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So, I’m taking a break from the game pass to see what else the Xbox Series S has to offer, and one thing that really intrigued me was the possibility to emulate retro games by acquiring Dev Mode and installing Retroarch afterward.
For those that don’t know, RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, like GBA, SNES, Game Cube, PS2, and many more. At first, I wasn’t that excited, since I own a laptop that can run all the aforementioned emulators fairly well. However, I got an idea that made things a lot more interesting.
As I was playing on my GBA I kept thinking how awesome it would be to transfer my 16-year-old Pokemon Ruby save file to my Xbox Series S and play it there.
This process would be a ton of fun and, I’d be preserving that save file in which I have almost 600 hours of playtime. So, without a second thought, I got to work.
First, I needed a way to transfer a GBA save file from the cartridge to a Micro SD Card. My preferred method of doing this has always been using a Nintendo DS Lite with an M3 DS Real. It’s really simple to use and it can’t just back up and restore save files but also ROMs which brings some much-needed legality to this process.
There was a small problem though, the NDS LITE I used to use wasn’t in my possession anymore meaning I had to buy another one, and it was difficult to buy one at a good price that was in a decent shape. In the end, I had to settle for a Pink Nintendo DS Lite… I didn’t like it at first but it eventually grew on me and now I even prefer it over my Nintendo 2DS XL when it comes to playing actual Nintendo DS games.
With the Nintendo DS Lite in hand, I opened up a guide I did a while ago on how to Get the Event tickets in Pokémon Emerald to make sure I didn’t mess up the process. With this, I was finally ready for the next step, getting a Microsoft Dev Account so I could install Retroarch on my Xbox Series S.
This process was easy but it took some of my time and money. I had to watch a 30-minute video on how to actually do all this and I ended up having to pay 17€ for that Microsoft Dev Account. But everything was very well explained and soon enough I had Retroarch and ready to emulate GBA games.
However, there was something that I couldn’t find, the process of booting my GBA save the file. I had it in the right directory but it wasn’t working.
So, I exited the Retroarch checked the Saves folder, and saw that a new save file was created for Pokémon Ruby. So, I copied its name and renamed my original save file (including the .SRM), and voilá. I was now able to play my Pokémon Ruby save file on my Xbox Series S and it felt amazing!
Afterward, I did the same with Metroid Fusion since I’m currently playing through. I love playing on the GBA but that thing is way too uncomfortable for my fingers. And, when I’m done I can just restore the save file in the cartridge, it’s almost like a Nintendo Switch, in terms of portability anyway!
So, was this process worth it? Absolutely! I ended up spending around 57€ on this little experiment but I had a blast seeing a Pokémon game with my original save file running on the Xbox Series S. And now I can rest assured that all of my childhood friend’s secret bases are preserved forever. I might show a few of them if people find it interesting!
Do you feel like doing this too? If so let me know and I’ll try to help as much as I can!