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View Full Version : GBA BIOS?


brandawg94
January 26th, 2009, 23:51
this might sound a bit noobish but what are GBA BIOS
FatTrucker
January 27th, 2009, 14:53
The underlying operating system or code that the original hardware runs on. AFAIK most GBA emu's will run perfectly well without it. It is subject to copyright however so the same rule applies to it as game roms - no linky from EZ. ;)
THANAMELESS
January 27th, 2009, 15:07
The underlying operating system or code that the original hardware runs on. AFAIK most GBA emu's will run perfectly well without it. It is subject to copyright however so the same rule applies to it as game roms - no linky from EZ. ;)

are there separete BIOS for GBA available? but does that make GBA emulators illigal, because the BIOS are downloaded with them?

250 posts!:D
FatTrucker
January 27th, 2009, 16:49
Nope, emulators are created by reverse engineering. Basically the authors find a completely different route to the same destination so no copyright code is used or reproduced. Its also one of the reasons why emulators can take so long to develop and contain bugs, glitches and things which don't work as well as they did on the original console, as the authors are having to re-invent the wheel without using anything round.

Of course some emulators don't reverse engineer everything meaning they need the original bios to function, but you'll notice those emulators never include the bios as part of their internal code or as part of the emulator download working on the presumption that any users will extract the necessary code from their own hardware obviously.
THANAMELESS
January 27th, 2009, 16:50
why do you need bios then with some emulators?
FatTrucker
January 27th, 2009, 16:52
I've already edited the above post to cover that.
THANAMELESS
January 27th, 2009, 16:55
ok so bios are only needed to fullfill incomplete emulators wich are to hard to create like
the normal emulator?
FatTrucker
January 27th, 2009, 17:50
Original bios's are needed where there isn't a suitable alternative through reverse engineering. Generally the newer the console the more likely this is to be the case, particularly on machines that stream content from optical media.
THANAMELESS
January 27th, 2009, 18:00
ok thanks for the information