Homebrew What's the best alternative to emulating Game Boy games on the 3DS - Super Game Boy included?

[YukidaruPunch]

I have an Old 3DS. Among some games, there are some old Game Boy games I've been wanting to play or replay. I've tried out the Nintendo official emulator for Game Boy and I loved it (the green hue!), however one sore thumb stuck out - no Super Game Boy support whatsoever. While for some very old games this makes virtually no difference, for games such as Donkey Kong 94 and Kirby's Dream Land 2 it makes all the difference in the world. Those games were very optimised to the Super Game Boy, to the point the original game feels severely lacking in comparison.

You can't tell me this is the same as the game on a monochrome screen!

I'm looking for a way to play those SGB enhanced games on the 3DS, borders and all. What is the best option? I have Retroarch installed and was very disappointed to see Gambette didn't have SGB support. While I could change internal colours to some of its colours, it was far from the same. Should I seek a different core or a standalone emulator? What's the best option available?

 

[jchillin111]

I use this:

 

[Deleted User]

Gameyob and mGBA both support Super Gameboy Border with the 3DS. Though there is no enhanced sound support from the Snes.

 

[YukidaruPunch]

Gameyob and mGBA both support Super Gameboy Border with the 3DS. Though there is no enhanced sound support from the Snes.

Does mGBA work perfectly for GB games on an Old 3DS? Being a GBA emulator first and foremost, I thought performance wouldn't be up to the task on older systems! It's the one I use on Wii U. I can understand it not having the SNES sound emulation, though.

I use this:

Does this method work for Super Game Boy? I'm not looking for Advance specifically, at least not now. Having an old system I can already imagine injecting is my best option.

 

[Deleted User]

I haven´t tested mGBA on an O3DS in a while. I think performance is decent with Gameboy titles.

 

[YukidaruPunch]

EDIT: so, I have tried the emulators. Gameyob actually works pretty good! - SGB colors are all right, however, I couldn't manage to make the borders appear for the life of me. What gives? Tried turning them out and on, resetting, but nothing happened. On mGBA I couldn't even find a menu to choose SGB on the standalone cia. This is proving to be more difficult than I thought.

Only for a test, I decided to open the Donkey Kong game on Lameboy, for the DS, via TM++... SBG support and borders, right out of the bat, fight thing when I open the app. I would play there however, the scaling is all messed up due to it being a DS homebrew running on a 3DS. It's absurd how this actually seems harder to do now than back then!

Don't plan on giving up, though. Will keep trying what I can.

EDIT 2: I just googled the issue and ended up in my own thread by accident. I'm both laughing and feeling quite ridiculous right now. Guess nobody cares that much about those borders than me!

 

[Deleted User]

EDIT: so, I have tried the emulators. Gameyob actually works pretty good! - SGB colors are all right, however, I couldn't manage to make the borders appear for the life of me. What gives? Tried turning them out and on, resetting, but nothing happened. On mGBA I couldn't even find a menu to choose SGB on the standalone cia. This is proving to be more difficult than I thought.

Only for a test, I decided to open the Donkey Kong game on Lameboy, for the DS, via TM++... SBG support and borders, right out of the bat, fight thing when I open the app. I would play there however, the scaling is all messed up due to it being a DS homebrew running on a 3DS. It's absurd how this actually seems harder to do now than back then!

Don't plan on giving up, though. Will keep trying what I can.

EDIT 2: I just googled the issue and ended up in my own thread by accident. I'm both laughing and feeling quite ridiculous right now. Guess nobody cares that much about those borders than me!

You will find information for border support in the FAQ section of the Gameyob thread.
There is also a custom border pack you can download.
https://gbatemp.net/threads/gameyob-a-gameboy-emulator-for-ds.343407/

 

[YukidaruPunch]

So... thanks everyone for the help. After an ungodly amount of time, I discovered what was wrong: I had installed an mGBA version that was found on the nightlies thread, but turns out that was outdated. After installing the last stable version (0.7.3) Super Game Boy support was working right out of the bat. Performance is pretty good, minus a small hiccup and audio glitch here and there. But it's great.

I don't know why my Gameyob didn't show up the borders like it should, and even after checking out some threads here and on github, I'm still not sure what happened, as SGB borders are turned to on. Nevertheless, the games appear colored like they should, and performance is pretty great - even moreso than mGBA, maybe, despite coming across a known glitch in DK94 where a box doesn't show up properly after clearing a level.

Lastly, Lameboy 0.9 (GB emulator for the DS, available natively in TM++) runs the game pretty much perfect. You still won't get the SNES sound samples (you won't in any of these previous ones either) and some of the SGB borders will be cut due to the very low res of the DS, but if you're willing, this is a pretty great way to go.

So, shortly, for anyone who happens to have the same questions as mine: if you want to play Super Game Boy enhanced GB games on your 3DS, go for latest stable of mGBA, Lameboy 0.9 on the DS via TM++ or - if you can make native borders work or want to use custom ones - Gameyob for 3DS. I believe this to be the best way to experience SGB games on a 3DS. For regular GB and GBC exclusive games, you can use Gambette, but I personally would advise injecting on the official emulators if you want them as hassle-free albeit option-limited as you can get.

Thanks everyone who helped out.

