I've literally been waiting with bated breath to find out when Nintendo would start offering downloadable GB & GBA games in the DSi Shop, it seemed inevitable, and it's obviously it's since been announced that the 3DS will have these games available, but what about DSi? There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to play GB and GBA titles on the DSi, so what's the crack? Are Nintendo making them available for DSi too, or only 3DS? If it's the latter I'll be pretty pissed off.
I mean no technical reason... I will probably buy a 3DS anyway because of the other games coming out for it, but its a bit of a piss-take that I won't be able to play the GB & GBA games until I do. It seemed like that's what the DSi Shop would inevitably be used for.
Also, I think I should point out that GBA games are NOT going to be downloadable. It's Game Boy and Game Boy Color only. Someone who was at the event wrote GBA instead of GBC on their liveblog by mistake - Nintendo did not announce that.
Definitely not GBA games. The original DS simply cannot acheive GBA emulation at any decent speed. DSi brings improved specs to hte table, but it's arguable that they might not be enough. They could do it for some games, but it would be a lot more work to get one game to run in the way it was originally intended to be played. Is it really worth it, considering the (relatively small) DSi userbase? Some of whom lack internet? No. People are going to upgrade to 3DS and leave their DSi behind. The DSi console is obsolete as of Febraury/March. In the time it would take them to port (yes, PORT and not EMULATE) over a decent library of GBA games, the 3DS would have become a success.
GB/GBC games would be completely possible, but impractical when they could use the Virtual Console as a reason for people to upgrade. DSi was pretty much only created to test the waters for things like downloadable games; the console itself is but a DS.
Long story short, they'd be wasting a crapload resources by making GBA games available for DSi. GB/GBC games would take 5 seconds to bring over though.
I bet they will be at some point though, Nintendo's just not showing their entire hand at the moment.
The DSi's reaching its end. There is no reason to release them on the DSi.
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[16:43] James: I should learn these site rules more clearly
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Good point. I think everyone's just assuming the DSi will be left in the dust and forgotten, but it's really unfair to DSi owners to not provide the GB/GBC games, because it should certainly be capable of playing them, and not everyone who just bought a DSi is going to want to immediately buy a 3DS. It might not be worth it to Nintendo though, because they probably would have to make them different to accommodate the different resolution of the screens and the different hardware it runs on, but if they're transferring DSi games to 3DS maybe it's not so hard to make games that can run on both.
I think they did say they plan to add other handhelds to the 3DS Shop in the future, so GBA games seem like a no brainer. If a DS could run GBA games, a DSi should definitely have the specs to, because it still has the extra processor that the DS has, which I assume is the one that was used to run GBA games; otherwise, the main processor is twice as fast and it has 4 times the memory of the DS, so if it wasn't capable of running GBA games that would be strange.
Definitely not GBA games. The original DS simply cannot acheive GBA emulation at any decent speed. DSi brings improved specs to hte table, but it's arguable that they might not be enough. They could do it for some games, but it would be a lot more work to get one game to run in the way it was originally intended to be played. Is it really worth it, considering the (relatively small) DSi userbase? Some of whom lack internet? No. People are going to upgrade to 3DS and leave their DSi behind. The DSi console is obsolete as of Febraury/March. In the time it would take them to port (yes, PORT and not EMULATE) over a decent library of GBA games, the 3DS would have become a success.
I know DSi doesn't have the cart port, but does it still have the GBA hardware built in? (like, wasn't the DS' hardware just an evolution of the GBA?)
...GBA games seem like a no brainer. If a DS could run GBA games, a DSi should definitely have the specs to, because it still has the extra processor that the DS has, which I assume is the one that was used to run GBA games; otherwise, the main processor is twice as fast and it has 4 times the memory of the DS, so if it wasn't capable of running GBA games that would be strange.
There's a difference between emulating and playing from a cartridge. DSi doesn't read GBA cartridges, thus it would need to emulate them. DSi needed to be stronger so that it could play NORMAL DS games corrently (since the usage of GBA processor power in slot 1 games). Generally speaking, it takes more than 8X the power of the original system to emulate it on a newer one, with several other complex factors included. While that seems relativley possible from the specs I've given, there's a lot more that needs to happen than simply 8X the power (8X is the minimum). GBA x8 (for the processor, a big componenet) exceeds DSi, by the way.
I know DSi doesn't have the cart port, but does it still have the GBA hardware built in? (like, wasn't the DS' hardware just an evolution of the GBA?)
Not anymore, the GBA components were removed from the DSi presumably to cut costs. xD Instead, it has a stronger processor so it can play DS games correctly. So they'd have to emulate GBA games using the DSi processor...which might be possible, but it wouldn't exactly be an easy task.
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Topic: Wait, so 3DS will have downloadable GB/GBA games, but what about DSi??
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