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While loading an emulator in an emulator is more CPU intensive, it loaded just fine. The settings for Slot 1 where Retail (auto) and for Slot-2, it was MCPF Flash Device with the 'use path of the selected ROM' and the emulator/.nds file would load just fine. Listed below is our collection of Pokemon Ruby cheats that we have personally tested and could work to any Game Boy Advance emulators that works with GameShark Codes. Please note of the master codes for some cheats, but NOT ALL cheats require master codes.

About Visual Boy Advance

This tutorial is to help you with Visual Boy Advance on Windows. It's considered by most people to be the #1 emulator for Game Boy Advance. It wasn't the first Game Boy Advance emulator, but the first to become popular. It comes equipped with all the usual features we expect emulators to have such as screen filters, cheats, and screen recording. Emulation quality is practically perfect. In addition to Game Boy Advance, Visual Boy Advance also supports emulating other classic Game Boy systems. Those systems include Game Boy Classic, Super Game Boy, and Game Boy Color.

The original Visual Boy Advance was last updated in 2005. Luckily, others have picked up the torch and continued updating it under the name “VisualBoyAdvance-M” (or “Visual Boy Advance Merged”). This tutorial focuses on VisualBoyAdvance-M. There is very little difference between the original Visual Boy Advance and the Merged version. Hence, this tutorial can still be used for either version.

*If you would like to download VisualBoyAdvance-M, I have it in my emulators page.

Installation

Visual Boy Advance is a standalone program so it does not have an install wizard. Installation is simple: just extract Visual Boy Advance from its zip file. Not sure how to extract zip files? Here's a video tutorial showing you how: how to unzip files on Windows.

IMPORTANT! Visual Boy Advance must be placed in a common folder on your computer. I recommend Documents, Downloads, or create a folder on your desktop. If you place Visual Boy Advance somewhere else on your main C drive, then you may be restricting it to read-only access. Doing so prevents Visual Boy Advance from saving anything.

To open Visual Boy Advance (VisualBoyAdvance-M), double-click on

Setting up the keyboard or gamepad

1. Click on Options > Input > Set > Config 1, as shown below:
   
2. You'll arrive at the configuration screen shown below. The keyboard keys in view are the current button configuration.
   
3. To reconfigure a button, click on the white field and press the new keyboard key or gamepad button you want it set to. Repeat the process for all buttons you want to be changed. Click OK when you're done.

Loading a game

Note that you can place your games wherever you want. Typically, people place them in the same folder as Visual Boy Advance.

To load a game:

1. Click on File. Then click on the type of game you want to load:
   
   1. Open GBA - open a Game Boy Advance ROM.
   2. Open GBC - open a Game Boy Color ROM.
   3. Open GB - open a Game Boy Classic ROM.
2. The “Select ROM” window will pop up. Initially, it'll show the folder where Visual Boy Advance resides. If you placed your games elsewhere, navigate to that folder. Click on the game you want to play, then click Open - as shown here .
3. The game will begin playing immediately.

Q: d3dx9_41.dll is missing?

Upon opening Visual Boy Advance, you might get this error:

The program can't start because d3dx9_41.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

You need to install the full DirectX package. You can download it here: DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer (284 KB). This installer promises to install all the legacy files that correct issues such as this.

Fullscreen

Once a game is loaded, you can enter/exit fullscreen by pressing the Esc key.

Screen filters (pixel filters)

Screen filters enhance graphics to make them look better than the real thing! You can access this feature by clicking on Options > Pixel Filter > Select Filter Plugin, as shown here:

You'll arrive at the list of screen filters . Select one and click OK. Open a game and you will see the screen filter applied.

