There are many ways to emulate the Game Boy Advance these days, whether it's on modded games consoles, retro handheld consoles or modern solutions such as the Raspberry Pi. Sometimes though, it can be a minefield to know which is the best emulator to use, so we have put together a concise list of the best GBA emulators for PC, Android and iOS.
Best GBA Emulator for PC – mGBA
mGBA has fast become a favourite with retro gamers looking to emulate the GBA on the PC. It first began development in 2012, and appeared publicly as an alpha release in 2014. mGBA has since received regular updates, it plays original Game Boy games and even now has Nintendo DS support!
mGBA has evolved into the definitive GBA emulator. Ptc creo 5.0 download with crack. Not only does it do a fantastic job of allowing you to play all your old GBA games, it allows you to use GameShark codes, has a comprehensive debug mode where you can access game assets and export them.
Go to its download page and get the GBA rom zip file downloaded to your downloads folder. Now open My Boy free emulator and select downloads folder. Let ‘s grab these best android emulators app and start playing classic console games wherever you are. DraStic DS Emulator Android. MegaN64 (n64 emulator android) MAME4droid. Free – GBA Emulator. FPse for android. Download FPse ($2.95) GENPlusDroid. Download GENPlusDroid (Free). There are several ways to run Android apps on your computer. For example, the Android SDK comes with an Android emulator for debugging apps, and BlueStacks is a cloud-based virtual machine that optimizes Android apps for desktops. However, if you want to access the full version of Android without an emulator, then your best bet is Phoenix OS.
I am usually a fan of playing my Game Boy Advance games on a retro handheld console such as the RG350, but mGBA is now my choice of emulator when it comes to GBA emulation on the PC.
Best GBA Emulator for Android – My Boy!
My Boy! Is a hugely popular GBA emulator for Android devices with over 1 million installs. My Boy! Is well known for quality standard of emulation and configurability, but aside from all the usual standard features you would expect of a quality GBA emulator, My Boy! Features GBA link cable emulation. This is a feature loved in particular by Pokemon players, which makes My Boy! Particularly unique.
It is a paid app, but if you are a Game Boy Advance fan and are seeking an excellent GBA Emulator for Android, you must consider My Boy!
Best GBA Emulator for iOS – RetroArch / mGBA Core
Since iOS is typically more difficult to install emulators too and usually require some kind of workaround, I would recommend using RetroArch for your GBA emulation.
Download Gba Emulator Android
The mGBA core is available to iOS users via RetroArch, so once again, I make this the recommended core for Game Boy Advance emulation.
There are comprehensive tutorials available online to assist with the installation, so installing emulators on to your iOS device need not be a painful experience any longer.
Best RetroArch GBA Core – RetroArch / mGBA Core
As for the best all round GBA emulation solution, RetroArch once again saves the day!
The mGBA core also allows you to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games.
Another popular request for GBA emulators is the options to speed up emulation, in particular with Pokemon players where there are a lot of sections of the game players want to speed up to skip past – RetroArch has you covered here with it's fast forward mode!
The mGBA core also once again is my go to core in RetroArch for Game Boy Advance emulation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many GBA emulators have video filter and shader options built in, making it easy to make your GBA emulators look nicer. RetroArch for example has many shaders available that allow you to round off hard edges of pixels, recreate CRT scanlines and also specifically recreate the pixelated look of the original GBA screen.
mGBA also has built in upscaling and filtering options to make your GBA games look better on the big screen
So you've been trying to find the best GBA emulator out there, right? Well, what we have here is just that. In this post, we're going to show you some of the best GBA emulators for PC & Android. These Game Boy Advance emulators are handpicked by us and ranked according to their usability, compatibility, UI and much more. Read on!
Which platform are you looking for?
Contents
- Best GBA Emulator
- Best GBA Emulator for PC
- GBA Emulator for Android
- GBA Emulator for Linux
- GBA Emulator for macOS
- GBA Emulator for Nintendo Wii
- GBA Emulators for Xbox One
We're dividing this post into two: GBA emulators for PC & GBA emulators for Android. Just scroll down to your required part or use the table of contents given above to jump right in.
Best GBA Emulator for PC
Visual Boy Advance
Visual Boy Advance or VBA as it's commonly known is also one of the first fully functional GBA emulators for PC. It was introduced first in 2004, but since then many versions of VBA has been branched out, developed by different developers. The version of VBA, which you can download and use right away a would be VBA-M, which is an all new version for VBA emulator, that tries to continue on the legacy of the original VBA. Also it has now nifty new features that was not available before on the old version.
Compatibility
VBA-M is compatible with the following platforms: Marvel ultimate alliance psp download.
