TempGBA4PSP - New Build

[leapster]

Hi all

EDIT: 30-05-2026 Link changed to point at latest release. I'm very happy with it, performance-wise!!

I did a new build of TempGBA4PSP-Mod and fixed a few things. It's here -

https://github.com/andymcca/TempGBA4PSP-mod/releases/tag/20260530

Probably at least 5 years too late I'll be looking to do pull requests for the game fixes to FrogGBA in due course too as it uses the same codebase.

Anyway, enjoy!

 

[oceanco]

Hi,Leapster!Thanks a lot for your work and it can run at my PSP now and the same as old one.But I suffer some problems,so I wanna feedback to you.

As below, even Set English as the default language， the config still mix with Jumbled characters. I guess it relate to unicode or something?

May you provide the full one since it can't run with the only Eboot.PBP.So I replace the older one.I'm not sure whether it matter or not.

Another issue is it crashed while press the “Triangle” button

Both two issues also submit to your github by another guy.I think it's not alone.Could you check and fix these issues?
ThX,

 

[leapster]

Hi,Leapster!Thanks a lot for your work and it can run at my PSP now and the same as old one.But I suffer some problems,so I wanna feedback to you.

As below, even Set English as the default language， the config still mix with Jumbled characters. I guess it relate to unicode or something?

May you provide the full one since it can't run with the only Eboot.PBP.So I replace the older one.I'm not sure whether it matter or not.

Another issue is it crashed while press the “Triangle” button

Both two issues also submit to your github by another guy.I think it's not alone.Could you check and fix these issues?
ThX,




View attachment 539855View attachment 539856View attachment 539857

Hey @oceanco , I did a new release to fix those issues -

https://github.com/andymcca/TempGBA4PSP-mod/releases/tag/20251119

Please check and try again?

 

[oceanco]

Hey @oceanco , I did a new release to fix those issues -

https://github.com/andymcca/TempGBA4PSP-mod/releases/tag/20251119

Please check and try again?

Awesome, Leapster!I just replace with the new one and it work now at my psp with old setting.Both two issues already fixed.Thx for your perfect work
I'm not mean to nitpick but the new release run quite slower than last build and read(or write?)MemoryStick crazily.
I search Internet about Jumbled characters,maybe you can fix it by use GBK code?

 

[leapster]

Good to hear it's working ok @oceanco !! I didn't change anything with file access or rom paging, when is it accessing the Memory Stick? In-game or otherwise?

I tried using GBK Print method to get the icons and it was just a lot of trouble, hence why I did ASCII for everything instead.

 

[oceanco]

Thx for your attention!After many attempts，I find that the more games you put in your list ,the more time you cost when access to EMU UI!Also,it read(or write?)MemoryStick crazily during this time. I also double check with the old tempgba,no such issue.I guess it may cause by something similar to Superfetch?

I have tried FF6 with this mod(https://www.ff6hacking.com/wiki/doku.php?id=ff6a:patches),there're something wrong with sound.I know PSP is not power enough,but I wonder if take advantage of Media Engine just like Snes9xTYLME,will any change?

If you don't mind,I'll try to ask my chinese friends whetherthey know how deal with the Jumbled characters or not.It'll be better if it can support more languages.

Thx again for your work! I'll try to beat at least one game so I can test it fully.Btw,if you don't like the cat,you may use the old gpsp icon instead,Tempgba is also mod from gpsp

 

[leapster]

Can anyone do me a favour and test Pokemon Unbound using my fork on a real PSP? It runs great in PPSSPP but I want to get a base line on a real device before trying any changes

 

[oceanco]

Can anyone do me a favour and test Pokemon Unbound using my fork on a real PSP? It runs great in PPSSPP but I want to get a base line on a real device before trying any changes

I can help to test this as you wish this weekend.It's better that we keep the same version.Can you share the patch and sav data you used?

 

[Happy1337]

I tested Pokemon Unbound 2.1.1.1 with TempGBA4PSP-mod 20251119 for around 10minutes on a psp3000.
Could not see any flaws

 

[leapster]

I tested Pokemon Unbound 2.1.1.1 with TempGBA4PSP-mod 20251119 for around 10minutes on a psp3000.
Could not see any flaws

I had a report on Discord that the frame rate drops massively in the second battle (with the Rival). Did you see this?