The filters

Here are previews of some of these filters:

Gba Games Online

• 4xSal (Kreed + gigaherz): smears pixels together with a slight blur. Sample:
  
• Bilinear Plus (Forgotten, VBA author): smears pixels together with a slight blur and adds a subtle dox matrix pattern. Sample:
  
• EPX (Eric Johnson): attempts to round together pixels without any blurring. Sample:
  
• hq4xS (mudlord): a smart filter, which attempts to sharpen and blur when necessary. Sample:
  
• 4xLCD3x No MMX + VBlend (gigaherz): simulates a TV with vertical scanlines. Sample:
  
• lq4xS (mudlord): attempts to round together pixels without any blurring. Sample:
  
• Scale4x (Andrea Mazzoleni): attempts to round together pixels without any blurring. Sample:
  
• SuperScale (ElSemi): smears pixels together with a slight blur. Sample:
  

GBA color correction

As we all know, the original Game Boy Advance lacked a backlit screen. This made games hard to see. Game developers responded by making colors very bright. While this helps with the real thing, it can be an eyesore when playing games on your computer.

Visual Boy Advance has a feature that attempts to correct these bright colors. You can enable it by going to Options > Gameboy > Gameboy Colors, as shown here .

Save states

Save states is a feature that saves the exact spot you are in any game. You can use this feature manually by going into the File menu or by quick keyboard shortcuts.

• Capturing a state: To capture a save state go to File > Save Game and choose any of the 10 slots. These slots are reserved to allow you to save up to 9 different save states. The keyboard shortcut for saving states is Shift+F1 to save in Slot 1.
• Loading a state: To load a state you previously saved, go to File > Load Game. Then choose the slot where your save resides. The keyboard shortcut for loading saves is F1 to load from Slot 1.

*All the RPG shrines in my FantasyAnime.com offer complete collections of periodical game saves. With them, you can continue at any significant point in the game. I offer a Game Saves Tutorial where you can learn more about how to use somebody else's saves. You can also learn about how to transfer saves between other emulators.

Fast forward

Fast forward is the feature that speeds up the game. To access it, go to Options > Speed > Throttle and choose a percentage above 100%, as shown here . If that's too fast, you can select Other to enter a custom percentage. To bring the game back to normal speed, select No throttle.

Cheats

Visual Boy Advance lets you cheat using your favorite Gameshark or Codebreaker codes. It's easy. To put in Gameshark codes:

1. First, go to Cheats > List, as shown below:
   
2. Next, click on the Gameshark button. In the little window that pops up , fill in the “Description” and “Code” boxes.
3. Click OK when you're done. Click OK to exit the Cheats window. Now restart the game so the cheats can take effect.

Finding cheats:GameGenie.com is a good site. The next best source is Google. The best search keywords to use is to type the name of the game then “game genie”. For example: “super mario world game genie”.

Capturing screen shots

Simply press the F12 key and Visual Boy Advance will drop a screen shot into the same directory where your video game ROM resides. It will save the screen shot as a PNG image.

You could also go to File > Screen Capture, but pressing F12 is far easier.

Capturing sound

1. Go to Tools > Record > Start Sound Recording.
2. Choose a filename, then click Save for the recording to begin. Expect Visual Boy Advance to lag a little bit. But rest assured, the sound it's recording won't sound choppy like that.
3. When you're done recording, go to Tools > Record > Stop Sound Recording.

To edit your sound file you can use this free sound editor: Audicity. And to convert it to MP3 use WinLAME (it's 1.50 MB).

Capturing movies

1. Go to Tools > Record > Start AVI Recording.
2. Choose a filename, then click Save for the recording to begin. Expect Visual Boy Advance to lag a little bit. But rest assured, the movie it's recording won't come out choppy like that.
3. When you're done recording, go to Tools > Record > Stop AVI Recording.

Visual Boy Advance uses a rather obscure codec for its AVI recordings that Windows doesn't recognize on its own. So here's what you can do about that:

• You'd need VLC to play these AVI recordings (it's free).
• If your plan is to upload the AVI recording to YouTube, YouTube will accept it despite its obscure codec. But it's a different story if you want to edit the recording first.
• If you want to edit the movie, you'd need to convert it to MP4 first with Handbrake (a free video converter). Then you can use a movie editor.

Finding ROMs

In my links page, I have some good links to sites where you can download ROMs. If you want to try to find more sites than what's in my collection of links, just Google around. For example, if you want to download Advance Wars just Google “download advance wars gba”.

