Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
If your name is nAo or DCharlie then ignore this topic as your ears will start ringing because that would be the 100th time I mention this idea 
.
If your name is not one of those two, well keep reading
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My idea, regarding GBA-GCN connectivity, with hind-sight, is that it was started on the wrong foot... it was a potentially cool concept that failed also due to technical limitations.
On one side we had the GameCube capable of high quality 3D graphics (which is what people expect on consoles nowadays, a 3D experience).
On the other side we have a console that, however murdered by the lack of a sound DSP or a CPU dedicated to do software audio processing, was capable of good 2D graphics.
2D vs 3D... not the perfect start, however there are further limitations that I am aware of.
The GBA has the following memory pools:
OAM = OBJ Attribute Memory (64 bits x 128 sprites IIRC, I haven't coded the puppy in ages :lol)
Palette Memory = 512 bytes x 2 (1 for the OBJs and one for the BGs)...
Palette modes are: 256 colors x 1 palette * 16 bits (only 15 bits used... 5:5:5 for R:G:B IIRC) or 16 colors x 16 palettes * 16 bits.
VRAM = 96 KB (OBJ memory varies from 32 KB in Tiled modes to 16 KB in Bitmap modes IIRC).
IWRAM = 32 KB (1 cycle of load-use latency)
EWRAM = 256 KB (2 cycles of load-use latency)
Then of course you had your ROM to load data from.
Now, 256 KB might seem a lot if you think that you have a relatively fast ROM with a relatively large storage space (compared to the size of the EWRAM).
The problem comes when you are dealing with the "connectivity" mode. You are limited to what you can store (code+data) in the 256 KB of EWRAM (ok, maybe you can sneak stuff in the IWRAM, but that'll gain you only 32 KB) and what you can upload from the link cable (which is not very fast, so you cannot really keep streaming lots of data very very frequently).
This is limiting when you think of (compressed too...) bitmap data for OBJs and BGs (even cloning OBJs [multiple OAM entries pointing to the same Tile data for the sprite] and tiling the BGs you are still left with not that much space), but if you add to that vertex data (you do not need to store vertices for the sprites, that's what the built-in OAM offers you for the 128 Hardware sprites), maybe music and sound effects, etc... you are really left with a space problem.
You can call developers creatively bankrupt all you want, but if you really sit down at it and you think about real and cool connectivity features to realize between the GCN and the GBA (without being able to require the player to have purchased a separate GBA ROM [say game with a GCN and GBA version]), you will be left scratching your head quite a bit.
The DS and the PSP, even considering the Revolution/NES 5 (the GameBoy Next might be a bit better as far as cnnectivity with the Rvolution/NES 5 is concerned, at least on the 3D graphics aspect) and the PlayStation 3 as well as the GCN and the PlayStation 2, offer much better possibilites for developers to take advantage of "connectivity" (no, I am not requiring people to have the DS or the PSP version of the game they want "connectivity" for, to be fair to the GBA example).
The DS is not close to the PSP in terms of 3D Graphics, but they both far outclass the kind of 3D graphics you can expect on the GBA.
They both are systems capable of creating a 3D world, with 3D gameplay and 3D characters and they both have far more main RAM than the GBA as well as faster I/O links available.
The DS has 4 MB of main RAM (plus other meory pools, but we can compare it to GBA's 256 KB of IWRAM) and dedicated Hardware for 3D/2D processing and is capable of quite good Music/Sound FX processing.
The PSP has 32 MB of RAM, dedicated Hardware for high-quality 3D/2D processing, it is capable of good Music/Sound FX processing and you have Re-Writeable storage (Memory Stick Duo/Pro Duo modules) to store more data on that would not fit in main RAM.
In terms of I/O, the DS has a WiFi link that can push a peak of 2 Mbps IIRC (not too bad, it is almost 1/6th of the PSP's UMD maximum reading speed) and the PSP has WiFi 802.11b which can push a peak of about 11 Mbps, but the PSP also has a USB 2.0 High Speed link (up to 480 Mbps, but if you thought about PlayStation 2-to-PSP connectivity then you would have to go at USB 1.1 speeds or a peak of 12 Mbps).
Can you imagine connecting the GCN to the DS (provided the GCN is equipped with Wireless equipment capableof transferring data at the same rate the DS can) fr some SMS connectivity session ?
I can, I am as I am writing this post: I can see a level in SMS and the corresponding DS version (reduced in size maybe and maybe divided in sections of the DS side).
