Gba Can Do N64 Games!! Why Not The Gp2x?

[DaveC]

I don't know I think I would rather have a near perfect SNES emu. I wonder why no one wants to do that? It is probably more possible than GBA anyway really.

I mean I already have two handhelds that can emulate a GBA perfectly. One is called a "GBA-SP" the other is called a "DS"

 

[Jarska333]

And for the N'th time, one doesn't necessarily want to lug 2X and GBA/SD around. Everything in the same machine is a good goal.

 

[Draken]

And you have those that just don't feel like buying a new handheld or pay for it's games.

 

[DaveC]

And you have those that just don't feel like buying a new handheld or pay for it's games.

You can get a flashcart if P1r473d R0mz is what you want for the GBA and use it on an SP to have all of your games on one cart..

 

[chris_r]

I don't like having to carry more than one thing round at a time. In my pockets when I go out I normally have my keys, phone, wallet and mp3 player. So carrying my gp2x along with that is bad enough, let alone carrying a gp2x and a ds/gda

 

[kajuberdut]

Besides, GBA would require buying a flash cart, and digging up my GBA... and even then there are no 4 GB flash carts around... 4gb maybe... so with an emulator we could have a single device (single battery, single memory to keep roms on, single pocket used) and mr. Tkfi5h is talking about turbo (a must have for some games...) save states and all the other advantages of emulation. frankly, im as excited about this as i am psx4gp2x, which is why i bought the gp2x in the first place.

 

[Shikaku]

Besides, GBA would require buying a flash cart, and digging up my GBA... and even then there are no 4 GB flash carts around... 4gb maybe... so with an emulator we could have a single device (single battery, single memory to keep roms on, single pocket used) and mr. Tkfi5h is talking about turbo (a must have for some games...) save states and all the other advantages of emulation. frankly, im as excited about this as i am psx4gp2x, which is why i bought the gp2x in the first place.

You can also buy a SD/CF card flash cart, which I heard supports all sizes of SD/CF cards... so it can use 4/8 GB =)

 

[Epicenter]

I can see the desire to run GBA games on the GP2X; I'd have use for it too. I hate carrying more than one portable, I hate carrying around all my cartridges ... as for flash carts, I had 2. I had to order them from China, they took MONTHS to arrive, one took LEGAL THREATS to get here, and they cost a ton, and a ton MORE for shipping. And getting the damn thing to work with Windows XP was a nightmare, too. Emulation accuracy is not much of an issue since almost everything, even audio, runs in SOFTWARE on the machine's ARM7-- the video subsystem is about all that doesn't.

 

[tshroom]

I can see the desire to run GBA games on the GP2X; I'd have use for it too. I hate carrying more than one portable, I hate carrying around all my cartridges ... as for flash carts, I had 2. I had to order them from China, they took MONTHS to arrive, one took LEGAL THREATS to get here, and they cost a ton, and a ton MORE for shipping. And getting the damn thing to work with Windows XP was a nightmare, too. Emulation accuracy is not much of an issue since almost everything, even audio, runs in SOFTWARE on the machine's ARM7-- the video subsystem is about all that doesn't.

I dont know if you had the same problem as me, but my flash cart was poorly made and the fact that it uses battery saves means you have to change the battery every year or so in order to keep your save data.

I know its hard to emulate but can someone explain why?

 

[DaveC]

I would still prefer the "inconvienience" of carrying around a GBA-SP with flashcart (they make some now that use SD cards) and get decent playability. Playing a GBA game at 10 FPS with no sound ain't going to cut it for me. I guess that is just me though.

 

[Epicenter]

I would still prefer the "inconvienience" of carrying around a GBA-SP with flashcart (they make some now that use SD cards) and get decent playability. Playing a GBA game at 10 FPS with no sound ain't going to cut it for me. I guess that is just me though.

If GBA game program code is made to run natively on one of the GP2X's ARM9s performance would be far above and beyond that-- if video and audio can be emulated with decent speed (should be fine, since the 2D graphics/video subsystem should be about on par with the NeoGeo's, and audio is handled on the ARM7 CPU) .. it's quite feasible the emulator could run at full speed. With sound.

 

[DaveC]

I would still prefer the "inconvienience" of carrying around a GBA-SP with flashcart (they make some now that use SD cards) and get decent playability. Playing a GBA game at 10 FPS with no sound ain't going to cut it for me. I guess that is just me though.