 

[Happy1337]

Yea, you are right. Just played a little further and the second battle runs really really bad
Made a video

 

[leapster]

Yea, you are right. Just played a little further and the second battle runs really really bad
Made a video

Ah ok I see, thanks for the video.

Can you try the attached please? You need to overwrite the game_config.txt file too.

I've re-enabled the old Translation Gate system and added an entry for Pokemon Unbound (or POKEMON FIRE as it identifies itself, being a Fire Red hack I believe). Translation Gates got deprecated during TempGBA development due to being 'no longer necessary' but that isn't really true, especially for a game like Unbound which uses a lot of Self Modifying Code for the background music.

Unfortunately you may find other issues with the attached version - I've found the codebase is really really fragile, just checking for Translation Gates in game_config.txt caused a massive slowdown in-game (totally inexplicable as this code only runs once at game start) until I found a workaround.

But you may find it freezes when you try and bring the TempGBA menu up in-game now (it does this on PPSSPP - *EDIT* this was indeed a PPSSPP issue!)

But it would be useful to know if the Translation Gate I found and added fixes the second battle speed issue at least. *EDIT* I added a save file to take you straight to Frozen Heights for the battle with the Rival

 

[Happy1337]

Used you files attached.
Doesnt really look like it helped

 

[leapster]

Used you files attached.
Doesnt really look like it helped

Ahhh crap - that's a shame. Well that points to the problem being entirely the Self Modifying Code then, as TempGBA4PSP-Mod is already heavily optimised to deal with that but there's no getting away from the 333Mhz CPU in the PSP unfortunately! Oh well.

The problem (I think) is that the game changes the code in RAM extremely frequently, meaning flushes and re compilation have to happen at the same time. This would be even worse on gpsp or gpsp-kai, where the whole cache gets flushed on every compiled code memory modification. But even TempGBAs partial flushing doesn't seem to be enough.

Thanks for testing @Happy1337 , much appreciated. I might see if I can reduce the flush frequency but I suspect this will trash the background music.

 

[oceanco]

Thx for your attention!After many attempts，I find that the more games you put in your list ,the more time you cost when access to EMU UI!Also,it read(or write?)MemoryStick crazily during this time. I also double check with the old tempgba,no such issue.I guess it may cause by something similar to Superfetch?

I have tried FF6 with this mod(https://www.ff6hacking.com/wiki/doku.php?id=ff6aatches),there're something wrong with sound.I know PSP is not power enough,but I wonder if take advantage of Media Engine just like Snes9xTYLME,will any change?

If you don't mind,I'll try to ask my chinese friends whetherthey know how deal with the Jumbled characters or not.It'll be better if it can support more languages.

Thx again for your work! I'll try to beat at least one game so I can test it fully.Btw,if you don't like the cat,you may use the old gpsp icon instead,Tempgba is also mod from gpsp

After finish the performance comparison between new build and old one,I wanna feedback if anyone concern.
The samples as follows:Castlevania Double Pack、Yu-Gi-Oh! Double Pack、Mother3、Fire Emblem series.
Test method:all of all run at default Settings,only cpu run at 222Mhz and compare the frame rate of the same scene.
R：New build almost 2-3 Frames difference from old one especially the battle animation display.But I think it's OK.
During this time,no fatal errors were found that may crash.so I guess only specific games were improved?
One' s more: I find Compatibility Thread from https://wololo.net/talk/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=50399 FYR,at least Final Fantasy IV Advance suffers.

Finally,I donno if Pokemon Unbound can run at GBA but TempGBA4PSP-Mod already heavily optimised.Still recommend to take advantage of Media Engine or we have to downgrade the sample like what Prosty already do since it's the way what real GBA do.But it's painful.

