FAQ/Troubleshooting

Why is Linux x86 a requirement?
Because REALbasic Linux compiles for x86. Actually REALbasic Linux (the non free version) will compile for Windows and MAC OSX but quite a few modifications would be needed in the RbVBA source for this to work; it could be done though.

Why aren't all the VisualBoyAdvance configuration options shown?
Only three VisualBoyAdvance configuration options need to be setup before use and I don't want to bloat out RbVBA with pages of controls that never get used; that is not the direction of this project. Click the VBA README tab, click Command Line Options and type the option into the additional Command Line Arguments text box. The contents of this text box are saved on exit and restored on startup.

In the Select Folder/File dialog, how do you show hidden folders and files?
Apparently all the functionality of the file selector is hidden in the text box. Type . and press TAB and then it shows all the hidden files.

Can using the Trainer and the cheat codes damage my ROMs?
NO. The Trainer and the cheat codes operate on one single save state file that you create within VisualBoyAdvance by pressing Shift + F9. Save state files are snapshots of the game's RAM and these snapshots are a feature of VisualBoyAdvance. You may already have save state files for the game you want to hack but it is unlikely they will occupy slot #9, so that is why I have chosen this particular slot.

Why can't cheat codes be 4 bytes, only 1 and 2?
I am using REALbasic2005 and it doesn't have unsigned integers, only signed 4 byte integers. I need unsigned 4 and 8 byte integers which are in REALbasic2006r1 and UInt64 is bugged in that release.

Tips

While scrolling up and down the game list pressing ENTER will play the selected game.
Scroll up the game list with the up or left arrows, down with the down or right arrows. The game list wraps so if you press up at the top you'll reappear at the bottom.
Typing any alphanumeric character while in the the game list will take you to the first game in the list starting with that character. Typing it again will take you to the next etc.
Pressing ENTER inside the Command Line Arguments text box will play the currently selected game.
If you want to temporarily remove a ROM or Cover folder, don't delete the entire path, just add a character to the end to make it invalid (and press Save), then you will only need to remove that single character to reactivate it.
You don't have to mix up gba, gbc and gb ROMs. Put them in their own folders then you can include/exclude them from the game list by altering the ROM paths (see previous tip).
The VBA README tab that displays the VisualBoyAdvance README file can display any text file. Just change the path in the RbVBArc tab.
Images can be jpg, bmp or png.
ROMS in .gz files do not need to be scanned to identify their contents, but .zip do, so .gz ROMs list much faster.