VisualBoyAdvance

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VisualBoyAdvance
VisualBoyAdvance icon
Design by Forgotten
Developed by VBA Team
Latest release 1.7.2 / May 25, 2004
Preview release 1.8.0 beta 3 / October 1, 2005
OS Cross-platform
Genre Emulator
License GNU General Public License
Website http://vba.ngemu.com/

VisualBoyAdvance (commonly abbreviated as VBA) is a free emulator[1] 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, VisualBoyAdvance is the most popular such emulator for Windows.

Besides the DirectX version for the Windows platform, there is also one that is based on the free platform independent graphics library SDL. This is available for a variety of operating systems like Linux,[2] BSD, Mac OS X,[3] and BeOS.

Contents

[edit] History

The VisualBoyAdvance project was started by Forgotten.[4] When he left the development of the emulator, the project was handed over to a team named VBA Team, led by hacker kxu. Work on the emulator has mostly ceased, though a team of hackers has assembled to code a version of the emulator named VBA-M[1], which adds all features and fixes from different independently developed branches in a single release.

[edit] Features

It includes these features:

  • Full save game state support
  • Joystick support
  • Game Boy Printer emulation
  • Super Game Boy border support
  • Realtime IPS patching (used mostly to play fan translations)
  • Hacking tools, including loggers, viewers and editor
  • Auto-fire support
  • Speed up button
  • Full GamesharkAdvance and CodeBreakerAdvance support
  • GBA debugger in the SDL version
  • Import battery files from other emulators
  • Export battery files to other emulators
  • Sound recording
  • Graphic filters to enhance display: 2xSaI, Super 2xSaI, Super Eagle, AdvanceMAME, Pixelate and Motion Blur
  • Full screen support
  • Screen capture
  • Skin support

[edit] Reception

Retro Gamer called VBA "without a doubt the best GBA emulator available".[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Visual Boy Advance. The Emulator Zone.
  2. ^ VisualBoyAdvance-SDL. The Linux Game Tome.
  3. ^ VisualBoyAdvance 1.7.2. Softonic.
  4. ^ Visual Boy Advance. NGEmu.
  5. ^ "Retro Coverdisc" (2005). Retro Gamer (15): 108. 

[edit] External links

Free software Portal
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Video games Portal
  • VBALink features multiplayer link cable support and 4-player LAN connection added to VBA emu. This is more impressive given the original authors insistence [2] that it couldn't, for all intents and purposes, be done.
  • 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.
  • VBA-M Has all the addons and fixes from all the various different VBA forks merged all into one easy-to-use emulator.