Dsx86?

[RetroVortex]

I notice that the Nintendo DS is mainly coded for in C/++, and I think the Caanoo also uses C languages.

Though admittadely the DS is not very good at emulation, (though it has a excellent Nes and Megadrive Emulator), it does have a suprisingly good Dos emulator, DSx86.

http://dsx86.patrickaalto.com/

I know Dosbox is probably the better choice, (there's already a version of it on the Wiz), but I wonder if this emulator could be successfully ported to the Caanoo, (the Caanoo does have a touchscreen, and I've seen apps use a virtual keyboard).

A quick port should in theory work alright, (the DS is very weak CPU wise (64mhz and 33mhz cpus and only has 4mb ram)), and may provide the bases of an emulator specific to the Caanoo.

Then again, I know nothing about coding, so this suggestion might be a little stupid.

EDIT: There is also a DS2x86 but I think thats specific to a certain flashcart, (has extra CPU in it..).

 

[mike909]

This would be so awesome

 

[Exophase]

DSx86 is coded in ARM assembly, not C or C++. Not that that'd stop it from running on Caanoo, but it's very DS specific code. At any rate, you'd have to convince the author to port it, it isn't open source.

And holy crap man, all of those nested parentheses you use hurt my head >_>

 

[Reesy]

Wow that emulator looks great....it even plays X-wing! amazing. Shame its not open source but I can understand why. I'm inspired though, I need Xwing on the Caanoo.

 

[Optimus]

I want it too. It's a pitty it's not opensource.

Dosbox on the Wiz couldn't even get some descent speed without the sound breaking even with the least cycle consuming games. But this one on the much slower DS can at least play some old 286 games with good sound. That impressed me. If it would be ported to the Wiz/Caanoo way more games would be playable at full speed with sound. I think it would be THE dos emulator for those handheld (I know, it's much less compatible, says 80186 in the site, but it's better than nothing atm)

 

[Phawx]

Just so we have info in this thread and it can be searched easily, I figure its the best place to put it.

I asked Patrick (dsx86 dev) if he had plans to port it or open source it and he replied (which he said was alright to post)

"Hi!
 
I plan to hold on to the DSx86 source for a while longer, until I get bored with working on it. After that I plan to release the source code.
 
I am not currently looking for new hardware to port it on, as I am already working on two different hardware, ARM9 on Nintendo DS and MIPS32r2 on the DSTwo flash cart.
 
Thanks for your interest in DSx86 in any case!"