diff --git a/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/LibmGBA.cs b/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/LibmGBA.cs
index 6f9f8ae922..0e200ad47c 100644
--- a/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/LibmGBA.cs
+++ b/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/LibmGBA.cs
@@ -24,8 +24,41 @@ namespace BizHawk.Emulation.Cores.Nintendo.GBA
 		[DllImport(dll, CallingConvention = cc)]
 		public static extern void BizSkipBios(IntPtr ctx);
 
+		public enum SaveType : int
+		{
+			Autodetect = -1,
+			ForceNone = 0,
+			Sram = 1,
+			Flash512 = 2,
+			Flash1m = 3,
+			Eeprom = 4
+		}
+
+		[Flags]
+		public enum Hardware : int
+		{
+			None = 0,
+			Rtc = 1,
+			Rumble = 2,
+			LightSensor = 4,
+			Gyro = 8,
+			Tilt = 16,
+			GbPlayer = 32,
+			GbPlayerDetect = 64,
+			NoOverride = 0x8000 // can probably ignore this
+		}
+
+		[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
+		public class OverrideInfo
+		{
+			public SaveType Savetype;
+			public Hardware Hardware;
+			public uint IdleLoop = IDLE_LOOP_NONE;
+			public const uint IDLE_LOOP_NONE = unchecked((uint)0xffffffff);
+		}
+
 		[DllImport(dll, CallingConvention = cc)]
-		public static extern bool BizLoad(IntPtr ctx, byte[] data, int length);
+		public static extern bool BizLoad(IntPtr ctx, byte[] data, int length, [In]OverrideInfo dbinfo);
 
 		[DllImport(dll, CallingConvention = cc)]
 		public static extern bool BizAdvance(IntPtr ctx, LibVBANext.Buttons keys, int[] vbuff, ref int nsamp, short[] sbuff,
diff --git a/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/MGBAHawk.cs b/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/MGBAHawk.cs
index 9fe571f651..c0a3eae7bc 100644
--- a/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/MGBAHawk.cs
+++ b/BizHawk.Emulation.Cores/Consoles/Nintendo/GBA/MGBAHawk.cs
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ namespace BizHawk.Emulation.Cores.Nintendo.GBA
 		IntPtr core;
 
 		[CoreConstructor("GBA")]
-		public MGBAHawk(byte[] file, CoreComm comm, SyncSettings syncSettings, Settings settings, bool deterministic)
+		public MGBAHawk(byte[] file, CoreComm comm, SyncSettings syncSettings, Settings settings, bool deterministic, GameInfo game)
 		{
 			_syncSettings = syncSettings ?? new SyncSettings();
 			_settings = settings ?? new Settings();
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ namespace BizHawk.Emulation.Cores.Nintendo.GBA
 			}
 			try
 			{
-				if (!LibmGBA.BizLoad(core, file, file.Length))
+				if (!LibmGBA.BizLoad(core, file, file.Length, GetOverrideInfo(game)))
 				{
 					throw new InvalidOperationException("BizLoad() returned FALSE!  Bad ROM?");
 				}
@@ -80,6 +80,53 @@ namespace BizHawk.Emulation.Cores.Nintendo.GBA
 			}
 		}
 
+		private static LibmGBA.OverrideInfo GetOverrideInfo(GameInfo game)
+		{
+			if (!game.OptionPresent("mgbaNeedsOverrides"))
+			{
+				// the gba game db predates the mgba core in bizhawk, but was never used by the mgba core,
+				// which had its own handling for overrides
+				// to avoid possible regressions, we don't want to be overriding things that we already
+				// know work in mgba, so unless this parameter is set, we do nothing
+				return null;
+			}
+
+			var ret = new LibmGBA.OverrideInfo();
+			if (game.OptionPresent("flashSize"))
+			{
+				switch (game.GetIntValue("flashSize"))
+				{
+					case 65536: ret.Savetype = LibmGBA.SaveType.Flash512; break;
+					case 131072: ret.Savetype = LibmGBA.SaveType.Flash1m; break;
+					default: throw new InvalidOperationException("Unknown flashSize");
+				}
+			}
+			else if (game.OptionPresent("saveType"))
+			{
+				switch (game.GetIntValue("saveType"))
+				{
+					// 3 specifies either flash 512 or 1024, but in vba-over.ini, the latter will have a flashSize as well
+					case 3: ret.Savetype = LibmGBA.SaveType.Flash512; break;
+					case 4: ret.Savetype = LibmGBA.SaveType.Eeprom; break;
+					default: throw new InvalidOperationException("Unknown saveType");
+				}
+			}
+
+			if (game.GetInt("rtcEnabled", 0) == 1)
+			{
+				ret.Hardware |= LibmGBA.Hardware.Rtc;
+			}
+			if (game.GetInt("mirroringEnabled", 0) == 1)
+			{
+				throw new InvalidOperationException("Don't know what to do with mirroringEnabled!");
+			}
+			if (game.OptionPresent("idleLoop"))
+			{
+				ret.IdleLoop = (uint)game.GetHexValue("idleLoop");
+			}
+			return ret;
+		}
+
 		MemoryDomainList MemoryDomains;
 
 		public IEmulatorServiceProvider ServiceProvider { get; private set; }
diff --git a/output64/dll/mgba.dll b/output64/dll/mgba.dll
index a80adc9e83..160785075f 100644
Binary files a/output64/dll/mgba.dll and b/output64/dll/mgba.dll differ