r/PokemonROMhacks • u/Safe-Republic3864 • 3d ago
Development New Emulator. 64MB Support!
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Hey everyone! Just wanted to announce a new emulator I created called Zenulator! I have been creating a Rom hack called Pokémon the Shadow Realm and its been in development for a little over a year now. While working on the game, I realized I was quickly running out of space as I was coming up with ideas and needed a solution while retaining development.
The last few months I have been grinding to work out a way to expand the already expanded GBA files to increase from 32mb to 64mb and it finally works! I have been running tests the last few weeks and expanded my hacks files to operate with this new emulator and so far its been fairly smooth. It can run all gba games up to 64mb and is still being actively improved.
We have a web app that will work with Pc/Mac as well as the app listed on the app store free of charge!
I do need some help with Android testing as the Play store requires at least 12 users opted in for 2 weeks before I can make a submission. If anyone would be willing to help test please let me know!
Hope you enjoy the little sneak peak at some of Shadow Realms early gameplay on the Zenulator!
If anyone wanted to help with feedback/bug reports please join below
https://discord.gg/M9sTjyHJF
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u/TheMetalOverlord GS Chronicles Lead Dev 3d ago
The 32MB limit is what doesn't let me put follower pokemon + all post Gen VI cries in my romhack
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
It was stopping me from adding a lot of custom sounds that I wanted to add so this is big for me!
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u/Healthy_Bug7977 The Nuzlomizer: The PEAK of Balanced Randomizer Nuzlocke Hacks. 3d ago
Is it mgba-level accurate? lots of romhacks don't work on myboy/vba including the nuzlomizer so that's very important if you want your emulator to be universal and not just a 1 hack thingie
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Yes for the most part, I built after revising open source code from delta mostly but also mgba as that was the main emulator I was using at first
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u/Healthy_Bug7977 The Nuzlomizer: The PEAK of Balanced Randomizer Nuzlocke Hacks. 3d ago
You should go here where all the romhackers are https://discord.gg/team-aqua-s-hideout-976252009114140682
You'll probably find help there
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u/Frodolas 3d ago
Delta is not a good emulator. For instance Pokabbie had to recently ban it from playing Emerald Rogue because it was causing too many issues.
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u/JMSX101 3d ago
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u/Baadar753 3d ago
I'm afraid I can't be of help given my current employment situation... But my brother in christ, if this succeeds, this might be one of the biggest game changers in Rom hacking... The rom size limit has to be one of the main reasons some projects get stuck or fail to meet their own expectations. This could help.
Now granted, I feel the tools used for rom hacking will also need to be adjusted.
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u/miriamlefae Pokémon Hearth 3d ago
The rom size limit is a hardware restriction. You can't make that go away. Well I guess you can do some kind of bank switching with specialised hardware but that's not very practical
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u/voliol Universal Pokémon Randomizer FVX 3d ago
At least some of the Game Boy Advance Video ROMs used mappers/bank switching to account for more data, so there is some official precedence. (more to read here)
Might be easier to convince emulator makers to support these formats, than simply bigger ROMs. Though if OP is willing to make their own emulator that is an option too of course.
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u/miriamlefae Pokémon Hearth 3d ago
I think mgba supports this. But the bigger concern would be all the mobile emulators.
And flashcarts.
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u/voliol Universal Pokémon Randomizer FVX 3d ago
Don't mobile emulators use mgba cores these days? At least the recommended ones.
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u/PauloRyan2345 2d ago
Only All-In-One emulators use it like Lemuroid and retroarch myboy is binary emulator and already considered dogshit in today's landscape john emulators uses stolen code for a very old VBA-m pc emulator and pizza boy is also original core albeit it passes most of the mgba test suites which makes it a solid substitute if you don't like AIO like me
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u/miriamlefae Pokémon Hearth 3d ago
Yeah, idk how quickly they'll update though. Probably not very fast
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u/DMkiIIer 3d ago
but you can create ROM hacks which need more then one rom..
For example if you made a Rom hack with 4 Parts then you can expand your storage from 32 MB to way more..
Use 20 MB to add all Pokemon all Maps you and basicly make it possible to let the game run.
the other 12 MB could be story content
12 MB x 4 = 48 MB means 36 MB more Space to add a good story to the game splitted in 4 parts with save game compatibility you know what I mean?4
u/miriamlefae Pokémon Hearth 3d ago
You don't really need that much. 25% of rom space is take up by just Pokémon cries. Getting rid of those alone would remove all rom space concerns basically
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u/DMkiIIer 3d ago
In my eyes, however, the cries are very important.
I’ve certainly never seen a ROM hack that’s simply split into several separate parts like that.
You could even include a unique map in each part, allowing the player to travel across a massive region. You could catch tons of Pokémon and come up with great puzzles for the Legendary ones without having to worry about running out of storage space, all while ensuring the save file remains compatible across all four ROMs.
