Rumor: Downloadable Game Boy and GBA games as DSiWare

by JC Fletcher { Mar 23rd 2009 at 4:45PM }

According to a secondhand report from one of last night's GameStop Club Nintendo DSi preview events, Nintendo is planning to release Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games as downloads in the DSi Shop. According to Kombo's "man on the scene," only first-party Nintendo titles will be offered at first.

Other details from the event: Apparently, North American DSiWare includes three pricing levels: free, 500 Points, and 800 Points, which differs from the Japanese model in that there's no 200 Point category. The event seemingly confirms the Mario and Animal Crossing calculators for North America as well, though both of those are in the 200 Point category in Japan.

Of course, like all news that comes from something heard at GameStop, take this with as much salt as you can find.

Gallery: Nintendo DSi

Tags: dsiware, game-boy, game-boy-advance, gamestop, nintendo-dsi, rumor

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MowDownJoe @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:56PM

MOTHER 3!

...Guy can dream, right?

lasersanchez @ Mar 24th 2009 7:36AM

Why dream when you can live it?

MowDownJoe @ Mar 24th 2009 8:56PM

Because the best way to support something is with your wallet? That, and I'm too lazy to homebrew, too lazy to download the ROM, and too lazy to apply the translation patch. And I want to live in myy happy little world of denial where NoA actually wants to release Mother3 stateside.

Kyle Nichol @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:58PM

Yes, yes, yes. I would buy the DSi in an instant if I had the chance to buy GB and GBA games for it. It would be even better if these games were compatable with the Wii for full screen gameplay (Nintendo has done this in the past by releasing cartidge adaptors for their consoles), let's go one step at a time though. Games I would buy include...
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
Mario Kart Super Circuit
Metroid: Zero Mission
Metroid Fusion
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
...11 games in total, and they're all original Nintendo releases. Include Mega Man, Klonoa and the norm and I would be a very happy person... full screen on Wii, please!

Roto13 @ Mar 23rd 2009 4:58PM

"Apparently, North American DSiWare includes three pricing levels: free, 500 Points, and 800 Points, which differs from the Japanese model in that there's no 200 Point category."

That sounds unlikely.

SaraAB87 @ Mar 23rd 2009 5:25PM

I have over 250 GBA games, so I have no interest in buying a downloadable version of a game that I already have. Especially since they already play on my current DS Lite system and Gamecube with Gameboy player if I want full screen. I am not paying money again for the same game I already own, thank you.

mcchicken2003 @ Mar 23rd 2009 6:18PM

Note to Nintendo: don't bother with making these available, SaraAB87 already has them all.

ecco6t9 @ Mar 23rd 2009 5:39PM

This is the best news yet since it means no more wasted time searching down hard to find games from places other than eBay.

Mr Khan @ Mar 23rd 2009 6:13PM

Free? Eh, i dunno about that. Nothing in life is free...

Thetray @ Mar 23rd 2009 6:36PM

I SENT AN E-MAIL TO TO JOYSTIQ LIKE 5 MINUTES BEFORE THEY POSTED THIS WITH A LINK TO THAT WEBSITE!!

BJ Wanlund @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:29PM

If this were true, I've got a DSi calling my name. I'm already considering it due to the free DSiware points, but this would push me right over the fence! And they better price Super Mario Land at a reasonable price level!!

BJ

Thetaray @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:14PM

on the website it says it INCLUDES those three prices.

Moptimus Slime (Leader of the Taylor Swift Defense Force, Gobot in disguise) @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:28PM

This just in: Nintendo likes Money. Details at 11

oogieboogie004 @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:45PM

if this is true, any club nintendo platinum members who are going to the DSi event nxt week should ask their shop representative about this, just in case this could be a lie

ultimatecouchpotato @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:45PM

Impossible. The DSi completely lacks the ARM7 (GBA) processor, and it still isn't powerful enough to emulate it properly. Original GB games would be possible, but I guess the whole rumor's debunked now...

