PocketSNES
- GBA SNES ROMs Emulator
Latest news!
PocketSNES Super Nintendo rom emulator for Gameboy Advance & SP
flash cards has been released! You can download it here:
(SNES Advance emulator works on all modern GBA Flash Cards. The ones that are not compatible are QBus QBoy flash cards, and SuperCard users have to remember to write roms to CF or SD card using the SuperCard software otherwise SNES emu will not work.)
Download
PocketSNES v0.1
Hell has frozen over - so all the unbelievers can now go to hell
;).This is the first release of a working SNES emulator for the
GBA. You must understand that this is a WORK IN PROGRESS - that
means lots of things are
still broken, buggy, or don't work. A lot of SNES functionality
has not been emulated yet. Most commercial
games are still
unplayable or have distorted graphics.
You have been warned.
Now the good news - there are some SNES ROMS that can already
be emulated at FULL speed!
The SuperNES controls on GBA are:
B = A |
Y = B |
L = Select+L |
A = R |
X = L |
R = Select+R |
Select = Select |
Start = Start |
. |
Select + Start brings up the emulator
control menu where you can choose
the brightness level / return
to game menu or restart the rom.

The games that I would suggest you to try out are:
- Super Mario World snes rom (.smc)
- Batman Returns snes rom (.smc)
Also I sugest adding these to the snes emulatr (PocketSNES)
Raiden Trad,
Donkey Kong Country 3 (E),
Akumajou Dracula XX (J),
Mickey Mouse - Magical Quest,
Alien vs. Predator,
Alien Vs Predator,
Final Fantasy,
Smash TV,
Earthworm Jim,
R-Type,
Ys 3 - Wanderers from Ys (U),
Super Ghouls N Ghosts,
Super SWIV (J),
Zelda III - A Link to the Past,
Super R-Type,
Mario Kart,
SSTARWAR,
Super Mario World,
Castlevania IV,
Super Turrican,
Bomberman 2,
Gradius 3,
animaniacs,
super metroid,
Act Raiser,
Bust-a-Move.
Looking for where to downoad snes roms? - Try our friends at Romnation
And here are some actual game screenshots from PocketSNES running
on VisualBoy Advance emulator. Notice that the screen is stll unscaled
and you can not see the top and bottom part but that i ssomething
that will be fixed later - similar to PocketNES. 
More technical details about this emulator and
Snes roms compatibility lists can be found at PocketSNES
website.
OLD STUFF:
Super Nintendo Entertaiment System (SNES)
I have heard of at least two projects people have started with
a goal of making a working emulator of SuperNES roms for GBA.
It would most likely be called SNES2GBA or SNESonGBA. So far we
have not seen any success in this area, (Update: Look above -
EMU released!) but you never know. As soon as I will hear something
I will sure post it here. Nintendo has ported a number of SNES
games to Gameboy Advance: Super Mario World, Yoshis Island, Zelda:
Link to the Past (Four Swords), but we are jet to see Chrono Trigger
for GBA!
Lets compare SNES vs GBA Technical Specs:
|
|
|
CPU |
16-Bit CPU - 3.58mhz |
32-Bit ARM - 16.7 mhz
with embedded memory RISC |
MEMORY |
Work RAM for CPU: 128 Kb
Video RAM for CPU: 16Kb |
256 Kbyte WRAM (external of CPU)
32 Kbyte + 96 Kbyte VRAM (in CPU), |
COLOR |
Max colors on one screen: 256
Total colors available: 32,678
Colors in bitmap mode: 256 |
32,768 possible colors
511 simultaneous in character mode; 32,768 simultaneous in bitmap
mode |
RESOLUTION |
Maximum screen resolution:
256 X 224 (512x448) |
240x160 resolution
2.9" TFT reflective screen
40.8mm x 61.2mm screen size |
SPRITES |
128
Max size 64x64 |
128
Max size 64x64 |
SCROLLING |
Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal |
Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal |
SOUND |
8-bit 8 channel Sony |
8-bit 2 channel + GBC sound |
SOFTWARE RAM |
available
Max cart size 48mbit (6MB) |
available
Max cart size 256mbit (32MB) orriginal
1Gig Flash
Cards!
|
So let's see, the GBA wins in the CPU department. The SNES had
a weak CPU, based only on clock speed (there are undoubtedly other
factors at work) the GBA CPU is nearly 5 times as fast. It also
has 50% more VRAM and more than twice as much WRAM. The SNES of
course wins in resolution, it is capable of the much higher resolution
of 512 X 448, however nearly all SNES games use the lower res. of
256 X 224, only marginallly higher than GBA. Also, GBA
games are developed for the small screen, so it is almost a non
issue. The GBA can display twice as many colours on screen at once,
so it wins there. Also, GBA games have the potential to be 5 times
as big as SNES games, as large as Ocarina of Time.....
The GBA's only downfall is inferior sound hardware. Only two channels
compared to eight (plus the GBC's generated sound). This may seem
hugely dispointing, but keep in mind that sound can be mixed with
software, apparently only using 20 to 30% of the CPU time. This
would allow SNES quality sound to be achieved on the GBA. Naturally
there would be a performance hit, but the GBA's processor is fast,
in genres that really benefit from great sound, speed is not essential,
RPG's for instance. Even in other genres, platformers, puzzle games,
it won't matter at all. The other advantage the GBA has is that
it can pull samples right from the cart,
no need to load them into ram first. The GBA has 8 bit stereo sound
capability. Unlike the Game Boy, a good part of the sounds on the
GBA are sampled. The SNES has 8 bit sound as
well, but it also has tons and tons of filtering.
OK so to wrap it up - Emulation is SNES on GBA is possible!
Homepage N/A
Download N/A
Possible names for the emulator SNES2gba :: SNESonGBA :: SNES Advance
Related links 

PocketSNES
- Super Nintendo / Super Famicom emulator for the Pocket PC
ARM = Release for Pocket PC's using a StrongARM
processor (iPaq 36xx/37xx/38xx, Toshiba Genio, Casio E-200, Jornada
56x)
MIPS = Release for Pocket PC's using a MIPS processor
(Casio E-115/125/500/7xx/8xx)
SH3 = Release for Pocket PC's using a SH3 processor
(Jornada 525/54x)
SRC = Source code for each release (all processor
types)
PocketSNES
official home page
SNES9xGP
- SNES emulator for GP32
Super NES Final Fantasy Emulator for PC / Windows
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