Homebrew SCFW: Bleeding-edge modular kernel branch

[admin]

This thread is primarily for those who'd like to test out/play with new revisions of the kernel that have yet to be pushed to the main branch.

Installation
Download the zip file and extract the contents to the root directory of the sdcard.
This should replace the existing kernel.gba along with a few emulators bundled in.

Differences between this and the main kernel:

• SMSAdvance support
  • Loads Sega Master System games (*.sms)
  • Loads Game Gear games (*.gg)
  • Loads Sega Game 1000 / Sega 1000 games (*.sg)
• PocketNES support
  • Loads NES / Famicom games (*.nes)
• Goomba support
  
  • Loads Game Boy games (*.gb)
  • Loads Game Boy Color games (*.gbc)

Observations:

• Stable on:
  • GBA
  • NDS / NDSL Game Boy mode
• Unstable on / Needs further analysis:
  • EXEQ Game Box (clone console)

Observation NOTES:

• Some GBAOAC devices such as the EXEQ Game Box SP don't play nice with flash carts as it doesn't have the same wait time. Thus, ROMs boot faster and the flash cart does not have enough time to prepare. Try to toggle "Boot games through BIOS" each time you exit a GBC/GB game.
  • Alternative method for GBAOC devices:
    Create a ROM compilation using "goombafront" and sideload the gba file.
    This process is tedious, but it works best for clones like these.
• WARNING: The cart appears to not have enough time to properly load both emulator and ROM if you skip the BIOS. It's better to leave that kernel option "Boot games through BIOS" as 1 (on).

Planned features / To be decided:

"This is a FOSS project. Open source is ideally better for a modular open source kernel." - Me, probably

• PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16
  • [PCEAdvance]
• SNK Neogeo Pocket (Color)
  • [NGPGBA]
• Watara/QuickShot Supervision
  • [WasabiGBA]

Links

• Sources: https://github.com/metroid-maniac/SCFW/tree/OmDRetro-SCFW-Kernel
• Binaries: https://github.com/metroid-maniac/SCFW/releases
  • Binaries on Github are snapshots. Not always up to date.
  • Check the attachment for faster updates of the binaries.

Credits

• @metroid maniac - Main developer
• @OmDRetro - Enhancement for the kernel
• @Dwedit - Goomba fork version 2019-05-04 bundled in the zip file
• @loopy and @FluBBa - PocketNES build version 9.98 bundled in the zip file
• FluBBa - SMSAdvance build version 2.5 bundled in the zip file

Changelog (Last 3 changes):

• Kernel revision scfw-0.5.2-SMSAdv-2024-06-20v0001
  • Refactored code, again.
  • Successfully implemented PocketNES, Goomba, and SMSAdvance
    • Added Sega Game 1000 / Sega 1000 (SG-1000) support.
• Kernel revision scfw-0.5.2-SMSAdv-2024-06-19v0008
  • Successfully implemented PocketNES, Goomba, and SMSAdvance
• Kernel revision scfw-0.5.2-pocketN-2024-06-15v0009
  • Successfully implemented PocketNES & Goomba

*Possible* F.A.Q. section:

Is it possible to use other forks of Goomba?
Yes, within the scfw folder you can replace either gb.gba or gbc.gba with your goomba fork of choice. Just be sure to keep the naming convention as is.

I.E.

• If replacing the Game Boy emulator, simply rename the fork to gb.gba and place it in the scfw folder
• If replacing the Game Boy Color emulator, simply rename the fork to gbc.gba and place it in the scfw folder

Is it possible to use other forks of PocketNES?
Yes, much like Goomba, you just have to rename your preferred pocketNES fork/binary to nes.gba and place it within the scfw folder.

Is it possible to use other forks of SMSAdvance?
Yes, you just have to rename your preferred SMSAdvance fork/binary to smsa.gba and place it within the scfw folder.