With the release of vba this emulator is now officially discontinued!

Many many thanks to everyone that helped!


I ported the gameboy advance emulator gdkGBA (originally made by gdkchan) to the nintendo switch! (Works on all versions as far as I know)

To set up I strongly recommend putting the original gba_bios.bin in sd:/switch/gba_bios.bin!
After that put the roms into sd:/switch/roms/ and start the homebrew.

As soon as retroarch gets updated for 5.0 this will instantly become obsolete!

source (you need the sdl2-libraries from the devkit-pro pacman to build this)

Known issues:
Sound is a bit weird (it seems like sometimes the wrong instruments play)
Some games seem to crash the switch after a while. (mostly fixed in v8)
Sometimes the switch likes to crash even in games that normally run pretty stable :/ (fixed in v8 I think)
Some games have graphical glitches/don't work at all
Saving doesn't work on some games. If that happens please don't hesitate to tell me and for now you can set (buggy) savestates using plus+r and load them using plus+l.

Please update to the latest version before reporting Problems!

Game compatibility list

UPDATE:
Sound now much better now! Many thanks to @renhei for the fix!
UPDATE2:
Changed rompath from sd:/switch/roms to sd:/switch/roms/gba in order to avoid confusion with the gbc emulator. Also double joycons now work in unattached mode!
UPDATE3:
Merged gdkchans changes to the ppu. Some games that had problems with artifacts on screen (I tried harvest moon) now look much better! However this is apparently causing trouble in some games so I also attached v2.
UPDATE4:
Added proper in-gaming-saving support! The old buggy savestate-feature is now read-only (so that you can move your progress to the new save-files). I recommend removing the old .savegame-file after making sure the new, better in-game-saving works correctly in order to make sure that you don't accidentally load it
Many thanks to @gdkchan for fixing some underlying issues with the in-game-saves of this emulator!
Also I added support for the original gba_bios.bin:
If you want to use it (which I strongly recommend since the open-source-one that's bundled is causing trouble with some games) put it into sd:/switch/gba_bios.bin
UPDATE5:
In game saving should now actually work in most games! Many thanks to @gdkchan for explaining to me how the gba handles saves!
UPDATE6:
Recompiled everything with latest libnx. Hopefully fewer crashes now.
UPDATE7:
Savestate feature is back. Please only use if the savegames fail as it is known to sometimes cause issues!
UPDATE8:
Updated libnx (again) and made a few small fixes. If you're experiencing fewer/more crashes please don't hesitate to tell me
UPDATE8.5 (Experimental only):
Pushed the new graphics-fixes from @gdkchan. Please only use them if you're experiencing graphical glitches since they introduce a large slowdown in some games.
UPDATE8.6 (Experimental only):
Pushed @gdkchans new fixes+optimisations. The experimental version should now run a bit faster!
UPDATE9:
Saving should now be more reliable again (makes the save-feature work as it did in v7 again).

 

[Deleted User]

Where do I put my save games?

 

[jakibaki]

UPDATE5:
In game saving should now actually work in most (all?) games! Many thanks to @gdkchan for explaining to me how the gba handles saves!

 

[Deletedmember448668]

UPDATE5:
In game saving should now actually work in most (all?) games! Many thanks to @gdkchan for explaining to me how the gba handles saves!

Is there a revision past v4? That's what in using to try saves, and saves are not working

 

[jakibaki]

Is there a revision past v4? That's what in using to try saves, and saves are not working

Yeah, the post you quoted was the announcement of v5

 

[Deletedmember448668]

Yeah, the post you quoted was the announcement of v5

Wierd i only saw v4 when i checked i just refreshed and see the v5 now lol TY!

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

Yeah, the post you quoted was the announcement of v5

Okay testing v5 now, unfortunately saves are still not working, just tested 3 games :/

 

[JJTapia19]

UPDATE5:
In game saving should now actually work in most (all?) games! Many thanks to @gdkchan for explaining to me how the gba handles saves!

that was fast! Zelda Minish Cap and Wario Land 4 are saving fine now. Thanks!

 

[jakibaki]

Wierd i only saw v4 when i checked i just refreshed and see the v5 now lol TY!