- GameBoy (GB)
- GameBoy Color (GBC)
- GameBoy Advance (GBA)
It also supports full save state features, which is very helpful to save the gameplay and also resume from where you stopped. Even better, you can also export the save files to other emulators and continue your gameplay on them. It comes with joystick support, full-screen mode and more.
Boycott Advance
Boycott Advance is also one of the most popular GameBoy Advance emulators available for PC. It is very simple with a simple UI, without many features. It requires BIOS support on your PC to run many GBA ROMs though.
Boycott Advance is having highly optimized CPU emulation. Also, it comes with full support for GBA video features such as rotation and scaling. There is an online version of Boycott advance, which doesn't require you to download the application to your PC to run GBA games.
Higan
Higan is an open-source GBA Emulator for PC, which might also be one of the most advanced emulators in this list. It has support for lots of systems, not only GBA (we'll come to that later). It is also well known for emulating the original Nintendo systems with pinpoint accuracy with their advanced techniques.
Compatibility
- GameBoy
- GameBoy Color
- GameBoy Advance
- Famicom (NES)
- Super Famicom (SNES)
GBA Emulator for Android
My Boy! GBA Emulator for Android
My Boy! Emulator is one of the most popular GBA emulators available for Android in Play Store right now. I've tried out some games in this emulator, and it works out just fine without any issues and that's the reason it's on the top position on this list for GBA emulators for Android.
It comes with one of the best UI available in Android GBA emulators. One of the nice features of My Boy is that you can customise the controls in this emulator. Also it allows you to save your progress whenever you want (in game). My Boy! GBA emulator for Android is available in Play Store for free, also there is a paid version of the same with some additional features.
You can download My Boy for Android paid version from here:
You can download My Boy for Android free version from here:
John GBA
John GBA is also among the best Android GBA emulators, which you can use right away, and it will work flawlessly with your GBA ROMs. It comes with the original GBA engine, and it needs you to have your own ROM files to run the games. It comes with customisable keys, turbo buttons and more.
John GBA will work with external controllers such as MOGA/Wiimote/normal Bluetooth controllers. And it will support saving games anytime you want. One more really cool feature in John GBA is that you can play in fast forward or slow down mode! John must have been proud of his work, and he named it with his name. I must say, he deserved every right to make it this, as this is one of the better GBA emulators in this list.
Download John GBA premium version from here:
Download John GBA free version from here:
My OldBoy
My OldBoy is made by the devs who made My Boy emulator that we already mentioned above. Just like the My Boy emulator, My OldBoy supports all the GBA roms plus it supports GBC roms additionally. If there's one big difference between the two, it would be UI. The buttons here are more traditional without any special shapes. My OldBoy is designed to run GBA games on low end Android phones to the flagship level. It supports all the features of other emulators in the list such as Save/Load game at any time, Fast forward long stories and slow down of game at any point, emulation of tilt sensor & rumble emulation, and much more. My OldBoy is available in both Free & Paid versions.
Download My OldBoy GBA emulator premium version from here:
Get My OldBoy GBA emulator free version from here:
GBA.emu
GBA.emu is one of the top GBA emulator for Android. It has is compatible with most of the GBA roms out there. It supports save and load states of games, and it also supports loading save state from VBA-M emulator for PC. It also has normal features of GBA emulators such as on screen controls, support for hardware controllers, and even supports cheat codes. GBA.emu comes on free and paid versions. The paid premium version comes with a price tag of $4.99.
Download premium version of GBA.emu from here:
Download free version of GBA.emu from here:
Gba Emulator Download Android Free
GBA Emulator for Linux
Retroarch
This is the best all in one emulator for Linux, which has GBA emulation inbuilt.
It is actually a multi emulator front end for Linux, which has VBA Next for Game Boy Advance emulation.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libretro/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install retroarch retroarch-* libretro-*
GBA Emulator for macOS
Boycott Advance
| Emulator Name | Boycott Advance |
| Size | 1.21 MB |
| Version | 0.4.0 |
mGBA
| Emulator Name | mGBA |
| Size | 12 MB |
| Version | 0.5.0 |
OpenEmu
| Emulator Name | OpenEmu |
| Size | 41 MB |
| Version | 2.0.6.1 |
VBA-M
How To Download Gba Emulator On Android Download
| Emulator Name | VBA-M |
| Size | 6.7 MB |
| Version | 2.0.2 |
Gba Emulator For Kindle Download
GBA Emulator for Nintendo Wii
Go to its download page and get the GBA rom zip file downloaded to your downloads folder. Now open My Boy free emulator and select downloads folder. Let ‘s grab these best android emulators app and start playing classic console games wherever you are. DraStic DS Emulator Android. MegaN64 (n64 emulator android) MAME4droid. Free – GBA Emulator. FPse for android. Download FPse ($2.95) GENPlusDroid. Download GENPlusDroid (Free). There are several ways to run Android apps on your computer. For example, the Android SDK comes with an Android emulator for debugging apps, and BlueStacks is a cloud-based virtual machine that optimizes Android apps for desktops. However, if you want to access the full version of Android without an emulator, then your best bet is Phoenix OS.
