GBA games and brightness questions
#1
Hi forum, hi Ed!

Loving the FPZ! Can’t wait to show it completed but my custom glass screen is coming from the UK, soon enough.

I have a few questions:

My GBA games are a little slow, is it due to the fact that I’m using RPZ-W and the WiFi and Bluetooth are on? If so, can they be turned off permanently until I turn them back on pen do I have to do it every time?

The screen brightness is really strong when I play games at night, anyways to lower them or even better install something like f.lux or iOS’s night shift?

Thanks again!
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#2
RetroGM! Yes, there is a pretty easy way to permanently turn off the WiFi/BT. The easiest way is to pop the SD card out and use your Win/Mac to edit the confix.txt file.

In there, you should find these lines.
# remove # from following 2 lines to turn wifi and bluetooth off (if not needed, can Speed Up Pi Zero W)
#dtoverlay=pi3-disable-wifi
#dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt

If you find them, just remove the # in front of the dtoverlay lines. If you don't find them, you can just paste them in there.

If you already have your machine closed up and don't want to open it up just to pull the SD out, then you can SSH in and edit the file.
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/SSH talks a bit about that, and has the username/password

Once logged in, you could
sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Just know, once you turn that stuff off, you won't be able to SSH in again.

I'm sorry to say that the brightness on the Freeplay Zero is not configurable.

For future versions of the Freeplay CM3 (or if people want to mod their own board), we are looking into some options, because the Compute Module 3 has a lot more GPIO lines available.
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
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#3
I noticed that my GBA games were running just a tad bit slow at times as well. I am also using a Pi Zero W with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on. The music wouldn't slow down but when playing games like Super Mario Advanced 4, it felt like Mario wasn't as responsive as I remembered, playing on my Gameboy Advance SP. To test it out, I pulled up the same game on my Pi 3 and FPZ at the same time and watched the in game timer count down. I noticed that the FPZ would eventually loose sync with the timer on the Pi 3, especially when moving around the level. I changed the V-RAMLimit on my FPZ through the Retropie menu from 100mb to 250mb. It seems to have made a difference when playing gba games. It feels smoother to me and I got the timer to sync up with my Pi 3. I'm not sure if there are any negative side effects in doing this on other systems yet but I did test NES, GBC, and GB with no noticeable differences. I will update this if I come across any issues with the new V-RAM limit. -Matt

(Update): One important thing to note; my Pi is not currently connected to any Wi-Fi or Bluetooth networks. I am currently at my college dorm, so I don't have anyway to connect my Pi to the Wi-Fi without having to jump though hoops to get it connected.

(Update): I found that with the VRam at 250mb, the UI of Retropie was a little slow. Setting the V-RAM to 200mb is the perfect sweet spot given that the Pi Zero only has 512mb of shared RAM between the CPU and GPU.
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#4
(11-28-2017, 03:16 AM)Flavor Wrote: RetroGM!  Yes, there is a pretty easy way to permanently turn off the WiFi/BT.  The easiest way is to pop the SD card out and use your Win/Mac to edit the confix.txt file.

In there, you should find these lines.
# remove # from following 2 lines to turn wifi and bluetooth off (if not needed, can Speed Up Pi Zero W)
#dtoverlay=pi3-disable-wifi
#dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt

If you find them, just remove the # in front of the dtoverlay lines.  If you don't find them, you can just paste them in there.

If you already have your machine closed up and don't want to open it up just to pull the SD out, then you can SSH in and edit the file.
https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/SSH talks a bit about that, and has the username/password

Once logged in, you could
sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Just know, once you turn that stuff off, you won't be able to SSH in again.

I'm sorry to say that the brightness on the Freeplay Zero is not configurable.

For future versions of the Freeplay CM3 (or if people want to mod their own board), we are looking into some options, because the Compute Module 3 has a lot more GPIO lines available.

So I deleted those two lines, and changed the VRAM to 200mb but I still notice lag. Any further suggestions?
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#5
Are you using the correct BIOS file? That is the initial solution that works well for most people. The rest of it is more like tweaking things.
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
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#6
(10-07-2018, 11:49 AM)Flavor Wrote: Are you using the correct BIOS file?   That is the initial solution that works well for most people. The rest of it is more like tweaking things.

lr-mgba, I tried lr-gpsp but the game didn't even load with it.

I tried what this gentleman suggested to no avail: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comment...a/drohi4a/

Thanks for your help!
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#7
(10-07-2018, 03:19 PM)RetroGM Wrote:
(10-07-2018, 11:49 AM)Flavor Wrote: Are you using the correct BIOS file?   That is the initial solution that works well for most people. The rest of it is more like tweaking things.

lr-mgba, I tried lr-gpsp but the game didn't even load with it.

I tried what this gentleman suggested to no avail: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comment...a/drohi4a/

Thanks for your help!

lr-mgba is way too slow for the Zero. You need to use gpsp. The reason the game didn't load is most likely due to not having the GBA BIOS.
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#8
(10-08-2018, 12:01 AM)Ordinary Vanity Wrote:
(10-07-2018, 03:19 PM)RetroGM Wrote:
(10-07-2018, 11:49 AM)Flavor Wrote: Are you using the correct BIOS file?   That is the initial solution that works well for most people. The rest of it is more like tweaking things.

lr-mgba, I tried lr-gpsp but the game didn't even load with it.

I tried what this gentleman suggested to no avail: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comment...a/drohi4a/

Thanks for your help!

lr-mgba is way too slow for the Zero. You need to use gpsp. The reason the game didn't load is most likely due to not having the GBA BIOS.

So even if I select it in the menu options that doesn't necessarily mean it's on the SD card?
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#9
(10-08-2018, 07:04 AM)RetroGM Wrote:
(10-08-2018, 12:01 AM)Ordinary Vanity Wrote:
(10-07-2018, 03:19 PM)RetroGM Wrote:
(10-07-2018, 11:49 AM)Flavor Wrote: Are you using the correct BIOS file?   That is the initial solution that works well for most people. The rest of it is more like tweaking things.

lr-mgba, I tried lr-gpsp but the game didn't even load with it.

I tried what this gentleman suggested to no avail: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gameboy/comment...a/drohi4a/

Thanks for your help!

lr-mgba is way too slow for the Zero. You need to use gpsp. The reason the game didn't load is most likely due to not having the GBA BIOS.

So even if I select it in the menu options that doesn't necessarily mean it's on the SD card?

No, it's there, but in my experience finding the "correct" GBA BIOS was trial and error. It should also go in your BIOS folder so the emus will automatically use it.
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#10
You really need the proper GBA BIOS file. You put it in the BIOS directory. Otherwise, it won't run well.

See: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Set...oy-Advance

Also check YouTube for something like
RetroPie GBA BIOS
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
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