/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.10735121]

I mostly want to get this for DS games, but since it can play GBA games too, how is it as an option compared to a GBA SP, Modded GBA or an emulation device?

[Anonymous No.10735125]

>>10735121
Just buy an emulator handheld OP.

[Anonymous No.10735131]

>>10735121
For GBA games, it's a worse option than just a GBA. It can play them, but it's bulkier and it's not like it plays them better or anything. No real point.
For everything else, I remember it being a great option during its lifespan. Near-perfect GB/C emulation and access to everything from Atari to Neo-Geo with a $15 flashcart.

[Anonymous No.10735146]

>>10735131
>it's not like it plays them better or anything. No real point.
the screen of a DS Lite is better than any GBA model screen

[Anonymous No.10735158]

>>10735146
OP specifically mentioned a modded GBA, which (if he makes the right choice) would be using a DSi panel.

[Anonymous No.10735180]

>>10735121
Get a New 3DS XL

[Anonymous No.10735253]

>>10735121
It's bad. You get black bars and smaller image because the resolution is different. GBA SP will be smaller and give you more screen real estate.

[Anonymous No.10735271]

>>10735131
>No real point.

The point would be buying and managing only one device, since OP wants to play DS games too.

Seems like a good choice to me, but getting a second device would be fine too. If you got a second device then you could always use a 3DS for the DS games and get access to 3DS games as well. (But that plan has an additional drawback, which is that the 3DS d-pad is in a less comfortable position than the DS d-pad.)

[Anonymous No.10735278]

>>10735121
The screen border and unused screen always triggered my autism. It CAN play gba games but it didn't feel like it was meant to play them.
But the screens are bright and without blur, and it has stereo speakers built in.

[Anonymous No.10735304]

>>10735271
>how is it as an option compared to a GBA

[Anonymous No.10735307]

you have to make sure you get one with a specific screen, some of them have severe ghosting issues.

[Anonymous No.10735327]

Pros
>Stereo speakers
>Good backlight just werks
I don't really play gba on my ds lite but I think it's a pretty powerful way to do so. Not really a fan of the dpad on the ds lite, it's a thumb killer. The og ds phat is super comfy but the backlight sucks and the paint gets all scratched up and they all look shitty and grungy

[Anonymous No.10735338]

>>10735121
I used this alot for gba back when I didn't have any other options, but now there are so many better options available. It's unecessary if you have a pc or other handhelds

[Anonymous No.10735367]

What are some good headphones for the DS Lite? I only have the ZX110 and CD900st and was thinking of getting the WH-1000XM5 or XM4 because the DS Lite has the best sound quality out of all the GBA models besides the Micro

[Anonymous No.10735394]

>>10735121
Well the DS Lite has a better screen than the GBA and it's probably much cheaper too. Not had a modded GBA so can't comment on those. In terms of value-for-money either get a DSi (XL?) for ~$50 and mod the hell out of it (can emulate any previous gen handheld and 4th gen consoles easily) which is quite easy to do tbdesu OR buy an RG35XX/Miyoo Mini/XU10/R36S for relatively similar money, which will get you SOME degree of 5th gen compatibility (all PSX, some N64, maaaaybe some Dreamcast on the XU10) at the cost of making it awkward (not technically too challenging just physically awkward) to play DS games on one screen without touch interface. Personally I'd just mod your DS, most cost-effective option.

[Anonymous No.10735396]

>>10735121
Your absolute best bet is a (New)3DSXL. You get three libraries to play natively, all at their original resolutions and physical screen sizes. It’s also the easiest to setup, in my opinion. Obvious downside is that you won’t be using GBA carts, if you hope to do that.
The Lite has a “better” screen than the GBAs, but you’ll be dealing with noticeably weird colors on earlier (most? I’ve never seen a comprehensive answer to this) games. I also think the d-pad and buttons absolutely suck. DS flashcarts seem like a mixed bag these days. However, I do think it’s more comfortable to hold than an SP.

[Anonymous No.10735410]

>>10735304

Yes, that's the question that was correctly answered. It's a slightly more cumbersome GBA that plays DS games too, and the latter should be considered because it's important to OP. Some anons need things repeated I guess?

