I've Been Thinking About This For Awhile Now.

[Phawx]

I really think a DS emulator would work perfectly fine. Some games you could easily pull off side-by-side. Even still the resolution is small enough that you could actually still fit them vertically together.

But ultimately, I just don't want to carry two devices around. I've seen reasons why people wouldn't think it would work well on the Pandora. I just don't think they are very valid. I agree that if placed vertically it would be a little small. But there are many methods to pull off the display issues.

Scaling out so you can see more and just using the right thumbstick to scroll up and down. I wonder if you could map the left analog to act as pressing on the touch screen. Obviously the touch screen on the Pandora could work as well. But for games like Mario DS64 where you could use the touch screen as analog control. It would just auto center itself every time you let go of the left thumbstick.

I think there are a lot of creative ways for pulling off DS emulation. But I mean, think of the bliss of just having one device for all portable needs. Man, that would be heaven.

I've probably got my eyes set on EarthBound 2 (translated) for the first game I play on my Pandora...if there is a working GBA emu for it of course.

 

[zhasha]

Yay display issue discussed again. Now go on about how to handle controls. And lastly, remember to completely ignore the issue of how to get any DS software to actually run on the Pandora

 

[Phawx]

@Zhasha I'm pretty sure I've covered all three. So I'm good, yea?

 

[Loonie]

I'm sure we'd love to get to a stage where screen presentation is the hurdle being faced.

 

[danielliu88888]

okay.

 

[darien]

Or we could settle for only playing some games and having a button switch what's being viewed.

 

[MDave]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/50198-virtualization/

Not happening any time soon!

 

[lulzfish]

I really think a DS emulator would work perfectly fine...
I just don't want to carry two devices around...
But I mean, think of the bliss of just having one device for all portable needs. Man, that would be heaven.

I think having the ability to fly would be heaven as well, but that doesn't make it any more possible.

I've seen reasons why people wouldn't think it would work well on the Pandora. I just don't think they are very valid.

The reasons are that emulating the DS simply takes more power than we have at the moment, and nobody seems to have an idea to make a more efficient emulator. In fact, it might not be possible.
I think that's a very valid reason.

 

[second exodous]

I still don't see why people want to emulate the DS. The DS and it's games are still sold. If you want to emulate it to pirate games you can buy a flash cart for $14 and play pirated games on a real DS. The Pandora doesn't need a DS emulator.

 

[VRAndy]

I would like to enter my Ford Escort into a NASCAR tournament.

I've seen a lot of reasons why my Car couldn't compete in a NASCAR tournament, but I don't think they're valid.

For instance, I could easily paint some sponsors' logos on my car. I'd probably put the Pandora logo on the hood. And I know that five point racing harnesses are required for NASCAR, but I could easily just take the seatbelts off the back seats and bolt them onto my driver's seat.

Pretty much all I'd really need to buy would be one of those fancy helmets.

... And I'd need someone else to drive after I got bored at about lap #12.



Serious Answer : Look, all those things you've "solved" aren't serious objections to the emulator. Sure, they've been brought up in the forums, but mostly as sour grapes. People are basically saying "Well, We're not going to have an emulator for the DS, but that's OK, I don't feel bad because a DS emulator would suck anyway because of [X], [Y], and [Z]".

 

[second exodous]

I've probably got my eyes set on EarthBound 2 (translated) for the first game I play on my Pandora...if there is a working GBA emu for it of course.

Wait, you want to play Mother 2(Earthbound in the US) or you want to play Mother 3 which is the game after Earthbound, or Mother 2 in Japan hence the reason it comes after 2? I'm guessing Mother 3 because Eathbound was a good translation of Mother 2. It could still be Mother 2 because they had a GBA cart Mother 1+2 that has been translated but then again you could mean Mother 3 because it was on the GBA also.

Whats your favorite Final Fantasy game?

 

[WizardStan]

What bothers me is how pretty much every single request for a DS emulator starts off with "people say it's not possible because of the screen". I don't think anyone has actually said the screen made it impossible, and if they have they've been corrected fairly quickly with any one of the multitude of ways the screens can be handled. And yet, every time, it's like "I solved the screen problem! Now we can have a DS emulator!" when the screens have never been the problem.

 

[Phawx]

@wizardstan

I've been around the other DS emu threads. And the only reason I brought this one up is:

1.) We have some time to kill until we see the next batch of cases (Just wanted to stray thinking elsewhere for a little while.)

2.) I was using my DS and a thought occured. When I have my Pandora, I won't be using the DS because I don't want to carry around another handheld.

Most important is number one. I just wanted to spitball ideas around. We do have time to kill, (if you look back at my other topics, I've always tried bringing up other topics to discuss or ponder or just generally kick back and muse over.) so let's not try to worry about the technicality of it, (amazing progress has been made with the Pandora so far) compatibility, accuracy and all that other nonsense. I just wanted to bullshit for even a little while.

You guys are so focused on the cases that your eyeballs are shooting laser beams and starting to burn holes in your LCD's. Unless you all plan on turning into Grubots?

