New Gba Emu In Progress

[SolidSnake]

serious.. A gba emulator would be really nice.. like the PSX one, its going slow, but at last its going

even if only a few games run.. it still will be great

 

[xinfernoofdantex]

yea, inferno of dante

 

[jmetal88]

yea, inferno of dante

I think before I only read the first half, and always identified you as xinfernoo or something like that.

 

[Epicenter]

... you know, I read many naysayers about possible PSX emulation on our nifty little device ... nearly as many regarding the GBA ... we shall see, we shall ...

What it all has to come down to is technical fact; not "if you believe, it will be emulated at full speed" like some have stated. The GBA has a beefy processor-- an ARM7TDMI at 16 MHz (the Z80 @ 8 MHz is not engaged when playing GBA games and is only active for GBC/GB compatibility mode) and a fancy video subsystem with transparency, scaling, rotation and other neat effects and capabilities. However, this video functionality is about the only feature the GBA utilizes that is not run in software on the ARM7 processor.

Ordinarily, emulating the NeoGeo's M68000 processor overclocked from 12 to 16 MHz, would require an ARM920T clockrate of about 250 MHz+ to run effectively. This is due to a TON of CPU cycles lost and time wasted due to emulation's overhead; a processor wasting time pretending to be another instead of just doing the work the original processor was meant to do and getting done much quicker. So, the M68000@8 MHz emulated by DrMDx needs ~200 MHz to operate at full speed, the Z80 @ 4 MHz emulated by AlexKidd2x or DrMDx in SMS/GG mode needs ~100 MHz. Alongside CPU emulation of course, these emulators must ALSO simulate the video and audio functionality of their respective systems.

What this emulator is designed to do is to cut out the worst task- CPU emulation- entirely. Rather than try to emulate the ARM7, the instructions are in a sense translated to native ARM9 code that can execute with no emualtion whatsoever on the ARM920T in the GP2X. This means, the work that is done by the ARM920T will be equivalent to that on the much less poweful ARM7TDMI in the GBA-- CPU load will be VERY low due to the relatively miniscule amount of work the ARM9 must perform to keep pace with the GBA's actual game logic/audio calculation on the ARM7 CPU. This frees up loads of cycles so that the majority of the ARM9's time can be spent handling the stressful video emualtion. With this advantage far superior video performance than say, that of emulating the SNES' complex video hardware can achieve due to lack of any CPU emulation to get in the way and drag down the CPU. This is why GBA full-speed emulation can be attained-- because if it's not even true 'emulation' at all!

This isn't the case with the PSX-- the CPU is a ~32 MHz 32-bit MIPS processor which is already a huge task to emulate at full speed on the ARM920T. Compound onto that the much worse issue of trying to software-render a complex polygon-heavy scene with texture mapping WHILE emulating that extremely stressful CPU and you can see why performance is so mediocre. Now, take into account that an N64 game's graphics push over 4 times as many textured, sometimes LIT polygons into the scene which must be SOFTWARE rendered as there is NO dedicated 3D hardware in the GP2X. Also consider the N64's CPU is the same relative architecture as the PSX's CPU, but not 32 MHz, closer to *96 MHz*. That's about half the clockrate of the ARM920T alone. This is why full-speed N64 emulation is entirely impossible on the GP2X, and full-speed PSX emulation is also impossible (although not quite as absurd a proposition as the N64.) Some 2D games may run CLOSE to full speed someday, but 3D games simply never will. These are facts based on hard evidence and knowledge of the processing architectures and system engineering involved, and sadly all the hope in the world won't ever make the impossible possible.

But take comfort in the fact that GBA emulation at full speed is quite doable, and will probably be achieved in the near future.

 

[kgcs10]

Was thread img of here?

From this images, can I get characters of gba game?

Also, is this video game: ROM LINK REMOVED of characters play on gba?

I am a knob and will not post rom links publicly in future.

 

[Magnulus]

[A whole lot of stuff.]

Wow! Well explained, Epi! Even I understood it! ^_^
So is it easier to do what you're talking about with the CPU because the GBA also uses a type of ARM processor?

 

[Paradox]

[A whole lot of stuff.]

Wow! Well explained, Epi! Even I understood it! ^_^
So is it easier to do what you're talking about with the CPU because the GBA also uses a type of ARM processor?

eppy, is this news or something? i ask because, months ago everyone was like "nahhh gba emulation you f00b go away" has this info suddenly come to light giving us hope for fullspeed gba or something?

 

[Magnulus]

I was also under the impression that GBA fullspeed was a no-go before.

 

[DaveN]

Now stop posting links to the same page over and over again. If you want to get more visitors on this page, there are better things to do. And that's a gba emulator, it won't emulate some flash fighting games <_< And nobody want's to see those pixelated fighting chars in a gba-emulator thread. You already made one or two thread especially for those sprites.

I'm sorry for beeing rude, but please, PLEASE try to think before you post, to do some research and just to be as intelligent as possible. Thanks.

@Topic:
If somebody would have told here that there will be a psx emulator that plays some games fullspeed in like november 05', everybody here just would have laughed really hard. We still haven't reached the end of all the possibilities with the gp2x. Recently, squidge posted his new hack which allowed developers to use more of the hardware. Things like that will still be explored in the next months. So Gba fullspeed will be possible. Or better said it will happen.

Edit: Edited out some curses, I'm sorry.

 

[Paradox]

kgcs10.. what? stop spamming crap in this thread please..

 

[Paradox]

listen... if its a game boy advance game it will work with a game boy advance emulator, what is the problem??

 

[Javacat]

I thought TKF15H didn't want this announcing publically until it was a lot closer to release.

 

[kgcs10]

After searching this site:(THE SITE) there is an image:

Is this the cartridge of the gba games?

 

[DaveN]

There are fourteen letters written on the side of that box. The first is a 'G'. You got it? G. Than an 'A'. Say 'A'. Continue this and you will get what your asking for.

*goes searching the ignore button*

 

[Paradox]

what happened to ignore all posts from this user?

 

[TKF15H]

I thought TKF15H didn't want this announcing publically until it was a lot closer to release.

I didn't, but it just happend, no biggie.

 

[Paradox]

Also at GBC + GB rom work gba emulator?Like the ones hereLINK TO 2553 GBC + GB ROMS)

there is already a gameboy/gameboycolor emulator, and you cant post links to roms

 

[halo9]

Also, GBC + GB rom work gba emulator?Like the ones here:

This is giving me a headache...

 

[sam fisher]

Was thread img of here?

From this images, can I get characters of gba game?

Also, is this video game: ROM LINK REMOVED of characters play on gba?

I am a knob and will not post rom links publicly in future.

Just please, fuck off. You obviosuly have no education at all! Go read a 3 year old learning to read and write book. Then come back. You have pissed me off so much I have actually reported you!

[A whole lot of stuff.]

Wow! Well explained, Epi! Even I understood it! ^_^
So is it easier to do what you're talking about with the CPU because the GBA also uses a type of ARM processor?

GBA uses an ARM 7 and the GP2x has an ARM 9. Well, two technically.

 

[nem]

This thread makes baby jesus cry.