With the release of vba this emulator is now officially discontinued!

Many many thanks to everyone that helped!


I ported the gameboy advance emulator gdkGBA (originally made by gdkchan) to the nintendo switch! (Works on all versions as far as I know)

To set up I strongly recommend putting the original gba_bios.bin in sd:/switch/gba_bios.bin!
After that put the roms into sd:/switch/roms/ and start the homebrew.

As soon as retroarch gets updated for 5.0 this will instantly become obsolete!

source (you need the sdl2-libraries from the devkit-pro pacman to build this)

Known issues:
Sound is a bit weird (it seems like sometimes the wrong instruments play)
Some games seem to crash the switch after a while. (mostly fixed in v8)
Sometimes the switch likes to crash even in games that normally run pretty stable :/ (fixed in v8 I think)
Some games have graphical glitches/don't work at all
Saving doesn't work on some games. If that happens please don't hesitate to tell me and for now you can set (buggy) savestates using plus+r and load them using plus+l.

Please update to the latest version before reporting Problems!

Game compatibility list

UPDATE:
Sound now much better now! Many thanks to @renhei for the fix!
UPDATE2:
Changed rompath from sd:/switch/roms to sd:/switch/roms/gba in order to avoid confusion with the gbc emulator. Also double joycons now work in unattached mode!
UPDATE3:
Merged gdkchans changes to the ppu. Some games that had problems with artifacts on screen (I tried harvest moon) now look much better! However this is apparently causing trouble in some games so I also attached v2.
UPDATE4:
Added proper in-gaming-saving support! The old buggy savestate-feature is now read-only (so that you can move your progress to the new save-files). I recommend removing the old .savegame-file after making sure the new, better in-game-saving works correctly in order to make sure that you don't accidentally load it
Many thanks to @gdkchan for fixing some underlying issues with the in-game-saves of this emulator!
Also I added support for the original gba_bios.bin:
If you want to use it (which I strongly recommend since the open-source-one that's bundled is causing trouble with some games) put it into sd:/switch/gba_bios.bin
UPDATE5:
In game saving should now actually work in most games! Many thanks to @gdkchan for explaining to me how the gba handles saves!
UPDATE6:
Recompiled everything with latest libnx. Hopefully fewer crashes now.
UPDATE7:
Savestate feature is back. Please only use if the savegames fail as it is known to sometimes cause issues!
UPDATE8:
Updated libnx (again) and made a few small fixes. If you're experiencing fewer/more crashes please don't hesitate to tell me
UPDATE8.5 (Experimental only):
Pushed the new graphics-fixes from @gdkchan. Please only use them if you're experiencing graphical glitches since they introduce a large slowdown in some games.
UPDATE8.6 (Experimental only):
Pushed @gdkchans new fixes+optimisations. The experimental version should now run a bit faster!
UPDATE9:
Saving should now be more reliable again (makes the save-feature work as it did in v7 again).

 

[tomhanks69]

Yes it works on 5.0.2

i dont think so. i get "failed to open dir

 

[enigma85]

i dont think so. i get "failed to open dir

Read Post 1 updates. Rompath changed

 

[JimmyK]

i dont think so. i get "failed to open dir

It does work. I am on 5.0.2 and I can play games. Not for long because of crashes but it does load the roms.

 

[Leonidas87]

i dont think so. i get "failed to open dir

I have two Nintendo Switch's.

One on 4.1.0 and 5.0.2 both run the emulator just fine for me.

Maybe it's the format of your sd card.

Fat32 is most compatible with Homebrew

 

[JimmyK]

Just to be clear if you did not read through this topic. The bios and the nro go in the switch directory, inside the switch directory make a folder named roms, inside roms make another folder named gba, and inside the gba folder place roms.

Example (my directory): f:/switch/roms/gba/somerom.gba

 

[Proto-Propski]

Just to be clear if you did not read through this topic. The bios and the nro go in the switch directory, inside the switch directory make a folder named roms, inside roms make another folder named gba, and inside the gba folder place roms.

