PSPVBA v1.01 Beta - A New GBA Emulator! |
Ó
PSPVBA v1.01 is a Gameboy Advance emulator port to the PSP by none other than our resident emulator porting machine, Zx-81, who was featured in a QJ interview earlier today. Zx-81 has pulled away from his habit of producing games for unknown machines and has moved into the mass market! This is a beta release, and so as you can expect doesn't currently run at full speed, but with the coding powers of Zx-81 behind it, I'm confident that PSPVBA will progress to run many games at full speed in no time.
This said, PSPVBA still features all that you would expect for a Zx release including sound and savegame support; as well as customizable key mapping and the ability to take screenshots. The sound support in this version is also a little jumpy, and is based on the work of psp298.
It's nice for me to hear about this because the original Gameboy is almost like the grandfather to the PSP. It started the portable console trend, and the Game Boy has sold in the millions over time. No matter how good the graphics are on PSP UMD games, it's always good to reminisce over what has been. Pokemon, Mario, here we come!
As with all Zx releases, the source code is included, and this is packaged under the GNU public license. You can make any changes to the source you want, but be sure to read Copying.txt beforehand. Further information on VirtualBoyAdvance can be found by clicking here.
Download: [PSPVBA: GameBoy Advance Emulator for PSP v1.0.1 beta]
Read: [Forum Release Thread]
21 Jumps Custom firmware 5.50GEN-D now out
Contact Us:
The QJ.net Network |
 |
| Site | Feed |
| QJ.NET | RSS |
| Nintendo DS | RSS |
| PlayStation 3 | RSS |
| PSP Updates | RSS |
| Wii | RSS |
| Xbox 360 | RSS |
| MMORPG | RSS |
| Personal Computer Games | RSS |
| iPhone - iPod Touch | RSS |
| QJ.NET Forums | RSS |
Add QJ.NET
User Favorites - December
User Favorites - December
Categories
Archives
Accessories
Add-ons
Applications
Artwork
Batteries
Cheats
Deals
Emulators
Events
Featured Articles
Firmware
Flash Applications
Flash games
Game Demos
Games
Hacks & Exploits
Homebrew Applications
Homebrew Demos
Homebrew Development
Homebrew Emulators
Homebrew Games
Homebrew Themes
How-To
Humor
Imports
Interviews
Magazines
Mods
MY QJ
News
Off Topic
On Shelves This Week
Opinions & Analysis
Podcasts
Previews
PSP Go
PSP Minis
PSP Slim & Lite
QJ How-To Series
QuickJump QuickGuide
QuickJump QuickPeek
Reviews
Rumors
Scans
Screenshots
Site News
Titles
UMD Movies
Videos
Weekend Warrior
Wi-Fi
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
Comments [refresh]
nocomment
Updates his stuff fast so we will have full speed by the end of july
mario here I come yeahhhhhhhhh
so how fast does it run
Totally made my day, great job. Just as I posted a comment under the interview with this guy about the GBA, this shows up, it's like you read my mind. You rock, keep up the good work. I look forward to playing Pokemon fire red, and attempting wi-fi with another ds (although its not gonna happen for a long time yet, but heres hoping)
Been waiting for this more than N64.
Downloading now, can't wait to test Aria of Sorrow!
about time someone starts working on a gba emulator again. it appears hes making it almost from scratch, like the n64 emulator which has made great improvment.
maybe this one wont be dropped like the other 3...
now you guys can stop *****ing about someone making a gba emu :)
thanks zx-81, very cool :)
where can i get gba roms?
10 we cant tell u
and nice work as always
Thank you for finally porting something worthwhile
doesnt load on 2.x
does this work with eloader
will this work on my xbox?
thank god.
wow i've been waiting for this for sooo long and i hope it will be in full speed soon. thx
does it work for 2.6?
WELL FINALLY a new GBA emulator for us!! Been waiting for this a loong damn while.... I can't test it right now but I guess it wont be so different compared to the other ones atm, but I got a feeling that this emulator is going to evolve soon in to a very playable one.
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, ZX-81!!!! THE PPL LOOVEEE YOUUUU (only if you keep on working on this emu, heh)!!!!!! :bow:
It almost sounds like you're coming on to zx-81? Don't be so shy... open your heart.
