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Ring · May 3, 2012, 11:08 PM

- Never used or affiliated with any illegal activity.

I am a Mac user running a 2011 model mac. I am looking for a way to revisit gameboy games I have (legally purchased) from my childhood. I am wondering what your opinion is on the best way to go about running these games. There is a (workingish) version of VBA that runs on Lion, however it crashes when I try and hex edit, and the custom controls don't work.

I tried VBA, and another fork varient of VBA, (both on the ubuntu software center), running in Linux in a VM. However, the sound was messed up and it was difficult to operate.

Ethics and other issues aside, what is the best method for getting the highest quality GBA playing experience on OSX Lion, with the possible extension of running in a (non winblow$) VM?

Only looking for opinions, I can settle with the version of VBA that I have. It would be nice to find an updated emu that runs better though. Most of them have been outdated since last decade.

Also...:

-Most of the ones that I've tried for lion suck
-Custom controls don't work
-Crash when hex edited.
-I tried running it in Parallels linux ubuntu 11.10 VM but:
-Sound fails epicly (skipping, etc)

True story? Suggestions?

besson3c · 03:32 AM

VBA runs great in WINE out of the box, I've played and finished the Zelda Oracle games and Minish Crap in VBA on my Mac. A variety of other emulators run great in WINE too, the only exception I know of being DeSmuME (which has a recently released Mac version that works well).

Why fuss over a virtual machine? No need.

angelmb · May 4, 2012, 03:29 AM

So, KiGB doesn't work for you? It is highly praised by many people.

In order to run GameBoy Advance games, get BoyCott Advance instead.

Ring · May 4, 2012, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

VBA runs great in WINE out of the box, I've played and finished the Zelda Oracle games and Minish Crap in VBA on my Mac. A variety of other emulators run great in WINE too, the only exception I know of being DeSmuME (which has a recently released Mac version that works well).

Why fuss over a virtual machine? No need.

I don't have wine on the Mac.. Didn't think that would work out too well.

- I want to be able to edit hex without crashes (too much to ask for?)
- I want codebreaker/gameshark codes to be able to work (again, too much?)
- I want to be able to modify controls
- I want sound to work (;D)

OpenEMU appears to be awesome, but it isn't released.

Ring · May 4, 2012, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by angelmb

So, KiGB doesn't work for you? It is highly praised by many people.

In order to run GameBoy Advance games, get BoyCott Advance instead.

Boycott advance crashes instantly. Highly useless.

besson3c · May 4, 2012, 07:06 PM

Originally Posted by Ring

I don't have wine on the Mac.. Didn't think that would work out too well.

Why not? As long as you have an Intel Mac it works fine with the applications supported by WINE. It's free/open source too.

- I want to be able to edit hex without crashes (too much to ask for?)
- I want codebreaker/gameshark codes to be able to work (again, too much?)
- I want to be able to modify controls
- I want sound to work (;D)

OpenEMU appears to be awesome, but it isn't released.

All of this should work fine in WINE, at least as fine as the emulator works natively in Windows.

besson3c · May 4, 2012, 07:08 PM

I generally steer away from Mac emulators in general, they are almost consistently behind their Windows (and even sometimes Linux) counterparts.

I've run Dolphin, Project64, VBA, NoGBA, and some Super Nintendo and original Playstation emulator in WINE - all play fine, performance is superb.

Ring · May 4, 2012, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

I generally steer away from Mac emulators in general, they are almost consistently behind their Windows (and even sometimes Linux) counterparts.

I've run Dolphin, Project64, VBA, NoGBA, and some Super Nintendo and original Playstation emulator in WINE - all play fine, performance is superb.

wine for osx or ubuntu?

besson3c · May 4, 2012, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by Ring

wine for osx or ubuntu?

Either, but most recently I've been using WINE for OS X.

Ring · May 4, 2012, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Either, but most recently I've been using WINE for OS X.

