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Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

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31–40 of 51 posts

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#31
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was also a third-party USB video capture mod for original "phat" DS models (and amusingly not the DS Lite): http://www.3dscapture.com/ds/ The fun thing about the developer units is that the handheld part can be switched out. The photo above shows one with a phat DS controller, compare to one with a DS Lite attached: https://cooltrainer.org/nitro-capture/

The circuitry inside the 'handheld part' of the devkits is totally different from a retail unit, as indeed it doesn't contain any processing. So if you had, say, a 'phat' devkit, I don't think you'd be able to fit a Lite as the controller (unless you also had a Lite devkit and swapped the two controllers, I suppose).

Yeah, the latter. The PSP kit is the same way.

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#33
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the internals were photographed and dissected a long time ago but maybe someone is just now getting into the guts of the SoC. It's fun to imagine all the interesting things we might have laying around that are hidden by a $DEBUG=0 flag...

There was a blog post where someone reverse engineered the IR protocol of the pokewalker and found that it had a bunch of commands which were never used but are still active in the firmware (some likely were planned for events)

It’s a good read. Here’s a link to the write up: https://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=28.%20pokewalker

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#34
post #16

And to think Nintendo wants these to end up in a landfill. Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles (that is, modifying hardware that you own however you want), were actually legal. Old consoles like these could continue to provide value to owners via competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features like the OP, etc. All of that could happen without infringing on Nintendo's rights, or…

> Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles were actually legal Is it not?

It’s an old article, but it’s laid out nicely here: https://www.macworld.com/article/1152935/jailbreak_exemption...

Essentially, bypassing DRM is a violation of the DCMA unless it has received an exemption from the government. Exemptions must be reevaluated every three years else they expire.

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#35
post #16

And to think Nintendo wants these to end up in a landfill. Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles (that is, modifying hardware that you own however you want), were actually legal. Old consoles like these could continue to provide value to owners via competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features like the OP, etc. All of that could happen without infringing on Nintendo's rights, or…

As someone who jailbroke his DS in order to program and run homebrew on it, it was far from ideal.

You needed so many tricks in order to run those fast enough, like removing floating point code and replacing it with integer replacement for the different CPUs it had.

All the API had to be reverse engineered.

Programming mobile phones,or raspberrys is much better and you have much more freedom.

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#36

Could this be one of the first iterations of the Switch?

Nintendo have offered handheld-on-TV options before with the Super Game Boy for SNES and Game Boy Player for Gamecube, so them considering a TV output for a DS wouldn't be entirely out of the question, although the dual screen / touchscreen nature of the DS would make it rather awkward.

Although as others have noted, adding it to the chipset might have been intended to make store demo units or developer / reviewer test units simpler to make, and not something for general public use.

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if I make a modification to add “competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features,” how does this violate DMCA?

If you have to break DRM features to add your app store then you are in violation of the DMCA technically. But there is no reason you should care if you are outside of the US

Circumvention of technical measures is part of law in many countries. See this example from the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technological-pro...

> Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) (also known as copy protection measures or DRM) are often used to protect copyright works, for example, through encryption on DVDs. TPMs can have a important role in enabling copyright owners (rightsholders) to offer content to consumers in different ways, as well as protecting against unlawful copying (piracy). UK law protects the right of copyright owners to use TPMs to protect their works, and circumvention of such technology is illegal.

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#39
post #35
post #16

And to think Nintendo wants these to end up in a landfill. Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles (that is, modifying hardware that you own however you want), were actually legal. Old consoles like these could continue to provide value to owners via competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features like the OP, etc. All of that could happen without infringing on Nintendo's rights, or…

As someone who jailbroke his DS in order to program and run homebrew on it, it was far from ideal. You needed so many tricks in order to run those fast enough, like removing floating point code and replacing it with integer replacement for the different CPUs it had. All the API had to be reverse engineered. Programming mobile phones,or raspberrys is much better and you have much more freedom.

Pis you have a point but phones are far from having 'freedom'

Re: Nintendo DS-TV-Out Restoration Project

#40
post #35
post #16

And to think Nintendo wants these to end up in a landfill. Imagine if jailbreaking video game consoles (that is, modifying hardware that you own however you want), were actually legal. Old consoles like these could continue to provide value to owners via competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features like the OP, etc. All of that could happen without infringing on Nintendo's rights, or…

As someone who jailbroke his DS in order to program and run homebrew on it, it was far from ideal. You needed so many tricks in order to run those fast enough, like removing floating point code and replacing it with integer replacement for the different CPUs it had. All the API had to be reverse engineered. Programming mobile phones,or raspberrys is much better and you have much more freedom.

Just because it's harder to develop on than modern devices doesn't mean that there aren't people who know how to do it/want to do it. If I knew that I could sell my indie game on the Nintendo DS, which sold 154 million units and a huge number of them are likely still circulating around, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

But more importantly, the only thing that matters is the end-user experience. The people playing games aren't going to care if the developer had to wrestle with some funky toolchain and weird hardware quirks. They just want new games for their old, but still fully functional console.

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