Sure the DS level would not have the same detail on the characters, nor the same detail on the backgrounds, but I can see the levels being able to share, if the designer so wishes, the same kindof layout and gameplay elements. Even if you had a different level that was designed to interact with what you have on the TV screen, we would mantain the same kind of gameplay and although detail might be lost the DS version would still be a believable window on the same game world (with more or less suspension of belief depending on the degree of graphics whorism you are affected with).
Picture this: the "same" big 3D room is present on the TV screen and on the DS. The room is quite dark and you are proceeding with Mario with a lamp that is illuminating the surroundings close to the character. Some holes appear on the floor in the room displayed on the TV, but they do not appear on the DS level (the two players must co-operate to pass the level succesfully) and at the same time there are Boo's which you can only interact with on the DS (you can keep them still and transparent by looking at them or you cna kill/defeate them normally) even though they appear on the TV screen and can hurt the player on the level dispalyed on the TV (the player controlling the character on the TV can only try to avoid them, if he/she can). You can also see some blocks in eithr version that affect the other version: by creating passages or illuminating areas/showing holes/showing traps/etc...
Forgive me if this is not the example of the year, but this is what came up to me after mid-night in about 10-15 minutes.
Still, I would think you can read what I typed and visualize it quite well.
To make up for the difference in 3D Graphics processing with the GCN (less of a problem for PlayStation 2-to-PSP conenctivity IMHO as their 3D Graphics performance difference is not as big as ou see between the GCN and the DS), you could also see if you can push things further by sing the Touch Screen in some way.
With both PSP and the DS you could, for example, race an opponent on-line in a racing game: after-downloading the custom level from GT4 or F-Zero GX (depending on the conenctivity set-up) you could play against an opponent using the system WiFi function and I am sure that even with F-Zero X style graphycs you could emulate a level that looks close enough to the custom level the GCN player sees on his screen (the same would be true for GT4 in this example of mine).
Say Madden 2006 on PSP: while you play a game on PlayStation 2, on the PSP you could follow on-line replays/best action moments of a game some of your opponents are playing in your online league and keep track of the score of their games as well as maybe have thier games playing on the PSP screen (with a few seconds delay for buffering, etc...) or people with the PSP version of the game (or without, technically possible) you challenge you to a match.
Think about co-operative gameplay scenarios you would have on PC games or PlayStation 2/Xbox games that support co-operative gameplay online: you can take most if not all of that kind of scenarios and move them in portable form. You could not bring your PlayStation 2 and GCN out with you ? Yes, you can: you call them PSP and DS.
What do you think ?
.If your name is not one of those two, well keep reading
.My idea, regarding GBA-GCN connectivity, with hind-sight, is that it was started on the wrong foot... it was a potentially cool concept that failed also due to technical limitations.
On one side we had the GameCube capable of high quality 3D graphics (which is what people expect on consoles nowadays, a 3D experience).
On the other side we have a console that, however murdered by the lack of a sound DSP or a CPU dedicated to do software audio processing, was capable of good 2D graphics.
2D vs 3D... not the perfect start, however there are further limitations that I am aware of.
The GBA has the following memory pools:
OAM = OBJ Attribute Memory (64 bits x 128 sprites IIRC, I haven't coded the puppy in ages :lol)
Palette Memory = 512 bytes x 2 (1 for the OBJs and one for the BGs)...
Palette modes are: 256 colors x 1 palette * 16 bits (only 15 bits used... 5:5:5 for R:G:B IIRC) or 16 colors x 16 palettes * 16 bits.
VRAM = 96 KB (OBJ memory varies from 32 KB in Tiled modes to 16 KB in Bitmap modes IIRC).
IWRAM = 32 KB (1 cycle of load-use latency)
EWRAM = 256 KB (2 cycles of load-use latency)
Then of course you had your ROM to load data from.
Now, 256 KB might seem a lot if you think that you have a relatively fast ROM with a relatively large storage space (compared to the size of the EWRAM).
The problem comes when you are dealing with the "connectivity" mode. You are limited to what you can store (code+data) in the 256 KB of EWRAM (ok, maybe you can sneak stuff in the IWRAM, but that'll gain you only 32 KB
) and what you can upload from the link cable (which is not very fast, so you cannot really keep streaming lots of data very very frequently).This is limiting when you think of (compressed too...) bitmap data for OBJs and BGs (even cloning OBJs [multiple OAM entries pointing to the same Tile data for the sprite] and tiling the BGs you are still left with not that much space), but if you add to that vertex data (you do not need to store vertices for the sprites, that's what the built-in OAM offers you for the 128 Hardware sprites), maybe music and sound effects, etc... you are really left with a space problem.
You can call developers creatively bankrupt all you want, but if you really sit down at it and you think about real and cool connectivity features to realize between the GCN and the GBA (without being able to require the player to have purchased a separate GBA ROM [say game with a GCN and GBA version]), you will be left scratching your head quite a bit.
