Do I need to create a map editer for a rpg game?as I know ,to program a map
editer is a very difficult thing.
   Can I use a map editer that created by others?

> What is it you're trying to do? The only thing I can think of is
> messing with the FIQ regs, which I have sucessfully tested on
> hardware from the normal mode.
>

i needed to generate an interrupt when a certain condition in my program is
reached, i wanted to fake an interrupt.

what i ended up doing is moving to irq mode and calling the regular interrupt
handler at 0x018. to the interrupt handler it looks indentical to a real
interrupt.

thanks everyone for their input about this.

-mike

recent updates include binutils 2.15.90, newlib 1.12.0 and finally, a win32
native build of Insight 5.2.1. I've also added the SDL version of Visualboy
Advance to the downloads section. This is the one you need to work with
Insight.

There is also a fairly complete set of headers included in libgba and a
small example project including a relatively generic makefile in the example
code section.

I've got a shorter url for the homepage too at http://www.devkit.tk if that
doesn't work for you, the page is still accessible through
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wintermute2002/

Dave

Anyone yet? The big N seems awefully unfriendly to non-
"professionals". Personally, I think it doesn't matter as long as you
could produce a good game.

Thanks!

--- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, Ulrich Hecht <uli@f...> wrote:

> I have reverse-engineered the Xinga SMS and written a little library
> that allows you store data on it. I have also reversed the encryption
> of the multiboot image, thus making it possible to flash your own MB
> image and boot it from the stick. The necessary encryption and
> flashing tools come with the lib.
>
> Find it here:
> http://www.emulinks.de/libstick/

Hi,

I get the message "Stick init failed" with a 8Mb Memory Stick.

Does anybody succeed in using Libstick on 8Mb Memory Stick ?

I would appreciate to get a tested
"smsflash+mbencryted_demo_program".gba in order to try it on my Memory
Stick.

Regards.

Thierry

21 more to go...

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Welch" <gba@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [gbadev] Re: memory stick retailer


>
> I can commit to 5
>
> On Fri, 2004-02-27 at 12:40, Daniel wrote:
> > I will make the purchase if I can get others will buy 30 more.
> >
> > 50-your 10-my 10=30.
> >
> > Anyone else inerested in commiting to buy some?
> >
> > -Daniel
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "eli curtz" <spam1@...>
> > To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 12:54 PM
> > Subject: [gbadev] Re: memory stick retailer
> >
> >
> > > I was thinking about this as well. Wholesale direct from Xinga is $4
> > > each for the 4Mb or $5.80 for the 8Mb in quantities of 50. I'd take 10
> > > or 15 if somebody wants to organize an order...
> > >
> > > - eli
> > >
> > > On Feb 27, 2004, at 9:05 AM, "Daniel" <webmaster@...>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > I also, am looking for a USA seller that I can count on.
> > > >
> > > > OR
> > > >
> > > > If there is enough intrest in this group I would be willing to
> > > > purchase a wholesale lot of the units.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Daniel
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

I can commit to 5

On Fri, 2004-02-27 at 12:40, Daniel wrote:
> I will make the purchase if I can get others will buy 30 more.
>
> 50-your 10-my 10=30.
>
> Anyone else inerested in commiting to buy some?
>
> -Daniel
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "eli curtz" <spam1@...>
> To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 12:54 PM
> Subject: [gbadev] Re: memory stick retailer
>
>
> > I was thinking about this as well. Wholesale direct from Xinga is $4
> > each for the 4Mb or $5.80 for the 8Mb in quantities of 50. I'd take 10
> > or 15 if somebody wants to organize an order...
> >
> > - eli
> >
> > On Feb 27, 2004, at 9:05 AM, "Daniel" <webmaster@...>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I also, am looking for a USA seller that I can count on.
> > >
> > > OR
> > >
> > > If there is enough intrest in this group I would be willing to
> > > purchase a wholesale lot of the units.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Daniel
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

The GBA normally runs in system mode, so you're free to change CPU
modes whenever you want. Just use an mrs or msr (don't remember which
is which).
What is it you're trying to do? The only thing I can think of is
messing with the FIQ regs, which I have sucessfully tested on
hardware from the normal mode.

