Emulator mGBA or VC for GBA games?

[gentoo]

I've been wondering which to use.
mGBA pros:

• Game can be speeded up a little bit
• Better filtering (VC looks blurry in comparison)
• Savestates
• Basic configuration (can make the screen darker for example)
• Can use the home button (for example, can change screen brightness without quitting the game)
• Console goes to sleep mode when you close it

VC pros:

• ???

Is there something that I am missing? Why do so many people use the injector?

 

[emcintosh]

I've been wondering which to use.
mGBA pros:

• Game can be speeded up a little bit
• Better filtering (VC looks blurry in comparison)
• Savestates
• Basic configuration (can make the screen darker for example)
• Can use the home button (for example, can change screen brightness without quitting the game)
• Console goes to sleep mode when you close it

VC pros:

• ???

Is there something that I am missing? Why do so many people use the injector?

mGBA cannot run all games at full speed. For instance I tried running 3D car game Smashing Drive and suffered severe slowdown. IIRC it features music with lyrics so the slowdown is very obvious.

But, as you say, it has many features that make it better than VC injection, so it’s what I use for all my GBA games on 3DS.

 

[CoolMe]

I would say try a game with mGBA, if it runs well keep using it, if it's slow/unsatisfactory or just borderline unplayable then switch to the Injects.

 

[duwen]

Open AGB Firm is another alternative

 

[Shadow#1]

Open AGB Firm is the best solution

 

[Clydefrosch]

on a n3ds?
i would never not use gpsp since it's crashing issues have been fixed.

and i have never not gotten grating sound issues on mgba.

 

[Doux91]

Compatibility, you just can emulate gba with a new 3ds, 3ds/2ds/3ds xl cannot emulate gba, thats why almost everyone prefer to install games like VC, mgba will not work with every game and maybe you will lose speed sometimes, like VC games are not emulation, they run like the console, mgba for 3ds needs a lot of work because is a poor version of the emulator, wii mgba is better

 

[The Catboy]

Open AGB Firm is another alternative

Open AGB Firm is the best solution

Came in here to suggest the same thing. Definitely the best solution these days

 

[DominoBright]

mGBA on 3DS is best used as a GB(C) emulator since, as others have mentioned, a GBA game will more often than not run slowly on it. RetroArch's gpSP apparently has a lot less crashes than it used to, but I've seen reports that they can still happen, so be careful if you go with it.

The 3DS hardware is capable of playing GBA games near/perfectly with no emulation required, and the Ambassador GBA titles and NSUI injections allow that hardware to be used. It works whether the 3DS is an original model or a new one. You can also hold Select or Start while booting a GBA game to use pixel-perfect mode, which brings the game display to the GBA's native 240x160 instead of stretched to 1.5x.

And then there's AGB. From what I understand, it lets you choose a game on your SD card instead of cluttering your list of installed CIA files, it uses the same native hardware as injections, and saves are more easily accessible. However, you have to turn off the 3DS when you're done with a game and want to play something else, even if it's another GBA game. It also doesn't play nicely with some games that use EEPROM for saving, and said EEPROM saves have problems coming from emulators, though there's a program that fixes those saves. It also uses a database to determine which game uses what save type, and ROM hacks mess with that.

I go with injections for the sake of speed, stability,and keeping the 3DS turned on while changing games.

 

[gentoo]

Thanks for your input guys.

I haven't described any differences in sound since I mostly play with sound muted.

I haven't noticed any slowdowns using mGBA. I have a New 3DS XL and I have only played Pokémon for a few minutes, which would explain why I haven't encountered any problems, at least by now. It's possible that I haven't noticed slowdowns because I have only played for a few minutes, since I am not sure of what system to use and I don't know if the savegames can be shared between mGBA, VC, and Open AGB Firm.

I have tried Open AGB Firm and I don't see any differences between that and VC. Don't they work the same under the hood? What makes Open AGB Firm better than VC? To me it seems even less convenient than VC, since you have to reboot to load a game, so there probably is something that I am not seeing.