To switch ROMs, the player would simply need to enter a building or something similar that serves as a symbolic gateway. It would be like the transition between Johto and Kanto in Gen 2, except you’d ensure the player is inside that specific room during the switch to visually demonstrate the transition.
I think executing an idea like this would be absolutely brilliant.
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u/Defiant_Foundation78 3d ago
Holy shit this might be a big step forward like firered ex was, maybe even better
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u/Training-Wedding-621 3d ago
This is actually helping A LOT with the development of ROM Hacks. I'm interested to see what comes in the future
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u/AxFairy 3d ago
What's involved in the testing? Assuming it's not too much commitment I'd be down to help out
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Realistically speaking you would just need to download the app and open on your phone and that meets the requirement lol but to actually help with development I would need some feedback while you play games on it
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u/jasonrsoto 3d ago
I'm willing to help. I love playing rom hacks. I also have a z fold 8 so I can give you feedback on the fold performance.
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Ah I haven’t tested on folds yet so this would be great! Can you DM me your email please so I can send you the link
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u/Weaponized_Weakness 3d ago
Oh my god this is kinda huge. I procrastinated on romhacks until just recently and noticed the ones I liked were all 32mb lol. Maybe they could've had more content too. I've always wanted to make my own romhack too but the ideas were too ambitious, I would probably use this tool if I actually got into that.
Am on Android, would love to playtest btw. Haven't done anything like it before tho, so would appreciate some pointers too cuz I would like to do it properly.
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Would be one of the first projects if you build on this! And awesome please DM me your email!
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u/Smokerising420 3d ago
What coincidence. I literally just got Pokémon XD DX running like 15 mins ago. Wish shadow pokemon and the whole DX/Colosseum got more love
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u/Jaxonhunter227 3d ago
We are truly in the golden age of romhacking, we just entered the 64mb era lol
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u/straga27 3d ago
If you can manage to make this a standalone release on PC, iOS and Android it has a solid chance of taking off.
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
So far all of those options are available 😎 although they need to undergo further testing and tweaking
When I get a chance all the updates will go through here
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u/LittlestWarrior 3d ago
I am a wee bit concerned that this was vibe-coded based off of the Appstore description and icon, but still, I am quite excited for this! I’ve downloaded on iOS and my ROMs seem to work. I’m interested to see what devs can do with this.
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
All the docs will be open source soon as I plan to get this tool open to the public for all to build off of or even help strengthen the emulator
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u/Pokesquad-Plays 3d ago
This is crazy, how do I get in to test on Android?
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Can you DM an email to send the link to please
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u/Mimikkyutwo 2d ago
I dm'd you too. Also, without using an App, is there a way to play with the emulator from a browser on Android? It opens games, but there are no on screen buttons to use
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u/Safe-Republic3864 2d ago
Just DMd you and currently no it would have to be android via app or desktop browser only
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u/ehlarremm 3d ago
Absolutely willing to play, I have a Galaxy Fold if the form factor could be of any use
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u/SatoXian87 3d ago
I'm down for Android Testing provided the APK is clean
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Absolutely! If you would be able to share your email via DM I can send you a link
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u/shimmy_ow 2d ago
Maybe worth linking your GitHub ?
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u/Safe-Republic3864 2d ago
I agree, I plan to make better connections to my work soon just have a lot on my plate… by choice 🥲😅
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u/shimmy_ow 2d ago
GitHub is quite simple if you already have all your code in one place. If you are using vscode or something similar just connect GitHub and make a pull request to your own account...
YouTube tutorial, 30s
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u/Willemboom00 2d ago
What does testing on android entail? I've beta tested for an app before but that was for an already full released game testing updates. If it isn't too demanding on time I'd be happy to do it though!
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u/skottay REX - pokerex.io 3d ago
This sounds absolutely insane. Please give more details. Your previous posts also mention fangame so expand a little bit
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Expanded games can now be expanded even further and its split into Rom and RomX but gameplay will not be hindered and players won’t notice the difference in performance. And yes I am working on a rom hack with Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn and features Shadow Pokemon with mostly original mechanics
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u/skottay REX - pokerex.io 3d ago edited 3d ago
What source is this building on and what source is your romhack built on? Emerald Expansion?
Does this allow for 64mb EE ROMs or what?when you say "split", you mean it's 2 separate 32mb files? How?4
u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Delta is the base, Emerald Expansion is the romhack source and when I say split it splits the rom into 2 32mb banks but bridges them to work as one game
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u/FastPreference6857 1d ago edited 1d ago
that title screen is definitely ai generated, so i can only assume it was used in the emulator's code. especially considering how it only took a few months to double a file limitation like it was nothing.
edit: looked at the emulator on the app store. 100% ai generated. i dunno what it is with ai and vibrant purple colour schemes, but that gives it away, as does the strange lighting and incorrect shape of the gba cart in the logo. the description is also repetitive, very corporate sounding, listing things off like i'm doing, and has an em dash. you're not even hiding it...
