Game Boy/Advance/Emulators

This section will deal with emulators that you can get running on your handheld and shall be focused on emulation on the Gameboy Advance and DS. For actual emulation of the GBA and DS, check Emulation.

NES

• PocketNES - This is probably the most well known and highly regarded NES emu for the GBA and with good reason. No FDS support, the lack of a few (relatively unused) mappers and the unusual scaling mode (affects text in some RPGS but is better overall) are probably the biggest detractors. This modded version is produced by dwedit and has cheats and a few more mappers and tricks.
• HVCA/(formerly) Famicom Advanced - In the land of GBA code nes emulators pocketnes is king, lets just say this is a major threat to that position. FDS support (with diskrom.sys file) and in some respects a nicer scaling mode as well as more mappers than pocketnes makes for a damn fine emulator.

Usage section

The two best emulators for the NES are regarded as pocketnes and HVCA

Pocketnes usage

Regardless of what version of pocketnes you choose the same building methods should apply.

EZClient features a basic builder (replace the pocketnes file in the sysbin directory to update pocketnes) but the usual method involves using a builder, most are windows only but linux and dos variations exist.

The suggested builder is called PocketNES Menu Maker and is available from the pocketnes homepage. Extract the file and open the exe, it will look something like this

Click on options and choose the location of the files you need (the first three are essential), add roms to the directory (you may have to restart the program) you selected and hit make. Burn the output rom as usual.

HVCA usage

HVCA is slightly more complicated to use when compared to pocketnes but the advantages may soon become apparent. Note to use FDS titles the Famicom's disksys.rom file is required. NSF files are also supported with the newest versions. It is advised you use HVCA as a standalone emulator.

• Visit the homepage and click on the word AGB.

• Download "hvca-v1.0-bin.lzh"

• lzh is a type of compression, read this article for some suggestions for a decompressor or a simple search should bring one up.

• In the hvca directory create a subdirectory called "ADD".

• Add the nes, fds files and nsf files you wish to use into the newer made "ADD" folder. remember the FDS roms require the bios to run. This tends to be entitled diskrom.sys and there are several versions available.

• The .CFG files (located in the folder CFG) are essentially patches to enable certain roms to work. Add the ones necessary for your rom(s).

• there is a batch file called merge.bat, run this and select the options required. When it is finished add this to your cart in the usual manner.

Other Systems

Gameboy Advance

Until a decent section is up and running GBAfan is a good place to get infomation on emulators (and remakes of games) for the Gameboy Advance.

If you are just after a quick list of devices emulated well on GBA hardware there is a good PC engine emulator (with superCD support on the EZFlash III, Sega master system and Game gear emulators, a gameboy original/mono and recently a Colour version was made,NES emulators and a Sierra AGI emulator. (see GBAfan for links, you will also see a SNES emulator which does indeed have games that are playable with it but the GBA is not that fast so do not expect much from it.

A few other good pages:

Quirky's GBA Remakes

Flubba's homepage

DS

Included in this section will be any noteworthy ports as well as any emulators that come around.

DS emulation is no where near as advanced as the GBA but the increased power of the DS and the increased screen size will make the DS a thing to watch, some of the early emulators now being seen argueable surpass some of the GBA ones.

This is homebrew code so either use a EZManager 2.09final or above version or rename the extension .gba and burn making sure no patches are applied if you use a beta of EZManager 2.09 or EZClient. EZ4 users simply copy the rom that is made by the builder to your miniSD (if save support is availble you may have to run it through EZ4 Client beforehand (use a .gba extension unless told otherwise).

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Ports A fair few older games have been ported until this section gets updated here are a few:

Hexen

Heretic

Doom

see the left hand column of dc-emu for more ports and homebrew games.

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Before the list of emulators here are a few emulators that are approaching or have reached reasonable workability and will result in a playable game:

SNESDS A Super nintendo emulator with a fair few games working.

snezziboy DS This is a nice DS port of a new SNES emulator for the GBA. Better than SnesDS is many respects and getting better with every release.

nesDS A Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) (or famicom in Japan) emulator, nice features although lacking true save support (should you have a save from somewhere else and you have it in the SRAM it will work, no saves will be generated though).

Modified NesDS, save support and a few more features.

ScummVM DS Allows you to play Lucasarts' point and click adventure games such as Sam and Max. Works quite well with most fo the SCUMM games playable, see the link for a guide to getting all set up (make sure to use no compression on the zip you make).

GBAGI Allows you to play classic Sierra adventure games (Space Quest, Police Quest, Kings Quest, etc). Patch it with EZClient with "SRAM_TYPE" as the save type to enable savegame support.

Megadrive/genesis emulators (use 0.15 or above).

List of emulators adapted from a post by Normmatt

Arcade

MarcaDS

Space Invaders

Atari 2600

Stella DS

Chip- 8

nds-8

Colecovision

ColecoDS

Commodore64

FrodoDS

Dreamcast Visual memory unit

VirtuaMUnstaz DS

Gameking

Gamekengu

Gameboy/Gameboy Colour

DS_GBC

GameGear/Sega Master System

DSMS

Genesis/Megadrive

GPNDS (Proof of concept port suggets using the emulator below)

Megadrive/genesis emulator (running on EZFlash equipment since 0.15).

Minivmac

http://lazyone.drunkencoders.com/wordpress/index.php

Msx

Fmsx DS

Fmsx DS Modified

NeoGeo Pocket

NDS NeoPop

Nes

NesDS, There is a modifed version linked below you may find more useable.

Modified NesDS

Midori

NesterDS

RetroBox DS (still in closed beta)

ScummVM ScummVM DS

Unofficial ScummVM DS (now outdated)

Snes

SnesDS

snezziboy DS This is a nice DS port of a new SNES emulator for the GBA. Better than SnesDS is many respects.

Spectrum

DSpec

TI 85 Calculator

CalcEmu

Vectrex

VectxDS

Watari Supervision

Watari

Wonderswan

WonDerS

Normmmatt's updated version

DualSwan

WIP remake

The section above is complex and not much can be obtained using it so it is currently undergoing a rewrite to use a series of tables and link articles for usage into them. Here is a very early stage example of a redesign:

What follows is a colour coded table that intends to give you information Click on the name of the console/device/system/program you are interested in for an article containing discussion on the console/device/system/program, information on the methods available to run the code and usage instructions for it.

Flawless or better

Playable

Not Available/Not playable

Noteworthy options

System	GBA	DS	Notes
GB(C)	*	*
NES	*	*
SNES	*	*
Megadrive/Genesis	*	*
Gamegear	*	*
Master System	*	*
ScummVM	*	*
PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16	*	*
WonderSwan	*	*
Amstrad 6128	*	*
Amstrad CPC	*	*
Sierra AGI	*	*
Atari 2600	*	*
System	GBA	DS	Notes
BBC micro	*	*
Chip 8	*	*
Colecovision	*	*
MSX	*	*
Sharp X1	*	*
Spectrum	*	*
Watara Supervision	*	*
Commodore64	*	*
Dreamcast VMU	*	*
Gameking	*	*
Macintosh	*	*
NeoGeo Pocket	*	*
System	GBA	DS	Notes
TI 85 Calculator	*	*
Vectrex	*	*
Ports
Wolfenstein3d	*	*
Lemmings	*	*
Arcade	*	*
Wolf3d	*	*
Doom	*	*
Hexen	*	*
Heretic	*	*
Elite	*	*
Duke Nukem	*	*