
There is absolutely zero emulation going on for either DS or GBA games on the 3DS. This disables all 3DS specific features like the arm11 CPUs and lets the arm9 core sit idle while clocking down the arm7 to play GBA games with (theoretically) perfect compatibility.Įven the original GBA bios is burnt onto the arm7. So when a GBA game is selected to play, the 3DS loads a near identical firmware to when you load a DS game. Here's the thing, the arm9 CPU in the 3DS is actually a dual core package as well! It contains a full arm7 core with all of the associated registers.

This means the arm11 cpu cores are not used at ALL for either DS or GBA modes.

(Also have a R4 classic if that is needed. The reason why the system menu is disabled when you play a DS or GBA game is because the system has to boot out of 3DS mode so a hacker can't obtain entrance once the security co-processor is busy doing other things (clocking down and working as a DS or GBA processor). (Also have a R4 classic if that is needed.) I want to run gba games on my 3dsxl. The arm9 core is predominantly used as a security co-processor in 3DS mode which is why 3DS software actually doesn't use the arm9 even though it's sitting in there. Alright! After some digging I found the answers!