Patching ROM hacks

Learn all about patching ROMs with ROM hacks in my Patching Tutorial. Note that the best place to find ROM hacks is Romhacking.net.

Q: I get the error “Saved data is corrupted”

Upon loading a game (particularly a Pokemon game) you might get this error: “Saved data is corrupted”. Here's how to resolve this:

1. Delete any SRM or SAV files associated with the game that is giving you this error. For example, if your ROM is called “Pokemon Leaf Green (U).zip” then you'll see “Pokemon Leaf Green (U).srm” or “Pokemon Leaf Green (U).sav” in the same folder where the ROM resides. Delete them.
2. Click here to download vba-over.ini (1.91 KB)
3. Extract “vba-over.ini” from the zip file you just downloaded and place it in the same directory that Visual Boy Advance resides.
4. Move the ROM of the game you're trying to play to Visual Boy Advance's directory.
5. Open Visual Boy Advance (if it's already open, close it and re-open it). Go to Options > Emulator > Save Type and make sure Automatic and Flash 64k are selected; as shown here.
6. Load the game and you should no longer see that error.

Q: Cheat codes aren't working in Pokemon!

People have reported having a great deal of trouble getting cheats to work specifically with the Pokemon games. If you read the section on using cheats and you're still unable to get cheats to work, check out this article at PokemonCoders: How to Fix Not Working and Glitchy Cheats for Pokemon GBA Games.

Q: VBA isn't saving anything!

If you're using Visual Boy Advance for the first time and you're finding that you have all these problems:

Gba Games Download

1. Save states aren't working. You save a state, then when you try to reload it nothing happens.
2. In an RPG when you save your game at a save point and close/re-open Visual Boy Advance, you find that the save is lost.
3. Emulator configurations that you changed such as adding a screen filter aren't saved. When you close/re-open Visual Boy Advance, you have to make those configuration changes again.

Then your problem is that you currently have Visual Boy Advance in a read-only location on your computer. You must move Visual Boy Advance to a more common location such as Documents, Downloads, or a folder on your desktop.

Thank you for reading my tutorial! If you found it useful, you're welcome to return the gesture by buying something from my Amazon store. If have questions you're welcome to email me or message me on social media.

What Is YSMenu ?

YSMenu is a homebrew version of the ttmenu that loads faster than the original menu and looks similar to an unskinned r4 menu.

Advantages of YSMenu over TTMenu:

+ It sorts the roms alphabetically (TTMenu sorts by order of installation)

+ It shows folders allowing you to organize your roms into separate 'Groups'

(TTMenu shows all 'NDS' file in one long list [even 'plugins' from programs like moonshell2])

+ It attempts to patch the browser and GBA games without having to use a separate loader program

+ It runs emulated programs directly in the emulator in one step.

Disadvantages of YSMenu over TTMenu:

- Not graphically 'Pretty' (See DSTT Menu, YSMenu)

- It doesn't support Multiple 'Skins/Themes' (It's possible using 3rd party Homebrew - see later)

- Uses Official DSTT loaders - so any problems with DSTT then this will not fix them

- Default Language/Help is Japanese, so some editing required to get English

Where do I get it?

YSMenu is created by Yasu who doesn’t want anyone to link to any pages other than his home page.
Yasu’s home page is http://home.usay.jp/. It's mostly in Japanese, but to get YSMenu, follow these directions:

• Click the 'ETC' button in the main menu near the top beneath the title.
• Select 'Nintendo DS' (second item) from the table.
• Search for 'DS(T_T)DS' (CTRL-F) or just scroll about 2/3 of the way down until you see the heading in blue.
• There is a scrollable text area beneath that heading. Select the first item in the scollable list (currently '2009/03/21') to download the latest version.

How do I install YSMenu?

UPDATE: The following instructions were the original way of installing, however since this WIKI was made 'Logue' has developed the YSMenu Automated Installer: (Link @ bottom of page) to make life easier.

