Hacking I have a 3DS XL is it worth getting this if you want all Emulation?

[LegendAssassinF]

How well is the GBA Emulation for me it doesn't have to be perfect but still works just like GBA on Windows. Thanks for responding.

 

[Foxi4]

It's gradually going to get better and better now that the DSTwo GBA Emulator's source is out for the grabs but don't expect mirracles. From what I've heard it's "acceptable" but there are "better" machines you could emulate the GBA on.

 

[LegendAssassinF]

Well I just would like to have something on one thing I have a PSP but it is 1000 so it is bulk and not very pleasing to see when people see it. I recently just got a XL and wanted to upgrade my card to something better because R4s don't work on the newest firmware.

Thanks for the quick answer!

 

[Foxi4]

Well I just would like to have something on one thing I have a PSP but it is 1000 so it is bulk and not very pleasing to see when people see it. I recently just got a XL and wanted to upgrade my card to something better because R4s don't work on the newest firmware.

Thanks for the quick answer!

If you expect PSP-like GBA emulation then you'll be disappointed, really - it's nothing of the sort. The DS or the DS Lite would give you some awesome native compatibility - then all you'd need would be a SLOT-2 Flashcart.

If you want something less bulky than a PSP, consider the PSP Go or one of'em "Homebrew" handhelds... or even a smartphone, really - you probably already have one and it'll emulate the GBA far better than the DSTwo ever will.

...but as a low-cost solution that allows you to have everything on one device, yeah, it works.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

You can continue having the standard NDS-homebrew emulators you used on your R4, of course... nesDS, SNemulDS*, GameYob or Lameboy, etc. And then you can have the MAME arcade emulator, and CATSFC & TempGBA, for the DSTwo. Some systems are going to be easier for the DS to emulate, like the NES and Game Boy, but the SNES and GBA ones for the DSTwo's internal processor can lag greatly depending on the game. The GBA emulator may also not run certain games, here's the compatibility list: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/DSTWO_GBA_Emulator_Compatibility

There is no denying the fact that some mobile phones could emulate things better and run software like VisualBoyAdvance, but sometimes you want to play with a console that has buttons at the right places, and so a DS is warranted.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* SNemulDS sucks compared to CATSFC.

 

[Rydian]

You can continue having the standard NDS-homebrew emulators you used on your R4, of course... nesDS, SNemulDS*, GameYob or Lameboy, etc. And then you can have the MAME arcade emulator, and CATSFC & TempGBA, for the DSTwo. Some systems are going to be easier for the DS to emulate, like the NES and Game Boy, but the SNES and GBA ones for the DSTwo's internal processor can lag greatly depending on the game. The GBA emulator may also not run certain games, here's the compatibility list: http://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/DSTWO_GBA_Emulator_Compatibility

There is no denying the fact that some mobile phones could emulate things better and run software like VisualBoyAdvance, but sometimes you want to play with a console that has buttons at the right places, and so a DS is warranted.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* SNemulDS sucks compared to CATSFC.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I still pick up my PSP over the DS for SNES/GBA because it's still a lot faster. >>;

 

[Arm73]

Sorry, GBA/Snes emulators are really bad on the DS ( which is what you will be using for homebrew even on the 3DS ) and barely acceptable on the PSP.
Believe it or not, I'm still playing GBA games every day, because I have a relatively short trip to work and I found DS/3DS/PSP games too complex for short gaming sessions.
So I stick with my GBA SP2 and a M3 perfect Mini SD. Perfect compatibility , RTS and absolutely zero slowdowns or frame skipping.
That's the only way to go for me.

I'd really recommend you to try to get a real GBA, it's small, it's sleek, batteries almost never run out and plays 100% GBA games you know
Besides, what kind og GBA Temper would you be without a GBA ?

 

[PROTOBOY]

Sorry, GBA/Snes emulators are really bad on the DS ( which is what you will be using for homebrew even on the 3DS ) and barely acceptable on the PSP.
Believe it or not, I'm still playing GBA games every day, because I have a relatively short trip to work and I found DS/3DS/PSP games too complex for short gaming sessions.
So I stick with my GBA SP2 and a M3 perfect Mini SD. Perfect compatibility , RTS and absolutely zero slowdowns or frame skipping.
That's the only way to go for me.

