Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

So I noticed the only guide to using Gamecube GBA Link Cable emulation on this forum was made years ago. So I decided to make one that I will hopefully keep up to date as new versions of VBA-M are released and switch over to mGBA when it supports Gamecube GBA Link Cable Emulation.


For starters, you are going to need a few things to get you started:

1. A build of Dolphin preferably a developmental build that is at least in sync with the progress reports. You can get builds here http://dolphin-emu.org/download/ (I mean, what else would you use as a Gamecube emulator anyways.)
   
2. The latest version of VBA-M. Here is all the versions, get which one matches your operating system.
   https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/vi...-64bit.zip (Windows)
   https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/vi...-64bit.zip (Mac OS)
   https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/vi...m/releases (General releases for when I don't have time to update the direct downloads. Dolphin is only a 64 bit application so make sure to only download 64 bit VBA-M)
   https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/vi...yadvance-m (Link to main Github page for instructions on compiling on Linux or if you so choose to compile from source code yourself)
   
3. The GBA Bios file. If you don't have one you can dump it yourself from your own GBA. There are multiple ways to do this and I'm terrible at explaining that type of stuff so unfortunately you are going to have to google some guides on it. If anyone who knows how and can explain it clearly for a reader with no experience in this then by all means tell me how you would explain it and I will add it here.
   For reference its file size is 16KiB and here is the proper checksum value for the file https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.php...=23&n=xB02.
   DO NOT ASK WHERE TO FIND THIS ONLINE OR FOR ANY OTHER SOURCE THAT ISN'T YOUR OWN GAME BOY ADVANCE AT ALL. THIS IS A BREACH OF THE DOLPHIN FORUM'S RULES AND WILL RESULT IN YOU BEING BANNED FROM THE FORUMS. I AM EVEN GOING TO MAKE THIS NICE AND BIG SO ANYONE WHO SOMEHOW DIDN'T KNOW CAN SEE THIS AND UNDERSTANDS THIS.
   
4. A Dolphin game that actually uses the GBA Link Cable. Here is a guide on how to dump Gamecube and Wii discs http://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?ti...ping_Games.
   GOING TO SAY THIS AGAIN, DO NOT ASK WHERE TO FIND THIS ONLINE OR FOR ANY OTHER SOURCE THAT ISN'T YOUR OWN GAMECUBE DISC. YOU WILL BE BANNED.
   
5. Two controllers, one for Dolphin, one for VBA-M. It can be any way you want to play the game just as long as they are two different controllers for the emulators. You can even use keyboard for VBA-M if you do not have another controller lying around.
   

Once you have all of these things, you are ready to get started.

1. Set up Dolphin. Make sure your controller is mapped correctly and your graphics settings are set to whatever you want/need to run the game.
   
2. In Dolphin, go to Controllers and set whatever controller ports you want the Gamecube GBA Link Cable to be connected to as GBA. Set multiple ports for multiple GBAs to be linked.
   
3. Set up VBA-M. Again setup the controller and other settings however there is a few things everyone needs to make sure are set right in the settings. Here is the list:
   In the Emulation settings, Skip Bios must be off.
   In the Emulation settings, Pause when inactive must be off.
   In Options > Link > Type and set it to Nothing.
   In Options > Link and turn on Local mode and Link at boot.
   In Options > Game Boy Advance Use BIOS file must be on.
   In Options > Game Boy Advance > Configure... Go to Boot ROM and set the directory to the Bios file.
   
4. Run the Gamecube game you want to use the GBA Link Cable on in Dolphin. Make sure VBA-M is closed.
   
5. Open VBA-M and go to Options > Link > Type and set it to Gamecube.
   
6. In VBA-M, go to File > Open and open the Bios file.
   
7. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for however many GBAs linked to the Gamecube (max is three, don't go over).
   
8. Then do whatever you need to do in the Gamecube game to cause the link to occur and you will be linked.
   

There are a few things to note when doing GBA Link Cable Emulation (Will test this to see what still holds true for version 2.1.4 of VBA-M, give me a day or two I'm busy):

• It might take a couple tries. For example in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, sometimes the Tingle Tuner won't say your linked even though VBA-M is open. Just keep pressing connect, or whatever option you use in the Gamecube game until it connects.
  
• It's going to kill the framerate during initial connection. This is normal so don't worry if the framerate tanks in Dolphin during connection. However you are definitely going to need to not be at max graphics in Dolphin since you are running two emulators at once.
  
• SAVE BEFORE YOU DO IT. I don't know how many times I did something in Wind Waker only to lose all the progress because Tingle decided he was going to fail to connect and take Dolphin down with him.
  
• DON'T CLOSE VBA-M UNTIL YOU SAVE IN THE GAMECUBE GAME (NOT SAVESTATE, SAVE). Unlike in real life, once Dolphin and VBA-M are linked, they are linked permanently. When you close VBA-M only or vice-versa, the other emulator freezes completely. This is because A) Gamecube GBA Link Cable emulation isn't perfect yet, and B) VBA-M is just an okay GBA emulator in today's standards. There is nothing you can do about it for now so don't bug the developers about this. *I may have a solution to this but it's based on my own personal experience.*
  
• When reopening VBA-M for a latter session, make sure to go to Options > Link > Type and set it to nothing before loading the GBA BIOS.
  

(Again, give me a day to fact check this with VBA-M 2.1.4)
And that's pretty much it. I want to mention two more things though. I found that I had a much higher success rate in connecting when Synchronous Ubershaders were on. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not but since you are going to have to lower your graphics settings anyways and probably not play in fullscreen since you need to be able to see VBA-M, it wouldn't hurt to try Synchronous Ubershaders. Also turning Dolphin and VBA-M's V-Sync off seems to let me escape an entire lockup of Dolphin if a failed GBA connection occurs. This means I just close and reopen the GBA Bios and try again.

Also, on an unrelated note, if you want to use a GBA emulator to play GBA games I strongly recommend to not use VBA-M as your main GBA emulator. VBA-M, to put it simply, is not as accurate as an emulator called mGBA. Although mGBA is currently on version 0.8.0 it already boasts better accuracy than VBA-M and can run on a lot of average level PCs. And eventually (at worst version 1.0) it will at least attempt to support Gamecube GBA Link Cable emulation (obviously Dolphin also has to support this but considering they used mGBA to see if an emulation bug was Dolphin's fault or VBA-M's fault (source: https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?t...Adventures) I don't see why they would oppose that). You can get the latest versions of mGBA here https://mgba.io/downloads.html.


(Give me a day to re-add pictures updated to fit the latest version of VBA-M)

Good morning. i have a question. Whenever I have connect when booted vba crashes how can i fix this? i am trying to play four swords adventure. Maybe there is another way to connect vba to dolphin??