

Sorry I appreciate my mistake. I misread the original users post and I thought you where dismissing his recearch.

Dont bother having a go at me again. Ive said sorry.. admitted my mistake. And that it.

:)

deviouscontrol
August 7th, 2006, 19:30
Yeah but how are you going to modify a commercial rom with no source code , into looking for ram in a different spot than the commercial gba 4 meg cart???

Don't get me wrong I want it bad, but I do not think it is possible.


It's done all the time. That's what the supercard patcher software does. It can modify where the savegames will be stored either on a ds cart or on your memory card. No other cart has used external ram before, so it is a little different hack that has to be done. With everything being said here, 16mb is still enough to load the opera ds rom and the extra ram needed.

emenblade
November 23rd, 2007, 23:47
call me an idiot, but isnt there a web browser in dsorganize and its a rom... and it doesnt have an expansion pack(as far as i know)
but on the other hand i dont even have a ds... so wth do i know!:p