Game Boy Interface

[Ksanto]

I have to apologize,

I was a bit over slept and had a following option that negated the offset farther down the instruction list. Yet it would have been nice to have an example in the Wiki.

I also wanted to thank you and congratulate you for this nice piece of software. Im so glad I kept my GameCube (not that I ever had to sell any of my Consoles), at the end I often only used it for Gameboy games anyway and that will be his only purpose be from now on.


Thank you!

[GabeShack]

@extrems
I’m just getting started with the GBI so pardon if these questions are noobish.

Are backup Roms able to be loaded from the gcloader sd card that is also running swiss(assuming it’s fat32 formatted)?

Also wondering if the write support for the GCLoader will allow GBI to write back to the gcloader as well? (Assuming the gcloader sd card is fat32 formatted).

Thanks again for such great work!
GabeShack

[Extrems]

Are backup Roms able to be loaded from the gcloader sd card that is also running swiss(assuming it’s fat32 formatted)?

No. Only multiboot images can be loaded.

Also wondering if the write support for the GCLoader will allow GBI to write back to the gcloader as well? (Assuming the gcloader sd card is fat32 formatted).

Yes. The support was implemented 2 months ago.

[GabeShack]

Thanks for the quick response!

Could I make a feature request to implement access of backup ROMs directly from the GcLoader SD card or is that pretty much impossible due to the way the gameboy player wants to read info from its own card slot? No way to fake it out I suppose.

[Extrems]

If that were possible, it would've been done long ago.

[GabeShack]

Understood. Thanks again.

[Papy.G]

If GBI can write to GCloader, I assume emGBA can as well, so you can backup your roms with GBI, then run them with emGBA.

You'd be just fine this way unless you want to use hardware features, such as link multiplayer gaming, or backup GB/C roms.

[GabeShack]

Ordered an everdrive for gba. But thanks I did see that about the emgba. Can the emgba be run from Swiss?

[Papy.G]

Yes, it can be run from Swiss, that's the way I (scarcely) use it.
Beware with flashcarts, I have a GBPlayer that can't run my SuperCard mini SD (the purple, while the Black and Platinum are just OK with it. Hope the ED is much more compatible.

[GabeShack]

I’ll let you know about the ed gba. (I have the ed N8 pro, the fxpak pro, the ed64x7 and have had nothing but success).

I’m using a black GC with black gbplayer with gc loader with laser bear mount with sd extension all working amazingly thanks to the great work by Extrems and emukidid and danielkraak.

[Extrems]

emGBA hasn't been updated yet. So far, only GBI, Not64 and Swiss have support.

[GabeShack]

@Papy.G got the ED gba and is working perfectly. Easy interface and works well with the gbi features (zoom and such). Also it works fine with a 128gb micro sd. (Krikzz had said he only tested it with a 64gb card but it can support larger).

[VegaVegas]

I try to use Gameboy Interface with absolutely 0 frames of lag. My results are mixed so here is my report:

I use this script:

--delay-reset=0
--delay-video=0
--no-overlay
--scaler=nearest
--matrix=identity
--sound=digital
--format=custom,scaled-size=528:320,size=480:320

-Gamecube NTSC-J shows black & white picture on both GBI HF and GBI SR versions. Tested on composite and S-video

-Gamecube PAL shows picture in color for both GBI HF and GBI SR using RGB and COMPOSITE surprisingly. This is my prefered way to use GBI so here are detailed results:
-GBI HF shows some horizontal graphical jitter and disappears after a while. The picture gets stable after some time
-GBI SR starts up perfectly fine but also shows horizontal graphical jitter after a few minutes of gameplay and this is probably consistent. The jitter disappears after a while. However it will probably reappear again

I played some GBC games during all tests. So here I have a few questions, quite a lot of them- is ultra low latency setting tested and is it supposed to be flawless or is it work in progress?? Is this functionality fully documented anywhere?? Is HDMI or any sort of modern addon going to help me in this situation?? When I start GBI HF or GBI SR by default using just 1 frame of delay, everything seems perfectly fine all the time and the border is also shown. What I aim for is playing it with absolutely 0 frames of delay, just like real Gameboy. This seems really close already but not perfect. If there is an option to but a border as well then this would be great but it's not necessary. By the way I'm also curious why Gamecube NTSC-J doesn't show any color on any standard cables while PAL shows color using all cables. Please respond. Thanks in advance

[Papy.G]

@Papy.G got the ED gba and is working perfectly. Easy interface and works well with the gbi features (zoom and such). Also it works fine with a 128gb micro sd. (Krikzz had said he only tested it with a 64gb card but it can support larger).

No surprise for the GBI functionnalities, the issue I have is somewhere between the cart and the GBA hardware. Bigger size SD support is common, when it is only a matter of what the developper had in hands when testing, and not a known technical limitation (HC/Fat32 support for example).

…

Your TV just doesn't support NTSC signal, while it may support PAL 60, although letterboxed somehow, your colour issue is typical of this, you may try with another more tolerant CRT, or a little portable DVD display which usually show no lag as they have almost no memory.
How does it behave with GC games? in 50Hz? in 60Hz?
I personally have no color problem from HDMI to RF, on PAL GCs, with NTSC games and GBI, but my TV set is terrible on lag, with up to 4 frames lag in RGB!
To get the less lag, you have to keep analog chain from the console, modern digital AV solutions rely on computed conversion (opposed to "wired" in nintendo's DACs), and digital displays too, but also, computation is involved in controls emulation through the GC controller->GC->GBPlayer and in the display transmission as well.
All those things add delay, while almost unnoticeable, for absolutely no lag, you'l have to play on the game's dedicated console in the genuine config. (no third party display, for example). That's why I prefer my OC'd DMG to play competitive Tetris (@6MHz).

