New Prototype GCN GBA Link Cable Emulation Demo

[mudlord]

(07-17-2014, 08:55 AM)JMC47 Wrote: The current VBA-M support sucks. I don't even know which emulator to blame, that's why shuffle2 started fresh with Higan and a new way of communicating between emulators.

Its easier to blame VBA-M. Its horribly made. Wait till something else comes along.

[AnyOldName3]

(07-17-2014, 11:28 AM)KruZ Wrote: This is amazing! Is this taking into consideration the multiplayer games which opposing players are not allowed to look at the GBA screen ('Pacman vs.', for example)? Since it is still early in development, perhaps we could use an android phone/tablet for the GBA screen/input? Possibly even a Wii U controlpad when it is thoroughly hacked?

The main new protocol designed for GCN <-> GBA support is designed to not be specific to either Dolphin or Higan, so if, once it's working and documented, another developer for an Android GameBoy emulator wanted to add support, it shouldn't be impossible.

[Shonumi]

Another Gameboy dev -> me :p

I'm in a good position now since my own efforts are so early I can study the protocol ahead of time to make smart design choices. Though I don't do android development, anything I write should be on x86 Windows tablets (and that's something Higan can do right now).

[JMC47]

Shonumi: Do the crazy and write a GBA Emulator for the GBA Player for GC.

[Shonumi]

And then make it work with Dolphin too? :p

If you want real crazy, talk about making a DS emulator that can communicate with Dolphin (or hell, even a real Wii) for certain Wii games Hey, we might go there someday, and it's very much in the spirit of the GBA<->GCN connection (albeit much more complicated).

[AnyOldName3]

I'm pretty sure they communicate via WiFi, as opposed to a proprietary system, so perfect emulation (including ethernet hardware stealing) should just make it happen.

[Shonumi]

They do communicate over WiFi, but my main concern is timings, either something being too fast or too slow. Have not even begun to investigate that matter though. Additionally, there's bound to be undocumented things (DS or Wii) to fudge it up. Wouldn't be a challenge though if it weren't

[JMC47]

I'd prefer just good GBA <-> GCN Shonumi. We can do fancy stuff later

[shuffle2]

The DS wifi uses "special" 802.11 frames which may be quite hard to actually generate or receive over the air with an emulator (this is mainly just a speed optimization nintendo made).
Two emulators (dolphin + some DS emu) talking to each other can transparently skip over that layer without games knowing, so it's not really an issue.
I actually considered implementing it in the past, but when I looked into it there was a grand total of like...1 game using it.

[Shonumi]

Yeah, wasn't it like that one FFCC game? Other than that, you get the trading scenarios like Pokemon Battle Revolution and Animal Crossing. Personally, I only ever used DS <-> Wii communication to download a demo of Knights in the Nightmare. A real shame that DS <-> Wii communications were even less utilized than GBA <-> GCN communications, but that probably can't be helped given developers need knowledge and familiarity with both systems to make something worthwhile.