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[KINGMOKU]

Here's my question. Nintendo released an "expansion pack" for the N64 back in the day, for better textures, and to try and eliminate that "fuzzy" look that was commenplace amongst N64 titles.

Is it possible for Nintendo to release some sort of expansion pack for the DS, that slides into the GBA slot, and can it include more then just RAM?

By that I mean, could they put a secondary processor+RAM, or perhaps a micro ATI-GPU?

Just wondering, becuase instead of releasing the next-gameboy, they could release a new "graphics card" for the DS, for improved graphics and such.

*I don't know jack about this topic so an answer would be great*

 

[Skin]

I don't think the port is speedy enough for something like that. Also, the N64 was designed with an memory expansion in mind. Even then, alot of the games that made use of it had their fair share of problems.

 

[sgt]

Yeah, won't happen on DS. You won't see this on consoles unless they have a dedicated expansion port designed with this in mind. In fact, you probably won't see it again period because it's never gone over too well.

 

[argon]

It seemed like all the RAM pack really did was cut my N64's framerates in half.

 

[Crazymoogle]

I don't think the port is speedy enough for something like that. Also, the N64 was designed with an memory expansion in mind. Even then, alot of the games that made use of it had their fair share of problems.

I'm not convinced; in practice the GBA cart rom was faster than main memory in many cases. So theoretically yes, you could package almost a whole new console on a GBA cart that way. It would be bloody expensive to miniaturize something that fits the bill, though.

 

[koam]

The ram pack was mainly used to give games a higher res (from 320x240 to 640x480), to allow for more enemies on screen at the same time (Zelda: MM) or to have more "colors" (Quake I believe).

 

[koam]

I'm not convinced; in practice the GBA cart rom was faster than main memory in many cases. So theoretically yes, you could package almost a whole new console on a GBA cart that way. It would be bloody expensive to miniaturize something that fits the bill, though.

Huh? Where did you find this "practice" thing? Main memory is faster than cart memory.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Huh? Where did you find this "practice" thing? Main memory is faster than cart memory.

We were loading tiles from cart faster by skipping main memory; it actually made sense not to cache tile data there.

 

[KINGMOKU]

So it is possible to actually add a mini-GPU to the DS?


If that's the case, it would be a very cool alternative to Nintendo once again splitting thier own handhled market in say, oh, 1year.

50$ and under, and I would pick it up, depending on what it did.

 

[cyberheater]

Yes but if the GPU is in the game cartridge. Where would the game go?

 

[Doc Holliday]

In the gba cart, not the ds slot.

 

[cyberheater]

In the gba cart, not the ds slot.

Hmmm. That would work. Sorta like the Super FX chip carts for SNES.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

So it is possible to actually add a mini-GPU to the DS?


If that's the case, it would be a very cool alternative to Nintendo once again splitting thier own handhled market in say, oh, 1year.

50$ and under, and I would pick it up, depending on what it did.

Errr, a new system would split the userbase, but an expansion that a fraction of DS owners would buy wouldn't?

 

[_bla_]

I don't think it is a good idea marketing wise, but it should be possible.

RAM extension via GBA cart isn't that useful because the RAM access to that card would be a lot slower than the main ram of DS.

A better GPU would be a (technically) realistic possiblity on other hand, but you would need to include a CPU too. They could just render the pictures and when they are finished the DS the cpu could copy them from the GBA cart GPU to the framebuffer. At 2x256x192x16bitx60fps that requires about 11 mbyte/s bandwidth, shouldn't be a problem for the GBA card bus. You would basically offload all the graphics work to the hardware in the GBA slot.

 

[hooo]

Errr, a new system would split the userbase, but an expansion that a fraction of DS owners would buy wouldn't?

There's a reason that all DS case's have a spot for a GBA cart. I think the reason that they included it was for accessories and only for gba games as a nice after thought.

 

[Pimpbaa]

I think nintendo will release some sort of expansion for the DS. They will probably put it as a pack in with a popular game.

 

[Azure Dream]

They're already releasing a Rumble Pak to go along with Metroid Pinball... I guess they're going to expect gamers to do a lot of cart swapping for accessories. But I'm glad the option is there, at any rate.