I TESTED IT IN A 2.6 AND WORKED GREAT. A BIT SLOW BUT HEY WE HAVE A ZX-81 TO SPEED IT UP.
THANKS OLD PAL
about time :D. i hope it works on 2.6 :)
this is great now with a good developer like Zx-81 we will get a good gba emulator very soon unlike the other 3 that were left behind
YEAHHH i've been waiting for a good gba emu for ages! thank zx!
IT WORKS ON 2.6 ELOADER E-MENU FINAL
it's very good for an initial release, a bit slow but beeing zx-81 the good coder he is, this will make rapid progress for sure. thanks zx-81.
yess thx alot man!!
i had to sell my GBASP to buy my PSP, and i used to play it a lot, advance wars rule! and we know tht zx-81 is a great developer and wouldnt let us down w/o further explanations, so i guess this would be a GBA emu like Snes9xTYL is for Snes
can this work on gamecube also?
now i can play pokemon with my cousin and his SP! lol.
Wow! i´ve been waiting for this to happen,
for months now.
THANK YOU SO MUCH zx-81!!
zx81 strikes again! Good going!
wow, awesome. been waiting for a gba and ps1 emu (hahaha) for some time. Screw n64
yo *****a this shyt be wacc man wtf is this fake ass shyt fuccin space shootin game wtf man this aint no fuccin gba emu *****a fucc this shyt
Im pullin for you zx-81 all of the other gba emus led to dissapointment keep up the great work.
Never update n64...irshell...doom...devhook...several classics and now this
Keep your fingers crossed for psone... pacmanfan where are you!?!?!?!?
i get a white box whenever i load a rom. anyone else get it?
559Crip LOL !
please dont give up i as well want this more than N64
press select when it loads the space shooter
to go to the menu the pick you rom
the after you pick you Roms
press R
to reset the gba the lode the rom
THIS IS GREAT I CAN SEE MORE IMPROVEMENTS COMING SOON...PLAYS GREAT...SOUNDS CRAPY...BUT HEY! ITS AWESOME!! GREAT JOB ZX LOOKING FORWARD FOR THE UPDATE
taking the most expected emulator in the scene, a long path is awaiting us.
PS : let's talk about it in french soon Zx-81^^
How do i run this on my Amiga 500?
Help me, i want to play GBA on my Amiga.
Its about time someone made a GBA emu, and I hope this one wont be abbandoned! Thanks Zx-81.
MY HEROOOO!!!!
"41. » AMIGA
How do i run this on my Amiga 500?
Help me, i want to play GBA on my Amiga."
omg... i'm speechless...
Absolutely fantastic news. Made my day!!!!
Can't install now to play, but how does this GBA emu run?
where do u put the scr file?
Man... THIS ROCK!!!
FINALLY SHINING FORCE ROTDD ON MY PSP!!!
I CAN'T WAIT FOR FULL SPEED!
Keep up the good work Zx-81.
nocomment
Reason to smash my head in a wall for upgrading to 2.7
You people are pathetic. You all mock and criticize ZX-81's hard work on his other emulators, but now you are all kissing his butt now that he's working on a GBA emulator. For shame.
A GBA emulator with the potential to run at full speed soon! YAY!
I completely gave up hope in GBA but here it is-
Yes, it's not at its full speed but the best out of all the
GBA emulators out there; and sure it will be updated
like that MSX emulator, rite??
Man, thanks zx-81, you made my day!!!
Finally! A new and being improved GBA emulator! Finally.
Haha, nice job dude, I really appreciate it. I love how you didn't announce it though, you just sprung it on us. Today's been one hell of a day for you, with the interview and what not. Glad to see you getting some praise rather than grief from people. I'm about to go try it out now.
~ZFB8
THANKS! BEEN WAITIN FOREVER!
does anybody know whats the fps for this emulator is? great work zx-81 keep it with the updates
Is this better then the other gba emulator??
Great work and fast also
thanks Zx-81
Let's hope this batter doesn't strike-out at the plate.
what speed do the games play without sound?
When I run this (on 2.0) it turns off the PSP.
wow, zx making a gba emulator? wow... at least we are confident that he will be bringing out constant updates!