To install TTMenu and YSMenu for DSTT, It's recommended that you make a backup of your microSD card, reformat it using the Panasonic formatter, then follow these directions carefully:
Make sure you have the following items:

• Newest version of YSMenu From Here
• The official TTMENU folder From Latest Firmware Download
• 'fake-killer-disabled' TTMENU.DAT From this Archive

Then

• Unzip the official TTMenu archive. Place ONLY the 'TTMENU' folder onto your microSD card.

Do NOT copy TTMENU.DAT from the official menu as it contains fake-killer code.

This will destroy your DSTT card if it's a 'fake'

• Unzip the YSMenu archive.
• Create a folder named 'YSMenu' on your microSD card.
• Place a copy of the fake-killer-disabled 'TTMENU.DAT' into the same folder as the 'ttextract.exe' program on your PC.
• Run 'ttextract.exe' on your PC.
• Place the two resulting files ('ttdldi.dat' and 'ttpatch.dat') into the 'YSMenu' folder on your microSD card.

• (a) If you want 'YSMenu' to be your default menu, rename the fake-killer-disabled 'TTMENU.DAT' to 'TTMenu.nds' and place it onto the root (top level) of your microSD card.
  • Then place a copy of 'YSMenu.nds' onto the root of your microSD card.
  • Then make a copy of 'YSMenu.nds' & rename that to 'TTMENU.DAT' & place it also on the root of your microSD card.
• (b) If you want 'TTMenu' to be the default menu, place a copy of the fake-killer-disabled TTMENU.DAT onto the root (top level) of your microSD card.
  • Then place a copy of 'YSMenu.nds' onto the root of your microSD card.
  • Then make a copy of 'TTMENU.DAT' & rename it to 'TTMenu.nds' on the root of your card.

You should now have 'TTMenu.nds', 'YSMenu.nds', and 'TTMENU.DAT' (a copy of 'TTMENU.DAT' or 'YSMenu.nds' depending on your choice) on the root of your microSD card.

• Edit 'YSMenu.ini'. Place a semi-colon in front of the line that says 'LITERALS=LITERALS_JPN' & Remove the semi-colon from the line that says 'LITERALS=LITERALS_ENG'.
• Save your changes to 'YSMenu.ini' and place it into the 'YSMenu' folder on your microSD card.
• Make a new folder named 'Games' and put a few .nds files in it.
• Use the 'safely remove hardware' utility before removing your microSD card from your PC
• Place the DSTT into the NDS, place the microSD card into the DSTT, and turn on the NDS.

That should be it.

If you are using TTMenu as your default, simply run 'YSMenu.nds' to get to YSMenu. Otherwise, it should launch directly into YSMenu and you can run 'TTMenu.nds' to get back to TTMenu.

When you're done, you should have the following files and folders on your microSD card:

How do you use it ?

• Use 'D-pad' to move (Up/Down - Move by 1 file, Left/Right - Move a Page at a time)
• Highlight a file and press [A] to Launch
  • If file is NDS: Press [Y] to select cheat codes
  • If file is GBA: Press [Y] to just load GBA to PSRAM in slot 2 (What is PSRAM? - See This)
  • If file is SAV: Press [A] to create a backup ('BAK')
  • If file is BAK: Press [A] to restore & overwrite existing SAV
• Press [B] to Exit or go back
• Highlight any file and press [X] to Delete
• Press [Start] to be able to select either 'Passme' function / 'Boot to GBA' or return to normal 'DS Menu' (the one that contains Pictochat & Settings)
• Press [Select] to change file listing to show: Only 'nds' / Only 'Sav'/ All files (even hidden)
• Tap the top left of the touch screen to alter screen brightness
• Tap on 'Yasu Software - YS menu' will reveal the Version you have (In black ink, so you may not be able to read it if you have a dark background)

Customising ?

Unfortunately YSMenu does not allow much in the way of customising Skins/Themes like a R4 or Acekard.
although it does allow you to have a different background showing on both screens.

