Emulation Gaming GBA Others Emulator Project Play Classic GBA Games Anywhere, Anytime!

[Oblong9702]

While cleaning the attic, I found some old CDs and DVDs filled with GBA and NDS ROMs. It got me thinking about creating a browser-based emulator to put my website to use. The idea is to play these games in the browser, save the data on your own PC, and continue playing on other devices. Initially, I was concerned about providing ROMs from my server, but after some research, I decided to go ahead with it in a way that respects game preservation without directly distributing ROMs.

I was surprised to realize that GBA games are over 18 years old. To preserve some nostalgic gaming history, I've set it up so you have to do a bit of work to access the original files (if you really want them). No direct downloads of any games are provided. Interestingly, GBA games are no larger than 32 MB. Including the game's cover art (front, back, and side), I managed to compress everything down to between 2 and 4 MB. When you pick a game, the client decompresses the data to make it playable.

The emulator is built on a heavily modified MIT-licensed JS library. It was developed with Firefox in mind, though I’ve heard Chrome offers better performance on phones. However, I’ve encountered issues with some other mobile browsers. If the screen is too small, the button layout and screen adapt to resemble the Game Boy Color.

With over 600 titles available, there are plenty of options to explore. You can export your saves in website format or the popular .sav format to continue playing on other emulators. If you have an account, you can also export your saves to the server or import them from there. I also added controller support.

I have additional plans for this emulator, although I’m not entirely satisfied with its performance on my phone. This leaves me torn between adding new features or diving into WebAssembly for better performance. I’ve experimented with WebAssembly a bit, even creating a semi-working CHIP-8 emulator, so we’ll see how that goes. For now, enjoy the nostalgia!

And let me know what you think!

https://gg.my-dev.app/games/gba

Edit: To moderators, Please remove the whole post instead of the link. I haven't done anything wrong and your actions are based on assumptions.

 

[BETA215]

I don't know how this plays with GBATemp rules, but I would be prepared for a C&D from Nintendo at any given time anyway.
I find it pretty cool, but sometimes things are too cool for corporations...

Also, the Omegle feature can be dangerous. If you aren't going to be supervising it, it could get real bad.

Even though my messages sound negative, I'm just trying to give a word of caution. Things can go south, and you have to be completely sure of what you're doing <3

 

[Oblong9702]

First and foremost, thank you for your kind words! I appreciate that! I do want to address some things

I don't know how this plays with GBATemp rules, but I would be prepared for a C&D from Nintendo at any given time anyway.
I find it pretty cool, but sometimes things are too cool for corporations...

Unfortunately, we have seen many good projects and developers fall because of Nintendo, like what happened with Citrix. I totally understand that this is a gray area, and of course, GBATemp has every right to remove my post.

Most games I'm hosting are not for sale anymore anyway, which is why I consider it a matter of game preservation. Compared to Citrix, which allows you to emulate Switch games, I do think there's a big difference. I bet most studios (some of which might not even exist anymore) are happy that we can still play their GBA games. Besides, since no ROMs are actually downloaded, I am willing to take that risk.

Also, the Omegle feature can be dangerous. If you aren't going to be supervising it, it could get real bad.

I love that you found out about the Omegle section. I don't store any data, messages, history, or anything like that. It's funny because I accounted for a report system, but since my traffic is kind of low, I released that part of the website in an alpha stage. The idea was to let people report themselves. After a certain number of reports, users are banned and their IP is stored to keep them away from the website. Yes, VPNs can bypass this, but at least it's something.

I totally get your concerns though; I'm not sure what I will do with omegle just yet.

Even though my messages sound negative, I'm just trying to give a word of caution. Things can go south, and you have to be completely sure of what you're doing <3

I appreciate your concerns, honesty, and being straight to the point. All of those concerns are more than valid. I share some of them for sure.

 

[SylverReZ]

Besides, since no ROMs are actually downloaded, I am willing to take that risk.

Have you ever heard of Inspect Element? If you launch a ROM and sniff the network traffic, you can clearly download them.
GBAtemp has every right to delete this thread, as this is clearly against the rules.

 

[Oblong9702]

Have you ever heard of Inspect Element? If you launch a ROM and sniff the network traffic, you can clearly download them.
GBAtemp has every right to delete this thread, as this is clearly against the rules.

Go for it Unless you put in significant effort, you won't be able to download the ROM. If you do manage to figure it out, please share the steps you took. I'm willing to lock it down even further.

 

[Flame]

This is sharing roms. Yes. But I think another solution is required. imo.

Maybe share the code. Then people can put they own "backed up games." they can put it on they own server/website or what ever. Please don't include roms. As the popo will be after us.

 

[Oblong9702]

This is sharing roms. Yes. But I think another solution is required. imo.

If you can extract the data and boot it up in any emulator, let me know. I'll apply an additional encryption method on top of what I have now.

Maybe share the code. Then people can put they own "backed up games." they can put it on they own server/website or what ever.

No. Sharing the code would effectively mean sharing the ROMs, which contradicts the idea of letting people host it on their own website and all the trouble that comes with it.

Please don't include roms. As the popo will be after us.

I won't include any ROMs. If you can prove otherwise, I'll adjust the union layer of the data. This might add a bit of loading time, but it is what it is. Even if you would be able to decode the data, it isn't straight up a gba file.

 

[cearp]

Although it will change your implementation, there's no need for the rom data to ever be client side...
You can emulate them on a server rather than in the browser, and simply stream the data/video/audio to the client.
Then, as long as your server (and I guess domain name) is in a jurisdiction that Big N can't touch (either country where it's legal, or country where they don't care) -- you're fine

But it would require more cost and resources on your side though. Emulating gba games isn't so intensive - but not sure what specs you'd need to handle 1000 concurrent users!

-edit.
It would also be more of a technical challenge to implement the "cloud gaming" idea above.
Is there any current cloud gaming site (piracy implied) for roms?

--

https://github.com/orbitalmartian/CloudRetroGame

 

[marchrius]

Just posting a quick reply to let OP know that this is pretty cool! Good job, regardless of what happens

 

[Jayro]

Itch.io manages to play homebrew GB ROMs in their browser player without the ROM being available to download using Inspect Element. This way people can charge for their homebrew without some jackass downloading it for free. Perhaps you should see how they have theirs setup.