Homebrew GBARunner2

[foreverimages]

Glad you were able to fix it. Circle of the moon is reported as running perfectly so sound should be good. Did you enable wram i-cache and main memory i-cache? Which version are you using?

I can't speak from experience but EZ Flash Omega gets a lot of praise around here. Some reported issues about corrupting sd cards though I'm not sure that was resolved or even an issue. If not there's the Everdrive-GBA which costs a lot.

Also cost effective depends on what you need. You could probably get an older slot2 card without real time clock (RTC) support and other fancy stuff and save some money.

Really appreciate your patience and help. I am using the 3/28/2020 commit date version, dsp-audio branch, ARM9 DS. Is there is a better version I should be running, please let me know as I am new to GBARunner2 altogether.

Any links to cheaper slot 2 versions? I don't need anything fancy or expensive at all. Thanks again.

 

[Zense]

Really appreciate your patience and help. I am using the 3/28/2020 commit date version, dsp-audio branch, ARM9 DS. Is there is a better version I should be running, please let me know as I am new to GBARunner2 altogether.

Any links to cheaper slot 2 versions? I don't need anything fancy or expensive at all. Thanks again.

Here's the latest build though not sure what has changed on DS side after DSP branch:
https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20200413-150418_f3daa51_dsp-audio
Here is the latest master branch before DSP, might be the best one for you:
https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20200217-194452_0b8bbe3
If not this is the one recommended by the wiki for circle of moon:
https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20191224-164221_b740476

Not sure where or what is the cheapest over there but gbatemp used to link to nds-cards.com so they might have something.
Not sure if you'd need a stand alone card or if you could get a EZ Flash 3in1 with the one you have.

 

[Gericom]

Maybe the flashcard kernel is not compatible with gbarunner2? Perhaps @Gericom know´s something about this?

Yeah it's very strange. With some flashcards the whole menu works fine but once you launch a rom it boots to a black screen. I have no idea what the problem is there.

 

[foreverimages]

Yeah it's very strange. With some flashcards the whole menu works fine but once you launch a rom it boots to a black screen. I have no idea what the problem is there.

No problem at all and I just appreciate the help and hard work on Runner2. It's very slick. For some reason, and it's not a huge deal but the music on the main menu and name entry of Circle of the Moon crackles no matter which build I use. Very strange.

 

[Zense]

No problem at all and I just appreciate the help and hard work on Runner2. It's very slick. For some reason, and it's not a huge deal but the music on the main menu and name entry of Circle of the Moon crackles no matter which build I use. Very strange.

I've found that in some other games if you have a slow sd card that might happen on a DSi - not sure about flashcards. By slow I would say class 4 or lower.

 

[Hoyle]

Hello,

just wanted to say that I've been lurking this thread for a few weeks now and I have a couple things to say:

First of all, my primary flashcart's kernel from R4i- sdhc. com will not work with GBARunner2, as 'foreverimages' said above, I used to have a black screen after trying to boot a ROM, not even the bios would load (GBARunner2 menu worked though). I had to download YSMenu from RetroGameFan thread and basically boot YSMenu before GBARunner2 for it to work properly. I'm using a DS Lite and a generic class 10 sdhc.

The games I have tried:

-All Castlevanias work perfect as of last commit (sound desync is no more).
- Super Mario Advance 1, 2, 3, 4 all work near perfect.
-DBZ games need a IPS patch for the 'This game will not run on this hardware' anti-piracy issue. IPS patches can be found on this forum. Buu's fury have some slowdown during some fights.

Other than that I need to test more games.
Thank you Gericom for your wonderful wrok, I'm very grateful not having to spend for a slot-2 flashcart.

 

[Hoyle]

Also in DBZ Legacy of Goku, the intro FMV is messed up.

 

[SummonerArthur]

Hello,

just wanted to say that I've been lurking this thread for a few weeks now and I have a couple things to say:

First of all, my primary flashcart's kernel from R4i- sdhc. com will not work with GBARunner2, as 'foreverimages' said above, I used to have a black screen after trying to boot a ROM, not even the bios would load (GBARunner2 menu worked though). I had to download YSMenu from RetroGameFan thread and basically boot YSMenu before GBARunner2 for it to work properly. I'm using a DS Lite and a generic class 10 sdhc.

I also have the same issue and solved with the same workaround.

it was kinda annoying having to boot my ds, wait for my flashcard to read my 16GB class4 SD card, boot ys menu, find GBARunner and then boot a gba rom everytime I wanted to switch roms when GBARunner Didnt had the options to.

You guys dont know how much time that option saved on me.

 

[Ziko]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the notorious sound emulation issue is very present with Magical Vacation. None of the songs sounded right at all and the battle them especially is awful. You'd have to mute your DS or 3DS if you remotely want to enjoy this game.

 

[Zense]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the notorious sound emulation issue is very present with Magical Vacation. None of the songs sounded right at all and the battle them especially is awful. You'd have to mute your DS or 3DS if you remotely want to enjoy this game.