[Anonymous No.10735607]

OP here, thanks for the answers, I considered getting a New 3DS too, but since I've had a 2DS for a while and it suffices me to play 3DS games I wanted a DS as a separate device for more DPad centric games

[Anonymous No.10735628]

>>10735121
>>10735180
this is actually what id recc too. it has a better screen, better touch screen, is like 10yrs younger hardware, and runs GBA NES SNES and DS natively well with homebrew, but u kno wat i mean
in fact i think it can even run PCE and genesis too with twilight, i never checked
and then theres additional homebrew ports of existing emus too, should you run into compatibility problems

its definitely the best DS-shaped-object you can get in terms of hacking/modding it to play roms that require dualscreens

[Anonymous No.10735636]

>>10735131
I have an old SuperCard DSTwo and I can emulate everything up to Genesis on my DS. Load up as many DS games as I want, then put all kinds of retro stuff on there for older 2D systems. Supposedly the SuperCard had some extra chip on it that helped it be able to do SNES emulation as the standard DS didn't have the balls to do it normally.

I'll have to look back into how I have that set up. Was really nice carrying around a huge library on something the size of a DS.

[Anonymous No.10735645]

>>10735636
>I have an old SuperCard DSTwo and I can emulate everything up to Genesis on my DS
do you have to overclock it in order to run genny?
seems like itd be a bit underpowered desu
hows the sound? thats the first thing that usually craps out in genesis emulation ime

[Anonymous No.10735649]

>>10735410
In that case you might as well recommend a Wii U, since can play GBA games and DS games in addition to GameCube, Wii, and Wii U games.
By your metrics, it should be the ultimate GBA.

[Anonymous No.10735661]

>>10735607
>I wanted a DS as a separate device for more DPad centric games
theres wisdom in that
probably the only real complaint i have with the 3DS is the dpad being below the analog stick. pretty minor, and the dpad itself is great, its just not where i wouldve put it

[Anonymous No.10735817]

>>10735367
These headphones are great when they work, but they all suffer from a wear and tear problem that causes a high pitched noise when you turn on noise cancelling. I have no idea why it happens and there isn't a proper fix other than keeping them clean(worked for me).
i have the XM4's myself and would like to upgrade to the XM5's even with this issue because of how great they are.
Another thing, the ear pads aren't the greatest and can sweat alot. Third party companies always make alternatives that are more comfortable, but they can be expensive.
I recommend you buy a used pair from Amazon to try for a week and refund them when you've made your decision.

[Anonymous No.10735994]

>>10735121
If you're autistic about the details, the DS backwards compatibility runs GBA 1.67% slower than a regular GBA

[Anonymous No.10736038]

>>10735628
PCE and genesis, abosultely - both have good standalone emulators and fully competent retroarch cores.

Real appeal, though? PCE CD and Sega CD. 100% flawless for the former, and while the latter has some slight slowdown on Retroarch for certain titles (primarily FMV games), even those run flawlessly on the less autistic standalone. Played through Ys 1-4, Time Gal, Snatcher, Popful Mail; it's just fucking perfect. You can even get speedup on a lot of GBA games when running them through emulator rather than native; I played Pokemon pinball that way recently, lets you cut down ballwatching downtime.

[Anonymous No.10736059]

>>10735121
It always felt to me like DS is the actual GBA. Or continuation. GBA always felt separate to me than GB and GBC. GBC feels like continuation of GB. GBA doesn't. GBA has only been in market for 3 years before DS was released. It was only announced 2 years in life span of GBA. Colors are the main issue really.

Btw it's possible to integer scale GBA, DS and 3DS at 960p. I wonder whether Nintendo actually cared for that. Ultimate device for those 3 could be built in the future.

[Anonymous No.10736060]

>>10735121
the original ds is just a gba with two screens, it has a better screen but the og ds and i think ds lite (can't remember if it has gba slot) are better than just a normal gba and you don't have to pay more or fiddle about modding a gba

[Anonymous No.10736198]

>>10735146
I remember back then the DS Lite screen being very similar if not the same, to the GBA micro. I think it had to do with some panels being different depending on the DS Lite you got though.
Sadly I no longer have a GBA Micro with me to compare with a DS Lite and it was like 15 years ago that I saw them and made the comparison so my eyes/memory could be completely bullshit. I also think you were talking about the OG GBAs, but still I wanted to mention it if someone remembers or has both consoles.

