Homebrew GBARunner2

[Zense]

For now Breath of Fire 1 & 2.

OK cool. Some games have crackling constantly, like Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban, while other get it after saving or at seemingly random moments, Minish Cap used to be like this but not anymore. Then you have games that have crackling in certain areas like the Pyramid room in Wario Land 4, or the cutscene music in A Sound of Thunder, but the rest of the game is clean. I take it Breath of Fire starts to crackle at random points?

 

[Deleted User]

OK cool. Some games have crackling constant, like Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban, while other get it after saving or at seemingly random moments, Minish Cap used to be like this but not anymore. Then you have games that have crackling in certain areas like the Pyramid room in Wario Land 4, or the cutscene music in A Sound of Thunder, but the rest of the game is clean. I take it Breath of Fire starts to crackle at random points?

Yes, crackling starts at random. You can provoke it with opening the gbarunner2 menu.
Interestingly, crackling is always on the left speaker.

 

[Zense]

Yes, crackling starts at random. You can provoke it with opening the gbarunner2 menu.
Interestingly, crackling is always on the left speaker.

Yep, always on the left for those that start at seemingly random times.

 

[SummonerArthur]

That is because they use a different save format (even if they might both use .sav as extension). I don't know what you'll need to convert to. Maybe raw?

By "cart save backup on emulator" are you referring to gbarunner2 as the emulator?

Usually, GBA Backup tool outputs the save data in the standard .sav format, compatible with any emulator out there.

Which game save file are you trying to backup?

Need for speed underground and yugioh GX Duel Academy.
Both backs up fine, i can even keep playing yugioh gx using both my boy! and visual boy advance emulators (but on VBA i have to go to options-> import -> battery file), but when it comes to GBA Runner it will simply delete my backed up saves and create a new one.

 

[Gericom]

OK cool. Some games have crackling constantly, like Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban, while other get it after saving or at seemingly random moments, Minish Cap used to be like this but not anymore. Then you have games that have crackling in certain areas like the Pyramid room in Wario Land 4, or the cutscene music in A Sound of Thunder, but the rest of the game is clean. I take it Breath of Fire starts to crackle at random points?

Minish cap still has random desync (=crackle) sometimes, and also after saving. Random crackle can actually be fixed by saving since it shifts the sync again. I have an idea how this could be fixed (some desync might happen, but it should auto-correct).

 

[Gericom]

I made some improvements to the dsp audio that should prevent desync (crackling) (at least to some extend I hope). Furthermore does the audio now properly pause on the ingame menu and during saving to prevent ear ouchies

I'd like to know how this version compares to the previous one. https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20200404-201628_1ffb949_dsp-audio

Edit: Some people said there were regressions sadly

 

[MarioKartFan]

You and Robz8 deserve all the praise in the world for turning the 3DS and DSi into the ultimate retro gaming machines.

 

[Zense]

You and Robz8 deserve all the praise in the world for turning the 3DS and DSi into the ultimate retro gaming machines.

Let's not forget the poor DS now

 

[Ziko]

Let's not forget the poor DS now

Yeah I still use one myself as I really don't like the DSi much less the 3DS. This thing's near perfect almost.

 

[Zense]

I'm just writing down these findings for reference for later so I'll know what to look for in terms of regressions/crackling when comparing next time, since these changed from last build to the current one. Most of these have already been reported and I understand some changes will be reverted.

Spoiler

bit Generations SoundVoyager - Regression - Increased continuous crackling.
Dragon Quest Monsters CH - Regression - The crackling that happens sounds more like a sustained note in the intro overture and elsewhere.
F-Zero Maximum Velocity - Regression - Continuous crackling in Lap results.
Gunstar Super Heroes - Regression - Continuous crackling in conversation cutscenes. Goes away when opening ingame gbarunner2 menu, but comes back whenever a new character portrait pops up during conversation. Also I noticed a weird graphical effect when enemies pass over the life bar on top. Not sure if it's a regression or even a problem with gbarunner2 compared to real cartridge.
Sonic Advance 3 - Regression - Continuous crackling on left side as soon as game starts.

 

[Baromo]

First of all, a big thank you to all of you for your hard work!
I tested Pokemon Gaia and Pokemon Emeraude Plus + (two pokemon hack).
Both seems to work perfectly fine on O3ds but on Dsi xl I only have a white screen.
From what I understand (noob here), roms hack work on 3ds because 3ds has more ram, right?
Does it mean these roms hack will never work on Dsi? Could it be possible to extend ram using a flashcart or something like that? Gba games look so much better on Dsi xl screen...

 

[Gericom]

First of all, a big thank you to all of you for your hard work!
I tested Pokemon Gaia and Pokemon Emeraude Plus + (two pokemon hack).
Both seems to work perfectly fine on O3ds but on Dsi xl I only have a white screen.
From what I understand (noob here), roms hack work on 3ds because 3ds has more ram, right?
Does it mean these roms hack will never work on Dsi? Could it be possible to extend ram using a flashcart or something like that? Gba games look so much better on Dsi xl screen...

The problem is that it is very hard to properly execute code if it is not linearly loaded into memory. Therefore you cannot simply use any sort of ram to expand. I would have used the sd cache if I could pull blocks of code from anywhere, but it just isn't that easy.

 

[Deleted User]

https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20200404-201628_1ffb949_dsp-audio
Tested the 3DS build.

