Homebrew [Request?] Looking for multiplayer GBA emulator/patch

[Naucitos]

Hi i'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place for this.
That said, i've spent some time looking for a way to play the old battle network games with a friend on a console we currently carry around with us.
Is there any chance that in my searches i've missed a gba emulator that can run multiplayer games?
Is there one in the works?
Is there a way to use the ingame VC and gba emulator to run GBA multiplayer?
I have CFW installed but also don't mind buying the game again if that would help.

 

[Giodude]

Hi i'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place for this.
That said, i've spent some time looking for a way to play the old battle network games with a friend on a console we currently carry around with us.
Is there any chance that in my searches i've missed a gba emulator that can run multiplayer games?
Is there one in the works?
Is there a way to use the ingame VC and gba emulator to run GBA multiplayer?
I have CFW installed but also don't mind buying the game again if that would help.

Impossible. Gba is 100 percent impossible, as there are too many issues to link. The only plausible idea would be to hardmod your 3ds and attach a gba link came manual, which i don't think you'd want to do. Gb vc is almost possible, though each game needs specific patches to make it work.

 

[Giodude]

Hi i'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place for this.
That said, i've spent some time looking for a way to play the old battle network games with a friend on a console we currently carry around with us.
Is there any chance that in my searches i've missed a gba emulator that can run multiplayer games?
Is there one in the works?
Is there a way to use the ingame VC and gba emulator to run GBA multiplayer?
I have CFW installed but also don't mind buying the game again if that would help.

Impossible. Gba is 100 percent impossible, as there are too many issues to list. The only plausible idea would be to hardmod your 3ds and attach a gba link came manually, which i don't think you'd want to do. Gb vc is almost possible, though each game needs specific patches to make it work.

 

[TankedThomas]

GBA VC works fine on 3DS (but you need to inject them as VC games - you can't emulate them on 3DS). Getting multiplayer working, however, is not possible, since the games aren't emulated, meaning you'd technically need a physical link cable, but the 3DS isn't really designed to allow such a thing, even if you modified it. There might be a way but if there is, I don't know of it.

In terms of GBA emulators that can run multiplayer games, you won't get one on 3DS, but there are some in existence for PC. There are various versions of VisualBoyAdvance that'll do it, such as VBA-Link or VBA-M (hopefully I'm getting those names correct - I haven't used them in a long time). I think NO$GBA might be able to do it now too.

 

[PrincessLillie]

GBA VC works fine on 3DS (but you need to inject them as VC games - you can't emulate them on 3DS). Getting multiplayer working, however, is not possible, since the games aren't emulated, meaning you'd technically need a physical link cable, but the 3DS isn't really designed to allow such a thing, even if you modified it. There might be a way but if there is, I don't know of it.

In terms of GBA emulators that can run multiplayer games, you won't get one on 3DS, but there are some in existence for PC. There are various versions of VisualBoyAdvance that'll do it, such as VBA-Link or VBA-M (hopefully I'm getting those names correct - I haven't used them in a long time). I think NO$GBA might be able to do it now too.

The NES VCs allow for multiplayer via Download Play, so with some tinkering, I'm sure we could find a way.

 

[TankedThomas]

The NES VCs allow for multiplayer via Download Play, so with some tinkering, I'm sure we could find a way.

No, it's not possible. GBA VC under-clocks the 3DS to run the GBA games natively. NES games use a networking/communication layer of the emulator to achieve multiplayer. Hence why one would need to actually physically link two 3DS consoles together - agb_firm (the GBA firmware that is loaded when GBA VC games are loaded and the 3DS under-clocks then reboots) is expecting a link cable so you would need an emulation layer to cover the signals, and as far as I know, that's not possible with the 3DS hardware.

Let me put it this way: Nintendo tried to do it and couldn't figure it out (apparently). The chances of being able to reverse-engineer such a method are slim-to-none, though to my knowledge (and to be fair, I'm no programmer nor hacker, at least not any more than a script kiddie), this just simply isn't possible with the way the 3DS is designed and with the way it loads agb_firm.

 

[Naucitos]

Thanks! Not the answer i wanted but its nice to have a definitive answer!

 

[L337Rooster]

Doesn't mgba work with some games on new 3ds devices. I know the performance is not the best. But if that could be improved, couldn't you play multiplayer that way? If the emulator could emulate gba link cables over wireless?

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Doesn't mgba work with some games on new 3ds devices. I know the performance is not the best. But if that could be improved, couldn't you play multiplayer that way? If the emulator could emulate gba link cables over wireless?

I mean like if someone did the heavy lifting to optimize and update these emulators

 

[Dahavoc]

So there is no way GBA games can be played in Multiplayer?
Do you guys have a suggestion on how to play Pokemon on the GBA with the best Link capabilities on either 3ds or PC?

 

[Rahkeesh]

GBARunner2 does have a branch that is experimenting with link cable emulation via wifi. They might only have one game confirmed as working though, and its not part of the main branch.