I'd really recommend you to try to get a real GBA, it's small, it's sleek, batteries almost never run out and plays 100% GBA games you know
Besides, what kind og GBA Temper would you be without a GBA ?

Really m3 perfect mini sd plays gba games on gba with no slowdowns??

I had supercard minisd but was not a good experience.

 

[FearItSelf23]

Because the flashcards only run in DS mode not 3DS mode they are unable to get access to the more powerful bits of hardware. When you emulate GBA with a DStwo on a 3DS you have to understand that you are actually only emulating it on DS hardware not 3DS hardware. Now a regular DS played GBA games fine because it could run the games on GBA hardware but emulation is a completely different beast. If a new card or fw hack comes out that allows you to access 3DS hardware then a GBA emulator would be much more compatible.

 

[Arm73]

Really m3 perfect mini sd plays gba games on gba with no slowdowns??

I had supercard minisd but was not a good experience.

Yes.
I have both. Supercard SD and M3 Perfect mini SD, and I can confirm that on the latter, everything runs smooth and 1:1 just like on a real cartridge, while the SC has notoriously slowdowns in many games.
If you never played those games on better hardware you might even not notice it, but it's there.

It has to do with the type of memory they used if I remember well (the cheap one in the SC of course ), also M3s have battery in them and can hold save files, while SC a combination of button presses is needed in order to save.

 

[PROTOBOY]

Yes.
I have both. Supercard SD and M3 Perfect mini SD, and I can confirm that on the latter, everything runs smooth and 1:1 just like on a real cartridge, while the SC has notoriously slowdowns in many games.
If you never played those games on better hardware you might even not notice it, but it's there.

It has to do with the type of memory they used if I remember well (the cheap one in the SC of course ), also M3s have battery in them and can hold save files, while SC a combination of button presses is needed in order to save.

Thats great I have a DSi XL, by the way I still have a gba, do you know if is possible and where I can buy M3 Perfect mini SD??
I have an Acekard 2i, do you know if supercard dstwo is really better of Acekard 2i??

All games work great, but I have problems only to memory of some emulators and to DPG videos with a good quality.

 

[Arm73]

Thats great I have a DSi XL, by the way I still have a gba, do you know if is possible and where I can buy M3 Perfect mini SD??
I have an Acekard 2i, do you know if supercard dstwo is really better of Acekard 2i??

All games work great, but I have problems only to memory of some emulators and to DPG videos with a good quality.

I don't know where you can get one.
I remember I had to do quite a lot of research and get a used one from one of our fellow tempers here, because I wanted to update from my M3 perfect SD ( which sticks out a little bit from the GBA , other then that is just the same ).
I also have a DSiXL and my AK2i works just fine with EVERY game.
Around here a lot of people will suggest you to get a DSTWO but I say if you don't plan to update your DSi or use it with a 3DS, you really don't have one.
I also couldn't care any less about emulators on the DSTWO because even though they are better then regular DS mode emulators they are still far from perfect.
If you have a GBA there is no better way to play GBA games on the real hardware with a good flashcart.

 

[PROTOBOY]

I don't know where you can get one.
I remember I had to do quite a lot of research and get a used one from one of our fellow tempers here, because I wanted to update from my M3 perfect SD ( which sticks out a little bit from the GBA , other then that is just the same ).
I also have a DSiXL and my AK2i works just fine with EVERY game.
Around here a lot of people will suggest you to get a DSTWO but I say if you don't plan to update your DSi or use it with a 3DS, you really don't have one.
I also couldn't care any less about emulators on the DSTWO because even though they are better then regular DS mode emulators they are still far from perfect.
If you have a GBA there is no better way to play GBA games on the real hardware with a good flashcart.

I dont know when I will buy a 3DS XL, because the colors are not so good, I will wait they release new colors models.
I am also very happy with my Acekard 2i , I am asking because I dont know if is better to run moonshell on dstwo or not, I mean due the extra processor of dstwo.

 

[Aeter]

How well is the GBA Emulation for me it doesn't have to be perfect but still works just like GBA on Windows. Thanks for responding.

A DSTwo is well worth the money either way, considering all the extras that come with it.
For me GBA emulation seems to be working pretty good, but I don't really have anything to compare it with, but it does the job well enough for me and with Nebuleon working on it I think it will only get better.

 

[LegendAssassinF]

Thanks I ordered it so it will be coming in soon. I brought it mainly to play Mother 3 on the go.

