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I ported the gameboy advance emulator gdkGBA (originally made by gdkchan) to the nintendo switch!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).

 

[fune]

Am i missing somthing? I have put the gdkGBA.nro in the /switch folder and the roms in the switch/roms/gba folder but when i launch homebrew channel i have no apps?

Hey I had the same problem. Took me a whole night to figure it out. Did you use a Mac to create those folders and move those files? Try doing the same thing in Windows (virtual machines are also fine). It seems like homebrew doesn't recognize folders created by macOS. Weird.

 

[gdkchan]

What a neat proof of concept! I got it to work with Fire Red, although after the tutorial normal battles slow down a LOT, so I can't really play this on here. The Minish Cap both (U) and (J) just kind of hang at the select menu, Super Mario Advance 4 just sort of hangs at the beginning, Harvest Moon FOMT has so much garbage on the screen constantly that I can't play it, same goes for Metroid Zero Mission, and the GBA port of Link to the Past just fills the screen with purple, making everything invisible.

Too bad I can't play any of the GBA games I like on this, but keep it up, I bet you can figure out how to get some of these working eventually. Your GBC port is really great!

Quick thing: I bet at least two of these are due to the limitation of not being able to save, would it be possible to completely eliminate that call in the code so it simply does nothing instead of crashing?

Metroid Zero Mission problem is due to the lack of alpha blending support. Harvest Moon problem is caused by the window not being implemented. I started a WIP implementation of both features on this branch: https://github.com/gdkchan/gdkGBA/tree/ppu. (If the port author wants to give it a try, idk how fast it would run on the switch, it may need some optimizations).

Zelda A Link to the Past complains about not being able to create the save. The other games seems to have problems with saves aswell. I will try to implement the remaining save memory types (flash and sram iirc) tomorrow.

 

[jakibaki]

Metroid Zero Mission problem is due to the lack of alpha blending support. Harvest Moon problem is caused by the window not being implemented. I started a WIP implementation of both features on this branch: https://github.com/gdkchan/gdkGBA/tree/ppu. (If the port author wants to give it a try, idk how fast it would run on the switch, it may need some optimizations).

Zelda A Link to the Past complains about not being able to create the save. The other games seems to have problems with saves aswell. I will try to implement the remaining save memory types (flash and sram iirc) tomorrow.

Many thanks for your work!

Harvest moon looks a whole lot better now and performance doesn't seem to be affected as far as I could tell!

I released an update containing your changes.

 

[bluedart]

Hey, just tested out the newest build, and it does seem to function more properly than the last one. I got to test the LTTP port, and it seemed to run properly for the few minutes I was willing to put in. The other game I was able to test before I got a weird error that said I have to restart was zero mission. Both of these games actually got into the gameplay, which is not something that happened before. Unfortunately they were both going at 50% speed at best, and about 2 minutes in to zero mission I got the aforementioned error and I'm no longer willing to run the RCM exploit and try this again.

Clearly GBA emulation is something without our grasp for the time being; I'll just wait. Thanks for all your work and keep it up! Seriously, that GBC port is awesome!

 

[Twistedziefer]

Love the progress on the emulator great job. Any chance you can get breath of fire 1 or 2 to load past the title? Thanks

 

[Deletedmember448668]

Unfortunately not having any luck with this emulator yet. Tried 5 games and a few minutes in always get a Switch error message and crash. I'm on 5.0.2

 

[Klodeckel1990]

Minish Cap is bugging at title screen :/

 

[Sm0k3r83]

Thanks for this

 

[Giodude]

Does it work when switching from docked to handheld on the fly? Also on a side note is the issue where cfw constantly crashes the console fixed yet? Really want this for mother 3 on the go.

 

[Leonidas87]

Does it work when switching from docked to handheld on the fly? Also on a side note is the issue where cfw constantly crashes the console fixed yet? Really want this for mother 3 on the go.

Docked can cause a crash needing a restart once onc in a will.

CFW Does not constantly crash the Switch it is the apps that are not optimized for 4.0.0 through 5.0.2

Just in a week we have had a lot of progress. I've barely had a crashing issue

 

[Giodude]

Docked can cause a crash needing a restart once onc in a will.

CFW Does not constantly crash the Switch it is the apps that are not optimized for 4.0.0 through 5.0.2

Just in a week we have had a lot of progress. I've barely had a crashing issue

By crashing I mean how putting the console into sleep mode often puts the console directly into rcm mode.

 

[Leonidas87]

By crashing I mean how putting the console into sleep mode often puts the console directly into rcm mode.

Putting it to sleep is still a big yes.

You have to hold the power button for 10 to 15 seconds.

Hit the power button again it reboots.

Then you have to rcm mode and send payload back into cfw.

If you want to go back to normal use just reboot.

Bug may be fixed soon hopefully.

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

@jakibaki I'm trying to do something for quickly for the Emulator.

Nothing crazy just a nice little addition.

Again it's nothing crazy lol brb

 

[gdkchan]

Many thanks for your work!

Harvest moon looks a whole lot better now and performance doesn't seem to be affected as far as I could tell!

I released an update containing your changes.

The save issue has been fixed upstream (on the master branch).

 

[Leonidas87]

@jakibaki Let me know what you think.

I can send you a link to the .nor file with the changes so you can add it to the main build

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

@jakibaki Let me know what you think.

I can send you a link to the .nor file with the changes so you can add it to the main build

GBC version on its way

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

@jakibaki Let me know what you think.

I can send you a link to the .nor file with the changes so you can add it to the main build

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



GBC version on its way

Figured it adds that final touch to the emulator and makes it easier to find in the Homebrew menue

 

[GoldenSun3DS]

Why don't you port them?

I can't do better so I shouldn't judge? Do you care about how good your doctor is just because "I can't do better"?

But I wasn't even bashing the port. Just asking why they chose that emulator to port instead of a better one. Why do you get so defensive at the slightest criticism?

That'd be like me asking why you chose that cheese for your pizza and then you flipping out and saying "well why don't you make the pizza?!"

 

[Leonidas87]

View attachment 123929 @jakibaki Let me know what you think.

I can send you a link to the .nor file with the changes so you can add it to the main build

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



GBC version on its way

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



Figured it adds that final touch to the emulator and makes it easier to find in the Homebrew menue

Oh shit I messed up haha need to fix that lmfao

 

[Leonidas87]

Made the proper corrections.

What do you think @jakibaki ?

 

[Bedel]

Made the proper corrections.

What do you think @jakibaki ?View attachment 123933 View attachment 123934 View attachment 123935

Great job. I love it when you some more than spam. Keep it up fella.

 

[jakibaki]

Made the proper corrections.

What do you think @jakibaki ?View attachment 123933 View attachment 123934 View attachment 123935

Looks nice Feel free to submit a pull request and I'll merge it.

 

[Leonidas87]

Made the proper corrections.

What do you think @jakibaki ?View attachment 123933 View attachment 123934 View attachment 123935

Am I able to update the OP with these?

Or are you only able to upload them for GBC and GBA?

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

Looks nice Feel free to submit a pull request and I'll merge it.

I've never done that before but I would be more then willing to learn how.

@jakibaki sent you a PM