GBA Movie Player for Homebrew
I recently got a Gameboy Advance Movie Player to use on the Nintendo DS for homebrew development.
Out of the box a GBAMP allows a compact flash card to be used to store movies, music and games to be run on the Gameboy Advance. With a third party firmware update it can also be used on the Nintendo DS to run homebrew games.
A big reason for me getting the GBAMP was that some recent homebrew titles require devices like it so they can read and write files to the compact flash card. With a standard GBA flash cartridge you don't get much storage capacity. With a GBAMP you are only limited by the size of the CF card. DSLinux for example can use the card for storage and run other linux programs from it.
Note that you still need a means of allow the Nintendo DS homebrew on the CF card to run on the DS. Either a passme, flashme or wifime. I recently used 'flashme' to update the firmware of my Nintendo DS so I no longer need a passme or wifime.
Updating the GBAMP firmware was easy. I downloaded the 2.11 version from chism's site and copied the ndsmp.gba file onto the CF card. I Put the CF card in the GBAMP and used the 'Game' menu option from the GBAMP. Following the on screen instructions I flashed the new firmware. It took only a few seconds.
Once that's done you can then copy any homebrew Nintendo DS program (the .NDS file) onto the CF card and call it _BOOT_MP.NDS. With the CF card in the GBAMP and that in the DS, turning the DS on will immediately run the homebrew program.
If you want to not run it, or use the standard GBAMP programs, hold 'select' down while turning on the DS. You can then then choose the 'Start GBA Game' option in the Nintendo DS firmware and use the GBAMP as normal.
The GBAMP is slightly different to a GBA flash cartridge so won't run all homebrew. It doesn't have SRAM for example so can't run any homebrew that reads or writes to SRAM. But supported homebrew can read and write to the CF card which makes up for it.
Categories: nintendods, gbamp
Out of the box a GBAMP allows a compact flash card to be used to store movies, music and games to be run on the Gameboy Advance. With a third party firmware update it can also be used on the Nintendo DS to run homebrew games.
A big reason for me getting the GBAMP was that some recent homebrew titles require devices like it so they can read and write files to the compact flash card. With a standard GBA flash cartridge you don't get much storage capacity. With a GBAMP you are only limited by the size of the CF card. DSLinux for example can use the card for storage and run other linux programs from it.
Note that you still need a means of allow the Nintendo DS homebrew on the CF card to run on the DS. Either a passme, flashme or wifime. I recently used 'flashme' to update the firmware of my Nintendo DS so I no longer need a passme or wifime.
Updating the GBAMP firmware was easy. I downloaded the 2.11 version from chism's site and copied the ndsmp.gba file onto the CF card. I Put the CF card in the GBAMP and used the 'Game' menu option from the GBAMP. Following the on screen instructions I flashed the new firmware. It took only a few seconds.
Once that's done you can then copy any homebrew Nintendo DS program (the .NDS file) onto the CF card and call it _BOOT_MP.NDS. With the CF card in the GBAMP and that in the DS, turning the DS on will immediately run the homebrew program.
If you want to not run it, or use the standard GBAMP programs, hold 'select' down while turning on the DS. You can then then choose the 'Start GBA Game' option in the Nintendo DS firmware and use the GBAMP as normal.
The GBAMP is slightly different to a GBA flash cartridge so won't run all homebrew. It doesn't have SRAM for example so can't run any homebrew that reads or writes to SRAM. But supported homebrew can read and write to the CF card which makes up for it.
Categories: nintendods, gbamp
posted at 8:58 PM
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