[VegaVegas]

Your TV just doesn't support NTSC signal

My TV supports all signals, including PAL and NTSC so this is not related to that. The configuration file for 0 frame latency I took is from here: https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.p ... latency.29

Format is not set to NTSC but rather to "custom", whatever that means and whatever it does it doesn't display any colors coming from NTSC-J system using analog cables but it displays colors coming from a PAL system also using analog cables for some reason. Both of them switch to 60hz while running GBI anyway.

Coming back to original request for using GBI with 0 frame latency- I also thought analog signals might be slow and taxing the console's CPU while HDMI or component signals might be sufficient enough. However I have no idea whether it is possible at all at this moment and I don't want to spend 150$ on an HDMI adapter for nothing. Maybe GBI creators can answer some of the questions if there are any??

[Extrems]

The video encoder doesn't generate a correct NTSC colorburst with the video timings used by the custom video format.

Tearing is to be expected with single buffering, and is a long documented issue with GBI ULL. GBIHF with default settings is close enough to zero latency.

[Papy.G]

Coming back to original request for using GBI with 0 frame latency- I also thought analog signals might be slow and taxing the console's CPU while HDMI or component signals might be sufficient enough. However I have no idea whether it is possible at all at this moment and I don't want to spend 150$ on an HDMI adapter for nothing. Maybe GBI creators can answer some of the questions if there are any??

Analog signal from Nintendo's DACs (both GC's integrated or in the DAV cables, be it D-terminal Component or RGB for NTSC units) is the fastest you can get on the video output side, provided you use a CRT.
There used to be HDMI adapters for less than $50, I don't think their price raised this much lately.

The video encoder doesn't generate a correct NTSC colorburst with the video timings used by the custom video format.

Tearing is to be expected with single buffering, and is a long documented issue with GBI ULL. GBIHF with default settings is close enough to zero latency.

So the way the PAL signal is generated prevents this colour loss to happen on Pal consoles?

We may have discussed this before, do I remeber well, tearing is due to impossible perfect sync between GC and GBPlayer's GBA hardware?
Correct me if I'm (once more) wrong.

[Bumflufftornado]

Hi I'm looking at setting up GBIHF 360p through an RT5X and noted the following line in the firmware update:

The RGB approach seems to have some image quality issues, though, so we'd recommend a solution that uses the GC's digital AV port.

Is anyone able to explain what kind of quality issues in laymans terms?

It's a little over twice the cost for the carby/hdmi>component converters so curious how bad the SCART solution is in comparison

[Extrems]

Unfortunately I still lack a SCART RGB cable to test with. Hopefully I can fit one in my budget next year (currently trying to save for a Rigol DS1054Z).

[Bumflufftornado]

Unfortunately I still lack a SCART RGB cable to test with. Hopefully I can fit one in my budget next year (currently trying to save for a Rigol DS1054Z).

Cheers for your reply!

Testing everything would cost a small fortune, and I appreciate everything you've done.

I sent RetroTink an email to ask if they could elaborate on the quality issues. If I hear anything back I'll drop it here too.

[VegaVegas]

Unfortunately I still lack a SCART RGB cable to test with. Hopefully I can fit one in my budget next year (currently trying to save for a Rigol DS1054Z).

I mean come on. They are still for around 10$ or you can build one yourself using common components:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/ ... mecube.png

That is if you have Gamecube PAL of course

[Extrems]

If by $10 you mean $40 + shipping, sure. I'd need to order connectors and 75Ω coaxial cable stock to build one. I'd also need to design and order PCBs since I can't have those passives flapping in the breeze. I also still need to add a fume extractor to my setup.

[Bumflufftornado]

I just heard back from Mike Chi regarding the quality issues. He listed them as some sync glitches and ghosting problems when using a SCART cable.

Would definitely feel more comfortable putting in the extra cash to go the digital AV conversion route. Cheers again for your help.

(Also I'm not wasting money on a $10 SCART cable.. I can already predict the results of testing that - bad )

[VegaVegas]

I started up regular gameboy startup disc recently and I realized how shit it really is. I always knew the picture looked bad and there was some sort of latency. However the latency felt really bad. I suppose it was like 3 frames or even more like 4 frames and it felt almost unplayable on a CRT which is a very bad sign. The audio also sounded somewhat bad like an old radio. Comparing it to GBI HF or speedrun editions the difference feels like night and day already which is a miracle. This plays almost perfectly the way it is, however there is still 1 frame of buffer delay so it's not as perfect as a real Gameboy. Can this be perfected any day?? I mean Super Game Boy perfected it so why not Gamecube

[Extrems]

This plays almost perfectly the way it is, however there is still 1 frame of buffer delay so it's not as perfect as a real Gameboy.

Double buffered in GBIHF doesn't actually mean a frame of latency. When the clock phase allows, the buffer is filled just ahead of the scanout.