Gameboy Advance RGB NTSC

[Fudoh]

I really can't imagine that there are technically differences between the players.

Orginal GBA systems can be linked to the GBA players, so their internal clocks have to be identical through all revisions, versions and regions. At the same time, the video output through the Cube will always be straight NTSC, so there will always be the same clock difference.

[lettuce]

Be interesting to see how the Retron5 will display GBA games when its released in a few months time

[pcb_revival]

There is another device on the market.

GameBoy Player for SNES from Tototek.

http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php? ... cts_id=168

[Fudoh]

yeah, great, with composite output - thanks, but no thanks

[ApolloBoy]

yeah, great, with composite output - thanks, but no thanks

And no way to mod it for anything better either.

[Drakon]

yeah, great, with composite output - thanks, but no thanks

And no way to mod it for anything better either.

Jesus just look at that pcb:





No video encoder to be found..

[trap15]

Glorious gloptops!

[Tranquilite]

One fun idea:
Pick up a capture modded DS, view GBA games on PC, find a way to output said video on your fancy monitor. Pure digital signal path until you display it. Of course getting a modern computer to output 15khz rgb can be a little tricky, and I'm not entirely sure if/how much lag there would be or if the frame-rate mismatch would still exist.

[Fudoh]

The preview window of those modded DS/3DS units is not framelocked, so you get a certain amount of tearing through your PC monitor.

[Smashbro29]

So I'm reading through this, is there anyway to get the right clockspeed via hardware to an upscaler or TV?

Any new developments?

[bobrocks95]

Since you've already bumped this, I will say that I've always wondered why a crystal mod couldn't be done on the GBP just like on the Super Gameboy to bring it to a proper speed. I know clock rates are gotten off other chips, then multiplied and divided to different values. Are the speeds too close to each other to fix with a crystal? Or perhaps my poor understanding of the subject is showing.

Also related to the GBP, myself and a couple other people on the GC-Forever forums bugged the author of video patches in Swiss enough that he implemented 240p forcing. Works great on a lot of games, but it's not currently working on the GBP. It's speculated that when Swiss adds in multi-DOL patching, the GBP will work, but nobody's sure.

[Smashbro29]

I couldn't help it, I'm so curious if this has been cracked. If there is any way to get the correct resolution and frame rate to a TV or upscaler.

[bobrocks95]

Thinking a bit more on it, I think a crystal mod if possible could maybe make the game run slightly slower than it would on actual hardware. The option of that over the stuttering would be preferred for some people though I imagine.

[Smashbro29]

Thinking a bit more on it, I think a crystal mod if possible could maybe make the game run slightly slower than it would on actual hardware. The option of that over the stuttering would be preferred for some people though I imagine.

Just a thought, but if we were working with an upscaler like the XRGB mini couldn't it iron out the discrepancies in framerate without really slowing down or speeding up anything?

[Fudoh]

no. To deliver smooth results any upscaler has to framelock the output to the input, meaning that the output has to be 100% the same as the input.

[Smashbro29]

So GBA on TV is kind of a lost cause?

[bobrocks95]

So GBA on TV is kind of a lost cause?

This thread on Assembler games shows promise, but the guy had no luck when switching out oscillators: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/sh ... Player-PCB

[Smashbro29]

I had also read there's some input lag added by the player due to upscaling, how true is that?

[bobrocks95]

Quite the topic shift, but yes, I've heard that the Player has some input lag. I don't know if it's due to any upscaling or not, but I've never noticed it on a CRT. Then again I wasn't ever looking for it.

[Smashbro29]

I'm trying to cover any angle I can, getting the perfect GBA on TV solution is something I've become very interested in, especially as there's no Gameboy Color Player.

[bobrocks95]

There's always the Wide-Boy 64 if you're willing to drop a few hundred to get a Gameboy Color Player.

[Smashbro29]

Well I figure at this point why not just find the GBA solution?

I've heard of the Wideboy, that is absurdly priced.

[tcancian]

I don't have much knowledge on this subject but has anyone ever checked what those pads might be?



They remind me a lot of this:



They might be nothing at all or maybe pads for the EXT port but since there's no separate video encoder IC to be found we might as well take it that it's built in the glob thing, and the traces from the solder pads are leading there... I think this is well worth investigating since the performance of this cartridge is actually pretty good. I don't have one (yet) so I can't experiment on it.

