THE BEGINNING this is a tutorial on how to use the game boy advance emulator, the visual boy advance. it's the best in my opinion. I'll be posting about the most recent version of it, the version 1.8.0 beta 3. it is available in here. you should get winrar 3.71 too before starting. you could use winzip too, but winrar is recommended by me. if you don't have it already, then check this. first of all, download the emulator. put it wherever you want it to be, and then extract the files in that same folder. you are supposed to get 2 more files, one with the name COPYING (17.9 KB)and another one, named VisualBoyAdvance (1.88 MB). you may change their names to whatever you want. from here the real tutorial begins. run the emulator file, firstly named visualboyadvance. a small window should appear. we will first configure the emulator. the following is my fully working configuration. this may look a bit confusing, and a bit long, but you'll get my idea. THE CONFIGURATION options frameskip automatic 0 throttle no throttle video render method direct draw d draw triple buffering d3d nearest gl nearest gl triangle x1 layers (all) emulator synchronize pause when inactive window automatic IPS patching png format sound on channel 1, 2, 3, 4 direct sound a, b 22khz volume 1x gameboy cgb/gbc real colors colors... default priority highest filter interframe blending none normal joypad configure (as you prefer) default joypad 1 (you must configure joypad 1 for this to work) motion configure up: 8 (right numbers) down: 2 (right numbers) left: 4 (right numbers) right: 6 (right numbers) autofire (i use none) language English after having this working configuration, download a game, for example, Fire Emblem 6. download it. it's a fully working, English version with no virus, as i myself have it. put the file in whichever folder you want, and extract it, i recommend in the same folder where you put the compressed file, as it will be easier to find. then run the emulator, select ''file'', ''open'' and a new window is supposed to appear, named ''Select ROM''. get to the folder where you have put the decompressed file and select that file. if you have maximized the emulator window, it should minimize to the initial size. then the game should start running. if it doesn't, then redo the configuration step and make sure yours is like mine. if it still doesn't work, re download the game. SPECS these are the real gba specs. CPU: 16 MHz 32-bit RISC-CPU + 8-bit CISC-CPU Memory: 32KB WRAM + 96KB VRAM + 256KB WRAM Resolution: 240 x 160 pixels Display Ability: 32 000 colours RECOMMENDED SPECS my PC is a bit crappy, but the emulator fully works. Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz 256MB RAM memory near 40GB hard drive 128b video card if you have these or better, then you won't have any problems. FEATURES these are the features of vba. save game state at any point graphic filters to enhance display: 2xSaI, Super 2xSaI, Super Eagle, Pixelate and Motion Blur full screen support screen capture (through menu or configured key) joystick support speed up button Gameboy Printer emulation Gameboy GB, SGB, GBC and GBC on GBA emulation types SGB border support auto-fire support translation enabled (for emulator only) hacking capabilities, including search engine, Gameboy Gameshark and GameGenie support and GamesharkAdvance and CodeBreakerAdvance support GBA debugger in the SDL version Linux, windows and BeOS (SDL version) import Gameshark Game Saves, codes, etc... import battery files from other emulators export battery files to other emulators sound recording CHEATS to add cheats, first go to one of these sites: The Codebreaker site The GameShark site then, in the emulator, go to the menu ''cheats'', then select the sub-menu ''cheat list''. a new window will appear. there, click ''add gameshark'' and enter any code. i'll add an example for the game fire emblem 6. the code i'll use are in the gameshark site. description: (here you have to put the name of the code) Infinite Funds code: (here you have to enter the numbers of the code on the site) 241A814B8FFF 0A6E7E102066 you may have to sign up. don't worry, however, both of those sites are safe. to make this easier, you should copy/paste the codes and the name. after this, the code will appear in the previous window. add as many as you wish. however, i'll warn you, if you add too many, the software may not know how to work with so many codes, and an error will occur. if this happens, immediately go to the cheats window and start to disable some. if you want to save your cheat list, instead of always add them, each time you play, simply add them once, and then select ''save cheat list'' in the cheat menu, and save it. when you want to load it, select ''load cheat list'' and load the cheat list. any further questions, feel free to pm me...