GBA emulator for NDS flash carts?

[AquaLeaderMatt]

I've looked around, but all I could find was GB and GBC emulators for NDS flash carts. I'm using R4, and I REALLY want to play GBA games without buying a GBA flash cart. Is there such a thing?

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

[jak66]

I'm using R4, and I REALLY want to play GBA games without buying a GBA flash cart. Is there such a thing?

No. Never.

[AquaLeaderMatt]

Can you please elaborate?

[ButterBeer121]

There isn't.

[Shane R. Monroe]

It's impossible to run GBA games from ANY slot 1 solution - even via emulation.

A slot 2 solution is the only solution.

[cloud_952]

It's impossible to run GBA games from ANY slot 1 solution - even via emulation.

Now, that's not true. You should know better than to toss around 'never' on forums like this.

Nearly anything is possible to emulate. The question is: how well? The DS can be emulated on the PSP.. it just really sucks and is virtually unplayable. ^_^

I also am not totally sure that the GBA couldn't be emulated well, but hey.. that's a matter of opinion and technicality. But it CAN be done.

[kcajblue]

its possible.
but will never get good enough to be playable.

[ButterBeer121]

Exactly. If I can play GBA games on my iPod, then we should be able to get it on the DS, but that doesn't mean it's worthwhile.

[DanTheManMS]

A search for "GBA emulator for the DS" brings up http://dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=74084 in which I explain the various reasons why slot-1 cannot play GBA games.

[kcajblue]

for those who dont feel like clicking the link

GBA games are directly addressed, that is, most data is read directly from the cartridge rather than from RAM. The DS slot is not capable of this method, as it loads chunks of the game into RAM, where it is the run. DimensionT is right in that DS games are streamed from the card in a sense, but GBA games function differently. So you can't run GBA games directly from slot-1.

You can't just use the ARM7 to emulate/simulate the GBA because it functions entirely differently in DS mode than it does in GBA mode. While in GBA mode it handles everything, in DS mode it only handles some buttons, touchscreen, wifi, and power management (among other functions of course). There are functions the ARM7 can handle in GBA mode that are inaccessible in DS mode. So therefore, you can't run GBA games in DS mode at all.

As a result, one must conclude that GBA games must run in GBA mode on the DS. Then the question comes up of where you're going to store the data for the GBA to use. You can't just load up the DS's 4 MB of RAM with GBA game data and then boot into GBA mode, as the DS's RAM is cleared and becomes inaccessible when you go into GBA mode. You can't just load up the GBA's 256 KB of RAM with a multiboot homebrew demo and then boot into GBA mode because the GBA's RAM is cleared by the GBA's BIOS when it runs. So therefore, it's not possible to store the game into on-board RAM before execution.

The only other way to get a GBA game working on the DS without a slot-2 device would be an emulator, and nobody is going to write a software renderer that would be slow and buggy when the DS already contains 100% accurate hardware emulation as it is. It would be a waste of time.

this is dans explanation.