VisualBoyAdvance#VisualBoyAdvance-M

{{Short description|Emulator for the Game Boy handheld game consoles}}

{{Infobox software

| name = VisualBoyAdvance

| logo = Image:VisualBoyAdvance.png

| author = Forgotten (alias)

| developer = VBA Team

| latest_release_version = 1.7.2 (Windows)
1.7.1 (Linux, BeOS)
1.7.4 (Mac)

| programming language = C, C++

| latest_preview_version = 1.8.0 beta 3

| latest_release_date = {{Release date and age|2004|5|25}}

| latest_preview_date = {{Release date and age|2005|10|1}}

| operating_system = Cross-platform

| genre = Console emulator

| license = GPL-2.0-or-later

| size = 1.4 MB - 1.92 MB

| language = English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish, Turkish (v.1.7 and above, for Windows only)

| repo = {{URL|https://sourceforge.net/projects/vba/}}

}}

{{Infobox software

| name = VisualBoyAdvance-M

| logo = Image:VisualBoyAdvance.png

| author = Forgotten et al.

| developer = VBA-M Development Team

| latest_release_version = 2.1.11{{cite web | url=https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/visualboyadvance-m/releases | title=Releases · visualboyadvance-m/Visualboyadvance-m | website=GitHub }}

| latest_release_date = {{Start date and age|2024|09|15|df=yes}}

| latest_preview_version =

| latest_preview_date =

| operating_system = Cross-platform

| genre = Console emulator

| license = GPL-3.0

| website = https://www.visualboyadvance-m.org

| size =

| language =

| repo = {{URL|https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/visualboyadvance-m}}

}}

VisualBoyAdvance (commonly abbreviated as VBA) is a free emulator of the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance handheld game consoles{{cite web|url=http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/gba/vboyadvance.html|title=Visual Boy Advance|publisher=The Emulator Zone}} as well as of Super Game Boy and Super Game Boy 2. It is still downloadable to this day.{{Cite web |title=Visual Boy Advance Download - VBA Emulator |url=https://visualboyadvance.org/download/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Visual Boy Advance |language=en-US}}

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 including Linux,{{cite web|url=http://www.happypenguin.org/show?VisualBoyAdvance-SDL|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530084911/http://www.happypenguin.org/show?VisualBoyAdvance-SDL|url-status=usurped|archive-date=May 30, 2012|title=VisualBoyAdvance-SDL|date=15 February 2019|publisher=The Linux Game Tome}} BSD, Mac OS X,{{cite news|url=http://visualboyadvance.en.softonic.com/mac|title=VisualBoyAdvance 1.7.2|newspaper=Softonic}} and BeOS. VisualBoyAdvance has also been ported to AmigaOS 4, AROS, GameCube, Wii, webOS, and Zune HD.{{cite web|url=http://code.google.com/p/vba-wii|title=Visual Boy Advance GX|date=18 February 2022|publisher=Google Code}}

History

The VisualBoyAdvance project was started by a developer under the online alias "Forgotten".{{cite web|url=http://forums.ngemu.com/visualboy-advance-discussion/|title=Visual Boy Advance|publisher=NGEmu|access-date=2009-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091217071710/http://forums.ngemu.com/visualboy-advance-discussion/|archive-date=2009-12-17|url-status=dead}}{{Better source needed|date=May 2020}} When this person left the development of the emulator, the project was handed over to a team named "VBA Team", led by Forgotten's brother. Development on the original VisualBoyAdvance stopped in 2004 with version 1.8.0 beta 3, and a number of forked versions were made by various developers in the years since then, such as VisualBoyAdvance-M.

VBA was a crucial component of Twitch Plays Pokémon, a social experiment in which thousands of button inputs collected from the viewership of the streaming website Twitch were fed into an emulated version of Pokémon Red.{{Cite web |last=Statt |first=Nick |date=2014-03-01 |title=Twitch Plays Pokemon conquers Elite Four, beating game after 390 hours |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/twitch-plays-pokemon-conquers-elite-four-beating-game-after-390-hours/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301190208/http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57619740-93/twitch-plays-pokemon-conquers-elite-four-beating-game-after-390-hours/ |archive-date=2014-03-01 |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=CNET |publisher=CBS Interactive}}{{Cite web |last=McWhertor |first=Michael |date=2014-02-14 |title=How Twitch is crowd-sourcing an amazing Pokémon multiplayer game |url=https://www.polygon.com/2014/2/14/5411790/twitch-plays-pokemon-creator-interview-twitchplayspokemon |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Polygon}}{{Cite journal |last=St. Clair |first=Michael |date=December 2015 |title=Twitch Plays Pokemon, MarI/O, Dreeps |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1774950911 |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=702–706 |doi=10.1353/tj.2015.0112 |s2cid=194408732 |id={{ProQuest|1774950911}} |via=ProQuest}} Viewers typed commands into the chat function, which was then fed into the VBA emulator via an IRC bot. They succeeded after 16 days of continuous play, with a peak concurrent viewership of 121,000 and over 1.1 million unique participants.{{Cite web | url = http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/03/twitch-prevails-at-pokemon/ | title = Victory! The Thundershock Heard Around the World | author = Chase | publisher = Twitch | date = 1 March 2014 | access-date = 1 March 2014 | archive-date = 5 March 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140305005717/http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/03/twitch-prevails-at-pokemon/ | url-status = dead }}