Magical Vacation sounds pretty right on the 3DS and DSi and this change happened for these two DSP builds this weekend since this as well as Swords of Mana were specifically looked into.

The DS branch, however, has not been looked into for these games, so I'm not surprised it sounds bad. Also make sure to also know what this game is supposed to sound like on real hardware because it's very easy to mistake bad sound with wrong sound in this case

 

[Sano2313]

I've been attempting to run Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Assault on a DSi with GBARunner2. But when I enter the game menu I get a graphical glitch that has an absurd amount of noise and then freezes on a loud whining sound.
I've tried the same game from different sites and it can work on other emulators - I've only recently started using GBARunner2 and my other 9 or so GBA games seem to be working fine. I've tried playing around changing the arm to 7 or 9, the ds memory i-cache and the WRAM i-cache on or off with no luck. The game however should be compatible from what I've seen. Here's an imgur link with how the crash looks.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[Ziko]

Magical Vacation sounds pretty right on the 3DS and DSi and this change happened for these two DSP builds this weekend since this as well as Swords of Mana were specifically looked into.

The DS branch, however, has not been looked into for these games, so I'm not surprised it sounds bad. Also make sure to also know what this game is supposed to sound like on real hardware because it's very easy to mistake bad sound with wrong sound in this case

Here's the normal battle theme albeit without the intro:

What I heard was nothing like this at all and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. The school theme even was messed up and sounded nothing like it should've been. Here's what it's supposed to sound like:

 

[Zense]

I've been attempting to run Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Assault on a DSi with GBARunner2. But when I enter the game menu I get a graphical glitch that has an absurd amount of noise and then freezes on a loud whining sound.
I've tried the same game from different sites and it can work on other emulators - I've only recently started using GBARunner2 and my other 9 or so GBA games seem to be working fine. I've tried playing around changing the arm to 7 or 9, the ds memory i-cache and the WRAM i-cache on or off with no luck. The game however should be compatible from what I've seen. Here's an imgur link with how the crash looks.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Are you using a flash card or is your DSi modded?

@Ziko I'll have a look at it later and try the translated rom.

 

[Sano2313]

Are you using a flash card or is your DSi modded?

I've been using it from a standard sized 2 gig SD card, this seems to be the only game effected oddly enough

 

[Zense]

I've been using it from a standard sized 2 gig SD card, this seems to be the only game effected oddly enough

Ok so in other words your SD card is inserted into the DSi and running from that, or are you running it from a gamecart you put in the slot behind the DSi?

 

[Zense]

I've been using it from a standard sized 2 gig SD card, this seems to be the only game effected oddly enough

Have you tried the last working build according to the wiki:
(2019/12/24) b740476
If you're using a flashcard (a dslike gamecard you insert into the game slot, or slot1) download the DS build. If you have a modded cfw DSi get the DSi build.

Also if you haven't softmodded your DSi I would highly recommend you do it as it's easy and you get the benefits of the upgrades the DSi has compared to the DS. This includes perfect or nearly perfect audio for a lot of gba games. Follow dsi.cfw.guide and you'll be fine. Don't watch any videos on how to do it.

 

[Sano2313]

Also if you haven't softmodded your DSi I would highly recommend you do it as it's easy and you get the benefits of the upgrades the DSi has compared to the DS. This includes perfect or nearly perfect audio for a lot of gba games. Follow and you'll be fine. Don't watch any videos on how to do it.

I probably should have been a bit more specific with what I'm running. I've installed HiyaCFW and TWiLightMenu++ v13.1.0. I'm running the games from that SD card without anything being put into my game cartridge slot. From what I've seen, all my other GBA and DS roms are playing as expected without having this Audio and Visual problem. If it helps with with replicability, here are my GBARunner2

Game: Gundam Seed - Battle Assault (USA)

Slow-1 SD: DLDI access - ARM7
Use bottom screen - No
Centre and Mask - On
Simulate GBA colors - No
DS main memory i-cache - On
WRAM i-cache - Off
Bios intro - Off

Thank you for your help so far

 

[Deleted User]

Also in DBZ Legacy of Goku, the intro FMV is messed up.

The "who want´s to be a millionaire" games have the same issue.

 

[Zense]

I probably should have been a bit more specific with what I'm running. I've installed HiyaCFW and TWiLightMenu++ v13.1.0. I'm running the games from that SD card without anything being put into my game cartridge slot. From what I've seen, all my other GBA and DS roms are playing as expected without having this Audio and Visual problem. If it helps with with replicability, here are my GBARunner2

Game: Gundam Seed - Battle Assault (USA)

Slow-1 SD: DLDI access - ARM7
Use bottom screen - No
Centre and Mask - On
Simulate GBA colors - No
DS main memory i-cache - On
WRAM i-cache - Off
Bios intro - Off

Thank you for your help so far

I just tested on 3DS and DSi and it seems this is another one of those issues where it only crashes on the DSi for some weird reason. My advice to you is to put the DS branch arm7 on your DSi and run that and boot the game from there.

