Homebrew GBA emulation?

[Bing1093]

So the GBA emulator on my supercard two has bad input lag, so I’m wondering:

1. How easy is it to install CFW on my system? Do I have to do anything special so it doesn’t get nerfed by Nintendo?

2. Is the GBA emulation good quality/accurate and what is the best method?

 

[Rahkeesh]

https://3ds.hacks.guide/ for the step-by-step process. There are many steps but the guide tells you exactly what to do. I think you can use your supercard for NTRBoot method, then you just need a magnet to force sleep mode and you will be good to go.

Once you get CFW on the system, virtual console injection is nearly perfect for GBA, because one of the processors directly runs the GBA code rather than emulating it. Compatabiliy is like over 95% including fullspeed. However you miss out on save states and cheats, and the system has to reboot/restrict itself like playing a DS cart. The most annoying part is needing to individually add and config each rom you want to install, but the Super Injector isn't too hard to use.

The best emulator choice is probably mGBA, giving you save states, cheats, and slightly better scaling options. Roughly half the games can run fullspeed on a new 3DS (albeit usually not the more popular titles), for the others you either can use frameskip or shut off the audio to be playable, but I usually consider injection the better experience in that case.

 

[Steel-Winged_Pegasus]

I've never used a GBA emulator on my 3DS before, but I do have a few GBA VC injections and I definitely agree with the injections being a very good choice. Fire Emblem runs fine, a few Pokémon ROM hacks (Light Platinum and Theta Emerald EX) run well, too. Haven't tested a vanilla Pokémon game, though, but if ROM hacks work, then games like Ruby and Sapphire and Emerald should work. Even Super Mario Advance 4 works fine after messing around a bit to get it working, though it does have a "Save Data is corrupted" nag screen whenever I boot it up. Save file is totally fine in reality, though.

If you're willing to put in a bit of extra work to make GBA injections, those will do just fine if you don't care for save states or cheats. If I heard correctly on the forums, some users have said that the 3DS has actual GBA hardware, apparently, so it should be very accurate.

As for CFW, there is the Seedminer method, which I used, but I have no experience with a flashcart, so you could check to see if your SuperCard Two is on the list for the NTRBoot method in the 3DS guide.

 

[piratesephiroth]

The only drawback of GBA VC is that it doesn't have savestates (or multiplayer). Other than that it's as good as any GBA emulator.

 

[chirogan]

1. How easy is it to install CFW on my system? Do I have to do anything special so it doesn’t get nerfed by Nintendo?

Easy. Follow every word in https://3ds.hacks.guide/ . It will also give you preventive measures to lessen the risk of being banned.

2. Is the GBA emulation good quality/accurate and what is the best method?

Some games arent compatible or causes audio stutters. But almost every game i throw at mGBA works 100%.

 

[Kigiru]

Last time i checked savestates can be enforced for some games (like Pokemon) via some patches and fidgeting with options in VC Injector. I'm not sure how much it is reliable, but it's a thing.

 

[piratesephiroth]

Last time i checked savestates can be enforced for some games (like Pokemon) via some patches and fidgeting with options in VC Injector. I'm not sure how much it is reliable, but it's a thing.

What? for GBA?

 

[Kigiru]

What? for GBA?

Yup, VC GBA games. Tho i'm not sure how reliable it is, i have my Gen III Pokemon games and i can save normaly so...

 

[piratesephiroth]

Yup, VC GBA games. Tho i'm not sure how reliable it is, i have my Gen III Pokemon games and i can save normaly so...

where did you see that? I haven't ever heard of anything like that.
You're mentioning Pokemon so aren't you mistaking it for 128KB Flash saves and RTC?

 

[Rahkeesh]

There's some custom edits for Pokemon GB/C VCs, never heard of it for GBA.