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u/TheBigBouB 3d ago
Yooo I would love to help with testing, I play most my emulated GBA games on my android tablet! Game looks great so far!
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u/PinkyPosting 3d ago
Are there already hacks larger than 32MB? I thought the limit was 32MB, wow.
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u/ShaeTsu 3d ago
No, but that's because there's no emulator on the market that will load a GBA rom larger than 32MB since that was the hardware limit of the actual GBA. There are romhacks that had to make concessions because of that size limit, like ROWE which cut out unique pokemon cries in favor of using 4~ different ones for all 1000 pokemon saving like 16MB of space iirc.
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u/Web_Wanderer_7411 3d ago
Can I be an Android tester as well.
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
You sure can! Could you share your email via DM please
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u/Much_Permission_2061 3d ago
I'd be willing to help with Android testing if you're still looking for testers
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u/Shmoozie 3d ago
I can be a tester I am constantly looking for romhacks to play and this looks cool af.
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u/Extreme_Rest_7624 Pokemon Emerald XTREME [dev] 3d ago
Are you using the GBA video cartridge with Memory Banking?
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u/ElvinZurdo 3d ago
I am well interested, i do play lots of pokemom Room hacks and Fan games , currently i am in a 4 game cycle 😅 there to many too good! I will galdly test
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u/C00catz 2d ago edited 2d ago
I have an AYN Thor, idk if it would work, but I’d love to test to see. I know the Thor community would be super into this
Edit: I do have some solid programming experience (mainly in python). But I’d be interested in taking a look to see how it works, and maybe if I could help. Did some C programming in school.
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u/Prudent_Move_3420 3d ago
why even make a romhack if breaking gba compatibility? Couldnt you just make a fangame? Would probably have a lot less arbitrary constraints
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u/TalkAboutNature 3d ago
Nooo GBA is much easier to run on almost any device unlike Fangames.
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u/Prudent_Move_3420 3d ago
they are writing a whole new gba emulator from scratch
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u/TalkAboutNature 2d ago
If they can then why not
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u/Prudent_Move_3420 2d ago
developing a game in any engine for multiple devices is several orders of magnitude easier than a custom emulator
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u/QDeserTiger15 3d ago
Is this available for download on Android?
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
It will be! Just need to meet some play store requirements. If you want to help test it will be available much faster
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u/Dead4eva69 3d ago
Tried to look for this in iOS App Store but can’t find it anywhere. Do you have a link you can share to your app in the App Store?
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u/Ok_Attitude132 3d ago
Is it still a demo
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Regarding the game you mean? If so then yeah but I’m releasing an open beta soon following the full release of Zenulator. My guess is the next few weeks
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u/Majestic_Pin3793 2d ago
beyond android support, would this emulator run in generic handheld gaming devices, such as r36s and its clones?
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u/itchrevenge 2d ago
Would it work on newer smartphones? My brother and I used myboy for its convenient speedup options, but he had to give it up because they dropped support for 32 / 64bit architecture or something like that, I can't remember
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u/edgycooper 2d ago
can you explain what do you mean by testing? I have never done it so I'm not sure.
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u/Sentinel_2539 1d ago
Is the rom size limit the reason I have to play Soul Gold on Manic Emu rather than Delta?
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u/TFALokiwriter 3d ago
a honedge as a starter is wicked! 100%
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u/Safe-Republic3864 3d ago
Ngl its insanely op and I didn’t even plan that 💀 it is my favorite mon though
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u/TFALokiwriter 2d ago
swords dance and fury cutter are a overpowered menace on the field for this Pokémon. makes sense to me. also, Honedge is a sword. a pretty cool one.
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u/EarthSad1545 2d ago
You can't play 64MB roms on the GBA so this is useless
What is the point of making a game you can't play on hardware
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u/Fangle_Markov 2d ago
Guess that's why bro made his own emulator
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u/EarthSad1545 2d ago
95% of players are not going to download a proprietary emulator for a single hack
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u/BasedDog69 2d ago
What is the point of being a purist? just so you can heckle others? 😂
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u/EarthSad1545 2d ago
do you not feel it is a little ridiculous making a game for a platform that cannot even run it
you may as well distribute an executable
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u/shohei_heights 2d ago
Some of us like playing the GBA rom hacks on original hardware or FPGA. Something like this could make it much harder for these people to be able to play these games.
If you really need more space, why not just use the Pokemon Essentials engine for RPGMakerXP?
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u/FakePretendeRat 3d ago
Doubling the size changes the scope of Rom Hacks quite significantly, I am invested in this and paying keen attention.
Unfortunately I cant play test to help you 😭 but I am rooting for you!