armGBA 1.2

armGBA is a libretro core for Game Boy Advance, Game Boy and Game Boy Color games, built for ARM and x86 handhelds, and a standalone app for Linux and Android.

New since 1.1

• Save Manager: start armGBA with no game (RetroArch's Start Core, or the app's Start Save Manager on the Netplay page), host or join in netplay, and Send Save sends a save from your save and game folders. Receive Saves Into puts a received save in place, backing up the one it replaces; Auto gives it to player 2 on the host and to your own save elsewhere.
• Send My Save, in the app's Together netplay: a joining player puts their own save in their console on the host, which restarts with it.
• Keep My Netplay Progress (Saves, off by default): when a Together session you joined ends and you played on your own save, your progress is saved to it, the old one backed up. The session's saves are always kept in armGBA/Remote too.
• Keep Playing on Disconnect (Link, off by default): a device that joined in Off or Together closes the host's game as the session ends, in the app and in RetroArch newer than 1.22.2; On keeps it running, your controller on your player.
• Shared Controls (Core › Link, with Link Mode Off): more players play the one console, in netplay or with more controllers. Everyone: every player's buttons at once. Pass Around: one player at a time, another taking over with the Switch Controller Combo (L + R + A + B).
• Single-pak games, such as Super Mario Advance's Mario Bros.: in Separate, the player without the game needs no game file. RetroArch's Start Core starts armGBA with no cartridge, and the app has Your Cartridge: Removed. The host's game sends its program over the cable, as on the real hardware.
• The app's Netplay page: hosting and joining first and settings last, as RetroArch's. Create a Host Session links as Link Mode says (Off, Together or Separate). Scan for Local Hosts lists the sessions on your network. In a session it shows the players by name and the host's address, and Disconnect asks again when it would close the game.
• The app's netplay, in Off and Together: each controller on a device is a player, so two people on one handheld can join a friend on another. Joining needs no game loaded: your copy of the host's game is found in your game folders, or you choose it when it's under another name.
• Devices no longer fall out of step right after joining a Together session.
• The app no longer uses RetroArch's settings. On ROCKNIX it keeps to the layout of its other standalone emulators: BIOS files in roms/bios, saves beside the games, states in roms/savestates and screenshots in roms/screenshots. Elsewhere it uses its own folders. Saves can also be In Game Folder.
• The app's Controls › Players: which controller plays each player, as RetroArch's Device Index, remembered for when they connect again. A ROCKNIX handheld's own controls show as Built-In Controls.
• Together and Off need the same BIOS or boot ROM on every device: in the app, a host on Nintendo's turns away a player who doesn't have the same file, and both are told why. armGBA's built-in BIOS and boot ROMs work on every device.
• Screen Layout Control's Auto follows each device's own player in netplay with ROCKNIX's RetroArch.
• The app's menus: a Saves page on the Game tab, a Fast-Forward and Rewind page, Take Screenshot, Cheats on the Game tab, Reset All Settings, VSync under Display, and one-line help. Back Up Save, Load Save and Send Save are chosen from their list, so a press left or right can't load or send a save.
• Android: the libraries are aligned for 16 KB memory pages, as newer Android devices need.
• Changed: Separate no longer swaps saves when linking, and armGBA/Received is gone; Save Manager moves saves instead.
• 1.1's save states load in 1.2.

armGBA comes with no games. Netplay never sends a game, a BIOS or a boot ROM; every player uses their own. See the README's Legal section.

Downloads

• armGBA-1.2-x86_64.AppImage, armGBA-1.2-aarch64.AppImage: the standalone app. Make it executable and run it.
• armGBA-1.2-android-arm64.apk: the app for Android 7 or newer on 64-bit ARM. Allow installing it, and give it All files access when it asks, for your games and its armgba folder.
• armGBA-1.2-x86_64.zip, -aarch64.zip, -armv7.zip: armgba_libretro.so and armgba_libretro.info for RetroArch on Linux (glibc 2.34 or newer). Put the .so in RetroArch's cores folder and the .info in its info folder.
• armGBA-1.2-android-arm64-v8a.zip, -armeabi-v7a.zip, -x86_64.zip: armgba_libretro_android.so and the .info for RetroArch on Android. In RetroArch, Load Core › Install or Restore a Core installs the .so.
• armGBA-1.2-shaders.zip: the LCD grid and pixel shadow presets for RetroArch (.slangp and .glslp).
• SHA256SUMS has the checksums.

See the README for the core options and which link settings to pick.