VBALink emulator and getting Pokemon to work with it

VBALink is essentially the same as Visual Boy Advance but it allows you to use the link cable system without owning a GBA and a link cable. (no$gba is an alternative, but I haven't messed with it much)

You can get it here, however the site isn't very clear on how to use it correctly; I was trying to get it to work with Pokemon Fire Red and it was one of the most frustrating experiences with emulation I've had. I tried looking it up and got a few good tips but i was still lost, so I'm writing this guide.

This emulator says it supports online play and this is the only feature I have yet to even try, because from what i read about it the online play is completely screwed up and not worth bothering with. On the download page they list the updated 1.8 LAN/WiFi under the outdated 1.7 LAN edition, you really need the 1.8 edition if you want to attempt online play, but from what I heard the outdated one is less finicky when it comes to general use. This is your first important step because you can't convert save games or save states over if you download the wrong one, so make sure you have the one you want.

Setup the controls, your directories and adjust the screen to the size you want it. Now find the .exe of the VBALink emulator you just clicked to open it the first time (it might be helpful to create a shortcut and place it on your desktop or in your start menu). You will notice something odd right off because the 2nd VBALink that popped up is smaller with everything default. Setup everything (do not forget to set the same directories as you did on the other screen) but, when you setup the controls make sure you set them up to different keys (you're going to be using both windows at the same time when you get everything set up).

Now... I have not done this with save states properly yet, in fact if you are playing a Pokemon game (which i was using) DO NOT use save states at all; it messes up the save file. I haven't tested this with other games but you should probably just use the in game saves exclusively. The reason for this being (and this is where it gets a tad confusing) is because when you save your game on the First VBALink emulator you open, it gets it's own save file, and when you save on the 2nd VBALink emulator you opened (or 3rd and 4th) they each get their own save file also. So say you're playing Pokemon and you get to where you can trade on the 3rd emulator window you opened, if you want to play this character later you have to open up 3 VBALink emulators at once and play the 3rd one.

This gets even more confusing if you're trading from Pokemon Leaf Green to Fire Red (for example) because let's say you're using your Leaf Green rom as.. like a 2nd game just to get the exclusive Pokemon that aren't in Fire Red, to do this you can't start your Leaf Green game on the first VBALink window; you have to open a 2nd one and start your game on that (unless you want to play the 2nd save/Emulator on your Fire Red, which would make things a lot more confusing).

OK, getting Pokemon to work with this emulator; some people (I even did at first, it drove me insane) have had A LOT of problems getting this to work with a few roms (mainly Fire Red and I think Emerald), first off there's supposedly a patch you can use to fix the save problem on Pokemon games, and if you download the Fire Red rom at Emu-Land the .zip has the patch already in it I believe. First thing you need to do is go to your emulator (just do this for both/all of them) and go to options and check real time clock (this is for Emerald/Ruby/Sapphire to enable real time clock events) now while still under options go to emulator and then save type make sure it's Automatic and Flash 128K.

Now start up your Pokemon rom, if you get this 1MB circuit board error then go to file then export battery file then import it (it should have a .sa1 file extension or 2 or 3 or 4 depending on if you're using the first emulator or 2nd, 3rd etc), import that and see if it fixes it. If it doesn't.. it should but i dunno what else to say if it doesn't work after all that, try the one from emu-land (There is a way to do a fix though; it's called vba-over.ini and I'll just link you to this forum that has more information on it. I have never tried this though.)

When playing Pokemon DO NOT absolutely do not use save states why? because after you load a save state it messes your save file up and you have to either delete the old save file (which at this point sometimes still doesn't work) or even reinstall the emulator and start over again. This is all due to the fact you have to save before and after you trade Pokemon, and also before or after (i don't remember which) you defeat the Elite Four.

Alright now, using your VBALink to Link.. on both of your emulators go to options then emulator and un-check pause when inactive window (must be done on both emulators) and start up both roms. Get to the point where you can use the link cable, for example I'm going to go with Pokemon again on this because it's really all I've tried so far to be honest. Using both emulators get your characters on both roms to talk to the person that does trades/battles, make sure you have one start a little ahead of the other (I'm not sure if this is even an issue but I always do this to be safe). Sometimes you will notice the other screen acting like it's freezing, don't panic, just wait for a little bit and if it doesn't go through cancel the link on the other one and try again, from what I've seen, this is actually common behavior. Then just follow through with whatever you were doing.

I hope this helped someone.