[Anonymous No.10736203]

>>10735645
It's been like 10 years since I unironically tried to play Genesis on it. I don't REMEMBER it running badly or sounding weird, not in most games. I feel like there were some slowdowns in one or two I tried but the most annoying issue I found was something about the video output aspect ratio was such that you either had to downscale imperfectly or if you wanted native resolution of the DS your screen would like, have 1/4in of space on either edge that got cut off and you had to scroll it side to side. That was what killed it for me.

I'll have to break it back out again, I remember it being pretty playable though as far as general performance goes, but that was before I had dabbled in modern emulators and I had no idea what a flash cart actually was, all I knew was this special DS game let me emulate all kinds of shit and play a bunch of DS ROMs natively and it was better than the R4s of the time because it had "some special chip"

Maybe I'll break out the other emulators but I do know that's the cart that is in my DS 99% of the time and where I load my games from.

[Anonymous No.10736230]

Ah yes here it is.

Apparently I still have all the shit setup on it from like a decade ago.

I probably need to go thru it and see if any of the emulators have updates and reorganize some of the ROMs. Maybe I'll mess with that tonight.

Sonic 2 runs well, but you can see the widescreen problem I am having. There might be an option in the emulator to do it differently.

The sound is 1:1 and doesn't slow down however there are some voices that definitely don't match the Yamaha chip from the Genesis itself so I don't know how they're doing that.

I also tried road blasters, it had some major slowdown in the difficulty select but played super smoothly once actually out on the main game part.

[Anonymous No.10736512]

>>10735121
GBARunner2 is pretty good, but I'd get a DSi since it has an SD card slot and GBA compatibility is better: https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/GBARunner2/DSi_3DS_Compatibility_List

[Anonymous No.10736519]

>>10735121
>>10736512
Also, GBARunner2 lets you expand the screen resolution to a full 256x192.

[Anonymous No.10736631]

>>10736198
I have both consoles. I can test tomorrow. I've never heard of this before.

Without going and checking right now I feel like the Micro is dimmer but I am not sure.

[Anonymous No.10736659]

>>10735307
Nintendo is so annoying for not making the screens standard. I got lucky in that my 3ds is ips/ips because its limited edition one, but my friend has a regular n3ds that has a cheap tn panel for the touch screen. I've even heard that some models can have an ips touch screen, but a tn panel for top screen. Goofy as hell.

[Anonymous No.10736987]

>>10735636
I have a DStwo as well, and I remember the GBC emulation being shoddy. It froze or something and I never looked back. Only used it for DS games until I of course hacked a 3DS >>10735121 OP should get a 3DS

[Anonymous No.10737002]

>>10736987
>OP should get a 3DS
Scaling is an issue here. If you're playing GBA games on a 3DS, you have to choose between half the screen being empty or horrendous bilinear filtering

[Anonymous No.10737070]

>>10737002
or rather, you would be choosing to have it in the original tiny ass everyone hates size screen, or full screen. the 3DS plays 3DS, DS, and GBA, natively, and it emulates several old consoles very well with an in-house emulation system (Virtual Console injections) OP should get a 3DS I reiterate.

[Anonymous No.10737307]

What is actually better for DS games other than 3DS, DSi XL for a bigger screen or a DS Lite for a better pixel density?

[Anonymous No.10737316]

>>10736519
What the hell is that? It's not scaling, right? Does it actually expand the output resolution? How? And doesn't that cause problems?

[Anonymous No.10737318]

>>10736987
DSTwobros...

I want a New 3DS XL but I just don't play handhelds that often. For me it's really only on vacation and such. Not sure it's worth the investment for me vs just continuing to use the SuperCard.

Though while futzing around with it last night the casing started coming apart...I'm gonna have to glue it back together with CA or something.

Still a marvelous little device for its time really. Remember this shit was popular in like 2011 or possibly even earlier. Now, in 2024, if I had to do it over again, hacking a 3DS is the way to go.