Example (my directory): f:/switch/roms/gba/somerom.gba

I should probably take advantage of that new BIOS option I'm running Fire Red it'll likely fix some of the crashing issues I've had lately.

 

[JimmyK]

I should probably take advantage of that new BIOS option I'm running Fire Red it'll likely fix some of the crashing issues I've had lately.

Well I cant link the bios I am using but like I said I am running version 6 no graphic and ive been playing fire red for a little over an hour and a half and not one crash.

 

[Proto-Propski]

Well I cant link the bios I am using but like I said I am running version 6 no graphic and ive been playing fire red for a little over an hour and a half and not one crash.

No worries Google was my friend, found it not too long after, it was whenever I first left the town, and found myself in tall grass, that I'd have a high chance to get a Pokemon encounter that would crash the emulator, but so far I haven't been having this issue with the BIOS included, so smooth sailing ahead it seems

 

[Leonidas87]

Yea the bios file seems to play a big part.

I've helped a few people get up and running by remindi

 

[tomhanks69]

I got it all set up. Some of the info changed from the last time I read it. Pokemon fire was fun for about 5 minutes

 

[bluedart]

Okay, just tried V7 (stable version) with a proper bios file installed, and I can see the improvement. SMA4 runs and saves properly. Played that for about 10 minutes. Minish Cap gets into the game and saves properly, but I can't find my way through the forest because some fog layer is preventing me from being able to see anything. FOMT still has the same issue as before. Didn't bother with LTTP this time. Turns out if you get off the first screen in Zero Mission the garbage goes away and it's quite playable. Fire Red had no real problems up until my first random battle, which chugs at about 60% speed. The same happens with any random battle afterward.

More importantly not a single crash in about an hour of playing. Nice improvements, I'll keep checking back.

 

[PRAGMA]

32 GB microSD cards are dirt cheap, I'd just grab one for homebrew.

My 128gb works perfectly fine if u use @CTCaer 's Hekate Fork.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

i dont think so. i get "failed to open dir

You have to have your roms @ sd:/switch/roms/gba, not sd:/roms/gba, sd:/roms/, sd:/switch/roms/ etc.

 

[tomhanks69]

My 128gb works perfectly fine if u use @CTCaer 's Hekate Fork.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------
I'd gathered that. Works fine now.

You have to have your roms @ sd:/switch/roms/gba, not sd:/roms/gba, sd:/roms/, sd:/switch/roms/ etc.

 

[l30np_]

i dont think so. i get "failed to open dir

I had the exact same problem, try to set up a fresh reinstallment of Homebrew and follow @RichKK 's folder structure. This procedure worked for me and I'm on 5.0.2

 

[jakibaki]

Does anyone here know of a reliable way to produce a crash so I can maybe find out what's causing them?

 

[Bedel]

Does anyone here know of a reliable way to produce a crash so I can maybe find out what's causing them?

Other than using the dock? XD

 

[jakibaki]

Other than using the dock? XD

Yeah other than that

a) I don't have anything to show the picture of the dock (that's not the problem I'm trying to hunt down)
b) I want to see if I can reproduce the bug in the pc-version of the emulator so I can make use of a proper debugger to fix it.

 

[JJTapia19]

Does anyone here know of a reliable way to produce a crash so I can maybe find out what's causing them?

They seem to be random but much frequent with the experimental version. You could try Wario Land 4 with the experimental version. I haven't get past 2 or 3 minutes of gameplay with that setup.

 

[jakibaki]

They seem to be random but much frequent with the experimental version. You could try Wario Land 4 with the experimental version. I haven't get past 2 or 3 minutes of gameplay with that setup.

Thanks! I'll try that.

 

[JJTapia19]

Thanks! I'll try that.

No problem. Hope you're able to reproduce it and it's easy for you to fix. I get the impression that retroarch is not coming so soon so the more stable this emulator gets the better. Thanks again for taking the time to work on this.