--- In gbadev@yahoogroups.com, Michael Reid - CSCI/P2003
<m6reid@s...> wrote:
> hi,
>
> i'll start with the obligatory, "i'm new to this" bit. i've only
been
> playing around w/ programming the gba for about a month.
>
> anyhow, i would like to be able to add my own system calls, via the
swi
> instruction, however, the little info i have found about this
implies that
> the system calls are BIOS only, and that there is no way to add any
> user-defined calls.
>
> does anyone know if this is true or not? has anyone been able to
define
> their own syscalls?
>
> if not, then can anoyone think of a way to force a hardware
interrupt
> (enter irq mode)?
>
> thanks

True that the bios could change,  however, I have dumped the bios from all
of the current GBA systems,  GBA, GBA-SP, and GB-Player,  and they are all
100% identical,  so it is unlikely they will change the bios until they come
out with the next gameboy system.

But as Stephen said,  if you desire to get into an interrupt,  use a timer
to do that.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Stair" <sgstair@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 5:14 PM
Subject: Re: [gbadev] swi calls


> Yeah, SWI's are locked in the GBA's bios.
>
> if you were desperate to make an interrupt, you could use one of the timer
> interrupts, and set it up so the timer would overflow on the next cycle or
> somesuch... But there's not much reason to use interrupts for stuff like
> that because all interrupts have a fairly significant overhead (>50
cycles),
> so you might as well just call some function to do the work for you.
>
> Additionally, you *could* attempt to find a SWI vector that would do
> something favorable (the SWIs are not bound-checked, so there *may* be
some
> 4-byte address somwhere in the data/code after the jumptable that would
jump
> to some place in iwram, or something similar that could be useful...)
> But, that's bios-dependent, if they changed the bios your code would no
> longer work... not a recommended practice :)
>
> -Stephen
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Reid - CSCI/P2003" <m6reid@...>
> To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 4:54 PM
> Subject: [gbadev] swi calls
>
>
> > hi,
> >
> > i'll start with the obligatory, "i'm new to this" bit. i've only been
> > playing around w/ programming the gba for about a month.
> >
> > anyhow, i would like to be able to add my own system calls, via the swi
> > instruction, however, the little info i have found about this implies
that
> > the system calls are BIOS only, and that there is no way to add any
> > user-defined calls.
> >
> > does anyone know if this is true or not? has anyone been able to define
> > their own syscalls?
> >
> > if not, then can anoyone think of a way to force a hardware interrupt
> > (enter irq mode)?
> >
> > thanks
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Yeah, SWI's are locked in the GBA's bios.

if you were desperate to make an interrupt, you could use one of the timer
interrupts, and set it up so the timer would overflow on the next cycle or
somesuch... But there's not much reason to use interrupts for stuff like
that because all interrupts have a fairly significant overhead (>50 cycles),
so you might as well just call some function to do the work for you.

Additionally, you *could* attempt to find a SWI vector that would do
something favorable (the SWIs are not bound-checked, so there *may* be some
4-byte address somwhere in the data/code after the jumptable that would jump
to some place in iwram, or something similar that could be useful...)
But, that's bios-dependent, if they changed the bios your code would no
longer work... not a recommended practice :)

-Stephen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Reid - CSCI/P2003" <m6reid@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 4:54 PM
Subject: [gbadev] swi calls


> hi,
>
> i'll start with the obligatory, "i'm new to this" bit. i've only been
> playing around w/ programming the gba for about a month.
>
> anyhow, i would like to be able to add my own system calls, via the swi
> instruction, however, the little info i have found about this implies that
> the system calls are BIOS only, and that there is no way to add any
> user-defined calls.
>
> does anyone know if this is true or not? has anyone been able to define
> their own syscalls?
>
> if not, then can anoyone think of a way to force a hardware interrupt
> (enter irq mode)?
>
> thanks
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

hi,

i'll start with the obligatory, "i'm new to this" bit. i've only been
playing around w/ programming the gba for about a month.

anyhow, i would like to be able to add my own system calls, via the swi
instruction, however, the little info i have found about this implies that
the system calls are BIOS only, and that there is no way to add any
user-defined calls.

does anyone know if this is true or not? has anyone been able to define
their own syscalls?

if not, then can anoyone think of a way to force a hardware interrupt
(enter irq mode)?

thanks

I will make the purchase if I can get others will buy 30 more.

