Who says you can't play original GameBoy on the DS?

**Sonikku** · 11-21-2004

Of course, i'm cheating. I'm using flubba's gameboy emu 'goomba' for the gameboy advance, and the DS can run GBA games, so voila, gameboy on the DS! :smt023

**Alchy** · 11-21-2004

Cool shit...
Question: why was a GB emulator written for the GBA in the first place?

**Sonikku** · 11-21-2004

Well, an emulator does have the benefit of having multiple games on a cart, better than lugging a bunch of GB games around, and also, Save States are a major plus!

einbebop44 · 11-21-2004

That's pretty cool! HAve you actually tested regular GB games w/ the DS? I mean, it's a far off chance, but you never know... :smt045

Greatsaintlouis · 11-21-2004

By all means it shouldn't work, as Nintendo left out the Z80 processor that the Gameboy games ran off of in the GBA. Not to say that there's no reason to try, but there's a 99.99% chance it won't.

**Jasonkhowell** · 11-21-2004

Just tried a regular GBC game with it: No luck.
Just tried the bridge connector with the DS: No luck
When I tried a AR and a GBC game, it just said there was a DS optional pak incerted. Wierd.

Who knows, maybe someone will make/try to make a connector.

**Fabrizo** · 11-22-2004

I think it would probably be best if nintendo or someone else just made a GB/GBC emu and put it on a DS card, and then just let the carts be put in the GBA slot. It would be cheap to create and produce, and it would be better then having some accesory/adaptor hanging out of the bottom of the system (thats assuming such an accesory used the GBA slot).

**madhatter256** · 11-22-2004

Just make a GB/GBC emu for the DS hardware.

**Zilog Jones** · 11-22-2004

Yeah, but it won't be the same! Surely they could make a Z80 CPU small enough to fit in a DS card these days?

Who actually makes the DS? I assume it's still true that Nintendo don't actually make their own hardware? I remember the GBA was made by Sharp (and possibly the other GBs too, as IIRC the Z80 they used in it was a Sharp clone), and everything inside the NES - even the metal shielding - seemed to be made by Mitsumi.

**Alchy** · 11-22-2004

Well, it's not actually a standard Z80. There's a few differences in the instruction set and a few other things. It's got the sound hardware on-chip iirc. Not sure who made it.

GB should be relatively easy to shrink down onto a single small chip, and since GB compatibility was included with GBA, I imagine the r&d for this has already been done. Whether Nintendo will bother is another matter.

Other (legitimate) companies attempting to do the same might run into hardware licensing issues, I'm not sure.

**Calpis** · 11-22-2004

Nintendo made the GB's Z80, notice how on all the processors Z80 is omitted :) Ricoh made the NES's RP2A03, Nintendo made the SNES's 65816 although the processor was developed by WDC. Most Nintendo CPU's are custom designed/made by them. There is no chance of playing authenticly from an external cartridge unless Nintendo makes the device themselves. It's possible however for some genius to create a Wideboy type unit, using Nintendo parts but it's improbable.