GBA Rush PSP

A Game Boy Advance emulator for PlayStation Portable, focused on real-hardware performance and a clear handheld interface.

GBA Rush PSP is an independent fork of andymcca/TempGBA4PSP-mod. It retains the emulator core, renderers, interface, compatibility work and launcher developed across gpSP, gpSP Kai, TempGBA and TempGBA4PSP-mod. The fork is maintained separately and does not imply upstream endorsement.

You must provide your own legally obtained GBA BIOS and ROM dumps. Neither is included in this repository or its releases.

Features

• Old and new gpSP renderers with sharp, aspect-correct and adaptive 16:9 presentation modes.
• Modern, Classic and Custom fast-forward profiles, global defaults and optional per-game overrides.
• Full-scale 16-bit audio mixing and optional 2x/3x accelerated audio.
• Plaintext and encrypted CodeBreaker support, including timed master hooks.
• Existing GameShark, Pro Action Replay and direct-write cheat formats.
• Two-PSP GBA link cable over local ad-hoc Wi-Fi, with a full-speed mode for Pokemon trades and battles across Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen.
• Suspend and resume recovery for audio, ROM access, saves and video state.
• Box art, recent ROMs, themes, configurable controls and per-game settings.
• Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Italian UI.
• On-device performance reports and host regression, sanitizer and package checks.

Install and upgrade

Copy the release folder to PSP/GAME/GBARushPSP/, then add your own gba_bios.bin:

PSP/GAME/GBARushPSP/
├── EBOOT.PBP
├── exception.prx
└── gba_bios.bin

Start GBA Rush PSP from the PSP Game menu and select a ROM. A dir.ini beside the EBOOT can point ROMs, saves, states, screenshots, cheats and box art to separate directories.

To upgrade, replace only EBOOT.PBP and exception.prx. Keep the BIOS, ROMs, saves, savestates, cheat lists and configuration files. Back up important save data before an update.

Fast-forward

Assign Fast forward in the controls menu. Triangle is the default.

• Modern runs at maximum speed while the button is held, presents at a steady 30 fps target and mutes audio.
• Classic cycles through Normal, 2x and 3x on each press. It uses fixed frame presentation and muted audio.
• Custom selects Hold or Toggle, 2x, 3x or Maximum, three presentation rates and Silent or Accelerated audio.

Accelerated audio is available at 2x and 3x. If the PSP cannot keep its audio buffer fed, the current fast-forward session falls back to silence. Opening a menu, resetting, changing ROM, suspending, exiting or starting a link session always returns to normal speed.

Video

16:9 Auto fills the PSP display. It starts with the two-pass Sharp path, falls back to the lighter Crisp path after sustained timing misses and returns to Sharp after a stable interval. The FPS overlay shows the active level.

Integer and aspect-correct modes remain available when preserving GBA geometry is more important than filling the display.

Cheats

Open Cheats options, choose Load cheat file and select a .cht file. A successful load shows the filename, entry count, names and ON/OFF state. Lists are selected manually because codes depend on the exact game region and revision.

Each entry starts with its format and display name, followed by code lines and a blank line:

codebreaker Example entry
82000100 1234

direct_v1 Example direct write
22000104 00000001

Supported headers are codebreaker, codebreaker_v1, codebreaker_v2, CB, gameshark_v1, gameshark_v2, gameshark_v3, PAR_v1, PAR_v2, PAR_v3, direct_v1, direct_v2 and direct_v3.

For CodeBreaker lists with a timed master, enable the master entry before the ordinary entries. If enabled masters use different hook addresses, the most recent master takes ownership and incompatible masters are disabled. Keep a backup of important saves when testing cheats.

Link cable

Two PSPs can connect as if a GBA link cable joined them. Both need this version of GBA Rush PSP; the games may differ.

1. Load the game on both PSPs with WLAN on.
2. On the first PSP open Main menu > Link cable > Create session.
3. On the second PSP choose Join session.

The cable chooses its technique from the two games. Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen, in any combination, run at full speed: each PSP emulates the wire locally and only the games' link frames cross the network. In FireRed and LeafGreen use the Cable Club on the Pokemon Center's second floor. Every other game exchanges each serial word with the other PSP. Once the other PSP has proved it can announce its next word in advance, as Mario Kart: Super Circuit allows, the PSP that clocks the transfers stops waiting for each reply; games that send many words per frame still slow down.

Fast-forward and savestates are disabled while connected. In games that exchange each serial word the emulator draws at least every other frame, whatever the frameskip setting, which applies again once the link closes. Reset, ROM change, suspend and exit close the session. Normal 8-bit, Normal 32-bit and two-player Multiplayer modes are supported; the Wireless Adapter, four players, UART, JoyBus, multiboot and internet play are not. Back up both saves before trading.

The link cable notes explain the design, tests and log decoding. The 1.4.0 checklist lists the remaining hardware tests.

Build and test

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the source layout, verification commands and hardware-test procedure.

A current PSPDev toolchain must provide psp-config in PATH.

make check
make test-sanitize
make psp-build

make check covers the portable cheat, serial, link, lifecycle, menu, video, configuration, fast-forward, dynarec and audio modules. Generated PSP files are written under source/ and ignored by Git.

The official PSPDev container can replace a local toolchain:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/workspace" -w /workspace/source pspdev/pspdev:latest make

After a successful candidate build:

make package VERSION=1.4.3

The package command creates a reproducible ZIP and SHA-256 checksum under dist/, then verifies the archive manifest. The archive includes the license notices, installation guide and current link test checklist. It never includes BIOS files, ROMs, saves, settings or cheat databases.

Performance comparison

On PSP, use Diagnostics > Start measurement, play a repeatable section, stop measurement and save the report. Collect three reports per build, then run:

python3 scripts/compare-benchmarks.py \
  --baseline old-1.txt old-2.txt old-3.txt \
  --candidate new-1.txt new-2.txt new-3.txt

The comparison checks throughput, frame-time and GE-wait tails, audio underruns, skipped frames and, when recorded, the measured fast-forward multiplier.

Single-game launcher

The optional launcher creates a separate XMB bubble for one ROM. Build its PSP stub first, then run the desktop tool:

make launcher-stub
python3 -m pip install -r source/single-game_launcher/tool/requirements.txt
python3 source/single-game_launcher/tool/gui.py

See the launcher README for asset sizes and required external tools.

Credits and license

GBA Rush PSP exists because of work by Exophase and gpSP contributors; notaz; Takka and the gpSP Kai contributors; Nebuleon, Normmatt, BassAceGold and the TempGBA community; Phoe-nix; andymcca; JxPv2; and every contributor to the direct upstream repository. Relevant fixes from libretro/gpSP are retained with source history and notices.

The emulator is GPL-2.0-or-later; see LICENSE, NOTICE, source/copyright and source headers. The launcher builder is GPL-3.0-or-later and carries separate notices in its directory.

GBA Rush PSP is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Sony, CodeBreaker or the upstream maintainers.