Release VisualBoyAdvance

[Zink]

Hi, I have ported VisualBoyAdvance to Pandora.


I know it was done before by someone else, but that version is not publicly available due to some personal issues.


It contains small modifications made by me so apect-ratio-correct and stretched images can be chosen, as well as VBA built-in image filters. It also uses notaz' hardware-accelerated SDL for smooth upscaling.


Performance is not improved (sadly, I can't do anything about it now) - GBA games are choppy, but GB/GBC games work quite smoothly, even with filters enabled.


http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=zink.VBA


Have a good play

 

[Rockthesmurf]

Hi Zink,


Thank you for taking the time to port this.


How does it compare to gpSP? I Have used gpSP a little bit and found it pretty decent.


Steve

 

[Zink]

It far less efficient than gbSP. gbSP runs smoothly at 600MHz while VBA emulating GBA is choppy with glitchy sound even at 900MHz.


On the other hand, VBA is more compatible. I recently played Zelda - the Minish Cap with gbSP and came to a point where it hung every time. The only option was to pass that point with VBA, and continue with gbSP (the save format seems to be compatible between these two).


On the third hand, gbSP cannot emulate GBC, which VBA is quite good at.

 

[mcobit]

It should be slower, but more compatible.

 

[PokeParadox]

Hmm this might be my choice for GBC emulation - IIRC VBA does a nice jobs of combining the best versions of GB/GBC/SGB games together - i.e. It let's you run SGB bordes and GBC colours at the same time.


Does this port have the SGB borders working?

 

[Zink]

Does this port have the SGB borders working?

I don't even know what that is

 

[NLS]

Does this port have the SGB borders working?

I don't even know what that is

When you load old GB games, it will have a border around the screen to fill up some space, it's usually some static artwork, but it's a nice touch nonetheless.
OT: Oh man, I was actually working on this myself, but decided to continue once my unit arrived (which it hasn't yet). I guess *ill leave it there then. Btw, which version are you using? The latest VBA-M source?

 

[PokeParadox]

Does this port have the SGB borders working?

I don't even know what that is

Yeah I guess I used too many abbreviations - Super Gameboy borders. Basically a lot of emulators don't bother it - The ones that do make you use SGB mode only. Only VBA (at least on DesktopPC) seems to have the feature to use Gameboy Colour mode with SuperGameboy backgrounds.

 

[Geca]

thanks

 

[Zink]

Yeah I guess I used too many abbreviations - Super Gameboy borders. Basically a lot of emulators don't bother it - The ones that do make you use SGB mode only. Only VBA (at least on DesktopPC) seems to have the feature to use Gameboy Colour mode with SuperGameboy backgrounds.

Hmm, I haven't found such feature in VBA. Maybe it exists in GTK version, but not in SDL version.

 

[Foxgod]

Ive tried it with gameboy color, it works great, but had to change the settings a bit, i changed frameskip to one in order to get full smooth fps with stretch and hq2x enabled.


Tnx for the hard work


Imho the aspect ratio on gameboy color games with stretch and hq2 looks fantastic.