The DS and the PSP, even considering the Revolution/NES 5 (the GameBoy Next might be a bit better as far as cnnectivity with the Rvolution/NES 5 is concerned, at least on the 3D graphics aspect) and the PlayStation 3 as well as the GCN and the PlayStation 2, offer much better possibilites for developers to take advantage of "connectivity" (no, I am not requiring people to have the DS or the PSP version of the game they want "connectivity" for, to be fair to the GBA example).
The DS is not close to the PSP in terms of 3D Graphics, but they both far outclass the kind of 3D graphics you can expect on the GBA.
They both are systems capable of creating a 3D world, with 3D gameplay and 3D characters and they both have far more main RAM than the GBA as well as faster I/O links available.
The DS has 4 MB of main RAM (plus other meory pools, but we can compare it to GBA's 256 KB of IWRAM) and dedicated Hardware for 3D/2D processing and is capable of quite good Music/Sound FX processing.
The PSP has 32 MB of RAM, dedicated Hardware for high-quality 3D/2D processing, it is capable of good Music/Sound FX processing and you have Re-Writeable storage (Memory Stick Duo/Pro Duo modules) to store more data on that would not fit in main RAM.
In terms of I/O, the DS has a WiFi link that can push a peak of 2 Mbps IIRC (not too bad, it is almost 1/6th of the PSP's UMD maximum reading speed) and the PSP has WiFi 802.11b which can push a peak of about 11 Mbps, but the PSP also has a USB 2.0 High Speed link (up to 480 Mbps, but if you thought about PlayStation 2-to-PSP connectivity then you would have to go at USB 1.1 speeds or a peak of 12 Mbps).
Can you imagine connecting the GCN to the DS (provided the GCN is equipped with Wireless equipment capableof transferring data at the same rate the DS can) fr some SMS connectivity session ?
I can, I am as I am writing this post: I can see a level in SMS and the corresponding DS version (reduced in size maybe and maybe divided in sections of the DS side).
Sure the DS level would not have the same detail on the characters, nor the same detail on the backgrounds, but I can see the levels being able to share, if the designer so wishes, the same kindof layout and gameplay elements. Even if you had a different level that was designed to interact with what you have on the TV screen, we would mantain the same kind of gameplay and although detail might be lost the DS version would still be a believable window on the same game world (with more or less suspension of belief depending on the degree of graphics whorism you are affected with
).Picture this: the "same" big 3D room is present on the TV screen and on the DS. The room is quite dark and you are proceeding with Mario with a lamp that is illuminating the surroundings close to the character. Some holes appear on the floor in the room displayed on the TV, but they do not appear on the DS level (the two players must co-operate to pass the level succesfully) and at the same time there are Boo's which you can only interact with on the DS (you can keep them still and transparent by looking at them or you cna kill/defeate them normally) even though they appear on the TV screen and can hurt the player on the level dispalyed on the TV (the player controlling the character on the TV can only try to avoid them, if he/she can). You can also see some blocks in eithr version that affect the other version: by creating passages or illuminating areas/showing holes/showing traps/etc...
Forgive me if this is not the example of the year, but this is what came up to me after mid-night in about 10-15 minutes
.Still, I would think you can read what I typed and visualize it quite well.
To make up for the difference in 3D Graphics processing with the GCN (less of a problem for PlayStation 2-to-PSP conenctivity IMHO as their 3D Graphics performance difference is not as big as ou see between the GCN and the DS), you could also see if you can push things further by sing the Touch Screen in some way.
With both PSP and the DS you could, for example, race an opponent on-line in a racing game: after-downloading the custom level from GT4 or F-Zero GX (depending on the conenctivity set-up) you could play against an opponent using the system WiFi function and I am sure that even with F-Zero X style graphycs you could emulate a level that looks close enough to the custom level the GCN player sees on his screen (the same would be true for GT4 in this example of mine).
Say Madden 2006 on PSP: while you play a game on PlayStation 2, on the PSP you could follow on-line replays/best action moments of a game some of your opponents are playing in your online league and keep track of the score of their games as well as maybe have thier games playing on the PSP screen (with a few seconds delay for buffering, etc...) or people with the PSP version of the game (or without, technically possible) you challenge you to a match.
Think about co-operative gameplay scenarios you would have on PC games or PlayStation 2/Xbox games that support co-operative gameplay online: you can take most if not all of that kind of scenarios and move them in portable form. You could not bring your PlayStation 2 and GCN out with you ? Yes, you can: you call them PSP and DS.
What do you think ?
