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Game Boy Advance emulators

1,912 bytes added, 12:53, 27 May 2019
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The screen on the original Game Boy Advance is not backlit and can be hard to see in some conditions. To compensate, game developers often used oversaturated colors by default so that the result would look normal on hardware. On standard computer screens, saturation is not an issue so this can look jarring and undesirable for gameplay. Some games made after 2003 may have also taken the Game Boy Advance SP <abbr title="AGS-001">model</abbr> into account since its screen was actually <abbr title="A newer model, AGS-101, was released in 2005 that was actually backlit">frontlit</abbr>. For everything else though, emudevs have given some solutions:
====No$GBAEmulator Options===='''No$GBA:''' Under "Emulation Options", select "GBA Mode". There are four modes.
;* '''GBA (no backlight):''' Strong desaturation;* '''GBA SP (backlight):''' Strong desaturation;* '''Nintendo DS in GBA mode:''' Some desaturation;* '''VGA Mode (poppy bright):''' No desaturation
===='''VBA-M====:''<small>': Only applies to Windows.</smallUnder Options >''Gameboy, you will find the options:
Under Options > * '''"Real Colors":''' No desaturation* '''"Gameboy, you will find the optionsColors":''' Strong desaturation
;"Real Colors"'''higan:No desaturation;''' Under Settings > Video Filter, you will find the "Gameboy ColorsColor Emulation":Strong desaturationcheckbox.
====higan====Under Settings > Video Filter, you will find the "Color Emulation" checkbox. ;* '''Color Emulation off:''' No desaturation;* '''Color Emulation on:''' Gamma correction and adjusted color range.
====Shaders====
There is also <code>nds-color.cg</code><ref>https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders/blob/master/handheld/shaders/color/nds-color.cg</ref> and <code>psp-color.cg</code><ref>https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders/blob/master/handheld/shaders/color/psp-color.cg</ref>, which simulates the color profiles of the original Nintendo DS frontlit screen and the PSP-1000/PSP-2000 backlit screen, respectively.
 
===Horrible Sound Quality===
As a handheld rushed to the market (because of the WonderSwan Color competition), the Game Boy Advance had some cut corners. The sound hardware was affected the hardest: while it could play Game Boy Color sound in addition to samples and sequenced music like what would be heard on the SNES, the actual sound playback quality is awful compared to the actual higher quality sound samples stored internally in the ROM.
 
There were [https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/881/ tools] made to extract the internal high quality music (as midi files plus a sound font, to be played on foobar2000), however interest remains limited in implementing its playback in real time on emulators. It's worth noting it exists as a very experimental feature on [[mGBA]] (nightly versions) under Enhancements as "XQ GBA Audio", but very buggy and still limited to games using the standard sound engine, the so-called "Sappy" engine, which is still a big part of the GBA's software library.
 
===High Resolution Affine Transformation Graphical Effects===
Similar to the scaling effects used on the Super NES known commonly as "Mode 7" graphics, the Game Boy Advance has affine transformation effects for some backgrounds and individual sprites that can be done in hardware. Due to the GBA's lower resolution, some detail may be lost.
 
The [[mGBA]] emulator (nightly versions) added an Enhancements menu where you can change the resolution of those graphical effects, for a smoother effect. The graphical render engine will need to be OpenGL for those to take effect. It won't work on games where those effects are done in software instead of the hardware scaling features (like the 3D environment in Asterix & Obelix XXL)
===Save formats===
* '''Figurine Add-on:''' Legendz: Isle Of Trials, Legendz: Sign Of Necromu, Plaston Gate ([http://www.advanscene.com/html/Releases/dbreleases.php?id=1020 Fix]), Plaston Gate DX ([http://www.advanscene.com/html/Releases/dbreleases.php?id=2006 Fix]). The add-on is essentially Skylanders before it became popular.
===Glucoboy===An obscure medical peripheral designed to monitor a child's blood glucose levels [[mGBA]] (dev channel only) and reward them for keeping tabs on their condition. No known emulator supports this so far, especially given [[GBE+]] partially support the niche nature of this accessory. Not to mention that [https://assemblergames.com/threads/glucoboyadd-on used for-gameboy-is-this-the-rarest-game-accessory-for-gameboy-advance.41853/page-2 Bayer Healthcare destroyed all unsold stock] making it hard to findLegendz series.
===BattleChip Gate===
[[mGBA]] (dev channel only) and [[GBE+]] partially support this add-on.
 
===Glucoboy===
* '''Glucoboy:''' An obscure medical peripheral designed to monitor a child's blood glucose levels and reward them for keeping tabs on their condition. No known emulator supports this so far, especially given the niche nature of this accessory. Not to mention that [https://assemblergames.com/threads/glucoboy-for-gameboy-is-this-the-rarest-game-accessory-for-gameboy-advance.41853/page-2 Bayer Healthcare destroyed all unsold stock] making it hard to find.
==References==
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