Now I know what I'll be doing on my 23 hour trip to Texas...
if zx-81 works on this as much as he works on the other emulators, then we might just have a playable GBA emu by the end of the year
THE SOUND ON 2.6 IS SO SO BAD IT JUST MAKES WEIRD NOSIES IT SUCKS PLZ FIX SO I CAN PLAY POKEMON
cum n kick it wid me @ da club mang, we gots some business to talk bout. dis be like, the best thang 2 hit my PSP since sho'ty hea be gettin wild wit it. yeah, we can make a business venture mang...i can getcha some G-Unit throwbacks man, reppin zx-81 on da back. yeah, then u can program me some new stuff too, ya hurd meh?
50
I'm too excited. Heres to you. Real Man of Geeeniousss!
@50
This is an emu that people will play if he gets it right. props for him to do it forshure and no disrepect but i dont play the old stuff he was making.
zx-81 has been cool since he first released his calculator emulator. That was a work of art. He's definitely a pro and if he's focusing on a GBA emulator only good things can happen. When he gets the GBA emu working near-full speed, if he takes donations he's definitely getting something from me.
Diddn't any one was ever gonna come out with a solid Emulator for GBA.Can't wait for the next release,Thanks a heap zx-81.Keep up the good work!
Homebrew is definatly making the PSP the best thing that has ever happened to hardcore gamers. A huge applause to the developers of hombrew...you are my heros!!!
i got pokemon ruby rom and it just put up a blank white box. and it is .gba too soo im confuzzled on what to do
This is a pretty good start that should NOT be abandoned. It played just about every rom I threw at it except for Kingdom Hearts, maybe because of the size. Yes it's true the sound is garbage, just turn the sound off completely before you play, it's horrid noise. The frameskip can be adjusted by changing frameskip to your liking in the settings. It gives the illusion that this emu is faster but unfortunatly if you set the frameskip to either 1 or even 0 it does not seem faster than previous GBA emu releases. I not knocking this at all, I have incredible faith in the author and I look forward to his future releases of this emu. Thank You Zx-81!
When You Start The Emulator on the PSP... there is a website and thats the Website that has ROMS... DUHH!!
Just out of curiousity, exactly what is it that makes this version so much better than the other ports? I've looked over the source and I haven't seen any optimizations to the actual critical portions of the emulator.
I hate to break it to you all, but unless someone rewrites the CPU core completely a VBA port to PSP will probably not achieve full CPU emulation speed for a majority of games, and unless someone rewrites the video rendering functions a VBA port will never achieve low or no frameskip. And if the CPU isn't being emulated full speed then sound is just going to be awful no matter what (the direct sound channels, anyway).
Don't mean to sound too negative, but I've looked through VBA's source enough and it just isn't an efficient emulator. The CPU core has had some strong brute force style optimizations thrown at it, but the result is something rather huge (not cache friendly for a low cache machine like PSP) and the more important optimizations are x86 only. At the same time it misses some somewhat obvious optimizations that involve more than expanding tables. It also spends a lot of extra cycles maintaining more accuracy than it really needs to.
The renderer is much worse off, it's just very slow. It is done in a way that very literally models the GBA's video hardware and it's quite accurate but there are a lot of potential optimizations it misses (okay, some at the slight expense of accuracy), even some pretty simple ones.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying VBA is a bad emulator, quite the contrary, obviously it's the best GBA emulator available for desktop computers. However, the devs never really bothered making it super fast because I suppose there was never enough of a reason to, and doing so quickly becomes a serious headache. The emulator, like No$GBA, was also made with developers in mind, meaning it has to play to certain rules to provide higher accuracy than is necessary to plau most commercial ROMs.
I don't want to take anything away from ZX-81's accomplishments here but I also don't see anywhere where he gives any indication that this will get any faster. In fact, given that he says he tried almost pointless things like converting the code from .cpp to .c expecting it to actually substantially improve performance, I'd say that he doesn't have any real plans for making this faster now, or any real hope. Once again, props go to PSPUpdates for instilling false hope and expectations within their naive readers.
