DSi Drops GBA Support (and the Homebrew that Comes With It); Old DS Cool Again

[wraggster]

Bad news, folks. We totally missed it in the wake of poor battery life specs, but Nintendo's new DSi will completely ditch support for GBA titles. That not only means no more playing GBA backups (they only loaded from the now extinct GBA slot), but even if you were to load some sort of GBA emulation through the DS slot, chances are that the DS's processor wouldn't be fast enough to handle it (integrated GBA hardware processed these games before). Also, no GBA slot means that the lightly supported but excellent DS rumble pack and similar accessories are dead too. I can't speak for everyone here, but the DSi is becoming a bigger disappointment by the second.

http://gizmodo.com/5058052/dsi-drops-gba-support-and-the-homebrew-that-comes-with-it-old-ds-cool-again

[Rufus]

Without the GBA slot, that would also be eliminating the extra memory cart for the (at least) the DSBrowser...

[Justise]

Why whould anyone whant to buy this downgrade?

I'll tell you why! Because DS is mostly used by Girls (especialy in Japan), and girls never had a GBA library.

I'll stick to my old (and fat) DS.

[davidcrew]

Without the GBA slot, that would also be eliminating the extra memory cart for the (at least) the DSBrowser...

it has some onboard flash memory for that.

[flaminfox]

wow, much complainers over the Dsi..... well with out gba which is dead, using SD card emulation of gba is possible you know......

[ICE]

wow, much complainers over the Dsi..... well with out gba which is dead, using SD card emulation of gba is possible you know......

Yeah, lets not all rule out an SD exploit.

[Demonic_Cr0w]

Without the GBA slot, that would also be eliminating the extra memory cart for the (at least) the DSBrowser...supposedly, it will have an internet browser already built in (Which I would only use... pretty much no where) But hopefully it will be more powerful with a stronger processor (hence the shorter battery life possibly?) I honestly never used the GBA slot for anything other than Guitar Hero, which I never play. But in all reality, this should have been released instead of the DS Lite. Nintendo is making a habit of taking half-steps instead of full steps lately (Game Cube to Wii, DS to DS Lite Etc.) If this were released instead of the DS Lite, it would have been much more of an accomplishment. I'm glad that it will be more of a hand held Wii with its online store and new apps, but it's a bit late. They need to think about power a bit more. They've got the courage, they've got the wisdom, but they lack in power. Damnit Nintendo, you created the Triforce! Gah!

Oh and on a side note, I hate that it will support AAC... They're trying too hard to be Apple

[mcdougall57]

Thats a shame but thats why I own a micro.

[123Waffle101]

well...if the browser needs extra memory.. where the gba slot was, could be used as the extra ram because there is nothing there, which could mean external ram..which may mean that the extra ram could be used to play gba with the ds once its hacked

[iofthestorm]

Bad news, folks. We totally missed it in the wake of poor battery life specs, but Nintendo's new DSi will completely ditch support for GBA titles. That not only means no more playing GBA backups (they only loaded from the now extinct GBA slot), but even if you were to load some sort of GBA emulation through the DS slot, chances are that the DS's processor wouldn't be fast enough to handle it (integrated GBA hardware processed these games before). Also, no GBA slot means that the lightly supported but excellent DS rumble pack and similar accessories are dead too. I can't speak for everyone here, but the DSi is becoming a bigger disappointment by the second.

http://gizmodo.com/5058052/dsi-drops-gba-support-and-the-homebrew-that-comes-with-it-old-ds-cool-again
Wow that article fails so hard. The DS needs the ARM7 core for audio and other stuff, a lot of games use it. They're only removing the slot. Of course, anyone who knows a little about homebrew should know this already. Wow, bloggers really disappoint me.

[Hypershell]

Well, the slot, and probably also the GBC sound circuitry and GBA BIOS, both of which are required for GBA games but inaccessible in DS mode. But yeah, the ARM7, the main processor of the GBA, is fully utilized by DS games. So it has to be there. Unless I'm mistaken, being unable to access GBA BIOS while in DS mode is why Slot-1 GBA emulation is basically unplayable.

Reminds me of how GBM features a Z80 (GBC BIOS and all) despite lacking the GBC voltage switch, although in that case it was only because Nintendo didn't bother making a new chip set for it. GBA games don't use it.

