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Golden Sun: The Lost Age Recomp v0.1.0-preview

Golden Sun: The Lost Age Recomp v0.1.0-preview Pre-release
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@Zaxaerith Zaxaerith released this 15 Oct 09:03
v0.1.0-preview
da8f5a3

Golden Sun: The Lost Age Recomp v0.1.0-preview

A native Windows x64 port and static recompilation of Golden Sun: The Lost Age (Game Boy Advance) featuring an integrated graphical user interface (GUI) launcher powered by recomp-ui.

Note: This is an early preview release (v0.1.0-preview). This package contains only the recompilation engine, launcher, and runtime environment. It does not contain any copyrighted game ROM assets or proprietary BIOS dumps. Players must provide their own legally obtained GBA ROM and (optionally) retail BIOS.

1. Overview

GoldenSunTheLostAgeRecomp translates ARM7TDMI machine code from the original GBA cartridge into native x86_64 machine instructions. This release bundles a native Windows x64 launcher that allows players to select game files, configure key bindings, adjust window scaling and audio volume, and launch the game seamlessly without opening a console window.

2. Verified Gameplay

The following game sections and systems have been verified on Windows x64:

  • Clean Boot: Full title screen presentation and menu navigation.
  • Prologue & Narrative: Venus Lighthouse intro sequence and story events leading into the opening continent.
  • Exploration & Field: Overworld traversal, party interaction, and environment rendering.
  • Combat: Initial Ruffian battle sequences verified with correct animations, visual effects, and music playback.
  • Engine Stability: Validated across multi-thousand frame continuous runs without audio underruns or PPU hangs.

3. Native GUI Launcher

Built with recomp-ui (Dear ImGui integration):

  • Game View: Displays project information, ROM validation indicator, BIOS status, Play button, and Skip Launcher toggle.
  • Input Configuration: Full keyboard and SDL2 GameController gamepad rebinding with restore-to-default functionality.
  • Video Settings: 1x to 6x integer window scaling, fullscreen mode toggle, strictly maintaining the authentic GBA 3:2 aspect ratio.
  • Audio Settings: Master volume slider with real-time volume adjustment.
  • Configuration Persistence: Automatically saves settings to config.ini, keybinds.ini, rom.cfg, and bios.cfg.
  • Relaunch: Launching with --launcher reopens the configuration GUI at any time even if "Skip Launcher" was enabled.

4. Installation & Quick Start

  1. Download and extract GoldenSunTheLostAgeRecomp-windows-x64-v0.1.0-preview.zip to a folder of your choice.
  2. Double-click GoldenSunTheLostAgeRecomp.exe.
  3. In the launcher window:
    • Click Browse next to Game ROM and select your USA/Europe ROM dump (.gba).
    • (Optional) Click Browse next to GBA BIOS to select an official retail BIOS dump (.bin).
  4. Once the validation badge turns green, click Play to start the game.

No compiler, build tools, or Python installation is required on the user's PC.

5. ROM and BIOS Requirements

Game ROM

  • Region: USA / Europe
  • Game Title / Code: GOLDEN_SUN_B / AGFE
  • File Size: Exactly 16,777,216 bytes (16 MiB)
  • SHA-1: b500663220cb9bf56b9f8e8c0c544f1d6fa3a824
  • CRC-32: 606a1c4d

GBA BIOS

  • Default Mode: HLE BIOS (High-Level Emulation) is enabled by default, ensuring fully verified game startup and intro progression.
  • Retail BIOS (Optional): If provided, must be exactly 16,384 bytes with SHA-1 300c20df6731a33952ded8c436f7f186d25d3492.
  • Low-Level BIOS (LLE): Experimental LLE execution is supported via config.ini / command-line override (--no-bios-hle).

6. Save Compatibility

  • Save Type: Flash 512 Kbit (64 KiB).
  • Default Save Location: saves/gs2.sav.
  • Existing Emulator Saves: Fully compatible with existing 64 KiB raw Flash saves from mGBA, VBA-M, or hardware flashcarts.
  • Backward Compatibility: Automatically detects and preserves root-level Golden Sun - The Lost Age(UE)(Nintendo)(128Mb).sav or gs2.sav without clobbering existing save data.

7. Known Limitations

  • High-Level Emulation (HLE) is the standard and recommended startup path; retail LLE BIOS intro execution is considered experimental.
  • Full game completion end-to-end has not been exhaustively tested; community playthrough feedback is welcomed.
  • Widescreen anamorphic expansion is intentionally disabled to maintain faithful GBA pixel art presentation.

8. Credits and Licenses

  • GoldenSunTheLostAgeRecomp: Maintained by Zaxaerith and contributors.
  • GBARecomp: Static recompilation framework for Game Boy Advance by mstan.
  • recomp-ui: Native Dear ImGui launcher interface for recompilation projects by mstan.
  • SDL2: Simple DirectMedia Layer (Zlib License).
  • toml++: TOML parser and generator by Mark Gillard (MIT License).
  • Full third-party licenses and Mozilla Public License 2.0 source code disclosures are included in the licenses/ directory of the release archive.

Package Integrity

  • Archive: GoldenSunTheLostAgeRecomp-windows-x64-v0.1.0-preview.zip
  • Size: 12,255,251 bytes
  • SHA-256: f5922e0ead610c3b4bd6ab2fb226cf9696035b2ef6bc9eb48020f97cc7e59e78
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