Yes emulator handhelds exist but IMO there's something fun about hacking shit still. You feel like...a...well...hacker. Not to mention native hardware autism. I really like Nintendo's devices overall from a fit and finish perspective and how they feel in the hand. They've always done a good job at nailing that.

[Anonymous No.10737328]

>>10735121
longer battery life if you lower the brightness and play it in the dark. with the sound turned off , it can last >10 hrs on a full charge. pretty amazeballz machine.

[Anonymous No.10737330]

>>10737316
It's not scaling, that's just what the game looks like internally. All that stuff is already in memory and already being drawn, it is after all a port of a Super Nintendo game with a larger resolution than the GBA

[Anonymous No.10737345]

>>10737002
Bilinear filtering ain't so bad on a 3DS screen, but that's not what you're getting when you play GBA on 3DS. It's some weird sharp-bilinear upscaling hybrid that looks just terrible, no option for straight up bilinear filtering.

[Anonymous No.10737348]

>>10737318
Android input and audio latency sucks. New 3DS is still king which is really fucking sad.

[Anonymous No.10738323]

>>10737348
This is true. The android emulation handhelds usually play like the cheap shit they are.

[Anonymous No.10738362]

>>10737307
Seconding this. I have a new 3ds (not xl) and have some DS games in my backlog but the shitty scaling turns me off. I'm just wondering if I should get a DSi or DSi XL.

[Anonymous No.10738442]

>>10738362
This is probably the most obvious question in the universe but did you try holding select, or whatever button, so you get the underscan with black surrounding the image?

[Anonymous No.10738447]

>>10738362
Nevermind im retarded you have a regular sized new 3ds. Yeah the non xl are fucking shit for ds. Definietely grab a ds. I wouldn't let my dog play ds games on a normal sized 3ds. Not even an autism thing, the games just look horrible

[Anonymous No.10738453]

>>10738442
yes and I'm not a fan of the huge black borders. I'm also aware of TWpatch and none of the filters did shit imo.

[Anonymous No.10738467]

DSLite + DSOne card (it has better features than R4 and no timebomb bs) + EZFlash flashcart (it's the only one that sits flush in the socket) is the best way to play all retro Nintendo handheld games on one official system.

3DS with softmodding with cover much more ground but it's a larger and clunkier solution, plus the screen is even more heavily letterboxed. DSLite still has the best screen of any Nintendo handheld.

[Anonymous No.10738524]

>>10737307

I personally definitely prefer DS Lite, it just looks really nice whatever you play on it. But compared to modern devices it really can feel like you are squinting at a postage stamp.

DSI XL is definitely too big and it makes the pixellation too obvious. DSi is a nice middle ground- I think the screen is just slightly less nice to look at than the DS Lite, but it is .5 inches bigger which makes a surprising difference in viewability.

[Anonymous No.10738554]

>>10736230
It's worth mentioning that jEnesisDS was the basis for that Sonic Classic Collection on the DS, and it was a DSi enhanced release so it had better performance when played on a DSi.

Each game was adjusted so that the HUD would always fit on screen, despite the unavoidable screen crunch of putting 320x240 games on a 256x192 display.

Emulation of console games on DS systems has always been a novelty, and hard to recommend even back then due to the limited processing power and smaller than necessary screen.
Not the worst way to play NES games, though. Game Boy / Color? It can play the full catalogue, though Shantae couldn't hit full speed iirc.

[Anonymous No.10738621]

This is some ancient fucking knowledge, but didn't some of these ds flashcarts have some kind of processor or ram that could be put toward emulation homebrew? I want to say I remember something about R4 something or other maybe 10 years ago. But I could be misremembering

[Anonymous No.10738631]

>>10736512
how’s compatibility on dsi xl. also wat can dsi xl emulate well

[Anonymous No.10738690]

>>10738621
That's actually true of the Supercard DSTwo, it has an embedded Ingenic JZ4732 processor, which is the same SoC that the Dingoo A320 used.

The processor was used to help run global anti-piracy circumvention without needing to patch a ROM either manually or via firmware patch-lists, but it more notably was used for better SNES emulation that SNEmulDS could achieve, and GBA emulation, as well as some basic video playback.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/ndssfc-catsfc-revival.339600/

It was a pretty neat novelty but the drawback was increased battery drain, even when just playing regular DS games.
These days it wouldn't be worth using such a flash cart because all of the features I just described are done much better on dedicated retro handhelds, which themselves often aren't well suited to DS games.