Josh @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:49PM

I doubt that, because DS games use the ARM7, too.

ultimatecouchpotato @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:09PM

No, it only has an ARM 11 which now also handles the stuff ARM 7 used to do in the DS phat and lite.

http://dsibrew.org/wiki/Hardware

asdf @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:28PM

dont forget that the dsi has 4 times as much ram as the original ds

ultimatecouchpotato @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:39PM

And it's useless except for the DSi's advertised purposes of picture viewing, music playing, and increasing the cache on the web browser. Processor speed is the bottleneck here, not RAM.

S. Tiger @ Mar 24th 2009 3:33AM

Wait wait wait wait wait. So because the DSi has a 133MHz processor, it can't emulate GBA games which utilized a 16.78MHz processor.

Sounds like a load of bull coming from your mouth, sir.

Josh @ Mar 24th 2009 2:14PM

"No, it only has an ARM 11 which now also handles the stuff ARM 7 used to do in the DS phat and lite."

Then there's no reason that same ARM11 can't be used to run GBA games, which only used the ARM7.

ultimatecouchpotato @ Mar 24th 2009 6:14PM

"Wait wait wait wait wait. So because the DSi has a 133MHz processor, it can't emulate GBA games which utilized a 16.78MHz processor.

Sounds like a load of bull coming from your mouth, sir."

As a rule of thumb, emulators need to run on hardware about eight times as fast as the original system for decent speed and compatibility. Also, the GBA had a GPU in addition to the CPU, which also needs to be factored in.

"Then there's no reason that same ARM11 can't be used to run GBA games, which only used the ARM7."

If that's the case, why couldn't GBA games run natively on the DS's ARM9?

S. Tiger @ Mar 24th 2009 6:42PM

16.78 * 8 = 134.24

Hm...

Either way, I asked an outside source, and he said that if the GBA's processor wasn't a predecessor to the DSi's processor, then no, GBA games wouldn't run properly. However, since they have similar instruction sets, GBA games should run just fine.

Josh @ Mar 23rd 2009 7:47PM

There's no fucking way anyone's paying $5 for a little calculator.

Don't mess this up, NoA.

asdf @ Mar 23rd 2009 8:26PM

wouldn't it be easier just to make a gba attachment that goes into the sd slot and have the games run through an emulator?

Kyle Nichol @ Mar 24th 2009 4:40AM

Such a device could be exploited easily and it would let pirates rip their carts onto their PCs to share and play through emulation, it's not like every GB and GBA game in the world hasn't already been made into ROM files anyway.

lasersanchez @ Mar 24th 2009 7:38AM

That'd break in a second.

Rhamsey @ Mar 23rd 2009 9:16PM

GB, NES, and SNES can be rommed on any flash 1 cart, so i can see this being true, but the DS can not rom the GBA (or N64) games, so i dont know how nintendo would pull that one off.

LokeSTL @ Mar 23rd 2009 10:12PM

This actually brings value to the DSi in my opinion. I would want to know if my purchase allows for a game to play on more than one DSI. If it's like the games on VC that can only be played on one console, then I will again pass. They should handle these games like Sony handles downloadable games on the PS3. Master account and sub accounts. I can buy a game and use it on up to five consoles. Same with PSP games. Limiting the game to one system is rediculous when you consider that each member in a household may have their own console or portable. I hope this is worked out in the future. There are many games that I would love to replay and share with my kids.

Doug @ Mar 23rd 2009 11:51PM

So THAT'S how they'll release Guitar Hero On Tour #4. You DOWNLOAD the guitar peripheral. Now it all makes sense.

Hardy @ Mar 24th 2009 9:27AM

Free will most likely be demos for games.
I'm honestly hoping for a better demo system then the one for the Wii, mainly because I'm HOPING Nintendo was smart enough to let the DSi run games off the SD card, which....They probably weren't.

Timerider @ Mar 24th 2009 10:46AM

So that's why there's no GB slot. They want more money.

Snake Robot Podium @ Mar 24th 2009 11:56AM

Why is Nintendo taking this virtual console business so literally? Once the games are downloads, it does not matter whether they were handheld or home console, we should be able to play them where ever the system can handle it. I know the DS can't really do N64 controls, but is there any real reason these can't be interchangeable?

Oh, right. They like money.