ROM Hack Discussion Full featured GB,GBC,GBA Emulator inside Shantae

[TheRocK]

As @MVG mentioned in his video:


he basically wrote an emulator. Trying to tinker with the files and LayerdFS I only get sound on GB and GBC games, but no video. Looking at the files it all seems simple enough to expand on this, but I couldn't get it to work with other Roms.

This is the interesting part from gamesdef.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This Document contains the skin/game definition-->
<carbon packageName="Shantae GBC">
  <!-- titles is the number of titles in the collection
       engine can be one of 'gb', 'gbc', 'gba' , 'nes' (NES engine is a placeholder)
    
       count is the number of titles in the collection
    
       game id are zero based. so if you have 3 games in your collection label them
    
       <game id = "0" name="My Cool Game">
       <game id = "1" name="My Cool Game 2">
       <game id = "2" name="My Cool Game 3">
    
       romName is a link to the game which must exist in target\rom
  -->
  <titles count="2">
    <game id ="0" name="SHANTAE" engine="gbc" romName="rom:/ShantaeB3ae.bin" previewImage="rom:/assets/gamePreview1.png"
          description="Enjoy the original Game Boy Color version"/>
    <game id ="1" name="SHANTAE (GBA ENHANCED)" engine="gbc" romName="rom:/game2.bin" previewImage="rom:/assets/gamePreview2.png"
          description="Play with Game Boy Advance features unlocked"/>

Maybe someone with more knowledge can check this out.

 

[cucholix]

https://streamable.com/3v3al8

 

[Fadi5555]

I hope we can do the same thing with mario 3d-all stars but I think it’s not possible (at least not yet).

 

[TheRocK]

https://streamable.com/3v3al8

Could you give a little inside on what you did to get it working. Or is it just the MGS rom that just works?

 

[mrgone]

https://streamable.com/3v3al8

wow

 

[Nerdtendo]

It's cool, but it would have been a bit neater before we had established emulators.

I hope we can do the same thing with mario 3d-all stars but I think it’s not possible (at least not yet).

There was a big push when the game released, but it was deemed impossible when they realized how much of the 3DAS games were recompiled for switch.

 

[Milenko]

@angelhp

 

[mrgone]

It's cool, but it would have been a bit neater before we had established emulators.

ah the internet, always complaining

There was a big push when the game released, but it was deemed impossible when they realized how much of the 3DAS games were recompiled for switch.

i guess MVG wrote the emulator explicitly for Shantae, so he probably didn't do a whole lot of compatibility testing beyond Shantae

 

[Nerdtendo]

ah the internet, always complaining


i guess MVG wrote the emulator explicitly for Shantae, so he probably didn't do a whole lot of compatibility testing beyond Shantae

How on earth was I complaining?

 

[AlanLC]

@18Phoenix

 

[Milenko]

ah the internet, always complaining

I get what they mean, if this was the entry point for GB emulation on the Switch it'd be groundbreaking (like if 3d Allstars had of become a GCN emulator) but with Retroarch we already have several GB emus

 

[angelhp]

using layered, you can modify all the built-in emu in Shantae
Pics , roms , music

 

[Gaara4]

Can we also change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9?
I know many people disslike to change the aspect ratio, but i prefer 16:9 or fullscreen.

 

[DaniPoo]

But why? Don't we already have pretty awsome GB-GBC-GBA emulators for the Switch?
Why are you messing around with this?
I mean it's optimized for one game, I don't except all games to run perfectly on this.

 

[AlanLC]

Replaces the rom with Asterix ROM (GBC) and it worked, but I couldn't add it instead of replacing and it only worked GBC.

Why use another emulator instead of using Retroarch?
Dislike the retroarch GUI, want something more simple and straightforward with NES / SNES Online ...... etc

 

[Deleted member 514389]

If it had (hidden) link support, I'd get a 2nd V1 in a heartbeat.

But who am I kidding.

 

[cucholix]

Could you give a little inside on what you did to get it working. Or is it just the MGS rom that just works?

Only tried some gbc, out the ones I tried only Tomb Raider, MGS and Zelda Oracles work.
gb games only gives audio but no video.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

ah the internet, always complaining


i guess MVG wrote the emulator explicitly for Shantae, so he probably didn't do a whole lot of compatibility testing beyond Shantae

Actually, he was originally testing with Tetris and then other games, he didn't test Shantae until he had a working emulator. It's supposed to work with any GB(C) game Limited Run might want to port to the Switch in the future. And possibly other platforms too from what I understand, GB(C) is just the beginning. Shantae just happened to be the first one they wanted to release.

As @MVG mentioned in his video:


he basically wrote an emulator. Trying to tinker with the files and LayerdFS I only get sound on GB and GBC games, but no video. Looking at the files it all seems simple enough to expand on this, but I couldn't get it to work with other Roms.

This is the interesting part from gamesdef.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This Document contains the skin/game definition-->
<carbon packageName="Shantae GBC">
  <!-- titles is the number of titles in the collection
       engine can be one of 'gb', 'gbc', 'gba' , 'nes' (NES engine is a placeholder)
  
       count is the number of titles in the collection
  
       game id are zero based. so if you have 3 games in your collection label them
  
       <game id = "0" name="My Cool Game">
       <game id = "1" name="My Cool Game 2">
       <game id = "2" name="My Cool Game 3">
  
       romName is a link to the game which must exist in target\rom
  -->
  <titles count="2">
    <game id ="0" name="SHANTAE" engine="gbc" romName="rom:/ShantaeB3ae.bin" previewImage="rom:/assets/gamePreview1.png"
          description="Enjoy the original Game Boy Color version"/>
    <game id ="1" name="SHANTAE (GBA ENHANCED)" engine="gbc" romName="rom:/game2.bin" previewImage="rom:/assets/gamePreview2.png"
          description="Play with Game Boy Advance features unlocked"/>

Maybe someone with more knowledge can check this out.

I don't think he mentioned anything about GBA support, did he? The "GBA enhanced" Shantae is still a GBC game running in GBC mode, it just has extra features when played on a GBA.

 

[mrgone]

since the file listing in the xml shows a different rom for "gba enhanced",
the emulator likely uses a prepatched rom with the gba checks permanently enabled

i find it interesting that the xml states that nes is just a placeholder, but says nothing about gba, as both are not really required for shantae.
gb emulation is basically the core of gbc emulation so that has to work.
so, does gba emulation work? i doubt it, but i don't have the game so i didn't check.

 

[xaxa]

but says nothing about gba, as both are not really required for shantae.

Shantae had a "GBA Enhanced mode" which the MVG video shows as supported.