 

[fearofshorts]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried porting one of the ds emulators?
I mean, look at the 64 Emulator. A direct port with very little optimization (I'm talking about when we first saw it, don't yell at me) was nearly able to play a few games with a nearly decent speed.
This was completely unexpected.
Why don't we simply try to do it (expecting to fail) and see where we can go from there. if it reaches 1 FPS we can put it aside for a long time (or completely scrap it). If it reaches something much faster (like 10-15 FPS) I'm sure someone will consider picking it up and modifying it.
Don't think I'm expecting it to work well, but I'm sure hoping! Even it only runs games at a very slow speed there are quite a few games out there for the DS I wouldn't mind playing at slow speeds (think a turn-based strategy, preferably one with skipp-able cut scenes and dialog to save time). We can just let any noobs that come on whine about not being able to "PLAYORZ TEH SHOOTERZ" and enjoy it as a small, symbolic crown for our Pandora!

Of course, if no one is willing/has the time to port it I won't complain, because I know it's hard to do with emulators requiring x86 or windows libraries.

 

[Exophase]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried porting one of the ds emulators?
I mean, look at the 64 Emulator. A direct port with very little optimization (I'm talking about when we first saw it, don't yell at me) was nearly able to play a few games with a nearly decent speed.
This was completely unexpected.

What?! Oh man, you're way off. Ari64's work was all done for ARM devices and it was anything but a direct port. The work he did on the CPU side of things - the most demanding part of N64 emulation - was staggering. Few people will produce recompilers of the level he has.

Furthermore, N64 emulators have been far more optimized from the start and had good results on Pentium 2 level machines. The only open source DS emulator is DesMuME and it struggles to achieve consistent full speed on a 3GHz Core 2. The only DS emulator with a recompiler is NeonDS, and it was far from mature in compatibility and lacked sound. It most certainly was not open source.

Why don't we simply try to do it (expecting to fail) and see where we can go from there. if it reaches 1 FPS we can put it aside for a long time (or completely scrap it). If it reaches something much faster (like 10-15 FPS) I'm sure someone will consider picking it up and modifying it.

Already been done. cpasjuste ported it and reported "10 fps", no more information than that, but I doubt he was really even getting that speed in more demanding things. If you honestly think that emulators that get quickly ported tend to go through revisions that make them 6x faster then you're daydreaming. Most emulators that have been ported to handhelds haven't had their performance improved substantially at all, or at best they receive some obvious optimizations (or more likely, outright hacks that trash compatibility) before hitting a wall. People keep expecting them to get faster and they almost never do.

Don't think I'm expecting it to work well, but I'm sure hoping! Even it only runs games at a very slow speed there are quite a few games out there for the DS I wouldn't mind playing at slow speeds (think a turn-based strategy, preferably one with skipp-able cut scenes and dialog to save time). We can just let any noobs that come on whine about not being able to "PLAYORZ TEH SHOOTERZ" and enjoy it as a small, symbolic crown for our Pandora!

Well, okay. I just hope that very slow is fast enough, and that someone who can port it agrees with you.

Of course, if no one is willing/has the time to port it I won't complain, because I know it's hard to do with emulators requiring x86 or windows libraries.

Fortunately for you DesMuME is portable.

 

[fischju2000]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried porting one of the ds emulators?
I mean, look at the 64 Emulator. A direct port with very little optimization (I'm talking about when we first saw it, don't yell at me) was nearly able to play a few games with a nearly decent speed.
This was completely unexpected.
Why don't we simply try to do it (expecting to fail) and see where we can go from there. if it reaches 1 FPS we can put it aside for a long time (or completely scrap it). If it reaches something much faster (like 10-15 FPS) I'm sure someone will consider picking it up and modifying it.
Don't think I'm expecting it to work well, but I'm sure hoping! Even it only runs games at a very slow speed there are quite a few games out there for the DS I wouldn't mind playing at slow speeds (think a turn-based strategy, preferably one with skipp-able cut scenes and dialog to save time). We can just let any noobs that come on whine about not being able to "PLAYORZ TEH SHOOTERZ" and enjoy it as a small, symbolic crown for our Pandora!

Of course, if no one is willing/has the time to port it I won't complain, because I know it's hard to do with emulators requiring x86 or windows libraries.

A direct port of desmume has been tried:

I did try desmume for fun on my pandora board. Since i know nothing in asm, there is no optimisation at all. On 2d games, i get around 10 fps or less while the cpu is clocked at 800mhz, either when using sdl or openglES for 2d rendering.

- And that's all he wrote about it

Ninja'd by Exophase

 

[DaMummy]

i think ive found a way to hook up a blu ray drive to the pandora, this means we will finally be able to emulate ps3 games like gta4 and uncharted 2 on our awesome handheld!!!!

 

[Rockthesmurf]

I'll just run my little forum program...

while ( post.contain("should be easy") or post.contains("why doesn't someone else") or post.contains("I've had this great idea for someone else to do") )
{
    print "FAIL";
}

FAIL.

Steve

 

[Chip]

OK, that's enough. Phawx didn't know any better, and now that Exophase cleared up exactly why a DS emulator isn't as easy as it sounds, we should just let it go.

 

[fearofshorts]

I just wanted to thank exophase for taking the time to respond to my post so throughly.
From anyone else I would have questioned it, but I know your word in emulation is close to god.

Anyway, 10 FPS was it? That's like, what, 1/5th or 1/6th the speed with a 2D commercial release?
That's still pretty decent, I might be able to run all my homebrew at somewhere near full-speed! (Even if it does rule out backups.)
And it was the unoff. blog which gave me the impression that it was barely optimized. Probably misread it. I understand now!