Homebrew mGBA official standalone Wii port

zerofalcon

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
814
Trophies
1
Location
Somewhere close to my NES
XP
2,918
Country
Some games run faster than vba gx; in example: Sega Arcade Gallery. When running it with VBA GX it has a lot of laggy and choppy audio/video on the select game screen. I already tested with mGBA and there's a big difference, the audio still crackles a bit though in some games (Metroid Zero Mission). It is still a work in progress and hopefully it'll be the best competitor to VBA GX.
 

sindrik

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2009
Messages
297
Trophies
1
XP
310
Country
United States
Well, it's a straight and simple port (no video, control or emu options), but it does run games faster, with very occasional frame skips/audio crackle. SEGA Arcade Gallery, Mega Man Zero, and Metroid run much better.

So far, for now:

- Only GC Controller support.
- No ZIP support.
- Only one game per execution, you can't go back to the emu's menu.
- Navigating through the folders and files can be quite slow, one press of the d-pad at a time.

With a decent gui and emulator options, this could shape up to be the killer app for GBA emulation on the Wii.
 

zerofalcon

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
814
Trophies
1
Location
Somewhere close to my NES
XP
2,918
Country
- Now supports Wiimote + Classic Control + rumble
- Home button acts as a close button or back to select game, no more only one game per execution, still only .gba file support.
- Fixed vertical overscan

This emulator is getting better and RUNS way faster than the others available for Wii.
 

sindrik

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2009
Messages
297
Trophies
1
XP
310
Country
United States
- Now supports Wiimote + Classic Control + rumble
- Home button acts as a close button or back to select game, no more only one game per execution, still only .gba file support.
- Fixed vertical overscan

This emulator is getting better and RUNS way faster than the others available for Wii.
Any idea where to grab the latest compiled binary?
 

zerofalcon

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
814
Trophies
1
Location
Somewhere close to my NES
XP
2,918
Country
AFAIK the latest official compiled binary was "alpha 2" provided on the link in first post.
After searching how to compile latest binary on github (standalone rev) and managed to do it, I'm sure I found where lies the problem with the crackling/skippy sound, I need more testing.. if everything goes fine, even the libretro core will increment speed and stable emulation. :yaysp:

Edit:Unofficial binary file uploaded.
 

Attachments

  • mGBA Wii Port.zip
    281 KB · Views: 396

the_randomizer

The Temp's official fox whisperer
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
31,284
Trophies
2
Age
38
Location
Dr. Wahwee's castle
XP
18,969
Country
United States
Wow, this is fantastic, another GBA emulator that doesn't run like garbage ;) I kid, I kid :D

An additional benefit is that it also plays the Classic NES series games without need for patching. The people behind mGBA figured out the Anti-Piracy techniques the games utilized to prevent them from being copied.

Oh yeah, also impressive, you could get those to run on VBA, but it was a royal PITA to do.
 
Last edited by the_randomizer,

sindrik

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jan 26, 2009
Messages
297
Trophies
1
XP
310
Country
United States
AFAIK the latest official compiled binary was "alpha 2" provided on the link in first post.
After searching how to compile latest binary on github (standalone rev) and managed to do it, I'm sure I found where lies the problem with the crackling/skippy sound, I need more testing.. if everything goes fine, even the libretro core will increment speed and stable emulation. :yaysp:

Edit:Unofficial binary file uploaded.
Thanks! Will test.

Update: It runs incredibly good. Even less audio hiccups than before.
 
Last edited by sindrik,

the_randomizer

The Temp's official fox whisperer
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
31,284
Trophies
2
Age
38
Location
Dr. Wahwee's castle
XP
18,969
Country
United States
My results from testing earlier, suffice to say, I'm actually very impressed by how fast games were ^_^
The only things I wish to point out is the crackling audio, which was mentioned earlier and how it can be easily fixed, I think, but speed-wise
it's been incredibly stable :P

Then the scrolling speed down the menu, it's a tad slow when going up and down the menus.
And the home button opens the menu and closes the app, perhaps a way to resume the game? These are just a couple
of suggestions :P


Mother 3 (English ) - Full speed, even in battle, so timing hits is now possible and the speed doesn't chug down
Golden Sun 2 - Full speed as well in the tower and outside of the tower, didn't get into a battle yet, will test next time
Iridion II - Also full speed, framerate drops a bit during the story/arcade selection, but the level and ship selection, perfect
Final Fantasy V Advance - Also full speed, even in battle, something other GBA Wii emulators can't do
Final Fantasy VI - This game was badly ported (rushed) and suffers more than other ROMs in terms of speed and audio crackling

Will do more games later on, these ones I were worried about the most but I am very impressed so far.
 

ShadowOne333

QVID PRO QVO
Editorial Team
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
12,183
Trophies
2
XP
33,681
Country
Mexico
That I haven't tested yet, but I can do that as well. As for GBA, it's pretty damn impressive, the best I've seen on the Wii.
Please do, I'm mostly interested in testing the Colourized hacks for SML 2 and Metroid 2 DX to see if they show up properly.

Also, you might want to test Golden Sun 2 in battle too, using the Sol Blade's Meggido makes the game incredibly laggy in VBAGX.
 

the_randomizer

The Temp's official fox whisperer
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
31,284
Trophies
2
Age
38
Location
Dr. Wahwee's castle
XP
18,969
Country
United States
Regarding GB and GBC support quoted from the author of mGBA:

"At this time, I have no intention of adding GB/C support, and that would be a far future thing if I do do it."

https://forums.mgba.io/showthread.php?tid=30&pid=106#pid106

Fair enough, as there are plenty of GB/C emulators that run full speed on the Wii, the GBA aspect is what's sorely needed and so far, I am very impressed. I assume though, the crackling audio will be fixed/adjusted in the near future? I mean speed-wise, this app is fantastic :P
 
  • Like
Reactions: Margen67

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo: I'm in my birthday suit! Lol