 

[Jellitlerockstar]

So i managed to run Unbound on my psp go (running ark4) with the latest eboot version paired with the tempgba linked in the github and it runs smooth with some small hiccups. I turned off the background music in-game, changed the speakers to mono, and turned off the battle effects. This mod is by far the smoothest ive tried to run Unbound compared to others i have tried (gpsp, tempgba, froggba). im very thankful for this mod being made. thank you.

 

[leapster]

So i managed to run Unbound on my psp go (running ark4) with the latest eboot version paired with the tempgba linked in the github and it runs smooth with some small hiccups. I turned off the background music in-game, changed the speakers to mono, and turned off the battle effects. This mod is by far the smoothest ive tried to run Unbound compared to others i have tried (gpsp, tempgba, froggba). im very thankful for this mod being made. thank you.

Hey, thanks so much for the positive message! I'm glad you got it working well for you and that it compares favourably to the other variants. I have an idea to make it (perhaps) run better but work is just killing me at the moment and I don't know when I'll get back to it. But messages like this make me want to make time, so thank you ❤

 

[leapster]

Ugh. Managed to get some time to look at this again - to me, the key is to isolate the parts of the code that the game modifies a lot (self-modifying code) to generate the background music, and only recompile just these specific addresses (or a very small amount of residule code around them) in the dynarec where possible. TempGBA is really tightly optimised for this already as you'd expect, but it's not liking my attempts to close the gap!! Will keep plugging away with the time I have, will hopefully put another test release in here soon if I can get it working....

EDIT: OK got something working, @Happy1337 can you do me a big favour and test this build please? So what this should be doing is isolating code at both the SMC instance (same as in the one you tested for me before) but ALSO at the SMC address. May move the needle...may not. Let's see! @Jellitlerockstar @oceanco please try also

 

[oceanco]

As we all know, what great job you have done ,so don’t really push too hard to yourself.


I'll try it and feedback what I find.

 

[Jellitlerockstar]

Ugh. Managed to get some time to look at this again - to me, the key is to isolate the parts of the code that the game modifies a lot (self-modifying code) to generate the background music, and only recompile just these specific addresses (or a very small amount of residule code around them) in the dynarec where possible. TempGBA is really tightly optimised for this already as you'd expect, but it's not liking my attempts to close the gap!! Will keep plugging away with the time I have, will hopefully put another test release in here soon if I can get it working....

EDIT: OK got something working, @Happy1337 can you do me a big favour and test this build please? So what this should be doing is isolating code at both the SMC instance (same as in the one you tested for me before) but ALSO at the SMC address. May move the needle...may not. Let's see! @Jellitlerockstar @oceanco please try also

ive done a small test with the games i usually play and heres the result.

Pokemon Unbound: unfortunately it runs the same as the previous version. The performance was practically the same and still cant run well on stereo with high quality audio from the game. I think its more of the psp not powerful enough in this case since i got 60fps with low quality audio and a mono setting.

Pokemon Aesthetic Red: Tried on both versions and it stuck on "now loading". So it basically doesnt run at all. I think it has to do with the patched game i have but idk really.

Pokemon Lazarus and Emerald Seaglass: Sadly the new version cant run it (it gives "bad jump" message") but the previous version runs fine. The performance was 30-60fps on the previous version with audio being just fine.

Pokemon Blast Burn: Same thing with lazarus.

Pokemon Radical Red: this one works fine on both. Good performance and audio was good also.

Pokemon Oddysey: It had a "bad jump" error but it worked the second time i try it. Performance was the same with 60fps outside battles (in-battles it only managed to run 20-30fps).

Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones: Runs good and its the same as the previous version.

Golden Sun The Lost Age: It doesnt work on the new version but it does on the previous one. Also a "bad jump" error.

I did the test to see if theres any audio differences and perfomance jump by running the games three times on a new save and already played save. So far theres no problem with the audio (maybe im just dumb to make notice of the differences). Performance wise its either "will it run or not?" cuz if it does, theres only a small bump of performance or a dip. Also theres this new problem i found when opening the savestates option where it crashes the emulator. I go in the savestates option and press on one of the saves and it then crashes.

Note: I have all the games on a zip (level 9) if it does something to the emulation.

For now ill stick to the previous version but thank you again for working on the mod and a new update.

cheers.