It works in wine for ubuntu running in parallels but no sound

since I have never used wine, im going to install it for mac in a parallels osx partition

besson3c · May 4, 2012, 11:03 PM

Originally Posted by Ring

It works in wine for ubuntu running in parallels but no sound

since I have never used wine, im going to install it for mac in a parallels osx partition

WINE + Ubuntu is a mess sound-wise, since Ubuntu uses pulseaudio which WINE does not properly support. There is some dispute between the pulseaudio and WINE team over who should be responsible for a proper driver, and evidently the WINE team is now working on a pulseaudio driver (I believe). WINE properly supports ALSA, but this is not the default sound subsystem in Ubuntu.

WINE + OS X should not give you these issues with sound.

I'm not sure what you mean by a Parallels OS X partition, but I would suggest installing it via Homebrew or Macports. If you install it via Macports it will be installed into its own sandbox that is separate from the OS X Unix directories, and with Homebrew it will be mixed in with the OS X stuff.

If you can find a WINE disk image for version 1.4 that will work too. I can probably make you a disk image if you are having problems installing it.

Ring · May 5, 2012, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

WINE + Ubuntu is a mess sound-wise, since Ubuntu uses pulseaudio which WINE does not properly support. There is some dispute between the pulseaudio and WINE team over who should be responsible for a proper driver, and evidently the WINE team is now working on a pulseaudio driver (I believe). WINE properly supports ALSA, but this is not the default sound subsystem in Ubuntu.

WINE + OS X should not give you these issues with sound.

I'm not sure what you mean by a Parallels OS X partition, but I would suggest installing it via Homebrew or Macports. If you install it via Macports it will be installed into its own sandbox that is separate from the OS X Unix directories, and with Homebrew it will be mixed in with the OS X stuff.

If you can find a WINE disk image for version 1.4 that will work too. I can probably make you a disk image if you are having problems installing it.

I meant everything I did on "ubuntu" was in parallels VM. I am currently trying to install it on wine for OSX (winebottler, + n0$GBA)

Ring · May 5, 2012, 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

WINE + Ubuntu is a mess sound-wise, since Ubuntu uses pulseaudio which WINE does not properly support. There is some dispute between the pulseaudio and WINE team over who should be responsible for a proper driver, and evidently the WINE team is now working on a pulseaudio driver (I believe). WINE properly supports ALSA, but this is not the default sound subsystem in Ubuntu.

WINE + OS X should not give you these issues with sound.

I'm not sure what you mean by a Parallels OS X partition, but I would suggest installing it via Homebrew or Macports. If you install it via Macports it will be installed into its own sandbox that is separate from the OS X Unix directories, and with Homebrew it will be mixed in with the OS X stuff.

If you can find a WINE disk image for version 1.4 that will work too. I can probably make you a disk image if you are having problems installing it.

scratch that; whenever I try using wine I just keep ****ing getting "Turn on coreaudio" and it not working...

besson3c · May 5, 2012, 08:58 AM

Can you get the test sound to play when you run winecfg?

If you are looking to play DS games, DeSmuME has a native Mac client that works better than NoGBA (which has been abandoned for years).

Ring · May 5, 2012, 09:01 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Can you get the test sound to play when you run winecfg?

If you are looking to play DS games, DeSmuME has a native Mac client that works better than NoGBA (which has been abandoned for years).

I'm looking to play DS, GBA, GBC games...
I'm trying linux mint before I do anything with winblows.

I don't plan on cheating (hex, codebreaker etc) on every game.. Just a couple.

Ring · May 5, 2012, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by besson3c

Can you get the test sound to play when you run winecfg?

If you are looking to play DS games, DeSmuME has a native Mac client that works better than NoGBA (which has been abandoned for years).

I guess I'm going to go with openemu on the mac side, despite the lack of codebreaker/gameshark support.

I did have one problem however (go figure). I set up the controls, but when I try to play the game (by using the controls).. I just hear an annoying *ding* sound.

besson3c · May 6, 2012, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by Ring

I guess I'm going to go with openemu on the mac side, despite the lack of codebreaker/gameshark support.

I did have one problem however (go figure). I set up the controls, but when I try to play the game (by using the controls).. I just hear an annoying *ding* sound.

Suit yourself. Native WINE does work great though.

According to this page WineBottler includes a pretty ancient version of WINE: WineBottler - The Official Wine Wiki