VisualBoyAdvance turns your Palm Pre into a Game Boy emulator
By Vlad Savov 
posted January 30th 2010 4:35PM
posted January 30th 2010 4:35PM
A certain UK bank operates a delightfully dorky advertising campaign whose slogan is "we give you extra." Well, in the case of mobile software communities, that's exactly the case. From jailbroken iPhones to PS One-emulating HD2s to multitouch-enabled browsing on the Nexus One, the one group of people we know we can truly rely on are other geeks. So let's salute those heroes once more, in recognition of the VisualBoyAdvance -- a webOS-based emulator for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games. The former two categories are said to play smooth as you like, whereas the Advance stuff suffers from slight slowdown at present. We've only seen it playing on a Pre, but there should be no reason why your Pixi wouldn't be allowed in on this party. A quick video demo awaits after the break, and the source link has all the installation details you'll need. 
That's pretty sweet.
@Plazmic Flame to play super mario and donkey kong
@Plazmic Flame The Palm Pre (and plus) are seriously becoming more and more appealing over the iPhone. Well done Palm!
@werty1432k
I am loving this for my Palm Pre. But let us be nice about the iPhone.
@werty1432k - But I should add, you are right that the Palm Pre is becoming much more appealing. Developers now have the freedom to do pretty much anything without limits.
@Plazmic Flame - I would actually be jealous of this, if Android didn't have NES, SNES and Genesis emulators. I'm snowed in on the east coast, and have been playing NBA Live '95 for 3 hours now. Probably switching to Mortal Kombat next. Get on my level.
@AllanMclovin: The emulator isn't the only thing the Pre does currently. It's got openGL 3D games, too.
@Plazmic Flame
If It wasn't for homebrew apps like this, I wouldn't be able to play much on my pre.
Stupid app catalog won't let me download most apps because i'm mexican :(
@Thinker I think if they had the Palm Pre Plus (PPP lol) in Canada I would be all over it. The OS is better than the iPhones but the iPhone has so many great apps in the app store (Palm is hopefully going to catch up) and for the iPhone I love the Jailbreak community. But yeah, the Pre is looking up!
@zombiegx
Damn racist app catalog!
@Plazmic Flame
How can you call this pretty sweet.
The only use for VBA is to pirate.
Some devolopers suffered due to piracy & some of them were forced to shut down.
Continue to pirate if you want but don't forget for every game you pirate it's one step closer to the next video game crash.
@kawaiipikachu
Cause, you know, there's so many developers for the Game Boy these days.
@Plazmic Flame
Its also pretty illegal
I've been using this to go through Zelda Oracle of Seasons/Ages again. It works really good. On-screen controls are always a pain, but it's definitely usable.
@bill cant fart
no, codes needed to obtain items between two GB cartridges is annoying. they were fun though :)
I'm commenting now on my Pre, and now am switching back to playing Pokemon Emerald. Now thats computing.
We need a mobile Super Smash Bros...I'd buy a device just for that, Pre, Droid...heck I'd even buy an iPad if had smash bros mobile
@yulebellow Um, there's a flash version i remember playing... too bad iPad doesn't have Flash... lest...
1. Someone compiles it for iPhone OS.
2. Apple realizes that The world will be OK if Flash is running as a foreground app, running swf files.
But is running a file considered executing code?
That's awesome... if only the Pre had a better/bigger keyboard.
Palm please make a landscape slider!
@Hazdaz
I love my current Palm Pre form factor (i.e. size and design). But it would be nice if Palm will also come out with one having a 5 inch screen which will still fit in your pocket. But please give it a physical keyboard. I wonder how many people will prefer a 5 inch screen to a 3.7 inch screen. If you are going to make the screen large, make it noticeably larger.
@Hazdaz Agreed! If Palm removes the sharp edges and goes for a landscape slider on a future phone, I will likely make the move to WebOS
@Thinker: That's almost a UMPC.
@Hazdaz
Or copy the alias 2 and make it slide both ways...
@Hazdaz
Palm should have 4 form factors in their line of WebOS devices:
- keyboard, no slider (the Pixi, but would be nice to see them make it more powerful and go after the Blackberry)
- keyboard, portrait slider (Pre)
- keyboard, landscape slider
- no keyboard, slate design with big screen.