[Anonymous No.10738814]

>>10738690
>and GBA emulation
the DS plays those natively though

[Anonymous No.10738851]

>>10738814
not if you have a DSi or the shit XLs for fat murika fingers.

[Anonymous No.10738879]

>>10738814
Running GBA games on a Slot-1 device was unheard of, and even thought to be impossible at the time. So when the DSTwo dropped, it was a HUGE feature. There were even some specialized homebrew that made use of the DSTwo's added processing power, it was a big deal.
GBARunner2 has since made the GBA portion irrelevant, of course.

[Anonymous No.10738898]

>>10738814
The GBA emulation as a feature was specifically for DSi systems, which lacked a GBA slot.

Like the other anon said, GBARunner2 makes this unnecessary these days, but we didn't have DSi soft modding for a long time.

[Anonymous No.10739047]

>>10735367
No bluetooth on nintdo DS

[Anonymous No.10739084]

>>10738851
>not if you have a DSi
GBARunner2. The DSi has a GBA CPU inside

[Anonymous No.10739089]

>>10738631
DSi has the same specs as DSi XL

[Anonymous No.10739124]

Bros help she is falling apart

(still werks tho)

[Anonymous No.10739150]

>>10738690
I wonder if these exclusive emulators could be ported to the dsi and if they'd run well.

[Anonymous No.10739168]

>>10736198
I am
>>10736631
and here are both at max brightness side by side. Exposure control is kinda fucking it up but irl I think the micro is just barely brighter than the Lite actually.

[Anonymous No.10739597]

>>10735121
>People posting itt not realising this is the GBA thread spammer from before the rule change

[Anonymous No.10739612]

>>10735131
It'd be based if they made a GBA flashcart designed to sit flush in a DS Lite.

[Anonymous No.10739617]

>>10736519
Holy mother of based. Does this work on 3DS?

[Anonymous No.10739628]

>>10739612
EZ Flash Omega comes with a smaller, empty cart you can put it in that sits flush in the DS/DS Lite.

[Anonymous No.10739653]

>>10739617
Ye

[Anonymous No.10739695]

>>10739628
where

[Anonymous No.10739923]

>>10739150
CATSFC was based upon SNES9X anyway, but a direct port of the DSTwo emulators to DSi wouldn't be feasible.

The DSTwo's Ingenic JZ4732 features a MIPS processor, whereas the DSi has two ARM processors (ARM9 @ 133 MHz + ARM7 @ 33 MHz)
They use completely different architectures, and it's actually kinda fascinating that they were using a MIPS processor to complement an ARM processor.

[Anonymous No.10740171]

>>10739695
I don't think my Definitive Edition came with that smaller piece.
Doesn't make a difference to me, since I play on my AGS-101. Never liked the ghosting on the DS Lite.

[Anonymous No.10741654]

>>10740171
Definitive Edition has a larger board that won't fit in the smaller shell. Kind of a mixed bag whether you want that or the original, since the original has the smaller shell to be flush in a DS Lite, but the DE has a few features that benefit DS users, like single game cart emulation, rumble, and expansion RAM.

[Anonymous No.10741715]

GBARunner2 is pretty good, mostly, but it has patchy compatibility in JUST enough places that you will actually notice it. The way it feels is like... You know how emulators were like 10-15 years ago, where things were mostly fine, but every so often you will notice something wrong? It's like that, and it's an annoying compromise to have to make when the DS has that hardware built in.

So despite the DSi being really cool with softmodding, I stick with DS Lite, EZ Flash Omega and R4/Supercard etc. Covers all the bases you can possibly want.

[Anonymous No.10741723]

>>10741715
My problem with it is the audio emulation
there are a couple of notes that can't play accurately and I assume that are PSG

[Anonymous No.10741948]

>>10741723
That's weird cause PSG works just fine in actual DS games

[Anonymous No.10741956]

>>10741948
play metroid fusion and it's very obvious that some notes are wrong