50-your 10-my 10=30.

Anyone else inerested in commiting to buy some?

-Daniel

----- Original Message -----
From: "eli curtz" <spam1@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 12:54 PM
Subject: [gbadev] Re: memory stick retailer


> I was thinking about this as well. Wholesale direct from Xinga is $4
> each for the 4Mb or $5.80 for the 8Mb in quantities of 50. I'd take 10
> or 15 if somebody wants to organize an order...
>
> - eli
>
> On Feb 27, 2004, at 9:05 AM, "Daniel" <webmaster@...>
> wrote:
>
> > I also, am looking for a USA seller that I can count on.
> >
> > OR
> >
> > If there is enough intrest in this group I would be willing to
> > purchase a wholesale lot of the units.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Daniel
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

I was thinking about this as well. Wholesale direct from Xinga is $4
each for the 4Mb or $5.80 for the 8Mb in quantities of 50. I'd take 10
or 15 if somebody wants to organize an order...

- eli

On Feb 27, 2004, at 9:05 AM, "Daniel" <webmaster@...>
wrote:

> I also, am looking for a USA seller that I can count on.
>
> OR
>
> If there is enough intrest in this group I would be willing to
> purchase a wholesale lot of the units.
>
> Thanks,
> Daniel

well, if you're in the UK I got mine from http://www.gbax.com slightly under
12 hours after ordering them. They do ship worldwide but I'm not sure how
the prices compare.

Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Welch [mailto:gba@...]
> Sent: 26 February 2004 21:30
> To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [gbadev] Memory Stick
>
>
> Anyone have a suggestion for a good place to buy one of these xinga sms
> devices?  I have read about some not-so-good places for flash carts so I
> didnt want to mess around...
>
> David

Anyone have a suggestion for a good place to buy one of these xinga sms
devices?  I have read about some not-so-good places for flash carts so I
didnt want to mess around...

David


On Wed, 2004-02-25 at 18:46, Daniel wrote:
> Hey I have a sudden use for the meory stick.  Through a simple home made cart
connector I can make a o-scope and function generator!  The stick would be
perfect for loading the software.. It currently runs in Ram anyway with lots of
room to spare.  Thing is I am not much of a pc programer..
>
> Is there anyone willing to write a utility program to to load .mb (multi boot)
images into the memory stick via MBV2 cable or flash cart for that matter?
>
> If so please contact me.  I cant pay much, but I am willing to offer a little
something.  I will share the software with everyone (unless you dont want me
to).
>
> THanks,
> Daniel
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Hey I have a sudden use for the meory stick.  Through a simple home made cart
connector I can make a o-scope and function generator!  The stick would be
perfect for loading the software.. It currently runs in Ram anyway with lots of
room to spare.  Thing is I am not much of a pc programer..

Is there anyone willing to write a utility program to to load .mb (multi boot)
images into the memory stick via MBV2 cable or flash cart for that matter?

If so please contact me.  I cant pay much, but I am willing to offer a little
something.  I will share the software with everyone (unless you dont want me
to).

THanks,
Daniel

Once again, you rock Uli!

Can anyone who's gotten a wholesaler account at success-hk check the
bulk price on these things? The 4Mb ones are $8 normally - seems like a
really cheap and easy way to distribute your game (as long as you can
fit it into multiboot RAM.)

Uli, can your library read more data from the stick after the game has
loaded?

