Homebrew GB, GBC, GBA, NES, SNES etc. Emulators for O3ds and ONLY for Old 3DS :)

[dahood]

Hey guys,

so many threads talking about emulators in general and most of them only works for New 3DS.

I am using O3ds, have a look at my signature

Now I need your personal opinion. I am looking for GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, NES, SNES, N64, Sega, Atari and so on Emulators for the OLD 3DS.

Which emulator are you personal using on your O3DS?


Ps. I assume whatever emulator you are using its indeed the one which works at best on O3DS, so i dont need to ask for the fastest one yet I would appreciate if you could tell me the pro and contra from your own opinion.

Again Ps. Maybe someone can also explain what the hell did Nintendo think when building O3DS. In some cases it behaves worse than a Gameboy! What exactly prevents O3DS to run emulators? is it a worse CPU, Ram or bad architecture?

 

[PaiiNSteven]

SNES, use BlargSNES. NES, use FCEUUM3DS. GB/GBC, use GameYob. Gameboy Advance doesnt emulate well, so use Virtual Console Injects. N64 doesnt exist (yet, and when it does it will probably be n3ds). Sega, use a retroarch emulator. Atari, use Z26 3DS.

EDIT: Well, the old 3ds is pretty shitty. I'm stuck with one too, but it gets the job done. It is arm11 userland most of the time also, so you only have as much access as regular games (explain super mario 3d land??? )

 

[CeeDee]

NES - RetroArch / Nintendo VC
SNES - BlargSNES
GB/GBC - GameYob / RetroArch / Nintendo VC
GBA - Nintendo VC
Genesis - RetroArch

Overall there's no excuse to not buy a n3DS if you want to use a 3DS as a multi-console machine.

N64,

That doesn't even exist for n3DS yet.

 

[dahood]

NES - RetroArch / Nintendo VC
SNES - BlargSNES
GB/GBC - GameYob / RetroArch / Nintendo VC
GBA - Nintendo VC
Genesis - RetroArch

Overall there's no excuse to not buy a n3DS if you want to use a 3DS as a multi-console machine.


That doesn't even exist for n3DS yet.

I see, there is no other altenatives than these one which arent fast. Or does it depend on games? Mario Kart for GBA is damn slow etc. I dnt have the money for N3DS. unless someone wanna buy my O3DS. But once i buy it, can u confirm that all these emulators work without problems and fast?

 

[Halvorsen]

Awww that's cute.
Anyway, n64 emulation definitely won't exist for o3DS.
Use blargSNES for fast emulation and use RetroArch SNES builds for accurate emulation.
Use Virtual Console injects for GBA games
GameYOB for GB/C.
Everything other platform goes in RetroArch builds. Don't expect full speed in addition to accuracy on an o3DS.

...so you only have as much access as regular games (explain super mario 3d land??? )

Well, Super Mario 3D Land is an app made for the system, not emulated. Emulation is translating original instruction into instruction the 3DS can handle. Like translating a language. It's not gonna be as fast and accurate if you translate versus if you already know it as your first language.

 

[dahood]

What does this mean "Virtual Console injects" for GBA? I am afraid to guess Is it a emulator name "Virtual Console Injects"? Btw. would u guys suggest to me to install those emulator as cia fiels on my EMUNad or shoudl i run it in Homebrew?

Edit: I was laughing loud at this one. I heard if there would be a 3DS emulator on O3DS, it wont run probably lol. So i have to stick with installing CIA files ^^

 

[daxtsu]

What does this mean "Virtual Console injects" for GBA? I am afraid to guess Is it a emulator name "Virtual Console Injects"?

It means exactly what it sounds like, injected ROMs into GBA Virtual Console games. More specifically, the 3DS had 12 or so GBA games released as "Ambassador" games back in 2011 or 2012, which reboot the 3DS into a mode called AGB_FIRM to play the games natively (it's not emulation, though it does have an ugly motion blur filter on it for added effect). Custom games can be used instead of those 12 or so original games, hence the term "inject". Since the O3DS is so slow, it makes more sense to run most GBA games as injects instead of bothering with mGBA or gpSP (depends on the game, of course).

 

[dahood]

That sounds perfect. I will try this one. The rest about Virtual Console injections I can google. I jsut didnt know the terms and definitions to google.

I also have a R4i Card which can run Roms directly. can i use benefits of it? I mean is there any emulator which can run on the R4i card which is faster then running it through homebrew or emuNand? or is it all the same?

 

[RocketRobz]

That sounds perfect. I will try this one. The rest about Virtual Console injections I can google. I jsut didnt know the terms and definitions to google.

