Emulation Pokemon Fire Red gba rom (switch version) on gba emulator

Asia81 · Apr 14, 2026

Hello,

Just for fun I extracted the .gba rom inside the switch version of Pokemon Fire Red, but when I open it in Visual Boy Advance, it show this error dialog pop-up.
I know the game has been recompiled from source for the switch release, including patch for the 3 roaming beasts and both event tickets (using a bios file just result in a white screen, working fine with a normal gba rom).

It seems to be still booting after clicking ok, but the first major issues I saw are no matter the name I choose, the game keep using a random one. And the game is not saving properly at all.

Any informations on this case could be helpful getting it to fully properly run.

mrgone · Apr 14, 2026

maybe there is a better bios file in the switch gba emulator
regarding the name: seems like the real checking is done not by the game rom, but by the switch gba emulator itself

Squall Leonhart · Apr 15, 2026

The game is made to rely on features exposed by the custom switch gba emulator, which implements several capabilities not present on the arm core that the original hardware used.

None of us have any intention to get these releases fully working on GBA emulators, as to do so risks Nintendo's ire.

To quote Endrift:

As far as I'm aware, based on what information has emerged online, this is due to the ROM relying on a sidechannel with Nintendo's proprietary information. Regardless, I don't want to step on Nintendo's toes here so I'm not planning to implement that sidechannel.

The crash with the official BIOS is probably because it uses an out-of-bounds BIOS call, which will crash on real hardware.

headkittens · Apr 15, 2026

These games have been decompiled haven't they? I wonder if there's activity to build a patch to play with the Switch fixes and enhancements as Nintendo intended. I guess it's sketchy enough it'll only be on hidden away discord channels, but I can see the appeal.

Like the OP says, name entry and saving is broken, one of which definitely has to hand to the Switch firmware. I have the game and I can't even remember if it retained the old GBA name entry.

Squall Leonhart · Apr 15, 2026

the switch releases are new compiles, and won't necessarily be decompilable by tools that can do the original releases.

Mayo1990 · Apr 15, 2026

Don't use VBA, use mGBA!

Also, ironically enough, the ROMs don't boot on a real GBA. At least last time I tried.

Squall Leonhart · Apr 15, 2026

Mayo1990 said:
Don't use VBA, use mGBA!

Also, ironically enough, the ROMs don't boot on a real GBA. At least last time I tried.

i literally just said mgba doesn't support the roms in the quote by endrift.

The unimplemented opcode calls into the Switch firmware for the OS's name black list, it is always failing to clear this check. the rom is meant to randomly replace the name on failure with those from a white list also in the switch firmware - because the white list is inaccessible the name is just random garbage from the expected location.

result: any name fails the check so every name gets randomised to garbage.

Gozaburo · Apr 29, 2026

I've both games extracted for all different regions and it works partially with the latest mGBA.
Fallowing things don't seem to work properly:

- Choosing a name.
- InGame save doesn't work but save states does the job.
(However you can load InGame saves from version 1.0 and 1.1 which doesn't make any sense.)
- Trading or and battling.
- Using cheat codes.
- Its not working on real hardware. I've tested it with my EZ Flash Omega and GB Operator.

@[SIZE=4]Squall Leonhart[/SIZE]

None of us have any intention to get these releases fully working on GBA emulators

Please speak for yourself, not for others

Trip_Away · Apr 29, 2026

To be honest, I don't see much point in trying to run the Switch re-releases of FR/LG on a real GBA or an emulator. It's basically the same game from 20 years ago, just with some minor tweaks to make it compatible with the Switch. In those cases, it's better to just play the GBA versions.
Unless you want to get both event tickets (and assuming that, like me, you want to obtain them legally without save editors or cheat codes), in that case it's best to use the Eden emulator to run the Switch re-releases on PC and beat the Pokémon League with at least one Pokémon that doesn't have the Champion Ribbon.
Or use this custom Mystery Gifts events ROM

Gozaburo · Apr 29, 2026

Yes I want the tickets without the use of downloading a foreign save file or using pkhex.
I fully aware of these methods but it's not the real deal. Would be cool to have an unlimited source of legit tickets

ChronoCrossfangirl2002 · Apr 30, 2026

Gozaburo said:
Would be cool to have an unlimited source of legit tickets

you can via the distribution roms, and there are many ways of setting that up all of which are simple.

Same goes for RSE though say you have an eon ticket on either 3 games, you can give one to a friend/another copy
by mixing records, the distributor also doesn't lose said item when gifting another player.

Asia81 · Apr 30, 2026

Gozaburo said:
Yes I want the tickets without the use of downloading a foreign save file or using pkhex.
I fully aware of these methods but it's not the real deal. Would be cool to have an unlimited source of legit tickets

What I did was playing on emulator, transfering the the save to the switch version and beat the elite4 boss, saving, then transferring the save back to emulator. That way you can the ticket in a legit way.

aidia_dayo · May 1, 2026

If you know some C, you can just rebuild the ROM yourself.

I used the pret’s decomp project, added only the ticket obtained after league update and some bug fixes, and skipped the Switch-specific syscall stuff so it works on normal emulators and real hardware.

Emulation Pokemon Fire Red gba rom (switch version) on gba emulator

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