armGBA 1.4

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 1.3.1

• CPU Clock, 25% to 400%, eases slowdown while game speed and music stay the same. On the Advance the CPU, its bus and DMA move to the new clock, as with MAME's CPU overclock; on the Game Boy, the CPU and OAM DMA. CPU Clock During Boot keeps the BIOS intro and boot ROM at 100%.
• Clock options for cartridges with a clock. Clock Source is Real Time (the device's clock) or Game Time (a clock of the game's own that runs only while it runs, at Clock Speed, from Stopped to 60x). Clock Offsets move it by days and hours. Reset Clock takes two steps: turn on Allow Clock Reset first. Game Boy .rtc files are shared with gambatte-libretro and mGBA, and the Advance's clock stays within 2000 to 2099.
• In Real Time, a Game Boy clock now follows the device's time while the game runs. Fast-forward, pauses and loaded states no longer move it.
• Fit Screen in LCD Scale draws the picture at the screen's exact size, so the gaps and stripes line up with the screen's own pixels at any size. Screen Size picks the size: Auto (the display's where the system says it, or the app's window), a list of common handheld sizes, or Custom.
• The LCD effects are each on their own, and CPU LCD Effects turns them all on or off at once. It starts Off, so if you used LCD Grid in 1.3.1, turn CPU LCD Effects on. LCD Grid is now LCD Scale, from 2x to 8x in half steps, with Pixel Gaps, LCD Subpixels and the pixel shadow inside it.
• The gaps fall on the pixel edges, show on white too, and keep the screen's colors and brightness. Under the gaps, the CPU's 16-bit pictures no longer come out darker.
• RetroArch presets now run two passes: LCD Ghosting and Interlaced Rows first, then the grid. Ghosting is at 100% in every preset; its shader parameter turns it down or off.
• The app's LCD Effects setting is Off, CPU or GPU. On the GPU, every effect works on its own at any size, and all of them are on Core › Video. Low Memory isn't shown in the app, which always loads the game itself.
• The app's Filter is on General › Video, with a new Sharp Smooth that scales by whole pixels and blends only their edges, for screens a game doesn't fill a whole number of times. There's a Gray accent color too.
• Fixed: RetroArch with threaded video no longer crashes when the LCD effects are turned off.
• Fixed: ARM code run from outside the cartridge at a halfword address, and a change to work RAM's wait states while compiled code runs from it.
• The Switch Controller Combo is Start + L2 + R2 by default. Frame Skip is Off, Auto, or 1 to 3.
• 1.3.1's save states load in 1.4.

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-1.4-x86_64.AppImage, armGBA-1.4-aarch64.AppImage: the standalone app. Make it executable and run it.
• armGBA-1.4-android-arm64.apk: the app for Android 7 or newer on 64-bit ARM. It installs over earlier versions. Allow installing it, and give it All files access when it asks, for your games and its armgba folder.
• armGBA-1.4-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-1.4-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-1.4-shaders.zip: the LCD presets for RetroArch (.slangp and .glslp), with ghosting, interlaced rows, the grid, subpixels and the pixel shadow.
• SHA256SUMS has the checksums.

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