*puts on flame proof suit*
BEST NEWS I HEARD FROM QJ IN ALONG ALONG TIME THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR OLD SCHOOL EMULATORS AND THIS GBA EMUALTOR ZX-81
#75, I'm not gonna flame you, since you gave constructive cristicism. Since you do sound like you know much programming and coding, you should take a shot behind the emulator making perspectives.
man people said the same thing about the TYL snes9x emulator.. not flaming any one but you got to give devs a sense of hope saying its no possable is not a good way of showing your hope maybe he'll use the ME CPU for the sound and make some other part of the cpu emulate the cache
Not saying it's not possible, just that a lot would have to be rewritten, to the point where the important parts of the emulator probably wouldn't resemble VBA anymore. I don't know who said things like this about SNES9xTYL, but this is in a whole different league. Just compare the minimum requirements of SNES9x on a PC with those of VBA.
The ME probably wouldn't be that much help because the direct sound channels in GBA require relatively high bandwidth communication between the CPU and the sound chip (it's stream), and most of the processing is done in the CPU, so the actual overhead for the digital sound emulation isn't that much. You could do the GBC audio channels on the ME, but that too wouldn't give you much benefit because it doesn't take much processing to emulate them. You might be able to do video on a separate processor, but the ME can't access VRAM, so to behave efficiently you'd probably have to put the main CPU execution on the ME and the video on the main processor. This is good for when the video isn't changing very much, however, if it's changing rapidly this would slow things down tremendously. The synchronization would also have to be pretty tight, to the scanline. I don't really know yet what kind of potential is there, but I do know that it wouldn't necessarily be easy to up and move this kind of code around.
I am using a 2.0 fireware with a 0.97 eloader. How do you get to work? It go's to the now loading then cuts the whole psp off.
I have 2.0 also but it doesnt work YET.
look, its obivious to me that you are trying to sound like you know what your talkin about....maybe you do...maybe you dont....but why dont you stop "trying" to sound like you know what your talkin about and put your money where your mouth is...and instead of just saying it wont work...why dont you make it work
that would be much better for the psp community and yourself to just do it and not say it....actions speak louder then words buddy
cuz if i knew anything think about coding...i would try instead of sayin that i know how to code...i would just do it
DOWNGRADE AND USE DEVHOOK!
There's absolutely nothing to lose.
And here's what you gain:
-All homebrew
-Easy to use homebrew
-All 2.0 and 2.5 features
@Exophase: You're right, i rewrote all from c++ to c, and i win 20% speed. that's not enough, and i the CPU emulation core should be rewritten, may be using direct MIPS ASM code ... It's a hard task, but not impossible.
@All: Thanks for your kind comments and support ...
Thanks zx-81 !
You're a god !
I really don't know why people place devs on some kind of pedistal calling them Gods, as far as I am concerned they are extremely talented people and that is how they should be described. I don't think that sort of god talk is going to help anyone and I feel no need to rub anyones ego.
Having said that, I am very excited to hear that ZX-81 is working on this particular emulator and I think he will put alot of effort into it.
I do think people have to be realistic though. Many seem to be expecting him to put out updates as frequently as his last emulators but I doubt this can happen. There is a huge difference between programming an emulator for the older systems when compared to something as powerful to emulate as a GBA.
>>> to Exophase
I see what you are saying and I never flame people because I think it does no good for the community. I think what you said was interesting and it would be excellent if you tried to make some changes to the source or helped Zx out in some way.
I have done basic programming before in Ada, C++ and VB but I am not active or at a level where I could help Zx in anyway, if you are then I think you should.
I am more excited about this emulator than I am about the N64 and I have 2 DS and a GBA!!
Excelent!! Now this is something with future! Not like n64 emulator! Tks zx-81! Keep the good work.
Yeah thats good but if you cram gameboy or gba games into a psp really hard you can play them.
:)
didnt get anything to work with this but still hot cant wait for future releases and lol would a ds emulator on psp be possible? arent the specs somewhat on par with a 64
Zx-81: How did going from C++ to C give you 20% speed? I'm skeptical that it wasn't something else that was doing it. VBA uses almost no C++ features to begin with, especially not in speed critical areas. From the looks of things most of what you did was unmangled some names so could you please explain to me how that gained you so much speed, when you're using GCC both before and after?
As far as the CPU emulation goes, even if you're a master at MIPS ASM you will probably only gain so much, MIPS doesn't even have flags. Now mind you, VBA's flags generation code is far from optimal (hint: you can generate all four in six instructions). Just the same, there's still a huge overhead in decoding for ARM. Interpretive emulation isn't the way to go.
