Revision as of 19:09, 10 August 2023 by Lily (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by Lily (talk) to last revision by Ihaveahax)
The Nintendo 3DS can play GBA games through several methods, both natively and through emulation.
Comparison of methods
In order of most to least recommended.
open_agb_firm
- Runs natively, not via emulation (100% compatibility, but no cheats, fast-forward, etc)
- Must be booted from chainloader (by holding START on boot), like GodMode9
- Has a file manager that allows you to select a ROM
- Streaming, 3DS HOME Menu, etc. are inaccessible while a game is running
- Saves are much easier to move
- Lacks a user interface for configuring settings such as brightness (A text editor must be used to change the config file)
- Still under active development
Virtual Console (VC) injects
- Run natively, not via emulation (same caveats as above)
- Must manually be created using a PC program (Windows-only, abandoned by dev)
- Each game has its own separate icon on the HOME Menu
- Streaming, 3DS HOME Menu, etc. are inaccessible while a game is running
- Saves are a pain to backup and restore (requires GodMode9 and multiple reboots for each save)
mGBA
- A full emulator, which means that it has fast-forward, cheats, save states
- Performance isn't perfect, especially on old 3DS
- Not compatible with all games, but may have higher compatibility with ROM hacks that are not designed to run on actual GBA hardware
- Runs in 3DS mode, so you can stream it or use the HOME Menu while it's running
- Has a ROM picker
- Saves are easy to manage
- Supports additional hardware features, such as accelerometer (for WarioWare: Twisted!) and camera (for Game Boy Camera)
GBARunner2
- A middle-ground between emulation and native * it's basically the worst of both worlds, still no emulator features, but some games are incompatible or have issues
- Included with TWiLightMenu++
- Has a ROM picker
- Streaming, 3DS HOME Menu, etc. are inaccessible while a game is running
- Saves are easy to manage
Overview table
| Feature | open_agb_firm | VC Injects | mGBA | GBARunner2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games run natively | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | △ |
| Runs full speed on Old3DS | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Retail game compatibility | ✓ | ✓ | △ | △ |
| Homebrew/ROM hack compatibility
(For things not intended to run on official hardware) |
△ | △ | ✓ | △ |
| Runs from HOME Menu | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drag-and-drop / ROM picker | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cheats, fast-forwarding,
save states |
✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Motion sensor support | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Easy save file access from SD | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wireless streaming via NTR
(New3DS only) |
✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Under active development | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ? |