Emulator (Ja)Goomba Color on the 3DS?

[verypedro]

As many of you must know, because of the 3DS screen resolution, GBC games can't be properly scaled and to compensate for that, they look very blurred when played fullscreen. And in the original resolution the screen area is too small.

So I've been in a journey to find the closest way a pixel-perfect experience for GBC games on the 3DS as possible and what I found was this particular Reddit post from 7 years ago about a guys saying that playing a game through Goomba Color on a GBA Inject was the way to go, basically making an emulatorception of sorts.

And yeah, he was right! Specially when paired with the Linear Interpolation test (fixed 2?) from Sono's amazing TWPatch. This makes the game almost look like its pixel perfect while taking up the whole screen.

Problem is, it doesn't save. I'm guessing this is because the GBA Inject doesn't have access to the SD Card that Goomba Color requires to create save files. This is happening with Jagoomba Color and Lesserkuma modification.

I know this is a long stretch, but is there some workaround that I somehow missed in all of this?

 

[Kwyjor]

I'm guessing this is because the GBA Inject doesn't have access to the SD Card that Goomba Color requires to create save files. This is happening with Jagoomba Color and Lesserkuma modification.

It says right there in your second link that it doesn't use an SD card at all..?

Regardless, save problems with GBA VC injects are very common. See if the problem still happens with open_agb_firm.

 

[SylverReZ]

@Dwedit you seen this yet?
Unrelated: I remember watching your animutations many years ago.

 

[verypedro]

It says right there in your second link that it doesn't use an SD card at all..?

Regardless, save problems with GBA VC injects are very common. See if the problem still happens with open_agb_firm.

Well, after some trial and error I got it working!

Using Lesserkuma's modification and setting the save type to SRAM in NSUI it's now saving progress either by using the in game menu or a save state, all accounted for.

It does still give an error when booting up saying that no Flash ROM was found, but it works. I will keep trying other save types to see if I can get it working flawlessly.

But hey, here is a tip for anyone wondering how to get the best picture out of GBC on the 3DS: just use Goomba Color.

There are downsides, of course. Not all games are compatible and sound emulation is not perfect, but I'm willing to pay the price to avoid the blurry image.

And btw, if anyone's interested this hack to get Crystal working on the regular Goomba Color works with Lesserkuma's modification:
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7030/