If GBA game program code is made to run natively on one of the GP2X's ARM9s performance would be far above and beyond that-- if video and audio can be emulated with decent speed (should be fine, since the 2D graphics/video subsystem should be about on par with the NeoGeo's, and audio is handled on the ARM7 CPU) .. it's quite feasible the emulator could run at full speed. With sound.

Alot of "ifs" there. "If" that happened then yes ok.

Actually GBA has more GPU effects than NeoGeo as it has transparencies -we all know how those bring down SNES emus- and hardware scaling and rotation. NeoGeo has simple scaling but no rotation and tilting/rotate mode 7 like F-zero

While it may be possible in theory to get decent GBA emulation with alot of ASM, months of coding, and starting from scratch (ports won't cut it, too much bloat), I doubt it will happen in the GP2X's life cycle. We don't even have decent SNES with transparencies yet.

I can see it getting to the level of maybe the PSX emu where most games are just too slow to actually play, with a few here and there that are tolerable. Still won't touch the real GBA hardware.

 

[Jaguarandine]

Lol, it's like on every post Epicenter is the optimist and DaveC is the pessimist. I'm sure the community needs both points of view though.

IMO, if the 3DO emulator ever materializes, that would open the door to 100% GBA emulation (hmm, I wonder if the 2X could handle tranparencies like the GBA though). Definetly not going to happen anytime soon though.

 

[PSyMastR]

Isn't someone already working on converting the arm files from GBA to 2x?

 

[Epicenter]

Well, they're full game binaries containing a mixed bag of ARM7 machine code, graphics and audio data. The ARM7 code needs to be essentially translated to code in the ARM9 instruction set readable by the ARM920T or 940T for native executon-- removing the need to EMULATE a ~16 MHz ARM7 so they will use just a fraction of the CPU load, freeing both cores up, for the most part in theory, for video and audio processing. Due to the massive load taken off the machine if the code can be made to run natively (this does appear to work so far) Full-framerate operation IS possible and even probable, though some extraneous features may not play well, as DaveC said, like transparency or heavy mode7-ish effects. However, the games which could not be played due to lack of 'mode 7' is rather small, and transparency operation could probably be pulled off if there was not a huge CPU emulation load (like there is with existing SNES emulators.)

Lol, it's like on every post Epicenter is the optimist and DaveC is the pessimist. I'm sure the community needs both points of view though.

IMO, if the 3DO emulator ever materializes, that would open the door to 100% GBA emulation (hmm, I wonder if the 2X could handle tranparencies like the GBA though). Definetly not going to happen anytime soon though.

Probably sooner than you think, at least something playable. I'm sure it won't be perfected for ages. But hey, NES Emulation may not be 'perfect' anytime soon either. I'm just being as realistic as possible with my existing base of knowledge and experience on the matter-- I know ARM architectures and emulator design rather well so I can state some things like this with a reasonable degree of certainty. Much like I can say the much-argued N64 emulation at acceptable speeds will never surface on the GP2X, and could perhaps 'only maybe' be done on an XGP unit .. if it had a 400+ MHz ARM9 processor. And you might still need to overclock it. And it wouldn't approach 60 FPS.

 

[Paradox]

Well, they're full game binaries containing a mixed bag of ARM7 machine code, graphics and audio data. The ARM7 code needs to be essentially translated to code in the ARM9 instruction set readable by the ARM920T or 940T for native executon-- removing the need to EMULATE a ~16 MHz ARM7 so they will use just a fraction of the CPU load, freeing both cores up, for the most part in theory, for video and audio processing. Due to the massive load taken off the machine if the code can be made to run natively (this does appear to work so far) Full-framerate operation IS possible and even probable, though some extraneous features may not play well, as DaveC said, like transparency or heavy mode7-ish effects. However, the games which could not be played due to lack of 'mode 7' is rather small, and transparency operation could probably be pulled off if there was not a huge CPU emulation load (like there is with existing SNES emulators.)

i like the cut of your jib Epicenter!

 

[jimmyslam]

Fro those people who didnt get it.

In spain people say: "gba moves n64 games". meaning "gba emulates n64 games"(the game is moving), do you get it now?

 

[Feeg]

I thought it was "doing" them... ahem.