VBAM(6)

💖 VBAM — bestie edition 💖

okay so real quick, this is the manual page for vbam, aka VisualBoy Advance-M, and it lives in section 6 of the manual (User Commands, iykyk). yes it's a whole emulator. yes it has a million flags. yes we're getting through all of them. grab a strawberry 🍓

🦋 NAME 🦋

vbam — the manual page for VisualBoy Advance-M. that's it, that's the name, she's iconic, she's the main character 👑

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

the way you run her is literally just:

vbam [option ...] file

so it's vbam, then as many options as your heart desires, then the file. periodt. 💅

✨ OPTIONS ✨

this is the part where it gets long, bestie. buckle up, we're going through every single one, no skipping, no cap 🫶

• -O, --opengl=MODE — sets the OpenGL texture filter. and ooh she has sub-options, she's fancy like that:
  • --no-opengl — 0 - Disable OpenGL
  • --opengl-nearest — 1 - No filtering
  • --opengl-bilinear — 2 - Bilinear filtering
• -F, --fullscreen — Full screen. that's it, she's taking up the whole screen, main character energy 🔥
• -G, --gdb=PROTOCOL — GNU Remote Stub mode, and you get to pick your protocol vibe:
  • tcp — use TCP at port 55555
  • tcp:PORT — use TCP at port PORT
  • pipe — use pipe transport
• -I, --ifb-filter=FILTER — picks the interframe blending filter:
  • 0 - No interframe blending
  • 1 - Interframe motion blur
  • 2 - Smart interframe blending
• -N, --no-debug — Don't parse debug information. not me ignoring the debug info 🙈
• -S, --flash-size=SIZE — Set the Flash size:
  • --flash-64k — 0 - 64K Flash
  • --flash-128k — 1 - 128K Flash
• -T, --throttle=THROTTLE — Set the desired throttle, range is 5...1000. gotta go fast but like, responsibly
• -b, --bios=BIOS — Use given bios file
• -c, --config=FILE — Read the given configuration file
• -d, --debug — Enter debugger 🐛
• -f, --filter=FILTER — Select filter, and bestie there are seventeen of these, she ate:
  • 0 - Stretch 1x
  • 1 - Stretch 2x
  • 2 - 2xSaI
  • 3 - Super 2xSaI
  • 4 - Super Eagle
  • 5 - Pixelate
  • 6 - Motion Blur
  • 7 - AdvanceMAME Scale2x
  • 8 - Bilinear
  • 9 - Bilinear Plus
  • 10 - Scanlines
  • 11 - TV Mode
  • 12 - lq2x
  • 13 - hq2x
  • 14 - Stretch 3x
  • 15 - hq3x
  • 16 - Stretch 4x
  • 17 - hq4x
• -h, --help — Print an help screen. hello?? when in doubt, -h it out 🫶
• -i, --ips=PATCH — Apply given IPS patch
• -p, --profile=[HERTZ] — Enable profiling. the HERTZ is optional, she's chill like that ✨
• -s, --frameskip=FRAMESKIP — Set frame skip, range is 0...9
• -t, --save-type=TYPE — Set the available save type, so many ways to save your lil guy:
  • --save-auto — 0 - Automatic (EEPROM, SRAM, FLASH)
  • --save-eeprom — 1 - EEPROM
  • --save-sram — 2 - SRAM
  • --save-flash — 3 - FLASH
  • --save-sensor — 4 - EEPROM+Sensor
  • --save-none — 5 - NONE
• -v, --verbose=VERBOSE — Set verbose logging (it goes to trace.log), and it's a bitmask situation so you can stack the numbers, watch:
  • 1 - SWI
  • 2 - Unaligned memory access
  • 4 - Illegal memory write
  • 8 - Illegal memory read
  • 16 - DMA 0
  • 32 - DMA 1
  • 64 - DMA 2
  • 128 - DMA 3
  • 256 - Undefined instruction
  • 512 - AGBPrint messages

💜 Long options only 💜

these ones don't have a short version, they're too cool for that, they stand alone and they stand tall 💅

• --agb-print — Enable AGBPrint support
• --auto-frameskip — Enable auto frameskipping
• --no-agb-print — Disable AGBPrint support
• --no-auto-frameskip — Disable auto frameskipping
• --no-ips — Do not apply IPS patch
• --no-pause-when-inactive — Don't pause when inactive
• --no-rtc — Disable RTC support
• --no-show-speed — Don't show emulation speed
• --no-throttle — Disable throttle
• --pause-when-inactive — Pause when inactive
• --rtc — Enable RTC support
• --show-speed-normal — Show emulation speed
• --show-speed-detailed — Show detailed speed data

ok bestie one lil heads-up from your girl: a bunch of these come in matching pairs like --agb-print / --no-agb-print and --rtc / --no-rtc, so make sure you pick the one you actually want and don't let them fight 🥺

🎀 sign-off 🎀

this manual page was brought to you by the VBA-M development team, dated January 2008, and it's the VBAM(6) page itself — so when you see it in the wild, that's the one. bye bestie, go run some games, you got this 💖🌈⭐