Old GB Carts in a DS?

mothatrucka · Post by **mothatrucka** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 12:49 pm

I've heard that by removing the tabs in a DS or a Micro you can make it play the original GB carts. Has anyone tried this or seen it done? Is the software even compatible?

xtrmgam3r360 · Post by **xtrmgam3r360** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 1:40 pm

no its not possible because the z80 processor from the original gameboy is not in the DS or the micro so even if you removed the tabs it still won't work.

mothatrucka · Post by **mothatrucka** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:21 pm

Ah. So that's how they get these things so small. They trim off the meat. Thanks for the answer.

nitro2k01 · Post by **nitro2k01** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:48 pm

That is a rumour that circulated before the DS was released, and has long since been disproven. Old GB carts use 5V, while GBA carts use 3.3V. GBA/GBA SP used a little switch inside the cart slot to select which voltage would be used. The DS as well as the GBA Micro are strictly 3.3 V systems and can't inteface old GB carts at all.

mothatrucka · Post by **mothatrucka** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:59 pm

nitro2k01 wrote:That is a rumour that circulated before the DS was released, and has long since been disproven. Old GB carts use 5V, while GBA carts use 3.3V. GBA/GBA SP used a little switch inside the cart slot to select which voltage would be used. The DS as well as the GBA Micro are strictly 3.3 V systems and can't inteface old GB carts at all.

I've been thinking about this for a bit, and I'm beginning to wonder. Is there a way to tap into that 5V the old GB carts require? I know the unit itself runs off 3V, but at the risk of using up batteries faster, could I, for example, run a USB powered gadget off a GB?

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:12 pm

There was someone here working on something to do with playing GB games on a Mirco. But I forgot who and how they were doing it.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:10 pm

Ha ha! I have some info on this! Actually, the DS does have the sound portion of the Z80, as some GBA games need it.

The micro DOES have the Z80! There are several problems, though:
1: The micro only supplys 3.3v. You would PROBABLY have to wire in a voltage converter to 5v. However! From my own personal testing, I can say that almost all my GBC carts are able to run at 3.3v, excluding one game that I have, kirby tilt n tumble.

2: The GBA has a hardware switch between GBC and GBA. This means that you would have to find these points. Some people say they were removed, but considering that they kept in the other unused points, like the screen refresh rate adjustor points and the reset point, I find this unlikely.

There is another solution to this, though: When the GBA bios was being made, a "soft switch" feature was put in that allowed the GBA to switch between GBA and GBC on the fly. However, this was disabled in the end, due to the fact that a hardware switch allowed better contol over the voltage regulator so that a software glitch in the game would not possibly fried cart. It is possible to access this feature of the bios, which gives a fade to white, then a soft reboot into the other system. By loading a GBC game into the RAM then using the soft reset feature, it is possible to crash the micro into GBC mode, with full screen adjust size, as well as rotation! This extra feature means that the micro bios had been modified at least a little bit in terms of GBC support, which may mean that nintendo was looking at it at one point or another.

Unfortunately, the crash, while booting it into GBC mode, wipes the current memory cache. If a way could be found to avoid this, then theoretically, it would be possible to load a GBC boot program that loaded a GBA flash cart or a real GBC cart(In the same way as the product "gb bridge").

Anyway.... While certainly possible, the amount of work required is ENORMOUS. Realistically, it is better to just buy a flashcart and emulate it.

If anyone is better than me at hacking the GBA BIOS, contact me, I have a voltage converter and reset trigger cart proto that I rigged up to the cat connectors of a GBA gameshark that should give what is required on the hardware side. Alternatively, let me know if you can find the GBC trigger points on the micro mobo, if those are found (And I am SURE they exist) then we are all set!

EDIT: Mothatrucka, a USB charger is easy, PM me if you need the points to wire. I have used them to run LEDs at 5v.

themadhacker · Post by **themadhacker** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:15 am

actually, I was able to fit a GBO cart inthe ds by swaping the game board with a modified case. wasnt too happy with the results.

Metroid fan · Post by **Metroid fan** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:46 pm

If they had wanted to have the ds be backwards compatible with gameboy advanced games, they would have made it compatible.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 3:08 pm

First of all, I will assume you mean gameboy color, because the DS is GBA compatible already. And that is a bit like saying "Well, if Sony wanted us to be running homebrew on the PSP, they would have enabled it". Just because they do not want us doing something does not mean that it is impossible, or more importantly, does not mean that we do not want it for ourselves.

GoldenfrankO · Post by **GoldenfrankO** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:22 am

I have a work around i'll post a video.

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:32 am

A workaround? Like, you are able to get GBC games on the micro? HOW?! If this is not BS, then I salute you, good sir, for an amazing contribution to society.

Seaniccus · Post by **Seaniccus** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:57 am

GoldenfrankO wrote:I have a work around i'll post a video.

Any news on this front?

Is it something better than "Look, DS flash cart!" ?

palmertech · Post by **palmertech** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:53 am

I call BS, or something lame. I doubt he has somehow beat me and a bunch of other people working on this, when he has not even really made anything electronic. Of course, he could just be hiding his projects from us.

I vote GBA flashcart, maybe ds flashcart.

mothatrucka · Post by **mothatrucka** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 12:41 pm

Yeah, he does this constantly. "I did it!" or "I want to buy it!" then he never ups any proof. I just ignore him.