Summary :
Do you want to play the classic unforgettable Game Boy Advance games on Windows PC? If so, you can read this post, in which MiniTool Partition Wizard recommend 3 best GBA emulators for PC to you.
Best GBA Game Boy Advance Emulators for Windows PC 2018 – Like Play Station, GBA also is only available for special hardware for gaming. But, with few software layers – You can also enjoy the games with your laptop of PC. But, the main thing you must know that – you should have Windows as your Operating system in the laptop. Best Nintendo DS Emulators For PC In 2020 1. Thanks to its tremendous popularity among the Nintendo DS Gaming community, the first best DS emulator on the list is MelonDS. Features like OpenGL renderer, 3D upscaling, joystick support, local multiplayer, and online connectivity help MelonDS to stand out from the crowd.
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A Brief Introduction to GBA (Game Boy Advance)
Game Boy Advance, referred to as GBA, is the second-generation portable game console released by Nintendo on March 21, 2001. It is backward compatible with the previous-generation Game Boy games. The biggest feature is the use of a color TFT LCD screen.
The GBA has two revised models, namely the GBA SP which was launched in 2003 and the GBM which was launched in 2005. Although GBA has been delisted for a long time now, we can still relive those classic unforgettable GBA games through the GBA emulator on a computer or mobile phone.
This post recommends 5 best Nintendo DS emulators to you. With them, you can play Nintendo DS games on PC.
Best GBA emulator for PC
In this part, I will recommend you top 3 best GBA emulators for Windows PC. Keep reading to get them.
Note: If you want to get a GBA emulator, please download it from its official website. Otherwise, there is a risk of virus infection.
1. Visual Boy Advance
The first best GBA emulator for PC I would recommend is Visual Boy Advance, which is one of the most stable GBA emulators and has been in existence for more than a decade now.
Visual Boy Advance is an open-source and free GBA, GBC, GB emulator software. It supports Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and also supports MacOS as well as Linux platforms.
However, although Visual Boy Advance is quite successful and very popular, the author has stopped updating for many years.
But because it is open-source, some developers later developed a modified version of VBA-Link that supports online mode, and a derivative version of VBA smooth that has various layer or filter display effects (such as anti-aliasing).
Later, some developers combined the functions of the two versions and released the latest VisualBoyAdvance-M emulator (VBA-M). Many people think that the VBA-M is the most powerful and easy-to-use GBA emulator.
VBA-M is only compatible with Windows and Linux, but not MacOS. Finally, when you install Visual Boy Advance, if it prompts that there is an error such as missing d3dx9_43.dll, please install DirectX 9 and run it again. Even under Windows 10, you still need to install DX9 separately.
This article will show you 6 Xbox 360 emulators that can be used on Windows PC. With Xbox 360 emulators, you can play Xbox games on your Windows PC directly.
2. No$GBA
Another best GBA emulator for PC is No$GBA, which can quickly cover most of the emulation. This simulator can also play Nintendo DS games in addition to being able just to run GBA matches. And there are no issues with the emulation. The games are smooth and the sound is clear.
This emulator has the following advantages:
- Capable of running both Nintendo DS and GBA games.
- Allows playing multiplayer games.
- It is stable perfectly optimized for gameplay.
- Supports game controllers.
Its disadvantages are as follows:
- No support for Mac or Linux.
- Not all Nintendo DS games may be supported by the emulator.
3. RetroArch
The last GBA emulator I'll recommend is RetroArch, which is a multi-system emulator using Liberto development interface. This system uses “cores”. Each “core” is essentially a video game emulator and you can install it accordingly. Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, PS1, FC, etc. all have “cores” that work in RetroArch, making it possible to play all of them with just one app.
It's open-source and has a high compatibility rate. It is compatible with Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, iOS, Raspberry Pi, and Apple TV. In addition, it can run on PS3, PSP, PS Vita, Wii, Wii U, Switch and other game consoles. Actually, this thing runs on virtually everything.
However, RetroArch doesn’t have quite as many features as individually coded Game Boy emulators and it may be more complicated than other emulators. You’ll need to learn how to use it. In addition, it can crash at times. If you are experiencing frequent crashes, try switching to an older version of RetroArch.
This article will show you three well-known PS4 emulators that can be used on a Windows PC. If you are picking a PS4 emulator for PC, this post can help you.
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:
- 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
![Gba emulator Gba emulator](/uploads/1/1/1/9/111950285/922856277.jpg)
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 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-*
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
Emulator Name | VBA-M |
Size | 6.7 MB |
Version | 2.0.2 |
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 $3.99.
- After it is installed, start the app.
- It will look just like a PDF reader as the name suggests, but you have to unlock the hidden functionality.
- Once you’re inside the app at the same time, press LB & RB + LT & RT.
- Now the emulator functionality will be unlocked, and it will look like this:
- You can import ROMs from an external device or directly from your OneDrive account.
How To Get Gameboy On Pc
Special thanks to wiired24 of gbatemp.net for this little hack.
GBA10
How To Use No$gba Emulator On Pc
Emulator Name | GBA10 |
Size | 2.8 MB |
Version | 1.3.0.0 |
How To Get Gba Emulator On Pc Windows 10
Conclusion : GBA Emulators
Gba Free Download For Pc
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.