This is a followup on my footers thread, I have succeeded in getting back the original colors instead of the washed out/dark/mute colors every GBA VC has.

It's actually quite simple; every string of numbers that go like this: 00 00 00 00 00 00 in blocks of six are now changed to blocks of three until you reach FF FF FF.

I have already gone through the trouble of writing all the values out in a separate file ORIGINAL.bin
Simply go through the process of making a footer, open it in a hex editor and open original.bin as well, select everything in it and copy it to the footer starting at offset 0x24.

Should look like this:

Spoiler

Ideally the GBA footer generator should get updated with this option to avoid hex editing and name the other settings something more accurate than "Memory Config".

Comparison shots

Spoiler

Bonus: Remove or add more ghosting/blur
Edit byte at offset 0x20

0xFF/255 = No blurring/ghosting
0xF0/240 = Very little ghosting
0xC0/192 = Official value, standard ghosting
0x80/128 = Official value, more ghosting, highly noticeable
0x20/32 = Insane ghosting
0x01 = MAX

 

[hobbledehoy899]

I was under the impression that was a filter added by nintendo to recreate the GBA experience.

i.e. nintendo just wants everything to suck

(The actual Game Boy Advance (not the SP, that was great) experience sucks.)​

 

[MRJPGames]

I was under the impression that was a filter added by nintendo to recreate the GBA experience.

Also, man is there any way to adjust the backlight?

The only modification to how anything looks is the color and the scaling (as it is upscaled to the 3DS' resolution so you don't have to play on a small portion of the screen)

 

[bi388]

Im having trouble getting the modified footer to work in the 3ds gba cia converter, can anyone make a step by step guide?

 

[SuperrSonic]

Im having trouble getting the modified footer to work in the 3ds gba cia converter, can anyone make a step by step guide?

Are you overwriting or inserting? The file size has to remain the same.

 

[bi388]

Are you overwriting or inserting? The file size has to remain the same.

Turns out the problem was the footers created by the rom I was using werent working for some reason. Tried a different game and it worked flawlessly.

 

[MushGuy]

Nice! Here's hoping that Luma 3DS includes this feature in a future update, just like they enabled the GBA bios in their CFW.

 

[bi388]

Nice! Here's hoping that Luma 3DS includes this feature in a future update, just like they enabled the GBA bios in their CFW.

Im not sure thats possible, the bios is installed to the system internal memory while this is part of the gba files installed to the sd

 

[SuperrSonic]

I guess I never noticed much of a difference. Do you have a comparison picture?

I don't have a way to capture but I can approximate the change with an existing picture. The Metroid one comes from 3dscapture forums so it should be the most accurate.

Spoiler

You know that the GBA screens generally were never as a bright as what you would see in an emulator though, right? I would assume that is why they don't make them like that on 3DS. I mean, if you want it brighter that's cool, I'm just saying that this is probably why they aren't like that on 3DS.

I played my GBA games on an AGS-101 back in the day! The other part of what you say is contradictory, Nintendo has done this on various unrelated re-releases, DS VC, N64 VC, etc. It's more of a measure if anything.

So is there a way to patch already made CIAs? I really don't want to recreate and reinstall a bunch of GBA games.

I'm not sure, other than to unpack the cia, open the code.bin in a hex editor, find the footer at the bottom, edit and repack.


Something to note- I only just got cfw a few days ago so I hadn't noticed this but reinstalling an existing GBA cia seems to delete your save file, I read you can backup saves but it is a pain to do so be careful.

 

[GerbilSoft]

AFAIK, the GBA game is loaded by AGB_FIRM; the 3DS OS merely instructs it on which title to load.

In theory, it's possible to patch AGB_FIRM to use a hard-coded palette instead of the one from the VC footer. This would require figuring out where in AGB_FIRM the VC footer is loaded and adding a hook to replace it.

Sidenote: Wii U NES VC titles also have this screen brightness problem, but Wii U SNES titles don't. No idea why.

 

[bi388]

Does any of the info overwritten by original.bin contain save info? I have a yoshis island rom that plays perfectly on vba but when I made a cia with an edited footer and installed it I get a "save corrupted" message that keeps me from playing the game.

 

[SuperrSonic]

Sidenote: Wii U NES VC titles also have this screen brightness problem, but Wii U SNES titles don't. No idea why.

Some SNES VCs do, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3(Wii version doesn't), EarthBound, Super Mario All-Stars(Wii disc).
Similar to the GBC games, Pokemon Yellow seems to be the only one that has it.

Does any of the info overwritten by original.bin contain save info? I have a yoshis island rom that plays perfectly on vba but when I made a cia with an edited footer and installed it I get a "save corrupted" message that keeps me from playing the game.

It's just counting from 0 up to 255 in hex, so no, but see the post I made above, reinstalling cias deletes saves. If you can't actually enter the game I'm not sure what's up.
See this: https://3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_Virtual_Console#Footer the part that says 'unknown' is what's been changed, everything else remains the same.

 

[Clector]

Would it be possible to turn off the bottom screen?

Tap the bottom screen and it is supossed to turn off.

 

[Tex_McBladeSword]

I don't have a way to capture but I can approximate the change with an existing picture. The Metroid one comes from 3dscapture forums so it should be the most accurate.

Ah, that helps thanks. Kinda sucks that I already have most of the GBA games I want though. I am NOT starting over Battle Network 3 after the insane amount of time Ive put into it lol

 

[coinblock]

This is awesome for GBA VC users, and should cut down significantly on the blurriness.

 

[bi388]

It's just counting from 0 up to 255 in hex, so no, but see the post I made above, reinstalling cias deletes saves. If you can't actually enter the game I'm not sure what's up.
See this: https://3dbrew.org/wiki/3DS_Virtual_Console#Footer the part that says 'unknown' is what's been changed, everything else remains the same.

I can enter the game fine, but once im in I get a "save data corrupted" screen that I cant get past. This is a new cia I made so no game with this title id should have save data on the system.

 

[SuperrSonic]

I can enter the game fine, but once im in I get a "save data corrupted" screen that I cant get past. This is a new cia I made so no game with this title id should have save data on the system.

Can you confirm the message doesn't come up if you make the footer without my changes?

 

[daxtsu]

Also, man is there any way to adjust the backlight?

Yes, you can change the backlight brightness in AGB_FIRM as well as TWL_FIRM by pressing Home, then hold down Start and use the directional pad's Up and Down buttons to raise or lower it, respectively. Then just hit B or Home again to resume playing.

 

[hobbledehoy899]

Tap the bottom screen and it is supossed to turn off.

That only gets rid of the text, it doesn't turn off the screen's backlight like RetroArch emulators do.

 

[bi388]

I ended up ripping my own cart cause it turns out every Yoshis Island dump online is shit and I have NO ghosting on o3ds non xl. Interesting because Ive always had ghosting with this game in the past on my old xl so either there is a difference in the physical hardware of the screen or somehow this removes it.

 

[BORTZ]

Yes, you can change the backlight brightness in AGB_FIRM as well as TWL_FIRM by pressing Home, then hold down Start and use the directional pad's Up and Down buttons to raise or lower it, respectively. Then just hit B or Home again to resume playing.

Holy crap I didn't know that!