[BuckoA51]

I took an in-depth look at GBA emulation in Retroarch recently and I have to say I was pretty impressed, here's my write-up - http://www.videogameperfection.com/2014 ... ig-screen/

[Smashbro29]

I took an in-depth look at GBA emulation in Retroarch recently and I have to say I was pretty impressed, here's my write-up - http://www.videogameperfection.com/2014 ... ig-screen/

How is this better than Higan? Higan is actually as accurate as it gets.

[Ed Oscuro]

What's cycle-accuracy if it's not fully developed yet? Reportedly the GBA core in Higan still has a ways to go (I haven't seen anything up-to-the-minute on this).

[ChuChu Flamingo]

I've never felt this input lag either, and I've played quite a few games on my Game Boy Player, ZAS and Batman: ROTJ not too long ago.

Euro GameCube, euro GBP, euro disc, outputting RGB through the official SCART cable to a CRT.

It's not a lot of input lag, but it's most definitely there, I just tested it to make sure my memory wasn't messing with me.

Then I booted my SNES (to verify that the CRT wasn't the issue) and Super Mario World again (good thing the game is on both platforms) and when testing that... I found myself overcompensating for input lag that wasn't there.

Yeah there was enough input lag in the Gameboy Player to make me noticeably overcompensate when immediately playing another version of the game.

It's lag free on a real GBA, before you ask.

It would be interesting (and I'm hopeful someone can test) if that is different between versions (again, I'm doubtful).

So you compared two different game versions? I don't think that is a fair test.

With that said, why hasn't anyone created a perfect gba out with proper frequency. A CRT should be able to sync to it.

[Ed Oscuro]

He said he compared on three platforms - GBA, GBA player (same game), and the SNES version. That's about as good a test as can be arranged really. The SNES version might not act like a control in this case but it should give an expectation as to what lag should be like - IF the GBA game can actually achieve this.

Agreed with the proper RGB out comments being made; that'd be spiff. However, it's obvious that the market for such a thing wouldn't be as large as the RGBNES, because you'd still get a humbar. RGBNES doesn't get this because its RGB output is at a NTSC framerate, and thus plays nice with upscalers. An RGBA (ehh texture formats) would seem to require a variable refresh display. So...wait until there's a Micomsoft scaler with adaptive refresh (and displays to match) and try again.

[BuckoA51]

What's cycle-accuracy if it's not fully developed yet? Reportedly the GBA core in Higan still has a ways to go (I haven't seen anything up-to-the-minute on this).

Exactly this.

It's not a lot of input lag, but it's most definitely there, I just tested it to make sure my memory wasn't messing with me.

I'd imagine there has to be some in this configuration since the GBA content was never interlaced in the first place.

[ZellSF]

I've never felt this input lag either, and I've played quite a few games on my Game Boy Player, ZAS and Batman: ROTJ not too long ago.

Euro GameCube, euro GBP, euro disc, outputting RGB through the official SCART cable to a CRT.

It's not a lot of input lag, but it's most definitely there, I just tested it to make sure my memory wasn't messing with me.

Then I booted my SNES (to verify that the CRT wasn't the issue) and Super Mario World again (good thing the game is on both platforms) and when testing that... I found myself overcompensating for input lag that wasn't there.

Yeah there was enough input lag in the Gameboy Player to make me noticeably overcompensate when immediately playing another version of the game.

It's lag free on a real GBA, before you ask.

It would be interesting (and I'm hopeful someone can test) if that is different between versions (again, I'm doubtful).

So you compared two different game versions? I don't think that is a fair test.

I compared Super Mario World on the GBA and the GBA player. How else are you going to test the GBA player?

I only booted up the SNES version to verify the display itself wasn't lagging (it's a CRT, so very unlikely, but still has to be ruled out).

I'd imagine there has to be some in this configuration since the GBA content was never interlaced in the first place.

That's one thing I'm very curious about. Does the Gameboy Player lag more or less in 480p? Obviously, the CRT doesn't lag displaying 480i, but does the Gamecube create lag when creating a 480i image?

Not investing in Gamecube component cables to figure out though, as the refresh rate would still be wrong and emulation would still be the preferable option imo.

BTW: please don't say "I play in 480p and it doesn't lag at all" in response to this unless you've also verified it does lag in 480i on a SD CRT (I know this goes without saying for most people here).