Hacking Emulation Homebrew Playing GBA Games on Modded 3DS?

[NovaDragon9618]

Hello! So I just modded my 3DS for the first time.

I am trying to figure out what the best method is to play GBA games. I have a New 3DS XL. I have contacted a very knowledgeable friend of mine, and he has told me it is not worth it to try and play GBA games because all of the programs use emulation, and he said it is terrible at best.

I scoured the Internet for options, and came across open_gba_firm, which the Site claims can run GBA natively, not through emulation. He is saying it is very hit and miss, so I'm just looking for more information from people who have used it. How was your experience with it?

Also, if you don't, is there a semi-decent emulation method I can use? Any and all advice or comments is welcome!

 

[The Catboy]

Best
https://gbatemp.net/threads/open_agb_firm-discussion-thread.570844/
mgba is also good
GBARunner 2 and beta 3 also are great
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ds-i-3d...-ds-i-games-and-ds-i-menu-replacement.472200/
https://gbatemp.net/threads/gbarunner3.651088/post-10456902

 

[Maeson]

...And GPSP through Retroarch beats both mGBA and GBARunner at running GBA games smoothly while also giving you emulator features that Open_GBA_Firm does not have.

 

[AmandaRose]

I scoured the Internet for options, and came across open_gba_firm, which the Site claims can run GBA natively, not through emulation. He is saying it is very hit and miss, so I'm just looking for more information from people who have used it. How was your experience with it?

Also, if you don't, is there a semi-decent emulation method I can use? Any and all advice or comments is welcome!

So first of all I'm very surprised nobody has already commented what I am about to post.

Your so called knowledgeable friend knows absolutely nothing by the sound of it.l and is talking shit saying open_gba_firm is very hot and miss.

open_gba_firm will play pretty much every GBA game perfectly except for The few games that required special peripherals such as Guitar Hero.

All 2DS/3DS models have not only Nintendo DS hardware built into them they also have the GBA hardware built into them. open_gba_firm pretty much just boots you straight into the GBA hardware without having to load the 3ds home menu ect first.

 

[Kirbydogs]

Hello! So I just modded my 3DS for the first time.

I am trying to figure out what the best method is to play GBA games. I have a New 3DS XL. I have contacted a very knowledgeable friend of mine, and he has told me it is not worth it to try and play GBA games because all of the programs use emulation, and he said it is terrible at best.

I scoured the Internet for options, and came across open_gba_firm, which the Site claims can run GBA natively, not through emulation. He is saying it is very hit and miss, so I'm just looking for more information from people who have used it. How was your experience with it?

Also, if you don't, is there a semi-decent emulation method I can use? Any and all advice or comments is welcome!

As pretty much everybody has said, open_agb_firm should do it. It's easy to access, you just need to go to the Luma boot chain loader to access it whenever you want to play a GBA game, but that means you would have to reboot a lot. You can get it onto the home screen with two other applications, but that's really up to you and is probably more work than you have to do to get it to work.

 

[Maximumbeans]

So first of all I'm very surprised nobody has already commented what I am about to post.

Your so called knowledgeable friend knows absolutely nothing by the sound of it.l and is talking shit saying open_gba_firm is very hot and miss.

open_gba_firm will play pretty much every GBA game perfectly except for The few games that required special peripherals such as Guitar Hero.

All 2DS/3DS models have not only Nintendo DS hardware built into them they also have the GBA hardware built into them. open_gba_firm pretty much just boots you straight into the GBA hardware without having to load the 3ds home menu ect first.

So glad somebody else said it. OP, your friend knows fuck all. Sounds like they're just very confident. I'd be wary trusting their advice on anything if they can be this wrong as opposed to just admitting they don't know.

To add onto the generally correct answer people are giving, yes, open_AGB_firm is brilliant (it's my go-to for GBA games).

But if you're looking to play stuff like ROM hacks then you'll want an actual emulator as a backup option, since these aren't always made with the idea of playing on 1:1 hardware. To that end, something like GBARunner2 is a good fallback.

 

[that_one_guy_ig]

Hello! So I just modded my 3DS for the first time.

I am trying to figure out what the best method is to play GBA games. I have a New 3DS XL. I have contacted a very knowledgeable friend of mine, and he has told me it is not worth it to try and play GBA games because all of the programs use emulation, and he said it is terrible at best.

I scoured the Internet for options, and came across open_gba_firm, which the Site claims can run GBA natively, not through emulation. He is saying it is very hit and miss, so I'm just looking for more information from people who have used it. How was your experience with it?

Also, if you don't, is there a semi-decent emulation method I can use? Any and all advice or comments is welcome!

I do not really know but I recommend playing Pokemon emerald rogue ex