I also have a R4i Card which can run Roms directly. can i use benefits of it? I mean is there any emulator which can run on the R4i card which is faster then running it through homebrew or emuNand? or is it all the same?

It's a DS-Mode flashcard, so it can also run on the DS and DSi.

 

[daxtsu]

That sounds perfect. I will try this one. The rest about Virtual Console injections I can google. I jsut didnt know the terms and definitions to google.

I also have a R4i Card which can run Roms directly. can i use benefits of it? I mean is there any emulator which can run on the R4i card which is faster then running it through homebrew or emuNand? or is it all the same?

No, there is no DS emulator on the 3DS, just stick with the R4i you have to play DS games. If it's an old one that's been blocked, you can either install a patched TWL_FIRM to your emuNAND or use a CFW that applies the patches automatically (e.g., Luma3DS, or I think Cakes, no clue if RxTools does it).

Again Ps. Maybe someone can also explain what the hell did Nintendo think when building O3DS. In some cases it behaves worse than a Gameboy! What exactly prevents O3DS to run emulators? is it a worse CPU, Ram or bad architecture?

That's sort of the trade-off they chose by using a more modern GPU. Modern GPUs don't typically use tile-based graphics anymore (PowerVR in phones is one example of a modern GPU that does), which means that it's up to the CPU to draw each pixel in every tile instead of just giving the GPU tiles to draw (meaning it's very slow). That, paired with a 268MHz CPU doesn't leave a lot of room for the O3DS to both simulate the hardware of an old console and push pixels to the screen to show the game. Since the N3DS's clock speed is roughly 3x faster, it has more raw power to brute force all those pixels to the screen (and hence why it can also run more accurate emulators than the O3DS).

The original DS and GBA (and SP) didn't have this problem with pixel pushing, because they still had dedicated 2D hardware that was similar to other tile-based consoles. That's why the original DS (and GBA to an extent) can run things like Goomba, GameYob, Genesis DS, etc. at full speed, while the O3DS struggles; it's merely the fact that the O3DS has a LOT more work to do and not enough CPU power with which to do it.

 

[dahood]

No, there is no DS emulator on the 3DS, just stick with the R4i you have to play DS games. If it's an old one that's been blocked, you can either install a patched TWL_FIRM to your emuNAND or use a CFW that applies the patches automatically (e.g., Luma3DS, or I think Cakes, no clue if RxTools does it).



That's sort of the trade-off they chose by using a more modern GPU. Modern GPUs don't typically use tile-based graphics anymore (PowerVR in phones is one example of a modern GPU that does), which means that it's up to the CPU to draw each pixel in every tile instead of just giving the GPU tiles to draw (meaning it's very slow). That, paired with a 268MHz CPU doesn't leave a lot of room for the O3DS to both simulate the hardware of an old console and push pixels to the screen to show the game. Since the N3DS's clock speed is roughly 3x faster, it has more raw power to brute force all those pixels to the screen (and hence why it can also run more accurate emulators than the O3DS).

The original DS and GBA (and SP) didn't have this problem with pixel pushing, because they still had dedicated 2D hardware that was similar to other tile-based consoles. That's why the original DS (and GBA to an extent) can run things like Goomba, GameYob, Genesis DS, etc. at full speed, while the O3DS struggles; it's merely the fact that the O3DS has a LOT more work to do and not enough CPU power with which to do it.

I just want to summarize what u said, the CPU in O3DS is behaving like a nanny and is doing everything alone with only 268MHz. Thats why it has problems to run emulators and drawing pixels on the screen simultaneous and thats why it starts lagging when running emulators? What about the RAM? Doesnt the CPU take benefits of the ram like GPU does? With O3DS Nintendo did a HUGE step backward! Nintendo are so lucky to have the license of all those Mario and Co. Character (Like Smash Brothers) and also Zelda and Pokemon games! Why else should ppl stay with Nintendo! Maybe I am just a bit angry abotu the fact how they build O3DS.

Edit: Just look at the GameCube and WiiU. Not really successful. For me the best are NES, SNES, N64 and of course Gameboy

 

[Halvorsen]

I just want to summarize what u said, the CPU in O3DS is behaving like a nanny and is doing everything alone with only 268MHz. Thats why it has problems to run emulators and drawing pixels on the screen simultaneous and thats why it starts lagging when running emulators? What about the RAM? Doesnt the CPU take benefits of the ram like GPU does? With O3DS Nintendo did a HUGE step backward! Nintendo are so lucky to have the license of all those Mario and Co. Character (Like Smash Brothers) and also Zelda and Pokemon games! Why else should ppl stay with Nintendo! Maybe I am just a bit angry abotu the fact how they build O3DS.

