GNUBOY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


Q: How do I configure gnuboy?

A: You can specify various options to gnuboy by means of "rcvars",
either on the command line or in your gnuboy.rc file. To set rcvars
from the command line, just use --varname=value, or --no-varname to
turn off yes/no options. If you wish to use a gnuboy.rc file, create
it with any text editor and save it in ~/.gnuboy (for *nix systems) or
the same directory as gnuboy.exe (for DOS/Windows systems). In this
file you can set rcvars with lines of the form "set varname value".
See the sample.rc file included for examples.


Q: Are you planning to add serial cable (gamelink) emulation?

A: Yes, read the wishlist in the README. At this time we don't have
all the technical information to emulate it 100% correctly, so if you
think you can help us find the info, get in touch.


Q: gnuboy is too slow. How can I make it run faster?

A: You can try turning the sampling rate for sound down (for example,
--samplerate=22050) or disabling sound entirely (--no-sound). Also,
running at 8bpp with --rgb565 enabled will result in the highest video
performance at the expense of some color quality. Of course, gnuboy is
very fast, and shouldn't need any performance tweaks as long as your
system is at least as fast as a Pentium/120.


Q: Why did the keybindings change in 1.0?

A: Even though lots of emulators do it, we figured it wasn't a very
good idea to use modifier keys for the controls, since some systems
may be configured to trap these for other uses. This especially became
a problem after adding support for Alt+Enter to toggle fullscreen. If
you want to go back to the old bindings and don't want to configure
them yourself, you can find all the old settings (including the old
default palette) in classic.rc. Just copy and paste to your gnuboy.rc.


Q: Will gnuboy ever support recording and playback?

A: We get this question fairly often, and I'm never sure how to answer
it. We are planning to support recording audio output before too
terribly long, but whether full demo recording and playback will ever
be supported is uncertain. We'll keep it in mind for the future,
though.


Q: Why doesn't gnuboy do anything when I run it?

A: You need to specify the name of the ROM to load on the command
line. One way to do this on Windows is to drag the ROM file onto
gnuboy.exe (or a shortcut to it). Associating *.gb and *.gbc with
gnuboy also works. Of course, you can also just use the run command on
the start menu, or open a dos prompt. Unix users of course are
expected to know how to run programs.


Q: gnuboy doesn't run on WinNT/2k!!

A: Set the following environment variables before running:
    SDL_VIDEODRIVER=windib
    SDL_AUDIODRIVER=waveout
Doing so should fix problems with other SDL programs too. If it still
doesn't work, let us know. Your milage may vary; some people have
reported that this doesn't help.


Q: Why is sound pitch off by about 1% in gnuboy?

A: You have a very good ear. It's a rounding issue that won't be
outright fixed for a while. If you want a workaround, set the sample
rate to a power of two (for example 32768 works well) on the command
line or in your gnuboy.rc.


Q: Why does sound have ugly static noise on Windows?

A: This is a bug in SDL's DirectSound support. Try setting the
environment variable:
    SDL_AUDIODRIVER=waveout
before running gnuboy. Hopefully this won't cause any problems.