 

[Bing1093]

Well guys it’s looking like since my 3DS is up to date, the only method to install CFW is to already have a system with CFW installed and I don’t know anyone else here that does. Guess I’m out of luck

 

[Priestiality]

Well guys it’s looking like since my 3DS is up to date, the only method to install CFW is to already have a system with CFW installed and I don’t know anyone else here that does. Guess I’m out of luck

You are not. You can spend $2 to buy a DSi game and do it that way OR buy a R4i Gold 3DS Plus (can't post links but there's sponsor links all over the forum) for $20, use NTRBoot mode to flash CFW, then flip the switch back to DS and use it to play DS backups and romhacks. I personally prefer the R4i, and used that method myself on an up-to-date 3ds just a month or two ago. The NTRBoot option is great because you can recover from nearly any brick besides the incredibly rare "black screens but sound still works" brick, of which there's been less than 10 cases, and with the flip of a switch you can be playing just about any DS game. Every game I've thrown at mine has played flawlessly, including the various Pokemon games and Chrono Trigger. Spend the $20 now to enable yourself to save money in the future and have access to DS backups that run infinitely better than TWLoader.

 

[Bing1093]

You are not. You can spend $2 to buy a DSi game and do it that way OR buy a R4i Gold 3DS Plus (can't post links but there's sponsor links all over the forum) for $20, use NTRBoot mode to flash CFW, then flip the switch back to DS and use it to play DS backups and romhacks. I personally prefer the R4i, and used that method myself on an up-to-date 3ds just a month or two ago. The NTRBoot option is great because you can recover from nearly any brick besides the incredibly rare "black screens but sound still works" brick, of which there's been less than 10 cases, and with the flip of a switch you can be playing just about any DS game. Every game I've thrown at mine has played flawlessly, including the various Pokemon games and Chrono Trigger. Spend the $20 now to enable yourself to save money in the future and have access to DS backups that run infinitely better than TWLoader.

Will that let me emulate GBA and GB/GBC?

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You are not. You can spend $2 to buy a DSi game and do it that way OR buy a R4i Gold 3DS Plus (can't post links but there's sponsor links all over the forum) for $20, use NTRBoot mode to flash CFW, then flip the switch back to DS and use it to play DS backups and romhacks. I personally prefer the R4i, and used that method myself on an up-to-date 3ds just a month or two ago. The NTRBoot option is great because you can recover from nearly any brick besides the incredibly rare "black screens but sound still works" brick, of which there's been less than 10 cases, and with the flip of a switch you can be playing just about any DS game. Every game I've thrown at mine has played flawlessly, including the various Pokemon games and Chrono Trigger. Spend the $20 now to enable yourself to save money in the future and have access to DS backups that run infinitely better than TWLoader.

So it’s just a flash cart that installs CFW for me?

 

[lordkaos]

Will that let me emulate GBA and GB/GBC?

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So it’s just a flash cart that installs CFW for me?

it will only enable you to install a cfw on your updated 3ds, to install the cfw just follow the ntrboot method described in the next guide:
https://3ds.hacks.guide/

these are the carts that are compatible:
https://3ds.hacks.guide/ntrboot

 

[Deleted User]

Will that let me emulate GBA and GB/GBC?

With CFW installed you can install mGBA to your system. mGBA is a decent GBA Emulator with Game Boy/Color support.
We have a wiki for compatibillity. https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/MGBA

 

[Bing1093]

Will that let me emulate GBA and GB/GBC?

With CFW installed you can install mGBA to your system. mGBA is a decent GBA Emulator with Game Boy/Color support.
We have a wiki for compatibillity. https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/MGBA

Alternatively I can inject the ROMs for full compatibility?

 

[lordkaos]

Alternatively I can inject the ROMs for full compatibility?

Yes, 99.9% of the gba games work without any issues now except for special cartridges like boktai and warioware.

 

[Deleted User]

There is an solar sensor patch online for the boktai series.

mGBA supports the built in gyro sensor for Yoshi´s Gravitation and Wario Ware Twisted.

There are also d-pad patches online for both games. Google will help you find them.

 

[Bing1093]

Yes, 99.9% of the gba games work without any issues now except for special cartridges like boktai and warioware.

Is injecting ROMs easy? I have a lot of GBA games I’d like to have on the system at once. Do they still have the color and motion blur issues that GBA VC games have?

 

[lordkaos]

Is injecting ROMs easy? I have a lot of GBA games I’d like to have on the system at once. Do they still have the color and motion blur issues that GBA VC games have?

it takes some effort if you want the presentation of your injects to look official, if you don't care about that it is easy, just use the latest beta for New Super Ultimate Injector, you can use that program to make vc injects of all systems supported by the 3ds. while making your injects you can remove the ghosting and the dark filter.