 

[Zense]

I believe for pc there's mgba that let's you play multiplayer. If not theres vba link.

As for GBARunner2 there was someone who was able to do a complete battle in one of the pokemon games but your milage will vary. For GBARunner2 we're hoping work to make a dsi wifi driver gets rolling or work in getting the gba wireless adapter supported will be possible to work on.

The gba wireless adapter does not support all games, many of those are excellent games. Pokemon and MMBN are among those supported.

I'm personally hoping for the latter since this would allow multiplayer to be possible for people on base DSes as well and not just DSi and 3DS.

On a different note does anyone know if mgba retroarch on 3ds has netplay capabilities now that netplay on it has become a thing? I'm not even sure mgba has netplay support at all for retroarch on pc so if someone could clarify that would be nice.

 

[Dahavoc]

So what is the fastest (gameplay wise) way of playing Pokemon Firered and Emerald on my 3ds or PC?

I tried once Myboy on Android (i know thats a cellphone now) and it ran the link battle part horribly, the normal gameplay was fine though.

 

[Zense]

So what is the fastest (gameplay wise) way of playing Pokemon Firered and Emerald on my 3ds or PC?

I tried once Myboy on Android (i know thats a cellphone now) and it ran the link battle part horribly, the normal gameplay was fine though.

PC. I wouldn't consider 3DS an option for linking atm.

 

[Dahavoc]

PC. I wouldn't consider 3DS an option for linking atm.

Ty, what emulator would u recommend for the purpose of local and or netplay?
I tried some in the past, but didnt work, or marginaly at best.

 

[Zense]

Ty, what emulator would u recommend for the purpose of local and or netplay?
I tried some in the past, but didnt work, or marginaly at best.

I honestly haven't delved in that for a long time so I can't really recommend anything. If mGBA truly supports linking then that is the one I would recommend, if not then vba link should work, as stated above.

 

[OldGnashburg]

GBA backwards compatibility on the 3DS does not rely on emulation, it is a hypervisor based technology, where it isolates specific parts of of the 3DS, in order to mimic environment of a GameBoy Advance, and has no access to WLAN card on the 3DS board. GBARunner2, is a homebrew hypervisor implementation that can boot GBA games located on the SD and run them GBA mode similar to Nintendont. If you have ever used Nintendont you would know that it can connect to a Wii Remote which a traditional GameCube cannot. You may wonder why you couldn't do something similar with GBARunner2, but there is a difference in how Nintendo designed GameCube backwards compatibility which allows applications like Nintendont to access certain aspects of the Wii. GBA backwards compatibility is a lot less flexible on the 3DS and was not designed to be able to access 3DS hardware, to the point that I remember there used to be issues regarding sleep mode when GameBoy Advance Virtual Console was released. Which was why Nintendo pulled the service and made it an "3DS Ambassador" perk.

 

[Rahkeesh]

Nintendont runs GC games in *Wii* mode, or vWii on a Wii U. That's precisely why you can use wiimotes, classic controller and the like, while you can't with a stock Wii launching a Gamecube disc. It also was not built by Nintendo, its a completely homebrew hypervisor re-implementation.

GBARunner 2 is similar in that it runs GBA games in DS or DSi mode, whether on original hardware or 3DS BC. It does currently have access to DS wifi, no-one has decoded the better DSi wifi for homebrew however if they did, it could easily support that as well.

 

[Dahavoc]

Nintendont runs GC games in *Wii* mode, or vWii on a Wii U. That's precisely why you can use wiimotes, classic controller and the like, while you can't with a stock Wii launching a Gamecube disc. It also was not built by Nintendo, its a completely homebrew hypervisor re-implementation.

GBARunner 2 is similar in that it runs GBA games in DS or DSi mode, whether on original hardware or 3DS BC. It does currently have access to DS wifi, no-one has decoded the better DSi wifi for homebrew however if they did, it could easily support that as well.

did you mean does not currently has ds wifi?

 

[Zense]

did you mean does not currently has ds wifi?

DS Wifi works with gbarunner2 but it isn't good enough for most games for gba linking multiplayer right now. The list of some of the tested games can be found in gbarunner2's wikitemp page. Also don't fall into the trap of thinking that DS Wifi means multiplayer over internett, it means local multiplayer and according to Gericom, the dev of gbarunner2, that is only what is possible this way.

DSi wifi would be huge if made possible to use.

 

[Dahavoc]

DS Wifi works with gbarunner2 but it isn't good enough for most games for gba linking multiplayer right now. The list of some of the tested games can be found in gbarunner2's wikitemp page. Also don't fall into the trap of thinking that DS Wifi means multiplayer over internett, it means local multiplayer and according to Gericom, the dev of gbarunner2, that is only what is possible this way.

DSi wifi would be huge if made possible to use.

i will check the site, the pokemon games would be enough for me

 

[Zense]

i will check the site, the pokemon games would be enough for me

If you find that they work then please report back. I've not been able to make those games connect but someone else was able to do a whole battle. It seems it depends on what systems you're using to test, as far as I can tell.