GBA mode for GBC games

mr_faust

Hey guys, I'm new to the retropie scene and was hoping for a bit of technical help. Is it possible to have the GBC emu to register certain GBC games as if they were being played on the gba. I'm thinking of the Oracle games and Shantae specifically.

mediamogul

@mr_faust

I'm pretty sure I saw this setting in the 'core options' for lr-gambatte. Whether or not it will trigger the desired effect in those games, I couldn't tell you. I'll give it a go later this evening because 'Shantae' is an absolutely amazing game and this is a great excuse to play it again.

mediamogul

Well, the good news is that there is indeed a core option to boot the games as if they were in a GBA. The bad news is it doesn't work. It's either stopped working at some point, or has yet to be fully implemented. You can still play these games in RetroPie however by patching the roms themselves. I've already checked and there is a IPS patch file for all of these games. What's even better is that you have the option to patch the games to receive all the extra content without having to deal with the washed out color palette meant for GBA screens. Hopefully the emulator option will be made functional sometime in the future, but for now at least the extra content can be accessed through a little ingenuity. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna play some more 'Shantae'.

mediamogul

... And scratch all that jibber jabber. All you have to do is set it to GBA in the core settings and make sure that you quit RetroArch completely and then restart it. My problem was that I was restarting the game from within RetroArch. The colors are indeed very faded, but the GBA enhancements are functioning properly.

mr_faust

@mediamogul thank you man, but I'm still figuring out how to work with retro arch. Do you mind giving a point of reference?

mr_faust

@mediamogul wait a minute..
Where on earth did you find the IPS patches?!

mediamogul

@mr_faust

Information about patching the games can be found at:
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php?topic=16827.0
http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,16652.0.html
(On a second look, It seems as though an actual IPS patch is only available for Shantae)

The Game Genie codes to enable the enhanced modes are:
Shantae:
01C-B5E-191
3EC-B4E-2A9
Zelda Ages/Seasons:
010-3CB-B30
3E0-3BB-2A9

Also, you can enable the enhanced mode using nothing more than what's available in RetroPie. First, launch the game and once it loads, press the Select+X to open up the RetroArch Rgui. Next, look for a men entry named quick menu. From there, you will go into a menu called 'options'. Here you will see a listing named something like 'Emulation Mode'. Set that to 'GBA' and the return to the game by pressing 'Select+X' again. Finally, quit RetroArch by pressing 'Start+Select' and when you get back to the Emulation Station listing, launch the game again and it should be in the enhanced mode now.

mr_faust

@mediamogul thank you so much man. I appreciate it.

mediamogul

@mr_faust Not a problem.