- eli

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ulrich Hecht" <uli@...>

> I have reverse-engineered the Xinga SMS and written a little library
> that allows you store data on it. I have also reversed the encryption
> of the multiboot image, thus making it possible to flash your own MB
> image and boot it from the stick. The necessary encryption and
> flashing tools come with the lib.

Hi!

On Tuesday 24 February 2004 19:17, David Welch wrote:
> Can you plug in the thing and program it hot?

Yes. That's exactly what smsflash does.

> I imagine with a
> flash cart you can do all the things you have done.

I do own a flash cart, but I have not used it during development. All
you really need is an MBV2 cable.

> But what if you
> wanted to say, have a bootloader program on there that boots the
> gba, you unplug the sms and plug in a serial cable to the pc,
> download something from the pc, replace the sms and upload to it.
> does that work or does the thing have to be plugged in from boot?

No problem, once your code is running you can plug it in and out all
you want. You may, however, have to reset the serial port to a sane
state before you can communicate with the PC.

CU
Uli

I've just ordered a couple of these things, I have some code which may be
able to program them directly from a PC without involving a GBA. More when I
find out if it's possible :)

Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Welch [mailto:gba@...]
> Sent: 24 February 2004 18:18
> To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [gbadev] Super Memory Stick
>
>
>
> Can you plug in the thing and program it hot?  I imagine with a flash
> cart you can do all the things you have done.  But what if you wanted to
> say, have a bootloader program on there that boots the gba, you unplug
> the sms and plug in a serial cable to the pc, download something from
> the pc, replace the sms and upload to it.  does that work or does the
> thing have to be plugged in from boot?
>
> Just wondering if it is useful to hobbyists who dont have flash carts,
> but might be able to get the thing programmed one time with an alternate
> bootloader (boots and gives you a choice to load from flash or run a
> serial application)...
>
> The price is definitely right, hell less than 10 bucks is cheaper than a
> rom cartridge from N.  You could distribute homebrew/multiboot games on
> this thing...
>
> David

Can you plug in the thing and program it hot?  I imagine with a flash
cart you can do all the things you have done.  But what if you wanted to
say, have a bootloader program on there that boots the gba, you unplug
the sms and plug in a serial cable to the pc, download something from
the pc, replace the sms and upload to it.  does that work or does the
thing have to be plugged in from boot?

Just wondering if it is useful to hobbyists who dont have flash carts,
but might be able to get the thing programmed one time with an alternate
bootloader (boots and gives you a choice to load from flash or run a
serial application)...

The price is definitely right, hell less than 10 bucks is cheaper than a
rom cartridge from N.  You could distribute homebrew/multiboot games on
this thing...

David



On Tue, 2004-02-24 at 10:46, Ulrich Hecht wrote:
> Hi!
>
> On Tuesday 24 February 2004 16:58, Daniel wrote:
> > This stick stores 8 Mbit?  That is 2 mega Bytes right?
>
> That would be 8 Megahalfnibbles. :)
> It's 1 MB. Mind that I have only tested the code with a 4 MBit (512 kB)
> stick.
>
> > It comes with a set of tools that let you flash a multiboot image?
>
> Not as such. I have conceived these tools by first ripping the original
> MB image the stick is delivered with using a self-written multiboot
> client, taking a long hard look at the disassembly, figuring how to
> access the stick, ripping the raw data and comparing it with the
> decrypted MB image to figure out the encryption algorithm.
>
> > Does this require me to install ham?
>
> Yes. I do not provide any binaries to make sure people read the README
> and especially the disclaimer it contains.
>
> CU
> Uli
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Hi!

On Tuesday 24 February 2004 16:58, Daniel wrote:
> This stick stores 8 Mbit?  That is 2 mega Bytes right?

That would be 8 Megahalfnibbles. :)
It's 1 MB. Mind that I have only tested the code with a 4 MBit (512 kB)
stick.

> It comes with a set of tools that let you flash a multiboot image?

