(Suggestion) VisualBoyAdvance old version lr core for Super Game Boy

matchaman

There are several titles that without SGB colours, are nearly pointless. For example, in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers all characters are the same unless played with the SGB that gives each ranger their colour.

Actually about 1/4 of SGB enhanced games rely on colours to look good because Nintendo wanted to push sales of the add-on.

Edit: Every title I tried works fine in the 2004 build! I also remember using that emulator in college were I used a 1998 laptop without any issues whatsoever (I guess it's purely HLE).

The only feature missing is the SNES-type enhancements only present in Donkey Kong and Space Invaders, with the later having a separate release for the SNES

SammyBoy

@matchaman @mitu @dankcushions I was searching through Google for Super Gameboy emulation on RetroPie and I stumbled upon this from a Wiki:
Super Game Boy

Using recent builds of the bsnes libretro cores, you can load Game Boy games in a fully emulated Super Game Boy. As this feature is not currently implemented in RGUI, you must do so using a command line. First you need to set the core to a bsnes core (any of the 3 profiles will work) using RGUI or editing your config file, then start RetroArch with the following command to load GB games in SGB mode using bsnes:

retroarch "path to Super Game Boy SNES cartridge ROM" --gameboy "path to Game Boy cartridge ROM"

Put the actual paths to the ROMs in double quotes. For example:

retroarch "C:/Games/SNES/Super Game Boy 2 (Japan).sfc" --gameboy "C:/Games/Game Boy/Kirby's Dream Land (USA, Europe).gb"

You will need sgb.boot.rom in your System folder, this can be found on the Emulator Files page in the SNES file pack if you do not have it.

You can also use the RetroArch-Phoenix launcher to launcher to load them, but YMMV since it is not being updated anymore.

SammyBoy

@matchaman @dankcushions @mitu do you think that the info above could help?

matchaman

I'm afraid not. This is exclusive for bsnes/higan and it's great for PC setups but the core is too highly demanding to be available for the Pi.

Therefore, SGB emulation remains uncovered for the Pi with the only solution being older versions of the VBA core (GB/GBC module) to be ported in the future.

SammyBoy

@matchaman The other option is if someone makes a separate emulator just for the raspberry pi.

matchaman

Not just for the Pi. Other low-powered devices would benefit from such a port core, since bsnes/higan is the only current option and it requires a modern PC.

SammyBoy

@matchaman I am actually thinking of creating a super gameboy emulator but I would need help with how the Super GameBoy worked( can you help me with this?)

matchaman

On a technical aspect, I'm afraid I don't know how it works.

All I know is that the SGB is a complete DMG in a cartridge along with some enhancement chips that transfer additional SNES-specific data (frames around games or extra ROM features such as more colours and rarely SPC audio).

I guess that some basic SNES hardware knowledge is required along with understanding how and where the SGB content is contained within each ROM. It can't be very demanding since it was covered in VBA in HLE and worked perfectly minus a few titles that contained a full SNES-level enhancement ROM.

mediamogul

@matchaman

I'd love to play some 'Donkey Kong '94' in color. Super GameBoy emulation is one of the few remaining areas where the Pi comes up short unnecessarily. However, requests do come up often enough to believe that someone with the knowledge to do so will eventually rectify the situation.

matchaman

@mediamogul VBA wouldn't cover this particular title, unfortunately. It would however emulate 99% of the SGB enhanced titles, excluding those that contained a 16-bit ROM such as Donkey Kong "94" and Space Invaders. However, I don't see why none attempts to port/transcode those into SNES ROMs. I guess because bsnes/higan works perfectly for PCs but I'm pretty sure it's not very compliated to get stand-alone ROMs.

mediamogul

@matchaman said in (Suggestion) VisualBoyAdvance old version lr core for Super Game Boy:

VBA wouldn't cover this particular title

I'm able to play DK '94 in color using Visual Boy Advance GX on my hacked Wii. Is this just a limitation with the libretro implementation?

matchaman

Does DK 94 have all its features? That's even better news! As for VBA for the Wii, yes, that's exactly the point of this thread :)

Older versions of VBA supported SGB emulation, while this feature (along with all GB/GBC emulation) has been dropped on the VBA libretro core because gambatte is more accure.

Gambatte however lacks SGB support, therefore the Pi (and all other low-powered devices that can't run bsnes/higan) is left with no option for SGB emulation.

mediamogul

@matchaman said in (Suggestion) VisualBoyAdvance old version lr core for Super Game Boy:

Does DK 94 have all its features?

You can't display the border, but the color pallet displays just fine.