We are proud to present one of the largest releases since the GB Operator's launch. Although it started with just a short list of features, as development evolved we saw the opportunity to add many more requested features to the Playback app. This release sees us completing a considerable amount of the Roadmap we made all the way back in 2020.
Notably, v0.9 includes Autosaving Support, which brings the experience of playing on Operator devices closer to how it was when playing on original consoles. This means the Operator software detects when a save is made during a gaming session and it is able to write the updated progress directly to the cartridge, on the spot.
That being said, we have even more things that we're excited to work on, such as the Cheat Engine and Shader Support.
Stay tuned as we extend our Roadmap for the Operator software with new features and new plans. As always, we'd like to express our appreciation to the community for submitting requests to our support team or providing feedback. Thank you!
Operator software:
- Autosaving Support: Now the game is able to save directly to the cartridge. There's no longer a need for the Playback app to ask the user to write the save separately. This feature is still in beta and being tested, so it's disabled by default.
- Automatic Save Backups: In addition to the previous backup system, the emulator now makes backups of your saves before writing to the cartridge as well. This is useful in the rare situation in which the emulator crashes, or the device disconnects during gameplay. You can manually upload the save back, without losing your progress. The software makes backups in the following situations:
- When reading save data before launching the game;
- When writing save data while playing;
- When reading/writing save data from the Data tabs.
- Emulator Settings:
- Fast-forward speed multiplier (from 0.25x to 5.0x);
- BIOS support;
- Force Game Boy Model;
- Customizable color palettes;
- Hardware preset Game Boy palettes;
- Super Game Boy Border support;
- Color Correction (adjusting output colors to match real GBA/GBC hardware);
- Interframe blending;
- Audio Low Pass filter configuration (with levels);
- Allow Opposing Directional Input;
- Solar sensor levels (not from the hardware, just simulated);
- Frameskipping with thresholds and intervals;
- Idle loop removals.
- Rumble support for games and controllers that support it (e.g. Pokemon Pinball);
- Save Vault and the ability to open the vault directly from the Settings menu;
- Future Support: added support for our upcoming devices, the Playback app now detects the type of device inserted and changes the emulator being used (currently available between GB/GBC/GBA and SNES);
- Gamepad Rebinding: Fixed an issue where rebinding a controller that has analog buttons would trigger the binding sequence for other buttons as well, making it impossible to rebind your controller. Tested with previously not working 8BitDo SN30 (model 80BA);
- Gamepad Support: Updated SDL version fixing a bunch of controllers;
- Save Data: Added the feature to preserve the current RTC values on the save file that is being downloaded from your cartridge;
- Playing: Added RTC support for GB/GBC in the emulator;
- Ability to switch in-app from GB Operator to SN Operator and connectivity auto-detection (not yet publicly available);
- Linux: Fix ALSA issues under multiple distros, now fixed for all of them;
- Linux: Fix crashes due to GStreamer on Debian distros with older versions of GStreamer;
- Major security and stability improvements, bringing the application closer to a stable release. This is where most of the work was done for this release and especially brings us the satisfaction of offering an improved experience to customers.
GB Operator (Firmware v8):
The firmware release does not come bundled with the software you download from our downloads page. Once the firmware release becomes available for your device, a notification will appear in the Operator software, triggering the firmware update.
- Faster bootleg rewriting for GBA: 4 times faster chip erasing implemented for most bootlegs;
- Added RTC support for GBA*;
- Added support for flashcarts/bootlegs which require flashing commands on Bank 1;
- Added support for flashcarts from Ferrante Crafts (32KB, 64KB and 512KB).
All Operator devices:
- Major security improvements.
Game Save Type Auto-detection Updates:
There were reports of the cartridges below experiencing issues with the 'Upload Save' feature. With this release, users are now able to download/upload saves seamlessly.
- NES Classics - Castlevania
Preservation efforts
Due to the vast amount of different archivists that submit video game data to databases, there are instances in which the archives they contribute to don't have the most accurate data or the information can be conflicting. We use these databases in addition to our own in order to run thorough integrity checks, however sometimes our community may encounter incorrect submissions.
Below is a list of the games which had wrong checksums and have now been corrected with the help of community contributions. Please keep reaching out to our Support team with information as we improve the database and, ultimately, the user's experience as well.
- Minna no Soft Series - Tetris Advance (added an additional revision of the game);
- NES Classics - Castlevania (added an additional checksum to the database);
- Three-in-One Pack: Risk + Battleship + Clue (improved game information);
- NES Classics (added in-game save reading/writing);
- Ougon no Taiyou: Ushinawareshi Toki (added support for save data read/write);
- Sky Dancers: They Magically Fly! (improved game description);
- Tactics Ogre - The Knight of Lodis (USA) (added support for save data read/write);
- Knights' Kingdom (added game information);
- Mahoujin Guruguru (added game information);
- Crash & Spyro Superpack: Spyro: Season of Ice + Crash Bandicoot (added game information);
- Monsters, Inc. (improved game information);
- 2 Games in One!: Gauntlet + Rampart (improved game information);
- Ranma 1-2 (added game information);
- Barbie Groovy Games (added game information);
- Konjiki no Gashbell!! Yuujou no Zakeru: Dream Tag Tournament (added game information);
- 2 Games in 1: Quad Desert Fury + Monster Trucks (added game information);
- Double Game!: Quad Desert Fury & Monster Trucks (added game information);
- 3 Game Pack!: Mouse Trap + Simon + Operation (improved game information).
With all this being said, it has been quite the rewarding effort to bring this release to the public and there are still features we will continue to add moving forward. Since there have been many messages requesting updates on this matter, for the near future the team will prioritise and accelerate the development of our next product, Operator for SNES. This is something we are incredibly excited about and wish to give it the attention and focus it deserves. Thank you!
Note *: The libretro implementation of mGBA does not yet seem to have the ability to load RTC data for GBA via the save file or another mechanism, most likely it will be implemented in a future update on their end. As soon as this is done, we will also include it in the Playback app.