Axing GBA support (and all accessories and features that came with it, including Band Bros expansions, Rumble Pak, Guitar Hero, and Pokemon's Pal Park) is not worth a higher price, low-resolution camera, shorter battery life, and a bunch of other crap that homebrew accomplished ages ago. Hate the AAC format as well. That being said, Nintendo would be utterly foolish to cut off their massive installed userbase from the download service. One hopes they have an adapter for older systems in the works. Something akin to the DSVision, perhaps?

[Keitaro Urashima]

No GBA Slot. Where should I put Guitar Hero Grip? Nintendo should redesign it again.

[Eviltaco64]

I think I might just buy an old school DS.
They seem the most sturdy, and apparently have a longer battery life than the Lite.

[goshogun1]

I think I might just buy an old school DS.
They seem the most sturdy, and apparently have a longer battery life than the Lite.

Yeah, they are sturdier, and have a longer battery life. BUT, the DS lite screen is so much crisper compared to the DS PHAT that it blows it out of the water. The quality back-light makes the world of difference. I myself could never go back having seen both.

[Duobix]

WTF people!? The DSi will feature a shop for games so you can buy GBA titles. Also the DS cannot remove GBA hardware cause it's integrated. Whta I mean is, that the DS has upgraded GBA hardware. This was pointed by guys on pocketheaven when I said that DS has three CPU's.

The DSi battery life is like this cause they've integrated two cameras (skype anyone?) and memory expansion. I don't know about rumble but It may be also in.
Also hope for Virtual Console for DSi-it will be there just like miis (you've seen those on DSi trailer).

BTW I hope the new battery is not 2000Mha, so I can upgrade.

[Shrygue]

Well, no matter what people say about the new DSi in the making, I see myself getting one when it comes out. I do hope that the machine will support at least WPA-TSK/AES encryption on the wireless connection, that would be an ace.

[rememberthe8bit]

it has some onboard flash memory for that.
Why would Nintendo use flash memory, which can only be written to a limited number of times, as a cache when they're redesigning the whole system?

wow, much complainers over the Dsi..... well with out gba which is dead, using SD card emulation of gba is possible you know......
"SD card emulation of gba"...? So you're saying you want to use an SD card to emulate the GBA? If you're making a reference to the SD card based Slot-2 cards, it was only because they had some fast SDRAM to load the games into. The GBA's mask ROMs used in commercial carts operate much more quickly than an SD card, unlike DS games, which can be run directly.

Yeah, lets not all rule out an SD exploit.
Maybe for running DS games...

Wow that article fails so hard. The DS needs the ARM7 core for audio and other stuff, a lot of games use it. They're only removing the slot. Of course, anyone who knows a little about homebrew should know this already. Wow, bloggers really disappoint me.


WTF people!? The DSi will feature a shop for games so you can buy GBA titles. Also the DS cannot remove GBA hardware cause it's integrated. Whta I mean is, that the DS has upgraded GBA hardware. This was pointed by guys on pocketheaven when I said that DS has three CPU's.

The DSi battery life is like this cause they've integrated two cameras (skype anyone?) and memory expansion. I don't know about rumble but It may be also in.
Also hope for Virtual Console for DSi-it will be there just like miis (you've seen those on DSi trailer).

BTW I hope the new battery is not 2000Mha, so I can upgrade.

Three "CPU's"!? Wow! OK, in reality it's more like two. And, since much of the hardware changed between the GBA and the DS, you CAN'T RUN GBA EXECUTABLES IN DS MODE WITHOUT, AT THE VERY LEAST, SOME MAJOR PATCHING. And, Skype on the DS? What makes you think Nintendo would potentially expose children to such a "security threat"?

EDIT:
Also, I'm betting that neither of these cameras will be able to stream video. The current DS' WiFi chipset is exceptionally slow, even relative to other 802.11b devices. I think the most we'll ever see is a video recorder to the SD card, or a video gimmick in a game. (I doubt the videos will be transferrable over WiFi.) I even doubt that Nintendo will even allow users to take video in the first place, though.

[Kakashi987]

Why whould anyone whant to buy this downgrade?

I'll tell you why! Because DS is mostly used by Girls (especialy in Japan), and girls never had a GBA library.

I'll stick to my old (and fat) DS.

Wow, how incredibly assumpt....
Bah, teenagers shouldn't be allowed on the internet...