To everyone else; No, I'm not going to work on a VBA port. I have good reasons that may or may not become clear sooner or later.
Damn, just when i get a little lss intrested in homebrew this news comes!!!. I hope he doesnt rush things and that this will rock everyones psp in a couple of weeks/months
because they all realized it was impossible?
Exophase: I think he means he just converted the C++ code of the VBA source to C which the PS2Dev SDK uses... I could be entirely be wrong though.
Translating c++ in C, permits to use gcc instead of g++, and to succeed to compile this emulator using better optimization ;) ... Even if you don't use OO programming, class and templates, c++ will be always equal or slower than pure C, because there are many implicit initializations and run-time checks that are not done in pure C ...
Zx.
cant wait untill this is running at full speed!
Whats the fps in final fantasy tactics? And Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories?
I said this also two weeks ago, but when i've seen that some games needn't fullspeed to be playable (on linux version), i've started to port VBA on my side
Zx.
i thougt that they gived up to make a better psp vba
AND NOW I AM VERY HAPPY WOHOOOO!!!!
@ Zx,
so are you saying you probs wont get it up to fulll speed then?
cool zx-81 is the only man who i trust to get something done
if we want the nintendo 64 emu to run this is the man we need !!!!
keep up the good work zx-81 you,re one of the few guys that its is wurth to donate some money to
cool zx-81 is the only man who i trust to get something done
if we want the nintendo 64 emu to run this is the man we need !!!!
keep up the good work zx-81 you,re one of the few guys that its is wurth to donate some money to
at last you attempting something good and look at the response, over one hundred well wishes,
you see thats all you had to do.... stop with the 30 year old emulators and start with something everyone wants,
nice work ZX81, keep it up! and you finally shut me up too!
I have been waiting so long for someone else to pick up the reigns to get this emulator going again. I want to thank ZX81 for stepping up to the plate for this hugely sought after emulator. You are the man ZX81!
By the way, I really think full speed emulation should be possible on this one because it should be very similar to the SNES hardware/software I would assume(even though technology has increased since the release of the SNES) Right now all the 16 bit consoles run at close to full speed without increasing the frame skip much on certain games so I think the Gameboy Advance Emulator will have just as much success if not more as the others.
Humho...
Best news I've seen on this site for over a year now ^^
Please keep it up :)
FINALLY! man.. this is as good as the Neo Geo Emulator, except this one will get better.
WoooOoooo Metal Slug advance!!!
Humho...
Best news I've seen on this site for over a year now ^^
Please keep it up :)
when ever i load a rom it just shows a big white screen and doesnt do any thing so if there is some thing i am missing out on plz help me i really love this and would like to try it out.
Nice 1 mate finaly workin on a good console, keep up the good work
i was wondering when someone would continue one of the gba emulators. thanks zx-81, for wasting your time with this!
though, it is worth it to wait for a version x.xxc if it can be accomplished. i'm a mario and wario ware kinda guy.
i hope you change tour mind and work on a GBA emu because you sound like you know so much about it, i bet it would be a good emulator.
what is a psp
they can get a n64 emulator running, but not a gba at its full speed.
i was gonna give up homebrew until this news came up.
Still angry about previous comment left to you for the Atari Emu - great to see you're picking this up! Still a relative newbie around here, but I love to see your name attached to any project - thanks again!
to #33
obviously nobody bothered to answer your rude ass , thiking you a moron, but in your blathering you had a question, what the screenshot was of. since it was obviously not a comercial rom, because pirating games is nix here, it must be a homebrew game someone spent time to make. pull your head out the ass and think.
yeah i know its lame to bother flamiing that dufus so far down the post, but it had to be said.
@Exophase: You did point out some issues (From what i know of programing i know a lot but not enough to actully program hoebrew) but like most ppl said here why not help with the project.
You don't have to code anything just give feed back to zx-81 im sure he would appriciate it, npt tp say the the whole psp community would finally have a GBA Emu running at Full Speed.
Well in the end its your choice to help or not but i stongly think you would be a good asset to this project and that zx-81 would apriciate your help.
@zx-81: Good job man don't give up im sure that you'll get this Emu up and running at FullSpeed real soon, and im sure that everyone agrees with the fact that this a great Emu and runs better then the other ones.
Thx for this one a keep up the good work!!