I am usually a fan of playing my Game Boy Advance games on a retro handheld console such as the RG350, but mGBA is now my choice of emulator when it comes to GBA emulation on the PC.
Best GBA Emulator for Android – My Boy!
My Boy! Is a hugely popular GBA emulator for Android devices with over 1 million installs. My Boy! Is well known for quality standard of emulation and configurability, but aside from all the usual standard features you would expect of a quality GBA emulator, My Boy! Features GBA link cable emulation. This is a feature loved in particular by Pokemon players, which makes My Boy! Particularly unique.
It is a paid app, but if you are a Game Boy Advance fan and are seeking an excellent GBA Emulator for Android, you must consider My Boy!
Best GBA Emulator for iOS – RetroArch / mGBA Core
Since iOS is typically more difficult to install emulators too and usually require some kind of workaround, I would recommend using RetroArch for your GBA emulation.
Download Gba Emulator Android
The mGBA core is available to iOS users via RetroArch, so once again, I make this the recommended core for Game Boy Advance emulation.
There are comprehensive tutorials available online to assist with the installation, so installing emulators on to your iOS device need not be a painful experience any longer.
Best RetroArch GBA Core – RetroArch / mGBA Core
As for the best all round GBA emulation solution, RetroArch once again saves the day!
The mGBA core also allows you to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games.
Another popular request for GBA emulators is the options to speed up emulation, in particular with Pokemon players where there are a lot of sections of the game players want to speed up to skip past – RetroArch has you covered here with it's fast forward mode!
The mGBA core also once again is my go to core in RetroArch for Game Boy Advance emulation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Many GBA emulators have video filter and shader options built in, making it easy to make your GBA emulators look nicer. RetroArch for example has many shaders available that allow you to round off hard edges of pixels, recreate CRT scanlines and also specifically recreate the pixelated look of the original GBA screen.
mGBA also has built in upscaling and filtering options to make your GBA games look better on the big screen
So you've been trying to find the best GBA emulator out there, right? Well, what we have here is just that. In this post, we're going to show you some of the best GBA emulators for PC & Android. These Game Boy Advance emulators are handpicked by us and ranked according to their usability, compatibility, UI and much more. Read on!
Which platform are you looking for?
Contents
- Best GBA Emulator
- Best GBA Emulator for PC
- GBA Emulator for Android
- GBA Emulator for Linux
- GBA Emulator for macOS
- GBA Emulator for Nintendo Wii
- GBA Emulators for Xbox One
We're dividing this post into two: GBA emulators for PC & GBA emulators for Android. Just scroll down to your required part or use the table of contents given above to jump right in.
Best GBA Emulator for PC
Visual Boy Advance
Visual Boy Advance or VBA as it's commonly known is also one of the first fully functional GBA emulators for PC. It was introduced first in 2004, but since then many versions of VBA has been branched out, developed by different developers. The version of VBA, which you can download and use right away a would be VBA-M, which is an all new version for VBA emulator, that tries to continue on the legacy of the original VBA. Also it has now nifty new features that was not available before on the old version.
Compatibility
VBA-M is compatible with the following platforms: Marvel ultimate alliance psp download.
- GameBoy (GB)
- GameBoy Color (GBC)
- GameBoy Advance (GBA)
It also supports full save state features, which is very helpful to save the gameplay and also resume from where you stopped. Even better, you can also export the save files to other emulators and continue your gameplay on them. It comes with joystick support, full-screen mode and more.
Boycott Advance
Boycott Advance is also one of the most popular GameBoy Advance emulators available for PC. It is very simple with a simple UI, without many features. It requires BIOS support on your PC to run many GBA ROMs though.
Boycott Advance is having highly optimized CPU emulation. Also, it comes with full support for GBA video features such as rotation and scaling. There is an online version of Boycott advance, which doesn't require you to download the application to your PC to run GBA games.
Higan
Higan is an open-source GBA Emulator for PC, which might also be one of the most advanced emulators in this list. It has support for lots of systems, not only GBA (we'll come to that later). It is also well known for emulating the original Nintendo systems with pinpoint accuracy with their advanced techniques.