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



Okay testing v5 now, unfortunately saves are still not working, just tested 3 games :/

Which games were you testing?

 

[Deletedmember448668]

Which games were you testing?

Golden sun, ff tactics, mario and luigi, ff6, just now.

 

[SkyAeolus]

So I've gotten this far, It will load up and let me select my ROMs, but when I do just a black screen. I can go back to the home menu no sweat. Sometimes it'll crash on launch too.
I'm trying to run a Virtual Console patch of some gba games which might be the point in case.
I have everything sorted sd:/switch/roms/gba/specific folder for game/game I like organization, but if that's not it I'd like to make sure I put the app on the sd card the right way too.
Right now it's on the root of the SD card, not sure if that's correct or not.

Need some help though, All I want is to enjoy some childhood games.

 

[Twistedziefer]

Cool thanks for the update and the experimental update should fix the link to the past game last one I tried the game lagged pretty bad but I'll lyk as soon as I test it

 

[Messiah4000]

Tried to run The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past got saves working but when you can finally play the screens are like this :

you can save and load and then everything is alright till the next screen

 

[JJTapia19]

So I've gotten this far, It will load up and let me select my ROMs, but when I do just a black screen. I can go back to the home menu no sweat. Sometimes it'll crash on launch too.
I'm trying to run a Virtual Console patch of some gba games which might be the point in case.
I have everything sorted sd:/switch/roms/gba/specific folder for game/game I like organization, but if that's not it I'd like to make sure I put the app on the sd card the right way too.
Right now it's on the root of the SD card, not sure if that's correct or not.

Need some help though, All I want is to enjoy some childhood games.

The game directory is sd:/switch/roms/gba/gamename.gba not sd:/switch/roms/gba/specific folder for game/game. Try that.

 

[Twistedziefer]

Tried to run The Legend of Zelda : A Link to the Past got saves working but when you can finally play the screens are like this :

View attachment 124029

you can save and load and then everything is alright till the next screen

You have to use the experimental patch version for it to work

 

[Messiah4000]

You have to use the experimental patch version for it to work

Ok, it wasn't there a few minutes ago.
I just tried to run it three times and it kept on crashing a few seconds after starting the intro. Testing other games.

 

[SkyAeolus]

The game directory is sd:/switch/roms/gba/gamename.gba not sd:/switch/roms/gba/specific folder for game/game. Try that.

That "Fixed" it. They'll load, just run very poorly at maybe 5 frames with very slow speed and a serious sound issue. (I'm using the 5th update as well)
Rip Battle Network games for now.

 

[MERCENARY_TAO__]

Thank you so much for developing this little thing to suck up even more of my time!

Sadly every game I have tried (pokemon FR and E, minish cap and super mario) all crash within 5 minutes of starting the program

Also I threw the "original bios" into the switch folder and now all I get is a black screen after selecting a rom. I got the bios on the loveroms website, is that not the correct one? Could someone provide me a link of the "correct" bin file?

I literally created this account today after a month of stalking the forums, if I have broken the TOS I apologize.

 

[Messiah4000]

Ok, it wasn't there a few minutes ago.
I just tried to run it three times and it kept on crashing a few seconds after starting the intro. Testing other games.

So no graphics issues except some freeze and crashes a few seconds after you get to control your character on multiple games.
I will try to run with original bios.

EDIT: still crashing with original bios
EDIT2: tested with A Link to the Past (crashed before having any control on the character), Pokemon Emerald and Mother 3

 

[andypin2002]

Got error "Failed to open dir" my roms are located at sd:/switch/roms and I've got the gba_bios.bin in sd:/switch/

 

[Twistedziefer]

Got error "Failed to open dir" my roms are located at sd:/switch/roms and I've got the gba_bios.bin in sd:/switch/

You have to create a folder named gba in the roms folder soo switch/roms/gba/roms here

 

[Deletedmember448668]

Got error "Failed to open dir" my roms are located at sd:/switch/roms and I've got the gba_bios.bin in sd:/switch/

UPDATE2:
Changed rompath from sd:/switch/roms to sd:/switch/roms/gba in order to avoid confusion with the gbc emulator. Also double joycons now work in unattached mode!