Old3ds : mGBA, GBARunner, OPEN_AGB_FIRM comparison?

StriderVM

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Hey everyone.

I have gotten out my Old 3DS out of the drawer for how many years has it been. (I think LumaCFW was brand new when I last used it)

So now I'm looking for advances that happened in the 3DS homebrew scene.

Back, the only reasonable solution for playing GBA games on 3DS was to use an injector to replace the ROMS in GBA games in Virtual Console. Which works, but is cumbersome because no direct ROM loading.

However, it seems today, there are three (supposedly) better solutions. mGBA, GBARunner and OPEN_AGB_FIRM.

Is there any direct comparisons of the three? Any suggestions? I can try experimenting with all three, but it will take a while, and I will appreciate any leads.

I'm starting with OPEN_AGB_FIRM because it seems to be the fastest with O3DS, mGBA might be too slow since it's pure software emulation? GBA Runner seems to be either too old or obsolete?
 
Coderman64

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Hey, I've tried all three (four, if you count the injector). I prefer open_agb_firm, but here's a bit about all three:

mGBA is, as you said, a pure software emulator and is a little too slow on my o3DS, but going the pure emulation route has advantages, like save states. If you want to do that, I'd recommend trying the gpSP core on RetroArch, which trades some accuracy for speed, though it still has some hiccups for me.

GBARunner and open_agb_firm use different techniques to achieve more or less the same thing: using the 3DS's native GBA hardware to play GBA games. GBARunner is older and better tested and may support more games, but it runs in DS mode, which causes some issues for me (particularly Nintendo's TWLBg bug, which means that the bottom of the screen glitches and repeats the same 8-pixel row over and over). It is also subject to the upscaling filter that the 3DS uses on DS games IN ADDITION to the filter used to upscale the GBA screen to the DS, making everything a little blurry.

Open_agb_firm, on the other hand, is a firmware module that runs on bare metal 3DS hardware, much like GodMode9. It's a little more complicated to install and launch because of this. I have it set up so I can launch either GM9 or open_agb_firm when holding select on 3DS boot. The interface is bare bones, and you have to restart the 3DS if you want to switch games (it is much faster without booting the 3DS home menu every time), but the games look good and run well.

GBARunner and open_agb_firm have some hardware-induced issues you might need to work around, but I haven't run into any with any of the games I've played.

hope this helps!
 
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Maximumbeans

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I personally vouch for OPEN_AGB_FIRM. Yeah, it's bare metal, so you lose a lot of potential functionality, but if you want to simply play GBA titles I consider it perfect. It's quick and responsive and it's about as close to just using a GBA as you can get, but with adjustable back lighting etc. I play with the bilinear scaling enabled and I think it looks brilliant, some don't like it but you always have the choice anyway :)
 
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Project68K

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Maximumbeans said:
I personally vouch for OPEN_AGB_FIRM. Yeah, it's bare metal, so you lose a lot of potential functionality, but if you want to simply play GBA titles I consider it perfect. It's quick and responsive and it's about as close to just using a GBA as you can get, but with adjustable back lighting etc. I play with the bilinear scaling enabled and I think it looks brilliant, some don't like it but you always have the choice anyway :)
Click to expand...
Not just close, it IS a GBA.
 
Maximumbeans

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Project68K said:
Not just close, it IS a GBA.
Click to expand...
Well I said it's about as close to use a GBA as you can get, by which I meant it's as close as possible without using an actual, physical GBA. I know the 3DS has the hardware architecture but with it being a different product, that's the distinction I meant. But yes, for all intents and purposes, it's the same thing.
 

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