PlasticExistence , 4 hours ago

Not necessarily. Accuracy comes down to specific implemention of the emulator, hardware or software.

Where FPGA shines is it can do operations in parallel, just like actual hardware would. This means there will be a lot less latency in the emulation, giving it a feel that’s close to the original hardware.

An FPGA implementation of the GBA can be as inaccurate as software emulation, and just because a game seems to play the same way doesn’t mean the emulator is calculating everything in the exact same way as the original hardware. Cycle accuracy isn’t technically necessary to have it still seem exactly the same so long as the timing is the same. That’s what the PS1 core on the MiSTer is (timing accurate, though not perfectly cycle accurate).