Gameboy Advance atari 2600...

[S q u e e !]

It came to me in a dream... well technically not a dream, but a brainstorming of what I could do to make a Gameboy advance mods. Then it hit me. No really, it did. Just got up and smacked me in the face. kinda hurt too Anyway, on with my idea...

I recently took apart a GBA cart and one of those "10 games in an atari controller" plug-and-play thingies from Target. It seemed pretty cool reliving the classic crappy pacman game for the 2600. When I took it apart, I realized I was looking at a real live example of an AOAC! I was confused at first, but then I remembered the NOAC NESp that Ben built, and removed the crappy built in games and most of the board around the AOAC. Also, after taking apart the GBA game, I cut off the pins at the bottom using my X-acto knife. I was thinking... and thinking... and then I thought of it! I could make an Atari-on-a-chip-gameboy advance-reads-your-old-atari-cartridges-game-pack!!! It was perfect! Exept for one problem. Well... actually a few.

1) I want to make a few of these things to give to my friends, but I don't want to rip apart my perfectly good GBA SP or anyone elses to make some traces to the pins on the AOAC to configure the buttons. I want to make a slip-on design that will house all of the controls inside of it, and will comfortably fit on any GBA SP.

2) I have no Idea which pins do what on the AOAC. I will probably figure this out, but I may need some help.

3) don't know... will think of one soon!

Anyway, will someone go over this and tell me if it's realistic? If it is, and I finish it, can you put it on the news page, Ben? Just a thought

I really want this to become more than an idea, and evolve into a real thing. And I'm going to need all of the help I can get! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!


EDIT: I also realize now that I will need to adapt the AOAC to:

A) read atari carts
B) use atari joysticks
C) work.

[scherzo]

That's some dream but may be too diificult for any one person.

Here are the biggest issues I see that will probably make this impossible:

1) If I'm not mistaken, some Atari TV Game thingys play their games through emulation. If that's the case, you'll probably never get it to work with actual carts.

2) Let's say that the above is not true and you manage to get it work with carts. You've got to get the device to interface with the GBA somehow in order to play it using the GBA screen and controls. You seem to be assuming that the pins of a GBA cart somehow directly coincide to the controls and screen. That is definitely not the case. In order for your dream to be a reality, you would have to do some serious GBA hardware and software development.

Take the "GBA Time Machine", for example. Here's a link:

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... 200d26bc3e

This is a device with a NOAC and Famicom slot. It attaches to the GBA's cart slot. For the video from the NOAC to reach the GBA screen, there is a GBA program in between that takes the analog signal from the NOAC and turns that into instructions that draw to the GBA screen, via software.

Basically, what you want is possible, but would require resources and skills you probably don't have.

[HK-47]

1) If I'm not mistaken, some Atari TV Game thingys play their games through emulation. If that's the case, you'll probably never get it to work with actual carts.

Unfortunatly this is true...

[S q u e e !]

I wil make it work!

Side note: about controls. I will (and already have)started making a set of 2600 controls inside of a case that will slide over the GBA controls.

[S q u e e !]

Still trying to think of a way I can do this...

[scherzo]

So your only reason for having the GBA in this project is for its screen? The GBA screen can only be used in a portable project if you get something like this:

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?catego ... 1d041140cc

But I think you're really better off getting a pocket TV screen and hacking that.

[JackFrost22]

Uh the 10 built in games has an NOAC and uses emulation to port atari games to the nes

[scherzo]

Uh the 10 built in games has an NOAC and uses emulation to port atari games to the nes

So even the lowly CPU of the NES can emulate the more lowly hardware of a 2600? That pretty damn cool if you ask me.

[HK-47]

Uh the 10 built in games has an NOAC and uses emulation to port atari games to the nes

So even the lowly CPU of the NES can emulate the more lowly hardware of a 2600? That pretty damn cool if you ask me.

Yeah. They did it in the flashback too...

[gannon]

It's not emulating the 2600 hardware, the games were reprogrammed to work on the nes.
(hey, you could dump them into a homebrew nes cart then!!)

[HK-47]

It's not emulating the 2600 hardware, the games were reprogrammed to work on the nes.
(hey, you could dump them into a homebrew nes cart then!!)

Yep, funny I was thinking that a minute ago...
But it would be a bit hard since the games are contained in a glop top...

[G-force]

There arent any traces going out of the glop?

[Unidentified Assilant]

Just do the 4x4 mod for Atari, thats small enough surely

[JackFrost22]

or the 3x3 mod for the atari that Im writing up (hint the cart port is cut off)

[HK-47]

or the 3x3 mod for the atari that Im writing up (hint the cart port is cut off)

Then wouldnt it be a 4x3? I wouldnt go cuting into the width of the board. To much stuff in the way.