 

[ber71]

Open agb firm is the way to go if you have many GBA games, as you can load what you want on the fly. Injections are a pain for more than five or six games.

 

[duwen]

I have tried Open AGB Firm and I don't see any differences between that and VC. Don't they work the same under the hood? What makes Open AGB Firm better than VC? To me it seems even less convenient than VC, since you have to reboot to load a game, so there probably is something that I am not seeing.

There's also TwiLight++, which basically uses the agb-firm for launching but is kind of a 'best-of-both-worlds' situation in terms of not cluttering up your title limit with vc's while being as accessible as an emu. Not to mention all the other systems it can run/emulate.

 

[BitMasterPlus]

I used to use VC, then switched to mGBA for cheat use, but now I gotta look into this open agb firm.

 

[Shadow#1]

I used to use VC, then switched to mGBA for cheat use, but now I gotta look into this open agb firm.

It's easy it's a .firm u load it like any payload

 

[gentoo]

There's also TwiLight++, which basically uses the agb-firm for launching but is kind of a 'best-of-both-worlds' situation in terms of not cluttering up your title limit with vc's while being as accessible as an emu. Not to mention all the other systems it can run/emulate.

Whoa, I did not know I could run DS games without one of those R4 cards! Thanks!!!

 

[placebo_yue]

Open agb firm is the way to go if you have many GBA games, as you can load what you want on the fly. Injections are a pain for more than five or six games.

if that's your concern, you might also wanna consider GBArunner2. You can switch games without having to turn the console off, you have a few settings to change (like top/bottom screen being used, controls and such). It has slightly less compatibility than Open_agb_firm but it's my favourite way to play GBA, as i find myself changing games very often and that's cumbersome on openagbfirm

 

[enderer]

i mostly use twilightmenu's gba emulator. it runs my e-reader games that i can't live without like mario-party-e and air hockey-e, and runs on n3ds, 3ds, and even dsi.

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

mGBA on 3DS is best used as a GB(C) emulator since, as others have mentioned, a GBA game will more often than not run slowly on it. RetroArch's gpSP apparently has a lot less crashes than it used to, but I've seen reports that they can still happen, so be careful if you go with it.

The 3DS hardware is capable of playing GBA games near/perfectly with no emulation required, and the Ambassador GBA titles and NSUI injections allow that hardware to be used. It works whether the 3DS is an original model or a new one. You can also hold Select or Start while booting a GBA game to use pixel-perfect mode, which brings the game display to the GBA's native 240x160 instead of stretched to 1.5x.

And then there's AGB. From what I understand, it lets you choose a game on your SD card instead of cluttering your list of installed CIA files, it uses the same native hardware as injections, and saves are more easily accessible. However, you have to turn off the 3DS when you're done with a game and want to play something else, even if it's another GBA game. It also doesn't play nicely with some games that use EEPROM for saving, and said EEPROM saves have problems coming from emulators, though there's a program that fixes those saves. It also uses a database to determine which game uses what save type, and ROM hacks mess with that.

I go with injections for the sake of speed, stability,and keeping the 3DS turned on while changing games.

Its stupid that you have to hold the start button to get it pixel perfect, why not have a setting for that like the snes vc on 3ds?

 

[E1ite007]

Its stupid that you have to hold the start button to get it pixel perfect, why not have a setting for that like the snes vc on 3ds?

This isn't VC, this is the 3DS running native-ish Gameboy Advance games. Instead of emulation, the 3DS uses the built-in GBA hardware found in the DS hardware (the same the DS originally had) to play games, but instead of a cartridge slot, the console loads the GBA binaries (ROMs if you will) from memory.

 

[Doux91]

Its stupid that you have to hold the start button to get it pixel perfect, why not have a setting for that like the snes vc on 3ds?

It does not have that option because is not emulation, snes is emulation on VC, maybe with mgba you could have all options, filters, etc, but now it does not have almost anything