I found some audio issues with the first Golden Sun game.
Mostly during the Game Select Screen. Also some noise/crackling during battle.

Fire Emblem (E): minor noise and crackling.
Golden Sun 2: minor noise and audio desync during battle.
Groove Adventure Rave 1: game crashes.

 

[Gericom]

I pushed some new commits to github that seem to give better audio in many games.

 

[Zense]

Latest release is pretty damn awesome! Tested around 25 games that had known problems and the majority have improvements, even unexpected ones like Contra Advance that has correct sfxs now, and if they don't show improvements they're just the same as before, in other words no regressions
Games tested on 3DS version. I'll write down the known visual glitches even though sound is what has been looked into:

Spoiler

1. 007 Everything or nothing - Improvement - Less crackling but still has occasional crackling at all times, even when sound is not seemingly playing anymore during results screen.
2. Advance Guardian Heroes - Did not have and does not have any issues I'm aware of.
3. bit Generations Soundvoyager - Improvement for crackling. I couldn't hear any.
4. Bomberman Tournament - Improvement. No crackling.
5. Contra Advance - SFXS like explosions work now.
6. Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Heart w/translation - Sound is good now. Entering towns and battles have no crackling.
7. FZero GP - No beep right before starting race.
8. FZero Maximum Velocity - No crackling in race results.
9. Final Fantasy I&II - No issues.
10. Final Fantasy VI - No crackling sound ingame in battles or walking around. Cursor sound might still be a bit off.
11. Fire Emblem - No regular crackling anymore. Still might stutter a bit during battle during transitions with no crackling. Still saving in between battles might give a single crackling sound.
12. Fire Emblem Sacred Stones - No crackling during battles. Still some visual glitches during turn transitions and very rarely black flickering bars across screen.
13. Gunstar Super Heroes - No crackling during cutscene conversations anymore. Visual glitch with status bar and helicopter still present
14. Harry Potter Azkaban - Still crackling as before from the beginning.
15. Iridion II - Still occasional and regular crackling during language select. Single crackling when showing shin'en logo. Still crashes in first stage.
16. Kirby and the Amazing Mirror - Still a very subtle low volume crackling when pausing and unpausing ingame (You need to have headphones and volume on full to hear it...).
17. Kirby Nightmare in Dream Land - No issues.
18. Legend of Zelda Minish Cap - Improvement - One or two crackling sounds when creating new game, but it does not continue like before. Same with saving ingame, you might hear one crackling sound but that's it.
19. Metabots Metabee - Still good.
20. Metroid Fusion - Improvement - Single crackling sound when opening cutscene starts after logos. Might single crackling sound when loading into game and maybe occasional crackling sounds during gameplay. This would have to be tested further.
21. Metroid Zero Mission - No more crackling when loading into the game. Maybe slight stutter.
22. Mother 3 - Audio is still good. DSi crashes as usual.
23. Onimusha Tactics - Still good.
24. Pokemon Emerald - No issues still. Slight hiccup/stutter when saving, but no crackling. Black bar across screen when saving.
25. Pokemon FireRed - No issues still. Slight hiccup/stutter when saving, but no crackling.
26. Sonic Advance 3 - No crackling anymore. Could not provoke it with entering minigame either anymore.
27. Wario Land 4 - No more crackling during intro cutscene nor title screen. Pyramid room still stutters and shows black bar across screen.

 

[placebo_yue]

Is there a way to run this without twilightmenu++? i don't feel like installing it, yet i really want a GBA rom launcher (i'd say emulator but it's not an emulator is it?) on a single icon on my menu, and then go around my rom lists and pick the one i wanna play.
I know it's much easier to install with the NUI but i'll have a shitload of icons for the games and i don't want that.

So, is it possible? to only install GBArunner2 as if it were another emulator homebrew icon on my menu? or another NDS game using NDS fowarder?
i don't really undestand the technical aspects of it so if you're gonna bother explaining make it for dummies plz

 

[RocketRobz]

Is there a way to run this without twilightmenu++? i don't feel like installing it, yet i really want a GBA rom launcher (i'd say emulator but it's not an emulator is it?) on a single icon on my menu, and then go around my rom lists and pick the one i wanna play.
I know it's much easier to install with the NUI but i'll have a shitload of icons for the games and i don't want that.

So, is it possible? to only install GBArunner2 as if it were another emulator homebrew icon on my menu? or another NDS game using NDS fowarder?
i don't really undestand the technical aspects of it so if you're gonna bother explaining make it for dummies plz

Yes, you can make a GBARunner2 forwarder.

 

[placebo_yue]

Yes, you can make a GBARunner2 forwarder.

i gave it a try and it runs CHRONO TRIGGER instead. Any clues why?
also which version of gbarunner2 should i install? the 3DS one? arm7 or arm9? i'm not even sure what ARM means so bear with me.
Thanks for replying so fast

 

[RocketRobz]

i gave it a try and it runs CHRONO TRIGGER instead. Any clues why?

Nope. Please upload the CIA.

also which version of gbarunner2 should i install? the 3DS one? arm7 or arm9? i'm not even sure what ARM means so bear with me.
Thanks for replying so fast

ARM7 3DS one.

 

[Alexander1970]

I pushed some new commits to github that seem to give better audio in many games.

Hello.

I have updated TWiLight Menu today.
The "In Game Menu" Sound crackling is now fixed !!
Great Work.

Thank you.