...also, i might be in the minority, but i think Palm could kick Apple's ass by putting this OS in tablet form factor. WebOS is just screaming to be freed from it's current tiny screen jail. If they did this fairly quickly they would really gain points with people who wont touch the iPad because it lacks multi-tasking. This is their chance to get on something where Apple doesn't have a 2 year head start. It would be such a sweet device.
Sorry to bring up the 'A' word....
Looks good. Would like some on-screen controls for landscape. Looks like he couldn't steer in landscape.
@wmurch3: The latest version has on-screen controls in landscape. However, you lose too much screen. I prefer using the keyboard in portrait.
@wmurch3
this is why i wish palm would come out with new hardware with landscape keyboard. I love the Pre and WebOS buuuuutttt i would love a landscape keyboard even more (current BB Curve owner)
playing pokemon red while writing this and listening to Hot97 on the radiotime app. Simply amazing
Predoes
@Exbloder Considering how closely that reads like "pedos" you might want to rethink that.
@FrankJ
preferably with a spacious landscape keyboard.
One should commend the advancements and the fluidity of the Palm Pre/WebOS, as it has, in half of a year, paralleled itself and it's operating system to the likes of well established opponents such as Apple's iPhone OS, and Google's Android, respectively. Implementations like this one (VisualBoyAdvance) promote the flexibility and integrity of Palm's intelligent WebOS. However, Palm needs to up the ante with regards to build quality.
@ryan1
Build Quality? Build quality was addressed in August 2009. My two Palm Pre phones for my family have been rock solid, and yet I bought them in June 2009, we are talking about 7 months ago. And yes, I use my phone every day. Plus these phones come with a 1 year warranty from Palm.
LOL i still play this on my GB advance its fun
Man 3 wishes. + 1 more
1) Someone please hack and code WEBOs to work on WinMO phones to allow dual boot.
2) Someone Please make better emulators for the Touch Pro 2
3) Palm please release a Landscape slider that is liek the TP2.
4) MS Please make Winmo 7 as open as WebOS is.
@Pookiewood Wait, you want WebOS on a TouchPro 2, but you also want a landscape Pre, and you want WinMo 7. Make up your dang mind!
@Pookiewood Open Windows? lol
@bill cant fart LOL! Yeah what can I say! :p I like Winmo and WebOS. My wife has a Pre and I debated on getting the Pre or TP2. I chose TP2 because the Keyboard is Natural and I like Sense UI that I ported to it.
@cloud858rk Doesn't hurt to dream. :p
pre!!! Yay yay!
Just to point out, this is a port of the VisualBoy Advance emulator that's been around for a long time on Windows/Linux/Mac, its origins are not based in webOS. I have, however, been using it for the past few days on my Pre and it works really well with GB/GBC games. GBA games are tolerable, but are not as fluid as one would hope...though that can easily be fixed in the future with proper optimization.
The PC version of VisualBoyAdvance is a wonderful piece of software, as is the Wii port.
I wonder if this is ported from the original VBA, or from vba-m.
@Demo22
Yeah, I thought the same thing. Some serious fact checking needs to be done. I'm surprised that there hasn't been a port of NO$GBA, the GBA/DS emulator. Seems like a natural fit.
@(Unverified)
(I'm the author of this app, and part of the webos-internals team that made this possible)
This is a port of vba 1.7.2.
I've also ported vba 1.8.0, as well as vba-m --all of which performed worse in my admittedly limited testing.
If you want to know more feel free to contact me at webos@wdtz.org.
So I was super exited about this...only to find out that you CAN'T use it on the Pixi! Supposedly it doesn't have the libraries needed to run it. Sad kitty! =(
@xosweetcindyxo
Nope, no pixi support. You're exactly right, the pixi does not have the libraries (or probably the hardware) to support this app. Sorry!
@dtzWill
I'm a little confused tho b/c I saw videos of vba playing on the pixi...so I'm guessing it's not a hardware issue...hopefully this is something palm will be able to update later so it will work on all pixis...I'm keeping my fingers crossed most def! Thanks for the reply =D
So Does palm pre now all of a sudden think I'm gonna run out to buy a pre n get rid of my iPhone 3 gs??
Yeah Right!!!!
It's gonna take more than some weak clone emulator to dethrone iPhone. Go bak tothe drawing board palm.
@logic thinker
Maybe you should go back to elementary school first...
Awesome! =D