Though generally in circles like this if download links are down (and archive.org does not have anything) the last pages will be where the current links are at. Attached a version to the front page though and will probably play with the download section before too long. 10 Best GBA Emulator for Windows PC And Android (2020) Visual Boy Advance is completely free to use and supports all GB (GameBoy), GBC (GameBoy Color), and GBA (GameBoy Advance) ROMs. Supports every Gameboy Advance ROM; Joystick. The Game Boy Advance ROM Image is the ROM image (executable) format used mainly by emulators for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance console. Game Boy Advance ROM image Filename extension.gba Type ROM image Opens with Program::Game Boy Advance emulators Game Boy Advance File formats category - v.
higan requires various firmware files to emulate certain games.
Firmware can represent boot ROMs, BIOS ROMs, program ROMs, and data ROMs. It canrefer to both system firmware (contained inside game system hardware) and gamefirmware (contained inside components within game cartridges.)
higan only includes system firmware that is not subject to copyright law. Itdoes not include any game firmware, regardless of copyright status (althoughnearly all of it is copyrighted.)
System Firmware: Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance requires a 16KiB BIOS ROM. Many GBA emulators will utilizehigh-level emulation (HLE) to simulate the functions of the BIOS. But this inturn sacrifices accuracy, especially timing.
With higan’s primary goal being accuracy, this means it will only rely onlow-level emulation (LLE), which means the BIOS is absolutely required.
Upon attempting to load a GBA game in higan for the first time, you will receivea dialog message informing you that the GBA BIOS is missing, and where to placethe file. Once you have done this, higan will be able to play GBA games.
Game Firmware
Game firmware is present in components such as the SNES coprocessors (DSP-x,Cx4, ST-01x, SGB, etc.)
When importing games, icarus will first look for firmware appended to games,and failing that, scan the same directory of the game to locate externalfirmware files. If it cannot find them, then you will receive a dialog messageinforming you of the missing file and where to place it.
Only when firmware is appended to game ROMs will icarus be able to locate gamesin its internal database to provide bit-perfect memory mapping. The reason forthat limitation is explained below.
As game firmware is part of game cartridges themselves, they should be includedwith the game ROM images they apply to.
Unfortunately, the groups responsible for such things (eg No-Intro) do notagree, and they split the firmware files into separate archives. This causes alot of pain for anyone who cares about accuracy.
Roms Gameboy Advance
But here are some facts about game firmware:
Gameboy Advance Internet Archive
Game firmware is small
The DSP-n firmware weighs in at 8KiB. The Cx4 firmware at 3KiB.
Game firmware is unique
With the exception of the 8KiB DSP-1 (used in about ten games) and the 3KiB Cx4(used in two games), all of the SNES game firmware is unique.
For instance, the ST-010 firmware is only used in F1 Race of Champions II. TheST-011 firmware is only used in Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shougi. The ST-018firmware is only used in Hayazashi Nidan Morita Shougi 2. The Super Game Boyboot ROM is used only by the Super Game Boy.
This is because the actual firmware code is part of the game code itself: itoften has code that is exclusive to that specific game. Without the firmware,the game ROM is thus incomplete.
As unique firmware only exists within a single game, there are thus no spacesavings to be had by separating firmware from game ROMs.
Game firmware is required for identification
Take the case of the DSP-1. There were two revisions to this firmware. Theoriginal, and the DSP-1B.
SNES ROM images contain no indication of which revision of the DSP-1 to use. Andthis is a real problem: Pilotwings requires the DSP-1. Without it, the plane inthe opening will crash. Ballz 3D requires the DSP-1B. Without it, the game willlock up once a battle begins.
But it gets even worse: Super Mario Kart was released with both the DSP-1, andlater on, with the DSP-1B. But the main game ROM was not modified to reflect anychange.
The end result is that there exist two revisions of Super Mario Kart. If thefirmware is not included, then it is impossible to distinguish between these twoversions; and thus, it is impossible to preserve both revisions of this game.
Game firmware exists in multiple formats
Very early versions of the SNES coprocessor extractions were created withunnecessary padding bytes in the program ROM. After that, the earliest NEC uPDfirmware files were stored in big endian format.
For consistency and simplicity, the current NEC uPD firmware is stored in littleendian format with no padding bytes. Yet the old files still circulate online.
SNES coprocessors often have multiple pieces of firmware: for instance, the SNESDSP-n and ST-018 firmware contains both a program ROM and data ROM. Sometimes,the firmware is distributed with these two files merged into one. Other times,it is split into separate files.
Game firmware exists with multiple naming conventions
Gameboy Advance Rom Set Archive Organizer
Merged coprocessor firmware contains names such as dsp1.rom
Split coprocessor firmware contains names such as dsp1.program.rom anddsp1.data.rom
No-Intro stores the firmware as [BIOS] DSP1 (World).zip/[BIOS] DSP1 (World).bin
Yes, the 8KiB firmware is compressed, the name is needlessly repeated inside thearchive file, and for reasons that defy sanity — region codes are appended tothe names.
MAME … we won’t even talk about MAME. Suffice to say, they do thingsdifferently as well.
And this is just going to continue on like this, every time someone else comesalong and decides to name things differently. It’s impossible to predict all theendless variations that will eventually result if things continue this way. Andwithout predictability, emulators can’t utilize these files to provide betteremulation.
Due to all of the issues mentioned above, the best course of action for storinggame ROMs for preservation is to append the firmware to the end of the primarygame ROM files into one single image file. By doing this:
- the game ROM image files will be 100% complete, and contain all of the codeand data required to play them.
- cases such as Super Mario Kart’s alternate DSP-1 revisions will be possibleto represent and preserve.
- game ROMs will have exactly one checksum (hash) value. This allows the useof databases to identify the game information that cannot be storedinside ROM data; such as PCB layout and configuration, game title,peripherals used, etc.
- emulators will be freed from trying to guess what file names to locate forfirmware.
- emulators will be freed from trying to guess what file format thefirmware is stored in.
- emulators will be freed from looking from both merged and split firmwarestyles; both inside and outside of compressed archives.
- by including the firmware with the game, ROM hacks that seek to modify orimprove firmware will be able to patch games with eg a BPS patchfile. It’s not as extreme an idea as it might sound: there have alreadybeen experimental ROM hacks that have utilized custom Cx4 code made.
- it will remain possible to compress games into ZIP archives, or merge theminto solid archive 7zip archive sets, without interfering with how toprocess the firmware components.
- most importantly: emulators that care about accuracy and rely on LLEwill no longer be at a disadvantage to emulators that don’t and use HLEto simulate firmware instead.
The fears of doing this are overplayed:
- because game firmware is so small and so rare, it will not add much to gameset sizes. It would add roughly ~100KiB onto the ~4GiB of ROM data thatrepresents the SNES set compared to storing them separately. That’s anincrease of ~0.002%.
- compatibility will be maintained. The existing popular two SNES emulators,which have been discontinued for nine and five years respectively, stillload and play games even with firmware appended. They simply ignore theextra data.
So for these reasons, I would strongly advocate for groups like No-Intro toreconsider their position and move to appending game firmware to game ROM imagesinstead.
I would also encourage any future SNES emulator authors to adopt this format. Tothat aim, higan already supports (and works best with) this merged ROM format.