New Prototype GCN GBA Link Cable Emulation Demo

[JMC47]

This is something shuffle2 has been working on and I've been pestering/testing. Higan is being used as the GBA emulator, and while it's core is fairly immature, jchadwick has been working on getting all the necessary games for GBA Link emulation working properly.

The video demonstrates a prototype build of both Dolphin and Higan, and it's very easy to crash one or both. Also, as you'll see, compatibility is still a little spotty. Some games work well enough to be played without much trouble, while others are completely unplayable altogether, but most end somewhere inbetween.

I more or less wanted to bring this to everyone's attention, because I think it's really, really cool. Do note there's some lag in the video because LLE audio + Higan + Dolphin + recording it all. That was annoying!

[Shonumi]

Awesome work. Doesn't matter if it's immature, I get the feeling it's going to be better than VBA-M one day

[mbc07]

Well, in current state it works with games like Wind Waker which is problematic with VBA-M, so, for me it's already better

[JMC47]

Yeah; compatibility is about double of that than VBA-M at this point. (2-3 games to about 5-6 working)

[Shonumi]

The only games I really want to see working well are SA:2 (because GBA Chaos are the best :p), Animal Crossing so I can get all of my Island themed furniture, and Wind Waker so I can waste money blowing myself up (I used to do that all the time to my friend when we played WW together over at his house).

In all seriousness, from the standpoint that emulators should preserve gaming experiences even as the original hardware itself fades, I can honestly say I'm really excited about this, even though the feature was severely under-utilized during both systems' lifespan. Sure it's pretty obscure, but I'm the type of person that sleeps better at night knowing it won't be lost to the ages. And Nintendo and others have shown no interest in emulating/preserving the majority of GBA <-> GCN games themselves so...

Next up, connect a DS emulator to Dolphin for DS <-> Wii communication

[JMC47]

Animal Crossing works.

[CryZENx]

cool even zelda four swords is working my favorite game all time

[daicon]

Another reason to hack the Wii U gamepad!

[Gir]

Would it make more sense to have a GBA emulator built into dolphin and also function like the Gameboy Player.

[AnyOldName3]

No, as that's a tonne of work, and there are already perfectly good (ish) gameboy emulators which people are far more likely to use than ours.