My 3DS was able to get in a battle fine and go back to the menu. The DSi froze at the same point you mentioned.
Also you should have WRAM i-cache on as a rule and do NOT skip bios intro if that is what you mean by bios intro off. It breaks games if you skip it.

Hope this helps and hopefully the game runs well enough on the DS branch. It should according ot the wiki.

Thanks for reporting this and I'll update the wiki about the DSi now.

 

[Sano2313]

I just tested on 3DS and DSi and it seems this is another one of those issues where it only crashes on the DSi for some weird reason. My advice to you is to put the DS branch arm7 on your DSi and run that and boot the game from there.

I am a tad new to softmodding so I'm just wondering how I'd switch it into running with the base-ds arm7? I've seen the wikia and I assume I'd get these files from one of the "commit" links? But I'm unsure exactly as to what the right way is to switch around my current GBARunner2 nds files without corrupting something by accident, or if I have the wrong idea all together on how to do what you recommended.

Once again, thank you for all your help so far. I appreciate it a bunch.

 

[Zense]

I am a tad new to softmodding so I'm just wondering how I'd switch it into running with the base-ds arm7? I've seen the wikia and I assume I'd get these files from one of the "commit" links? But I'm unsure exactly as to what the right way is to switch around my current GBARunner2 nds files without corrupting something by accident, or if I have the wrong idea all together on how to do what you recommended.

Once again, thank you for all your help so far. I appreciate it a bunch.

You just have to go and download "GBARunner2_arm7dldi_ds.nds" from here:
https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20200413-150418_f3daa51_dsp-audio

Put that somewhere on your sd card so that you can run it from twilightmenu as you would with any gba or nds rom. You could replace your twilightmenu integrated gbarunner2 in _nds folder, but I advice against it since the benefits of using the DSi build for most other roms is much greater than having it work for that specific game. Basically you'll have to run that ds build whenever you want to play Gundam.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

@Ziko I just tested the English patch and it works fine on my DSi and presumably my 3DS too. The audio is playing well and close to what you posted in the videos. However, I just remembered you saying you're playing on a DS and sadly that only has the hammer and nails sound at the moment. I'm not sure if this will ever be fixed so my advice is either to play it on another system, like 3DS or DSi since gbarunner2 supports the sound there if you have on of them, or without sound.

 

[DSoryu]

Hello,

just wanted to say that I've been lurking this thread for a few weeks now and I have a couple things to say:

First of all, my primary flashcart's kernel from R4i- sdhc. com will not work with GBARunner2, as 'foreverimages' said above, I used to have a black screen after trying to boot a ROM, not even the bios would load (GBARunner2 menu worked though). I had to download YSMenu from RetroGameFan thread and basically boot YSMenu before GBARunner2 for it to work properly. I'm using a DS Lite and a generic class 10 sdhc.

The games I have tried:

-All Castlevanias work perfect as of last commit (sound desync is no more).
- Super Mario Advance 1, 2, 3, 4 all work near perfect.
-DBZ games need a IPS patch for the 'This game will not run on this hardware' anti-piracy issue. IPS patches can be found on this forum. Buu's fury have some slowdown during some fights.

Other than that I need to test more games.
Thank you Gericom for your wonderful wrok, I'm very grateful not having to spend for a slot-2 flashcart.

I also have the same issue and solved with the same workaround.

it was kinda annoying having to boot my ds, wait for my flashcard to read my 16GB class4 SD card, boot ys menu, find GBARunner and then boot a gba rom everytime I wanted to switch roms when GBARunner Didnt had the options to.

You guys dont know how much time that option saved on me.

I have that same flashcart and you can install YSMenu as the primary Kernel to avoid loading times at boot, also, if you are just playing GBA games now, after installing YSMenu as the primary Kernel you can rename GBARunner2.nds to "default.nds" and place it on the root of your SD card, so GBARunner2 will be booted automatically at boot.

For more details go here and follow the steps advised for your flashcart model.

 

[Ziko]

You just have to go and download "GBARunner2_arm7dldi_ds.nds" from here:
https://github.com/Gericom/GBARunner2/releases/tag/v20200413-150418_f3daa51_dsp-audio

Put that somewhere on your sd card so that you can run it from twilightmenu as you would with any gba or nds rom. You could replace your twilightmenu integrated gbarunner2 in _nds folder, but I advice against it since the benefits of using the DSi build for most other roms is much greater than having it work for that specific game. Basically you'll have to run that ds build whenever you want to play Gundam.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

@Ziko I just tested the English patch and it works fine on my DSi and presumably my 3DS too. The audio is playing well and close to what you posted in the videos. However, I just remembered you saying you're playing on a DS and sadly that only has the hammer and nails sound at the moment. I'm not sure if this will ever be fixed so my advice is either to play it on another system, like 3DS or DSi since gbarunner2 supports the sound there if you have on of them, or without sound.

I sadly do not have any of the later systems so I guess I can either emulate it or buy a prepatched repro sooner rather than later as I would probably buy this game anyway. Thanks for the reply!