Homebrew Dual screen GBA Emulation on 3DS?

[comical_commie]

I'm curious if it would be possible to have a GBA game running on both the top and bottom screens on 3DS. Whenever I emulate classic handhelds on my 3DS, the blank screen kind of bugs me, regardless of if it's top or bottom, and I think it would also just be an interesting project. I'm no programmer, but I feel like having the same thing displayed twice wouldn't be too hard of a task. Thoughts?

 

[oriongrant]

I'm curious if it would be possible to have a GBA game running on both the top and bottom screens on 3DS. Whenever I emulate classic handhelds on my 3DS, the blank screen kind of bugs me, regardless of if it's top or bottom, and I think it would also just be an interesting project. I'm no programmer, but I feel like having the same thing displayed twice wouldn't be too hard of a task. Thoughts?

that is a really odd request, I'm not gonna lie.

 

[Jayro]

I'd rather it play on the bottom screen and just turn the top screen off. Then you could have a sort of... Gameboy Macro 3DS.

 

[placebo_yue]

There's no upside to this. More processing and stuff to display the same image twice? why? If you don't like having an extra useless screen use some other device to emulate GBA, like a PSP or a phone

 

[Kwyjor]

I think it would also just be an interesting project. I'm no programmer

... If you're not a programmer, then who are you to say what a programmer would find "interesting"? If you would like to learn how to program, then I would suggest finding an intermediate goal that doesn't involve mucking around on a closed and mostly-dead platform.

Anyway, I think you asked this question on Reddit already.

Virtual console injects (and open_agb_firm) run GBA games "natively" on the 3DS hardware. You might say it uses a special compatibility mode. Making changes to that would be difficult.

mGBA is an actual GBA emulator, which is why it offers lower performance compared to VC injects. Presumably one could make changes to mGBA to display games on boh screens, though it would likely make the performance even worse.

 

[ghjfdtg]

There is no limitation to what open_agb_firm could display on either screen as far as i know but displaying the game twice is just a waste of energy.

 

[MikaDubbz]

There's no upside to this. More processing and stuff to display the same image twice? why? If you don't like having an extra useless screen use some other device to emulate GBA, like a PSP or a phone

There really is no good need for this, but that hasn't stopped similar ideas from becoming a reality in the past:

 

[comical_commie]

My curiosity knows no bounds!

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There's no upside to this. More processing and stuff to display the same image twice? why? If you don't like having an extra useless screen use some other device to emulate GBA, like a PSP or a phone

Not so much a purpose, just curious if it was possible on 3DS. For shits and giggles, if you will.