mGBA
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mGBA Ports: Nintendo 3DS, Wii and PS Vita
Aug 30, 2015
Two of the early goals of mGBA were to make it fast, and to make it portable. A common problem with older emulators is that they tend to be very entrenched in the architecture for which they were originally built. For example, ZSNES and the NO$ emulators have massive amount of x86 assembly directly in the core. Other emulators, like Project 64 and SSF only work on Windows due to their heavy reliance on the operating system’s API. mGBA always sought to be free from any such restrictions by using easily-replaceable, lightweight abstraction layers for any platform-specific code.
With mGBA being portable, and as fast as it is, naturally a question arose of what platforms could it be ported to reasonably well? As it turns out, homebrew on game systems were an excellent target, as there is an already-existing userbase, and the platforms are different enough to stretch the possibilities of how well mGBA can be ported.
mGBA has now been ported to three homebrew platforms: the Nintendo 3DS, the Wii, and the PlayStation Vita. All of these ports are relatively young, but have been merged onto the master branch. As such, nightly builds have been set up, and new builds of mGBA for all three platforms will be available for download every day!
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mGBA 0.3.0
Aug 16, 2015
A new release of mGBA, version 0.3.0, is available. This is a major feature release. Some of the more prominent features include the addition of support for rotation and tilt sensors on controllers with analog sticks, default controller profiles for some of the more common controllers, improved synchronization, the beginning of the debug suite, and much more. An extensive list follows after the cut.
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Cycle Counting, Memory Stalls, Prefetch and Other Pitfalls
Jun 27, 2015
When writing a video game emulator, the first and most foundational step is to implement the system’s CPU. At first glance, this seems to primarily involve implementing the instruction set. After all, the instruction set is what actually specifies what the system does at a basic level. However, just as important, is another feature of the CPU, known as cycles.
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A Call for Developers!
Jun 9, 2015
Have you always wanted to contribute to an emulator? mGBA has reached a point where it is looking for more developers to help with the creation of the next generation Game Boy Advance emulator. As the scope of the project has expanded, the number of potential tasks to make it great has expanded, giving room for new developers to help. If you’d like to help, there are quite a few areas that are open.
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mGBA 0.2.1
May 13, 2015
A new release of mGBA, version 0.2.1, is available. This version is primarily a bugfix release. An extensive list of changes follows after the cut.
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mGBA 0.2.0
Apr 3, 2015
A new release of mGBA, version 0.2.0, is available. Two years to the day since mGBA started development, 0.2.0 marks a major feature release. Some of the more prominent features include the addition of support for local link cable multiplayer, cheat code support, the Solar Sensor (as used in Boktai), configuration options, and much more. An extensive list follows after the cut.
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Ubuntu nightlies are now available!
Feb 14, 2015
After a few days of setup work, nightlies are now available for Ubuntu. Only 64-bit packages for 14.04 are available at this time, although these are likely to work for 14.10 as well. You can find them on the Downloads page.
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mGBA 0.1.1
Jan 24, 2015
A bugfix release of mGBA, version 0.1.1, is released. Please note that this is a bugfix release only and does not include any new features. It aims to increase the compatibility and stability over the previous version.
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Classic NES Series Anti-Emulation Measures
Dec 28, 2014
Some of you may remember a series of peculiar Game Boy Advance games that came out over the course of 2004. In stark contrast with the usual dark grey cartridges with colorful labels, a set of light grey cartridges with simple labels were released containing games ported from the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Dubbed the Classic NES Series in the United States, these games were interesting for a number of reasons.
From a GBA emulation perspective, the games were especially interesting. The average Game Boy Advance game is extremely buggy, and the platform itself contains a number of safeguards to prevent games from crashing. As a result, emulators tend to need to be bug-compatible with the original hardware to ensure that the games actually work. However, the Classic NES Series goes above and beyond the average game in an attempt to ensure they don’t work in emulators.
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Nightlies are now available!
Dec 28, 2014
Given the fast pace of development, the fact that there won’t be a feature release for several months (or a bugfix release for several weeks), combined with the fact that people are asking for new things that have already been implemented or fixed, has led to me setting up a nightly build process. For those on Windows or OS X, nightly builds are now available from the Downloads section.
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