I planned to get a dsi and emulate gba games, but it seems that the emulation is not too great. I see it’s even worse on the ds lite.

If I use a gba flash cart in the ds lite, should I have full compatibility?

Additionally, how does screen quality between the 2 compare? I don’t care much about the size, but overall picture quality.

Thanks in advance!

  • @ClipperDefiance@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13•1 day ago

    A flashcart is definitely the best option for compatibility. Just one thing you should know about playing GBA on a DS or 3DS is that it lacks an extension port, so any link cable functionality is out of the question. As for the screen, the DS(i) has a slightly higher resolution, so there’ll be a black border around the picture, but no stretching or anything. The 3DS has a much higher resolution screen and by default it scales the image up, but not to a whole number and that makes it blurry. The 3DS does that to DS games too, but can play in the original resolution by holding Start or Select when launching a game (you would need to do this every time, but I think there’s a way to make it permanent with custom firmware).

  • @Zarxrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10•1 day ago

    I used to use a gba flash cart on the ds lite, and it was essentially full compatibility aside from carts that had extra hardware built in.

    • @neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      3•1 day ago

      Thanks! The seller I’m talking to has a gba sp so, I might pickup a dsi and sp if the price isn’t too high.

      I’m also considering picking up a ds light from him instead, but I’d like the sp so I can also play my gameboy color games with backlight.

      • @Zarxrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2•1 day ago

        Something to note about the DS lite is that they did tend to have issues with the plastic on the hinge cracking. It happened to mine, but I did play the heck out of it.

  • Nazo
    5•1 day ago

    @neon_nova This is incorrect. NDS, DSi, and 3DS do not emulate GBA games. They have the actual chip that the GBA uses inside them (the NDS used the same chip for sound processing, so GBA got grandfathered into the 3DS by virtue of it supporting NDS games.)

    The only thing I can think of that you might have read is some may not have liked the screen resizing. It should be the same between the NDS and the DSi however. Early 3DS firmwares had a resize people apparently didn’t like, but by the time I ever got a 3DS it looked fine. Maybe you heard that?

    The only problem is that since they use a 100% hardware exact method, this doesn’t include support for special hardware in the few games with it. The few games with them needed special patches. (There aren’t many games like that though.)

      • Nazo
        2•1 day ago

        @neon_nova Seems like not really a bunch, but that page is specifically for GBALoader. I don’t know about the “Virtual Console” loader, but I’m pretty sure it has fewer compatibility issues because I’ve played a few of those “no boot” games. At least on the 3DS. (I never had a DSi. I went straight from NDS to 3DS.)

        I would assume there are surely tools for building “Virtual Console” images for the DSi as well. I know on the 3DS there’s a great one called “New Super Ultimate Injector” but it’s probably 3DS only (it gives you a .cia installer file.) If there are that should open up some options.

        Otherwise, with the hardware range mentioned, you would indeed have to do a slot 2 cart. IMO it’s a lot more inconvenient, but YMMV. They do draw a bit more power though. Bear that in mind

        • @neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
          2•1 day ago

          Thanks for letting me know. I wasn’t aware that was an option. I completely skipped the ds generation as a kid. So, I’m going to try to catch up. Normally I’d emulate, but the dual screens is annoying to emulate.

          • Nazo
            1•16 hours ago

            @neon_nova I can understand that. The main thing I wanted to emphasize was mostly just that when a 3DS runs a NDS or GBA game and when a NDS or DSi runs a GBA game it is running in 100% hardware. There might be compatibility issues due to the loading process itself (especially 100% software loading like GBA mode on the DSi or 3DS) but the system actually reboots into that mode running directly on the actual chipset itself. That means other than any issue the loader might introduce, things run 100% speed with 100% exactness because it literally is the same hardware.

            BTW as far as emulating NDS and/or 3DS goes if you ever have to, some emulators like RetroArch’s will let you set one screen to be big and the other small. This helps a lot sometimes. Most games only really use one screen

    • @misk@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      3•1 day ago

      DSi costs half of what Vita does and runs GBA games natively. What is the benefit of going with Sony for this purpose?