Not as such. I have conceived these tools by first ripping the original
MB image the stick is delivered with using a self-written multiboot
client, taking a long hard look at the disassembly, figuring how to
access the stick, ripping the raw data and comparing it with the
decrypted MB image to figure out the encryption algorithm.

> Does this require me to install ham?

Yes. I do not provide any binaries to make sure people read the README
and especially the disclaimer it contains.

CU
Uli

This stick stores 8 Mbit?  That is 2 mega Bytes right?
It comes with a set of tools that let you flash a multiboot image?  Does
this require me to install ham?

Most cool!


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ulrich Hecht" <uli@...>
To: <gbadev@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 11:08 PM
Subject: [gbadev] Super Memory Stick


> Hi!
>
> I have reverse-engineered the Xinga SMS and written a little library
> that allows you store data on it. I have also reversed the encryption
> of the multiboot image, thus making it possible to flash your own MB
> image and boot it from the stick. The necessary encryption and
> flashing tools come with the lib.
>
> Find it here:
> http://www.emulinks.de/libstick/
>
> CU
> Uli
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>

Hi!

I have reverse-engineered the Xinga SMS and written a little library
that allows you store data on it. I have also reversed the encryption
of the multiboot image, thus making it possible to flash your own MB
image and boot it from the stick. The necessary encryption and
flashing tools come with the lib.

Find it here:
http://www.emulinks.de/libstick/

CU
Uli

Hello gbadev community,

I'm Javier Otaegui from Buenos Aires, and I've been an asiduous follower of
this list for about two years now.

I have almost completed a RPG, and I would like to know if anyone here has
contacts with any GBA publisher, or if anyone could give me some pointers of
how I could have this game published.

Thanks in advance,

Javier F. Otaegui

hello list,

I would like to ask you for testing support
on the uCON64 ( http://ucon64.sourceforge.net/)
tool which has newly added support
for the FLASH2ADVANCE linker:

if want to test it, you will need to checkout sources from
cvs( https://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=12381) and
you also need the the addtional
binaries( http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ucon64/f2afiles.zip?download)
to get the the f2a part  working:

Of course, if you  would like to test the parallel port code, that would be
great too. Especially when you configure the source with --enable-ppdev
(remember: Linux-only). The parallel port code *should* work on DOS, Windows,
BeOS, FreeBSD.I can imagine some GBA developers are interested,
because they can call uCON64 from some other program without extra user
intervention.

Please note that uCON64 has a quirck that the direction of
the transfer depends on the existence of a file. File exists -> send. File
does not exist -> receive.

BTW I added support to upload multiple files. The option is -xf2amulti=SIZE.
Example:
   ucon64 -xf2amulti=128 game1.bin game2.bin game3.bin
gbaloader in ~/.ucon64rc or an environment variable with that name should be
set. You could also use a command like this:
   gbaloader=someloader.bin ucon64 -xf2amulti=128 game1.bin game2.bin game3.bin

please report any bugs or problem to dbjh@...


thanks in advance

um, yeah. It's kind of required to build it at all :)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pablo Bleyer Kocik [mailto:pbk@...]
> Sent: 20 February 2004 20:12
> To: gbadev@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [gbadev] devkitARM updated
>
>
>
>   Hello Dave.
>
>   Did you apply the GCC-3.3.3 thumb patch to build the MinGW version?
>
>   Regards.
>
> At 14:29 2004-02-20, you wrote:
> >my mingw based gcc for arm has been updated with gcc 3.3.3
> >
> >http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wintermute2002/
> >
> >any problems give me a shout :)
> >
> >Dave
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

Hello Dave.

   Did you apply the GCC-3.3.3 thumb patch to build the MinGW version?

   Regards.

At 14:29 2004-02-20, you wrote:
>my mingw based gcc for arm has been updated with gcc 3.3.3
>
>http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wintermute2002/
>
>any problems give me a shout :)
>
>Dave
>
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

my mingw based gcc for arm has been updated with gcc 3.3.3

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wintermute2002/

any problems give me a shout :)

Dave