To do this all that's needed is 2 pictures of size 256 x 192 labelled 'YSMenu1.bmp' (for the top screen) and 'YSMenu2.bmp' (for the bottom screen).These need to be placed in the 'YSMenu' folder on your MicroSD card

You can also alter the colours of the text used for Directory Path/File names etc by editing the 'YSMenu.ini' file also found in the YSMenu folderThe section required is

To determine the Hex code for the colour you would like to use,pop along to http://www.conradshome.com/html2bgr15/

There is also a homebrew software called 'SkinselecterYS' Here that can be used to swap the background Pictures/Colour scheme of multiple Skins installed on the DSTT.
Unfortunately the readme file is in Japanese but you can see how to use it in This Thread

'YSMenu.ini' Options

[YSMENU]

You can change the language by place a ';' in front of any of the 'LITERALS=' to disable it & remove the ';' to enable it (As mentioned before in 'Setting up')

Further down the file you will find sections labelled [LITERALS_???] (where ??? is a language e.g JAP).

By altering the text to the right of the '=' You can get YSMenu to display whatever you like (e.g. if you change 'LOADING=Please Wait...' then YSMenu will show 'Please Wait...' instead of 'Loading...')

In theory you could create additional languages by copying/Pasting an existing [LITERALS_???] section (Changing the section header to something else like '[LITERALS_GER]' for German) & changing the text in the section, then by adding a LITERALS=LITERALS_GER under [YSMENU]

SORT_BY_TIME=

Changing this to 'True' will cause the files to be shown depending upon the time they were last used instead of the normal 'alphabetically sorted'.

In other words the games you play more often will appear near the top, while the lesser played ones are at the bottom. (this is determined by the game SAV time stamp)

VERSION=

Whatever is put here will replace the 'Yasu Software - YS menu' text @ the bottom of the touch screen.

When touched - the version text will still be shown in Black ink though

NO_DEL=

Changing this to 'true' will prevent you from using the [X] button to delete files.

Handy if you want to prevent any little ones from deleting your current SAV by mistake

DEFAULT_DMA= / DEFAULT_RESET=

Change from 'false' to 'true' (or 'true' to 'false') will cause all programs to have the appropriate option box ticked/unticked by default

EXT_APP1_FILE= / EXT_APP1_NAME=

This will cause an extra button to appear when you press [Start] for the 'Passme' / 'Boot GBA' option screen

Clicking on the extra button will start the program mentioned in 'EXT_APP1_FILE'

You can in fact have more than just the one extra button - Just by adding 'EXT_APP2_FILE=' and 'EXT_APP2_NAME=' (up to 'EXT_APP9_FILE'/'EXT_APP9_NAME')

[FILETYPE]

Adding a file format will allow that particular file to show up in YSMenu file browser (e.g. TXT/BMP/MP3 etc).

Note that I haven't figured out how to launch an appropiate program for any additional formats or even if it's possible

Some files have already been set up for GBA/NES/NeoGeo/Sega Master System and WonderSwan [?!?] emulation

- these require additional programs installed into the YSMenu folder, along with a Slot 2 Flash card like the EZ3-in-1, to work

Downloads

Updated .Dats

Under construction at the moment. refer to forum link -> Forum Topic (And the talk page.)

Replace the .dats in Root/TTMENU/ with these.

Working badly

Pokémon HG/SS (U) (60+ events = freeze)

Pokémon HG/SS (E) (60+ events = freeze)

Pokémon HG/SS (G) (doesnt seem to work, locations need to be checked)

Pokémon SS (I) (60+ events = freeze)

SMT: STRANGE JOURNEY (U) (unable to save)

Download: 5.0b v1.91

Credits: - Arkanell- basher11- TyRaNtM- Pong20302000- twiztidsinz- Depravo- bitonio6- diesel.1- Rudolph & others who made the Hex data- And all GBATemp people that helped with this!

Credits

Most of this is already in the forums somewhere done by other people, So Many Thanks to the following :-

KermitFrog - For Putting it all together & adding the 'YSMenu.ini' info

Bri - For 'Where to get it'/Installation

Ozzymud - For creating the 15Bit color converter webpage

Logue - For Creating the 'Automated YSMenu Installer'

Bidoofguy - For figuring out how to use 'SkinSelecterYS'

Apocalypticvisionary / Swip / 8BitWalugi - For other small little titbits of info on YSmenu Usage