Compatibility
- GameBoy
- GameBoy Color
- GameBoy Advance
- Famicom (NES)
- Super Famicom (SNES)
GBA Emulator for Android
My Boy! GBA Emulator for Android
My Boy! Emulator is one of the most popular GBA emulators available for Android in Play Store right now. I've tried out some games in this emulator, and it works out just fine without any issues and that's the reason it's on the top position on this list for GBA emulators for Android.
It comes with one of the best UI available in Android GBA emulators. One of the nice features of My Boy is that you can customise the controls in this emulator. Also it allows you to save your progress whenever you want (in game). My Boy! GBA emulator for Android is available in Play Store for free, also there is a paid version of the same with some additional features.
You can download My Boy for Android paid version from here:
You can download My Boy for Android free version from here:
John GBA
John GBA is also among the best Android GBA emulators, which you can use right away, and it will work flawlessly with your GBA ROMs. It comes with the original GBA engine, and it needs you to have your own ROM files to run the games. It comes with customisable keys, turbo buttons and more.
John GBA will work with external controllers such as MOGA/Wiimote/normal Bluetooth controllers. And it will support saving games anytime you want. One more really cool feature in John GBA is that you can play in fast forward or slow down mode! John must have been proud of his work, and he named it with his name. I must say, he deserved every right to make it this, as this is one of the better GBA emulators in this list.
Download John GBA premium version from here:
Download John GBA free version from here:
My OldBoy
My OldBoy is made by the devs who made My Boy emulator that we already mentioned above. Just like the My Boy emulator, My OldBoy supports all the GBA roms plus it supports GBC roms additionally. If there's one big difference between the two, it would be UI. The buttons here are more traditional without any special shapes. My OldBoy is designed to run GBA games on low end Android phones to the flagship level. It supports all the features of other emulators in the list such as Save/Load game at any time, Fast forward long stories and slow down of game at any point, emulation of tilt sensor & rumble emulation, and much more. My OldBoy is available in both Free & Paid versions.
Download My OldBoy GBA emulator premium version from here:
Get My OldBoy GBA emulator free version from here:
GBA.emu
GBA.emu is one of the top GBA emulator for Android. It has is compatible with most of the GBA roms out there. It supports save and load states of games, and it also supports loading save state from VBA-M emulator for PC. It also has normal features of GBA emulators such as on screen controls, support for hardware controllers, and even supports cheat codes. GBA.emu comes on free and paid versions. The paid premium version comes with a price tag of $4.99.
Download premium version of GBA.emu from here:
Download free version of GBA.emu from here:
Gba Emulator Download Android Free
GBA Emulator for Linux
Retroarch
This is the best all in one emulator for Linux, which has GBA emulation inbuilt.
It is actually a multi emulator front end for Linux, which has VBA Next for Game Boy Advance emulation.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libretro/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install retroarch retroarch-* libretro-*
GBA Emulator for macOS
Boycott Advance
| Emulator Name | Boycott Advance |
| Size | 1.21 MB |
| Version | 0.4.0 |
mGBA
| Emulator Name | mGBA |
| Size | 12 MB |
| Version | 0.5.0 |
OpenEmu
| Emulator Name | OpenEmu |
| Size | 41 MB |
| Version | 2.0.6.1 |
VBA-M
How To Download Gba Emulator On Android Download
| Emulator Name | VBA-M |
| Size | 6.7 MB |
| Version | 2.0.2 |
Gba Emulator For Kindle Download
GBA Emulator for Nintendo Wii
Visual Boy Advance GX
| Emulator Name | Visual Boy Advance GX |
| Size | 1.3 MB |
| Version | 2.3.6 |
GBA Emulators for Xbox One
SimplePDFViewer
This is a paid app from Xbox store, but wait till you hear how it works.
- Go to the store and search for 'SimplePDFViewer'.
- Download it by paying $3.99.
- After it is installed, start the app.
- It will look just like a PDF reader as the name suggests, but you have to unlock the hidden functionality.
- Once you're inside the app at the same time, press LB & RB + LT & RT.
- Now the emulator functionality will be unlocked, and it will look like this:
- You can import ROMs from an external device or directly from your OneDrive account.
Special thanks to wiired24 of gbatemp.net for this little hack.
GBA10
| Emulator Name | GBA10 |
| Size | 2.8 MB |
| Version | 1.3.0.0 |
Conclusion : GBA Emulators
So that's it guys, that was all the best GBA emulators for PC & Android that you can use right away! We've tried to include most of the best Game Boy Advance emulators that is available for Android & PC. Do try out the free versions of the Android ones before buying their premium counterparts. Do let us know what you think about this post and if we missed any of your favourite GBA emulators out there.