 

[placebo_yue]

Gameyob is great for gameboy emulation, super and color. But borders don't work as you'd expect. You can turn on super gameboy mode compeltely, and get supergameboy colors and border i believe. But if you want SGB borders with GBC colors, nope. You have to make your own custom border. Which is kind of a hassle.
mGBA doesn't work so great on Old 3DS i've heard. Is it true? so far i've been injecting my GBA games because i've heard its the best way to play them. I have emulators for SNES, NES, sega genesis and gameyob, all working flawlessly tho. On an old 3DS

 

[lone_wolf323]

Gameyob is great for gameboy emulation, super and color. But borders don't work as you'd expect. You can turn on super gameboy mode compeltely, and get supergameboy colors and border i believe. But if you want SGB borders with GBC colors, nope. You have to make your own custom border. Which is kind of a hassle.
mGBA doesn't work so great on Old 3DS i've heard. Is it true? so far i've been injecting my GBA games because i've heard its the best way to play them. I have emulators for SNES, NES, sega genesis and gameyob, all working flawlessly tho. On an old 3DS

I do believe what you are refering to is that of the ability of GBA games. Other lesser gen games should work without much issue if any.

 

[placebo_yue]

I do believe what you are refering to is that of the ability of GBA games. Other lesser gen games should work without much issue if any.

yeah that's what im saying. every other console i mentioned works flawlessly. GBA works flawlessly with injection, but on emulators (which consume way less space on SD and take less space on the main screen than injected games) would be much better if possible. So far i'm not really downloading any GBA games because of this

 

[YukidaruPunch]

yeah that's what im saying. every other console i mentioned works flawlessly. GBA works flawlessly with injection, but on emulators (which consume way less space on SD and take less space on the main screen than injected games) would be much better if possible. So far i'm not really downloading any GBA games because of this

Haver you given Gbarunner 2 a shot? It's part of Twilight Menu ++. For all I know compatibility isn't as high as VC injection, but I heard some games work good and it's always improving.

Also, unless you're really starved for SD space, installed games really don't take as much more space as ROMs would, at least in my opinion. I like having a bunch of smaller stuff installed as I store it on folders, but if you don't like it, you can choose at least one or two games and use Ultimate VC Injector. It's pretty hassle-free, really.

I personally like having installed games instead of emulators as I feel i can focus better on them. Otherwise it's just a bunch of ROMs and unless it's a beat-em-up game, I might just jump from one to another.

EDIT: Read your old post - mGBA emulates GB, GBC, SGB and GBA. Don't bother with GBA in an Old 3DS, but the other ones seem pretty fine. Balloon Fight GB (Color version of Balloon Kid, released only in Japan) ran weirdly slow when I tried it, though. Might be because it's a relatively unknown game. But it's good to give it a shot - some games night run better than in Gameyob and others worse, but at least you'll have the option to choose.

 

[ber71]

Use gameyob (dsiware cia version for improved speed) for GBC roms. mGBA is too slow in many GBC games. Of course, GBA is out of reach in o3DS via emulation, only VC or GBARunner2 have a chance.

 

[pakrett]

It's also possible to use goomba color and create a gba virtual console cia with the generated gba rom.

 

[retrospect]

There are cheats for a lot of DS games that allow them to run in higher resolution on the 3DS. I wonder if something could be done for Lameboy, so that full SGB borders are visible.

 

[placebo_yue]

There are cheats for a lot of DS games that allow them to run in higher resolution on the 3DS. I wonder if something could be done for Lameboy, so that full SGB borders are visible.

if by run in higher resolution you mean the cheats that allow pokemon games to be played in widescreen.. i never heard of those working on 3DS. Is is possible to run DS games widescreen and filtered, and that also works for DS homebrew i believe?
I found that SGB borders fit almost perfectly the bottom screen tho, keeping aspect and resolution close to native.
It's the best way to play gameboy with SGB borders i found. I'm also a big fan of those

 

[Maximumbeans]

So... thanks everyone for the help. After an ungodly amount of time, I discovered what was wrong: I had installed an mGBA version that was found on the nightlies thread, but turns out that was outdated. After installing the last stable version (0.7.3) Super Game Boy support was working right out of the bat. Performance is pretty good, minus a small hiccup and audio glitch here and there. But it's great.

I don't know why my Gameyob didn't show up the borders like it should, and even after checking out some threads here and on github, I'm still not sure what happened, as SGB borders are turned to on. Nevertheless, the games appear colored like they should, and performance is pretty great - even moreso than mGBA, maybe, despite coming across a known glitch in DK94 where a box doesn't show up properly after clearing a level.

Lastly, Lameboy 0.9 (GB emulator for the DS, available natively in TM++) runs the game pretty much perfect. You still won't get the SNES sound samples (you won't in any of these previous ones either) and some of the SGB borders will be cut due to the very low res of the DS, but if you're willing, this is a pretty great way to go.

So, shortly, for anyone who happens to have the same questions as mine: if you want to play Super Game Boy enhanced GB games on your 3DS, go for latest stable of mGBA, Lameboy 0.9 on the DS via TM++ or - if you can make native borders work or want to use custom ones - Gameyob for 3DS. I believe this to be the best way to experience SGB games on a 3DS. For regular GB and GBC exclusive games, you can use Gambette, but I personally would advise injecting on the official emulators if you want them as hassle-free albeit option-limited as you can get.

Thanks everyone who helped out.

Thanks for this great summary. It’s still helping people like me!