VisualBoyAdvance-M

VisualBoyAdvance-M, or simply VBA-M, is an improved fork from the inactive VisualBoyAdvance project,{{cite web |author=Brendan Hesse |url=https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/best-emulators/ |title=The best console emulators (NES, SNES, Genesis, and more) |language=en |website=Digital Trends |date=2020-11-23 |accessdate=2021-01-06}} adding several features as well as maintaining an up-to-date codebase. After VisualBoyAdvance became inactive in 2004, several forks began to appear such as VBALink, which allowed users to emulate the linking of two Game Boy devices. Eventually, VBA-M was created, which merged several of the forks into one codebase. Thus, the M in VBA-M stands for Merge.{{Cite web|title=VBA-M (Archived - Now on Github)|url=https://sourceforge.net/projects/vbam/|access-date=2020-10-18|website=SourceForge|date=10 February 2018 |language=en}} VBA-M is backwards compatible with Game Boy and Game Boy Color.{{cite web|url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/482361/how_to_emulate_the_game_boy_game_boy_advance_on_your_pc.html|title=How to Emulate the Game Boy/Game Boy Advance on Your PC|first=Alex|last=Garnett|date=September 1, 2011|website=PC World|access-date=September 26, 2022}}

VBA-M's GBA emulation core was ported into RetroArch/Libretro, without the GB, GBC and SGB cores.https://github.com/visualboyadvance/vbam-libretro {{Dead link|date=February 2022}} as well as a modified version called VBA-Next.{{cite web |url=https://github.com/libretro/vba-next |title = GitHub - libretro/vba-next: Optimized port of VBA-M to Libretro.|website = GitHub|date = 21 December 2021}}

VBA-GX is a port of VBA-M to Nintendo Wii. It enables motion controls for emulated Game Boy Advance games.{{Cite book |last=Custodio |first=Alex |title=Who Are You? Nintendo's Game Boy Advance Platform |publisher=MIT Press |year=2020 |isbn=9780262360463 |location=United States |pages=164–166}}

Reception

The VisualBoyAdvance became the most popular GBA emulator for the Unix platform{{cite book |last1=Kohler |first1=Chris |title=Retro gaming hacks |date=2006 |publisher=O'Reilly |isbn=9781449303907 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fz8lndvLhJQC |access-date=15 September 2022}} and the emulator contributed "greatly" to the late years of GBA game development by providing a suite of development and visual debugging tools for developers who wanted to create games that surpassed even Nintendo's own.{{cite book |last1=O'Donnell |first1=Casey |title=Developer's dilemma: the secret world of videogame creators |date=2014 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=9780262028196 |page=241 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_OkBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA241 |access-date=15 September 2022}} A port from VBA's code was used as the foundation of the Visual Boy Zune, an emulator of the Zune HD.{{cite web|url=https://www.engadget.com/2010-05-11-visual-boy-zune-brings-game-boy-emulation-to-zune-hd-video.html|title=Visual Boy Zune brings Game Boy emulation to Zune HD (video)|first=Sean|last=Hollister|website=Engadget|date=May 11, 2010|access-date=September 26, 2022}}

Wesley Akkerman from the Dutch computer magazine Computer!Totaal named the VisualBoyAdvance as one of the best Game Boy emulators alongside the mGBA, owing to its variety of features and customization options.{{cite web|language=Dutch|url=https://computertotaal.nl/artikelen/apps-software/de-beste-pc-emulators-voor-de-gameboy-advance/|first=Wesley|last=Akkerman|title=De beste GBA-emulators voor pc|date=March 18, 2022|website=Computer!Totaal|access-date=September 26, 2022}} In a review on the tech blog Techilife, VisualBoyAdvance has been named the oldest and most reliable Game Boy Advance emulator and has been praised for its ease of use.{{cite web|url=https://www.techilife.com/a-complete-review-on-gba-emulators-for-android-windows-pc/|title=A Complete Review On GBA Emulators For Android & Windows PC|first=Alex|last=Joshua|date=June 10, 2020|website=Techilife|access-date=September 26, 2022}}

Features

VisualBoyAdvance has many features that would require more work to do on the actual GBA. VisualBoyAdvance supports Fullscreen support, can take advantage of cheat codes from Gameshark and Action Replay, and can take screenshots while playing the game.{{Cite web |title=How to Load Cheats on VBA |url=https://visualboyadvance.org/how-to-load-cheats/ |access-date=2024-06-18 |website=Visual Boy Advance |language=en-US}} Many players would also like to find the ability to customize graphics for a better performance than what was possible on the GBA.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDT0m3WN-ac |title=Best Visual Boy Advance Settings |date=2021-09-08 |last=Justinforsure |access-date=2024-06-18 |via=YouTube}}