 

[Rydian]

TempGBA Beta 12 runs Mother 3 fine at frameskip 1, I was able to get an 8-hit timed musical combo even.

 

[Arm73]

TempGBA Beta 12 runs Mother 3 fine at frameskip 1, I was able to get an 8-hit timed musical combo even.

How could anyone settle and be happy to play a 2D game with frame skipping escapes my mind.
It's just plain awful!
There are ways to play GBA games natively on DSL or a real GBA you know.....
With all due respect to the people involved,even if you tape two DSTWO together you'll never get close to the real thing.
Even on my previous PC ( crappy by today's standard, but still a hell lot more powerful then a DS + DSTWO ) Visual Boy Advance struggled to keep a smooth framerate with some more demanding games .
SO I can't see this ever getting to a level of polish required for enjoyment without being distracted by graphical glitches, poor framerate or slow downs.

 

[Rydian]

How could anyone settle and be happy to play a 2D game with frame skipping escapes my mind.
It's just plain awful!

A common complaint in the Mother community is that some forms of emulating or playing the game other than the native cart (including flash carts) throw off the timing in Mother 3. The timing for the extra hits in battle is already touchy, so any sort of jitter in the game's execution speed can kill your chances for extra hits.

However with running it at frameskip 1 means the game itself still runs fullspeed, which means the timing is unaffected (which is why it's notable over the earlier emulators).

There are ways to play GBA games natively on DSL or a real GBA you know.....

And even then, games may or may not run fullspeed depending on which flash cart you're using for Slot-2. IIRC one of the M3 series was notorious for gameplay slowdowns, with Mother 3 players complaining they couldn't get timed hits worth a damn on it.

With all due respect to the people involved,even if you tape two DSTWO together you'll never get close to the real thing.

There's a number of GBA games that run fullspeed now. That is, 60FPS emulated, 60FPS displayed.

Even on my previous PC ( crappy by today's standard, but still a hell lot more powerful then a DS + DSTWO ) Visual Boy Advance struggled to keep a smooth framerate with some more demanding games .

Unless you mean -really- old, then you likely don't have the right settings. I was emulating GBA games at fullspeed (full according to the GBA hardware, of course, some GBA games have native slowdown that proper emulators will emulate) on my Windows XP Athlon 64 X2 machine for a while. I distinctly remember messing with some of the video settings to get it to do that for Metroid Fusion as well, since IIRC the default throttle and rendering wasn't set right in the version I was using and it was quite noticeable in that game.

SO I can't see this ever getting to a level of polish required for enjoyment without being distracted by graphical glitches, poor framerate or slow downs.

I never thought it would run GBA games at fullspeed with no frameskip.

But then the source got released, Nebuleon started working on it, made so many speed improvements that it got front-paged at least twice, and here we are.

 

[Arm73]

Yeah, my previous machine was on XP and I also had to fiddle around with graphic settings ( OpenGL,DirectX, filters and so on ) to get smooth 60fps.
The point is, that even on a PC,perfection ( such as on the real hardware) , was difficult to achieve.

I actually had better luck back in the day with GC + Gameboy player + M3 perfect playing on the telly, only downside was the atrociously small GC d-pad
But never the less, I finished most GBA games with that set up, since at the time the SP2 wasn't out yet, and my non baklit GBA wasn't exactly state of the art technology display wise.

I never knew about the timing issues with Mother 3, I never got into that, thanks for the heads up.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

How could anyone settle and be happy to play a 2D game with frame skipping escapes my mind.
It's just plain awful!
<snipped ~Neb>

The thing with frameskip is that "frameskip 1" frees up 50% of the CPU tied up by rendering, so that it can emulate the game fast enough. In exchange, you still get fluid movement, because frameskip 1 is 30 FPS. Frameskip 0 would be 60 FPS, and only a few games manage to run all frames and display all frames.

If a certain frameskip value allows you to play the entire game, and never gives you a dip in framerate, then the game is fluid and can be played with perfect timing. Some games, like the Golden Sun games, Mario Tennis, Doom, and Duke Nukem Advance, have music-complexity-dependent or polygon-count-dependent slowdowns that make auto frameskip variable, killing all timing. But games like Mother 3, the Final Fantasies, the Super Mario Advances and the Pokémons are perfect with frameskip 1 or even 0.

See the TempGBA thread for more information. As of this writing, it's a sticky, and it's in my signature.