Emulation Is there really no way to play Pokémon Crystal on a GBA flashcard?

[Vipera]

I have a Game Boy Micro and a Supercard Mini SD. Last time I tried, no GBC emulator could play Pokémon Crystal without glitches that made it unplayable. is there really no way to do it nowadays?

"Why don't you play it on <insert generic hackable electronic device>?"
I like my Micro ok? :(

 

[Foxi4]

You can play it on an Everdrive GB, minus the RTC clock (but you can patch that problem relatively easily).

 

[Vipera]

You can play it on an Everdrive GB, minus the RTC clock (but you can patch that problem relatively easily).

I'd use that, if I could use GB cartridges on a Micro...

 

[Foxi4]

I'd use that, if I could use GB cartridges on a Micro...

A-ha! So we're having a micro problem here...

Your only real options are emulators, so try Goomba Color: http://www.dwedit.org/gba/goombacolor.php

Don't expect miracles though, the GBA is not exactly a powerhouse. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but from what I'm reading, there are some graphical issues present when playing the game.

 

[Vipera]

A-ha! So we're having a micro problem here...

Your only real options are emulators, so try Goomba Color: http://www.dwedit.org/gba/goombacolor.php

Don't expect miracles though, the GBA is not exactly a powerhouse. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but from what I'm reading, there are some graphical issues present when playing the game.

Yes, I tried that, but the glitches make it really unplayable. Is there really no new way? A new emulator, a patch, anything?

 

[DanTheManMS]

You have to remember that for a long time, the mere thought of GBC emulation on the GBA was thought to be impossible until Goomba Color came around. So no, there is no other emulator or patch. The only option would be to upgrade to a DS and use one of the GBC emulators available for that.

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

You have to remember that for a long time, the mere thought of GBC emulation on the GBA was thought to be impossible until Goomba Color came around. So no, there is no other emulator or patch. The only option would be to upgrade to a DS and use one of the GBC emulators available for that.

Can you run me by why they thought it was impossible, again? GBC is 8 MHz and GBA is 16 MHz.

 

[Monty Kensicle]

Yes but the Original and SP GBA handhelds shared some of the same hardware as a Gameboy Color in order to play them. The Gameboy Micro has no such hardware.

 

[Alchemilla]

Can you run me by why they thought it was impossible, again? GBC is 8 MHz and GBA is 16 MHz.

Probably the same issue as DS emulation of SNES games.

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

Yes but the Original and SP GBA handhelds shared some of the same hardware as a Gameboy Color in order to play them. The Gameboy Micro has no such hardware.

Actually, A long time ago I proved that there are some original Gameboy hardware, if not all of it, in the micro.

In an earlier version of Goomba Color, it would crash and make the GBC bios show up, and I showed it to DWedit and he made a ROM to make the GBC bios turn on when you run it.

 

[Alchemilla]

Actually, A long time ago I proved that there are some original Gameboy hardware, if not all of it, in the micro.

Got a link to this proof?

 

[Lemmy Koopa]

Got a link to this proof?

Yup

http://www.pocketheaven.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6189

ROM:
http://www.dwedit.org/dwedit_board/attachment.php?item=122

stick it on your flash and put it in your GBM and it'll work.

 

[Alchemilla]

Um, I didn't think ROM links were allowed here.

 

[Monty Kensicle]

The forum post you linked to has people talking about how not all the hardware for Gameboy Color operation is included in a Gameboy Micro. Which is what I said. Just because it shares some of the hardware doesn't mean it has enough to run a GBC game.

 

[Vipera]

I can play (almost) any GB/GBC game just fine. The issue is with that stupid Pokémon Crystal game...

I wanted to do the battle tower on my Micro, but if there is no other way...*looks for Silver hackroms*

 

[Foxi4]

Can you run me by why they thought it was impossible, again? GBC is 8 MHz and GBA is 16 MHz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization

The reason why it was thought to be impossible is that emulation requires much, much more resources than running software natively. Essentially you have to dedicate resources to "pretend" that the host machine is a completely different one and then resources to the actual program that's running. The amount of resources required varies depending on the degree of difference between the host machine and the emulated machine as well as the approach (dynamic recompilation, interpreting etc.), but is normally around 3 to 9 times more resources. Moreover, MHz is not a measurement of power of a given processor, it's a measurement of clock speed, which is a whole different issue.

As for the GBA Micro having some GBC hardware, it's the remnants required to operate - the GBA has the option to use the GB/GBC's CPU for sound processing so the "Z80" is there for the sake of GBA games that do use it. Other than that, most of the GBC-oriented stuff was probably scrapped. No mystery there. I would imagine that you could ham-fist a way of booting GBC cartridges into the system by some magical modification, but I don't see why you'd want to if GBA SP's are readily available. The GBA Micro was nothing more than a cool gadget, really.

 

[Silentsurvivor]

As for the GBA Micro having some GBC hardware, it's the remnants required to operate - the GBA has the option to use the GB/GBC's CPU for sound processing so the "Z80" is there for the sake of GBA games that do use it.

Correct. Actually I don't think there was much more on the original GBA needed to run GBC games. IIRC the main issue is that the voltage of the cartridge connector is only 3V while GBC games need 5V.

Goomba is an emulator though so it has nothing to do with actual GBC hardware present on it, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Foxi4]

Correct. Actually I don't think there was much more on the original GBA needed to run GBC games. IIRC the main issue is that the voltage of the cartridge connector is only 3V while GBC games need 5V.

Goomba is an emulator though so it has nothing to do with actual GBC hardware present on it, so it doesn't really matter.

Correct, and correct - what's missing is a couple traces and a voltage regulator, at least according to the thread Lemmy linked. The GBC was far from a complicated machine.

I could imagine going the virtualization route instead or trying to run the software natively on the "Z80" (I hate calling it that, it's not a Z80 processor), but that's practically astrophysics of coding and there's a myriad of better, more widely accessible solutions. Unless a coder would just want to show his/her coding brawns, I don't see that happening anywhere in the nearby future.

Um, I didn't think ROM links were allowed here.

Homebrew is entirely fine, only copyrighted content cannot be posted.

 

[albertar]

Will pokemon crystal work with goomba on the gba sp?

 

[Vipera]

Will pokemon crystal work with goomba on the gba sp?

Nope