Hi guys!
So recently I wanted to revisit the Golden Sun games, and more precisely finish Golden Sun TLA for the first time. I like to play retro games on my homebrewed PSP, so I searched the internet and the consensus pretty much is that the best emulators are either gpSP/gpSP kai or the TempGBA Mod, but for games made by Camelot the only emulator that can run them well at the moment is TempGBA mod. I tried it just in case in gpSP kai and it is true that it runs awful. The most recent version of TempGBA mod I found is from May 2016, and it is also true that it runs pretty great! That being said, if I were to nitpick, there are still some elements of the game that are not running well on this emulator as well, and having recently finished the game completely on this emulator I wanted to share them here in case someone ever wants to work on an improved version of the emulator.
First of all, and this is unrelated to Golden Sun, but as a North American it would be great if a new version of TempGBA mod could switch ''X'' and ''O'' in the menu, as right now ''O'' is the one to validate things, which I suppose is because the emulator must have been made by someone from Asia.
Now, when it comes to the things in Golden Sun TLA that run with a little difficulty, I noticed that there seems to be a very minor frame drop during combat when you do a Djinn attack with only one Djinn set. This frame drop is almost unnoticeable and you pretty much only use Djinn attacks with one single Djinn at the very beginning of the game since the summons are far more powerful.
Secondly, another moment we notice the emulator having difficulty rendering the game is when we visit the village of Champa. As soon as we enter a house, it runs normaly again.
Now, the moments where the experience is awful is in the Apoji Islands and SW Atteka Islet. For both of these locations, you are at the edge of the world, with massive waterfalls going into the void. My theory is that rendering waterfalls is asking too much for the emulator. In SW Atteka Islets, is it rendering poorly for the whole time since there is only one area (the one that has the waterfalls), but for Apoji Islands, you have the village area, which runs normally, and the area on the right which is where you have the waterfalls and the Djinn, and this is the area that does not run well. There is also a small waterfall in Champa, which adds to my theory.
Other than that, I would say that the game runs pretty well on the emulator at the moment, and luckily for us we don't spend much time in the areas that I mentionned so we can still currently enjoy the game, but I wanted to point out these elements in case some brave soul wants to work on this. If you need my save file to test these areas, just write me in private and we'll figure out a way for me to send you a copy of my save file.
Have a good day!
So recently I wanted to revisit the Golden Sun games, and more precisely finish Golden Sun TLA for the first time. I like to play retro games on my homebrewed PSP, so I searched the internet and the consensus pretty much is that the best emulators are either gpSP/gpSP kai or the TempGBA Mod, but for games made by Camelot the only emulator that can run them well at the moment is TempGBA mod. I tried it just in case in gpSP kai and it is true that it runs awful. The most recent version of TempGBA mod I found is from May 2016, and it is also true that it runs pretty great! That being said, if I were to nitpick, there are still some elements of the game that are not running well on this emulator as well, and having recently finished the game completely on this emulator I wanted to share them here in case someone ever wants to work on an improved version of the emulator.
First of all, and this is unrelated to Golden Sun, but as a North American it would be great if a new version of TempGBA mod could switch ''X'' and ''O'' in the menu, as right now ''O'' is the one to validate things, which I suppose is because the emulator must have been made by someone from Asia.
Now, when it comes to the things in Golden Sun TLA that run with a little difficulty, I noticed that there seems to be a very minor frame drop during combat when you do a Djinn attack with only one Djinn set. This frame drop is almost unnoticeable and you pretty much only use Djinn attacks with one single Djinn at the very beginning of the game since the summons are far more powerful.
Secondly, another moment we notice the emulator having difficulty rendering the game is when we visit the village of Champa. As soon as we enter a house, it runs normaly again.
Now, the moments where the experience is awful is in the Apoji Islands and SW Atteka Islet. For both of these locations, you are at the edge of the world, with massive waterfalls going into the void. My theory is that rendering waterfalls is asking too much for the emulator. In SW Atteka Islets, is it rendering poorly for the whole time since there is only one area (the one that has the waterfalls), but for Apoji Islands, you have the village area, which runs normally, and the area on the right which is where you have the waterfalls and the Djinn, and this is the area that does not run well. There is also a small waterfall in Champa, which adds to my theory.
Other than that, I would say that the game runs pretty well on the emulator at the moment, and luckily for us we don't spend much time in the areas that I mentionned so we can still currently enjoy the game, but I wanted to point out these elements in case some brave soul wants to work on this. If you need my save file to test these areas, just write me in private and we'll figure out a way for me to send you a copy of my save file.
Have a good day!
Last edited by Simonizer,