Edit: Just look at the GameCube and WiiU. Not really successful. For me the best are NES, SNES, N64 and of course Gameboy

RAM is just for memory, the 3DS can only put off certain processes. It has to work on the graphics live. Not to mention it's only a 128mb RAM chip.

 

[SG6000]

Retroarch cores that run full speed on O3DS:

- Gambatte (GB, GBC)
- QuickNES (NES)
- PicoDrive (MD, SMS, SG-1000)

In addition, GameYob runs well and has proper Super Game Boy support so it's worth having it in addition to the technically more accurate Gambatte.

Blargsnes is good for selected Snes games - check the compatibility list - you might be surprised.

As others have pointed out the CPU bottleneck of the O3DS means that there aren't many options for good or accurate emulation. Other systems have reasonable representation such as the Vectrex (Vex3DS) and Lynx (Handy3DS) but they only approach better speed on N3DS. GBA is totally out of the question - it's VC injection or nothing.

 

[cvskid]

Could use a supercard dstwo for gba and snes emulation.

 

[PaiiNSteven]

Could use a supercard dstwo for gba and snes emulation.

Yeah, but that doesnt really make a difference. Still slow as hell.

 

[zhdarkstar]

I just want to summarize what u said, the CPU in O3DS is behaving like a nanny and is doing everything alone with only 268MHz. Thats why it has problems to run emulators and drawing pixels on the screen simultaneous and thats why it starts lagging when running emulators? What about the RAM? Doesnt the CPU take benefits of the ram like GPU does? With O3DS Nintendo did a HUGE step backward! Nintendo are so lucky to have the license of all those Mario and Co. Character (Like Smash Brothers) and also Zelda and Pokemon games! Why else should ppl stay with Nintendo! Maybe I am just a bit angry abotu the fact how they build O3DS.

Edit: Just look at the GameCube and WiiU. Not really successful. For me the best are NES, SNES, N64 and of course Gameboy

Nintendo has had a product philosophy of "Lateral Thinking With Withered Technology" for decades, especially when it comes to handhelds. The original Gameboy is literally made of the same parts as a calculator. Read this link for more information. Hopefully, it'll change your mind about how Nintendo makes their hardware decisions.
https://medium.com/@adamagb/nintend...th-withered-technology-bac7257d8f4#.c0aiab608

 

[Mayo1990]

I'll tell you what: PSP runs all those emulators wonderfully, if you got your 3DS just for emulation, better put it in the trash can and get yourself a PSP.

Otherwise just learn some Virtual Console injection (GBA absolutely needs it to run games at full speed) and your done.

Again, It's a console that has a slower CPU compared to the PSP, if you're aiming to emulation, just get this one or a New 3DS.

 

[zhdarkstar]

I'll tell you what: PSP runs all those emulators wonderfully, if you got your 3DS just for emulation, better put it in the crash can and get yourself a PSP.

Otherwise just learn some Virtual Console injection (GBA absolutely needs it to run games at full speed) and your done.

Again, It's a console has a slower CPU compared to the PSP, if you're aiming to emulation, just get this one or a New 3DS.

I completely agree. I actually find the N3DS to be better at emulation than the PSP in certain areas. Finally, I've found a handheld that can handle SegaCD emulation like a beast.

 

[TecXero]

For Old 3DS? Well, here's what I use:

SNES: blargSNES
Gen/MD: RetroArch's Picodrive
GB/GBC: GameYob 3DS
NES: RetroArch's QuickNES
SMS/GG: RetroArch's Genplus GX

As for GBA and others more intense systems, the 3DS isn't that ideal for them. You can use the 3DS's GBA VC if you're desperate but it's a bit garbage.

 

[DiscostewSM]

I'll tell you what: PSP runs all those emulators wonderfully, if you got your 3DS just for emulation, better put it in the crash can and get yourself a PSP.

Otherwise just learn some Virtual Console injection (GBA absolutely needs it to run games at full speed) and your done.

Again, It's a console has a slower CPU compared to the PSP, if you're aiming to emulation, just get this one or a New 3DS.

It isn't just the PSP having a higher clock frequency, but it also takes advantage of the Media Engine chip as kind of a second CPU, albeit with some limitations.

Now, I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but emulation on the o3DS may still improve. Having to render graphics in software is really what holds it back, imo. blargSNES does attempt to use the GPU to render everything as polygons, but there are various inaccuracies, and sometimes, it takes quite a bit of processing just to build the lists for the GPU to render. I'm hoping a more streamlined, and less intensive method will be fully devised once we understand the hardware a bit more.