Gameboy Emulator Released for PSP

HelloGamer writes "The first real Gameboy emulator has just been released for the PSP. It currently only works with the Japanese 1.0 PSP and doesn't have sound support - but it's amazing how quickly these homebrew apps are being developed."

Comments

Gameboy emulator widens appeal

[johnamus]

I'm going to buy one of these PSP's solely to play gameboy games!

Re:Gameboy emulator widens appeal

[jericho4.0]

If you expect linux-on-a-DS to be anything more than a geeky proof of concept, you might want to hold off on buying one. Unfortunately, the DS is pretty underpowered, IIRC, it doesn't even have the power to decode mp3's in realtime....Still, the porting effort is coming along nicely, and the price is right. I'm waiting for linux-on-a-PSP, myself.

On that note, I've become convinced that the folks behind psp-linux.org are fools or scammers. Their posts in the forum show a deep lack of skills/knowledge (they thought they could start by hacking on debian-mips/had no knowledge of Magic Gate), they say "only a small minority is qualified for this project" (you have to apply to contribute), and they keep asking for donations to get the work done faster. I've posted some (polite) criticism on these points, and had my posts deleted.

These guys seem to be the ones to watch.

Thanks for the crap blog link editors!

[garcia]

Thanks for linking to a crap blog. Let's try for some real content: PS2Dev Forum and the PSP Hacker link which contains two QT movies.

Re:Yes, but...

[ZephyrXero]

Their working on it...

Copy of the original message at ps2dev (sic)

[News for nerds]

Author: Amaterasu
Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 8:57 am
Post subject: The first GB emulator for PSP was released!

Message:
Ladies and gentlemen, hello. I am Japanese who one of the PSP fans.
GB emulator for PSP was released by Mr. MIRAKICHI in 2ch that was
the most famous forum in Japan a little while ago.

It links with the file.
http://psp.holybell.to/uploader/upload/gbemu1.zip
screen shot
http://psp.holybell.to/uploader/upload/PICT0791.jp g

Please rename a GAME ROM to ROM.GB and put it to the same folder as EBOOT.PBP. In the firm only version 1.00, operation is confirmed.
Please enjoy it!!!

Nintendo Industry American Association?

[aussie_a]

So how long until the NIAA goes after PSP users for being criminals?

It's crazy enough to just might work.

Re:Quickly?

[MyDixieWrecked]

it's only been about a week or two since a method for running code was discovered. I don't even think an API has been fully created or the memory map fully um, mapped out.

anyway, I already upgraded mine to the 1.5 firmware, but my friend didn't, yet, so I'm gonna have to try this. now to figure out what game is worth playing.

Nice!

[georgep77]

Sony should be encouraging "home brew" apps for the PSP as much as possible. I believe that much of the early success of the Palm Pilot was due to the community of developers that flocked to the device.

There are *free* roms available for GBA so I guess the GBA emulator isn't TOTALLY copywrite infringment facilitating software.... :-)

Cheers,
_GP_

Re:Nice!

[r_benchley]

Sony could give a rat's ass about the homebrew market. If it sells a few more units, they would be pleased, but they need people to buy games. Palm actually made money when they sold their PDAs, so things like homebrew software was a great selling point. Sony (and other video game hardware makers) lose money on the console and generate profits from game royalties. The Dreamcast has a wonderful homebrew/emulation scene, but that didn't help Sega's financial position. If you can't sell licensed software for a video game console, you're dead in the water.

Extremely reliable source

[Audigy]

the holybell.to guy is the one who made SNES9xJ4U, which is the world's fastest and best SNES emulator for PocketPC. Two thumbs up, highly recommended. :)

Looks Amazing, But

[ultimabaka]

If the PSP's screen resolution is 480x272, and the GBA's resolution is 240x160, then why does the image look so incredibly small? Sure, this thing is still in beta (right?) but for this, I might as well just keep carrying around my GBA. Maybe they shoulda finished the thing before showing it off so much.

Re:Looks Amazing, But

[Audigy]

....because it's not a GBA that's being emulated.

It's an original Gameboy. You know, Gameboy Color, monochrome Gameboy - the big carts instead of the smaller ones... four buttons and a d-pad instead of 6 buttons and a d-pad.

Different processor, apples and oranges.

I'm sure that zooming and other things aren't implemented yet, just like sound playback isn't implemented yet. I would consider this emulator an alpha release, at best.

Re:Yes, but...

[Rahga]

The real question is: Does it run Doom 3?

Ah, but even the Voodoo 2 runs Doom 3... I don't see why the PSP wouldn't be able to. :)

Re:Great Potiential

[Audigy]

It is not a bloody Gameboy ADVANCE emulator.

It is a monochrome Gameboy/Gameboy Color emulator.

Different processor, different emulation method. :(

You could fit hundreds of GB/GBC carts on a 1GB Duo stick. Many of them are 32K or smaller.

Re:Surprising? Naaah...

[Jagasian]

Actually, GBC and GBA games use two completely different sets of hardware. Most gamers confuse this issue because the GBA and GBA SP systems contain a GBC on a chip for backwards compatibility. This is possible because the GBC hardware is so old that it can now be reduced down to a single chip. Note that the Nintendo DS has removed this feature, so it can only play DS and GBA games, but not GBC games.

My point is that if you can emulate GBA games, it does not mean that you can emulate GBC games. They are two completely different things to emulate. Furthermore, some emulators go ahead and combine GB, SGB, GBC, and GBA emulators into one application, again, because gamers wouldn't understand why each emulator was separated into its own application.

At last!

[iapetus]

Finally I can play all my old Gameboy games on a portable device.

No, hang on a second...