Really Stupid (Basic) DS Question...

[starman]

It can't play GB/GBC games?

If it can't, can you circumvent it via emulation on a flash cart or something? Just wondering..

 

[Amano Jacu]

It can't, but you can play them via emulator in a GBA flashcart, although I think it isn't perfect.

 

[starman]

Ah that's kind of weak. Well, I suppose I'll be keeping my GB color around even when buying a DS lite.

Out of curiosity, anyone know why this is so? How was the original GBA backwards compatible then.. I'm pretty sure the DS uses and ARM9/ARM7 combo, and the GBA had an ARM7, so GBA backward's compatibilty is a no brainer.

What did the original GB/GBC use, a Z80?

 

[barf]

Ah that's kind of weak. Well, I suppose I'll be keeping my GB color around even when buying a DS lite.

Out of curiosity, anyone know why this is so? How was the original GBA backwards compatible then.. I'm pretty sure the DS uses and ARM9/ARM7 combo, and the GBA had an ARM7, so GBA backward's compatibilty is a no brainer.

What did the original GB/GBC use, a Z80?

Yes, the GBA had a Z80 style of processor (actualy an advanced one), with a standard GBA cartidge iirc it was in passive mode, operating som i/o communication tasks and while in active mode it was acting as GB/GBC cpu.

On DS, it s kinda the same thing, the DS ARM9 performs DS games code execution and ARM7(GBA cpu) does i/o (and sound) when in DS mode, and in GBA mode the ARM7 becomes master. No z80 anymore, so no GB/GBC compatibility.

Actualy, it was the same on the Genesis too, there was the SMS cpu used for i/o

 

[pellucidity]

Yes, the GBA had a Z80 style of processor (actualy an advanced one), with a standard GBA cartidge iirc it was in passive mode, operating som i/o communication tasks and while in active mode it was acting as GB/GBC cpu.

On DS, it s kinda the same thing, the DS ARM9 performs DS games code execution and ARM7(GBA cpu) does i/o (and sound) when in DS mode, and in GBA mode the ARM7 becomes master. No z80 anymore, so no GB/GBC compatibility.

Actualy, it was the same on the Genesis too, there was the SMS cpu used for i/o

The SNES was designed to allow for backwards compatibility, too - the 65c816 could support a 6502 mode. It was dropped for either marketing or technical reasons, I dunno. I imagine it was hard getting compatibility up there given the way the quirks of the fami hardware were abused in the later games.