VisualBoyAdvance

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VisualBoyAdvance
The interface of the VisualBoyAdvance emulator
Developer:	Forgotten and the VBA Team
Latest release:	1.7.2 / May 25, 2004
Preview release:	1.8.0 beta 3 / October 1, 2005
OS:	Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, BeOS
Use:	Emulator
License:	GPL
Website:	http://vba.ngemu.com/

The VisualBoyAdvance (also known as VBA for short) is a free software emulator distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It emulates software targeted for the Game Boy, Super Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. As of 2006, the VisualBoyAdvance is the most popular such emulator for Microsoft Windows, and is one of the most widely-distributed Game Boy-compatible emulators.

[edit] Info

The VisualBoyAdvance project was started by Forgotten, but was discontinued by him and the project was overtaken by a team now referred to as the VBA Team. The VBA Team is currently understaffed and needs contributors. As a result of this the project has slowed dramatically, though the decrease in demand for GBA emulation could be because of newer consoles.

[edit] Features

It includes these features:

• Save game state at any point
• Joystick support
• Speed up button
• Gameboy Printer emulation
• Gameboy GB, SGB, GBC and GBC on GBA emulation types (GBA on NDS is NOT supported.)
• SGB border support
• Auto-fire support
• Translation enabled (for emulator only[translations for games can be obtained through IPS patches which are NOT illegal])
• Hacking capabilities, including search engine, Gameboy Gameshark and GameGenie support.
• GamesharkAdvance and CodeBreakerAdvance support
• GBA debugger in the SDL version Linux, Windows and BeOS (SDL version)
• Import Gameshark Game Saves, codes, etc...
• Import battery files from other emulators
• Export battery files to other emulators
• Sound recording
• Graphic filters to enhance display: 2xSaI, Super 2xSaI, Super Eagle, Pixelate and Motion Blur
• Full screen support
• Screen capture (through menu or configured key)
• Enhanced Skin engine

Note that Gameshark codes can only work sometimes, as Gameshark codes only affect(This is the most often case) a file with an basic name identical to the original game.

[edit] External links

• VBALink features multiplayer link cable support and 4-player LAN connection added to VBA emu. This is more impressive given the original authors insistence [1] that it couldn't, for all essential purposes, be done. The official link (vbalink.wz.cz) cannot be added because it is on wikipedia's spam blacklist. See this discussion for more details.
• kode54's VBA features a new LCD color mode, and a new audio interpolation algorithm, among other things.
• VBA Smooth has better frame skipping, and supports plugins designed for Kega Fusion, among other things.
• VBA with re-recording facilitates the creation of tool-assisted speedruns.
• VisualBoyAdvanceED has enhanced debugging capabilities.
• VBA-H adds debugging capabilities, as well.
• Spacy's VBA features hq2/3/4x interpolation, among other things.