If you're using an old 3DS/2DS, this is the best option to play GBA games. Because it's technically running a "virtual" GBA, it can't provide features that are normally available on other emulators, such as savestates, screen filtering, or sleep mode, however it does have high compatibility with the exception of cartridges with special hardware. The 3DS does include native firmware for a GBA mode which was mainly used to run ambassador releases instead of having to develop an emulator for them.
Compatiblity can be a hit-or-miss, but it's still in active development with plans to include interesting features such as gyro control emulation and local wireless multiplayer in the future.
Opposed to normal use of RetroArch, these are all self-contained emulators, albeit sharing the same automatic configuration.
The only cores the older 3DS can reliably run at full speed are 2048, Gambatte, QuickNES, NXEngine, and some older Sega games using PicoDrive. Using current exploits, the New 3DS is capable of running most of these cores at or nearly at full speed on most games. Most accurate but slowest SNES core (~40 FPS),too slow to use even on New 3DS at present Same as Snes9x 2005 but with better sound, at the cost of a few FPS, has more accurate audio, slower ~55-60 FPS on standard games, ~50 FPS on Super FX games Less compatible than CATSFC, but can actually run many special chip games at full speed Redbook audio hangs when suspending or pausing RetroArch Most games are too slow to run even on New 3DS, though JoJo runs almost full speedĪcceptable with Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, but some games are slow to use, even on New 3DS, at presentĢD games run full speed, 3D games run about 30 FPS or less Main core (fbalpha2012_libretro) does not work, but platform-specific cores run at full speedĪ few games are unable to be loaded due to memory constraints.I think I’ve seen a video of a Switch running Mario Sunshine at decent speed.Multi-Systems RetroArch If I remember correctly the Switch is (perhaps with overclocking) able to run Dolphin. Mentioning this because there had been some specialist in the past with similar ideas who did not want to stop… In my opinion asking such questions is okay – as long as you accept the answers and learn about the topic afterwards. I suggest you read a bit about emulation in general.
Nintendo won’t do this (3DS is end of life) and nobody else can do this (without an insane amount of reverse engineering… only to receive a “cease and desist”-order five minutes after publication).Īnd even if you would somehow magically emulate GC on a 3DS this would look awful because of the low resolution of the 3DS.
To give you an idea of this: The old 3DS series struggles at emulating SNES games which had enhancement chips (Super FX, SA1).īuilding a game for another console with access to the original source code is not comparable to emulation. But an emulating machine must be way more powerful than what it wants to emulate. The new 3DS series may be comparable in terms of compute power to GameCube.