GBA Emulator apps makes it possible to play GameBoy Advance games on your smartphone or tablet. The GameBoy Advance was developed and launched by Nintendo back in 2001 in Japan, North America and the European Union. It was also launched about three years later in China in 2004. This cute little handheld gaming system was a symbol of the continuous evolution of the Game Boy since its inception in 1989.
Years later, there are many of us today who still like to relive those days playing their favorite game of Tetris or Final Fight on the GameBoy Advance. Thanks to emulators, we can still do that today. Let’s look at the 10 Best GBA emulators that are compatible with the Android mobile operating system. Please note that none of these emulators come with roms.
ClassicBoy – GBA Emulator
The ClassicBoy is a multiplatform emulator that can play GameBoy Advance roms. What is really great about this application is that there are several input options that can be configured. Some of the input options include D-pad mode, gesture mapping customization as well as touchscreen mode. There are two versions of this software, namely a LITE version and a FULL version. The FULL version comes with the gestures and sensor controller as well as the game state auto load feature, so keep that in mind. What I would recommend is to try out the free LITE version and then decide whether you need to purchase the FULL upgrade if you need that additional functionality.
The ClassicBoy can emulate other systems as well such as the Playstation One, NeoGeo, Sega Genesis, NES (8-bit), the original GameBoy and the GameBoy Color. This emulator has been designed to work on the Android mobile operating system.
My favorite feature is the 2D button configurator that allows you to set the position and size of the on-screen game controls.
MyBoy!
There are many android based emulators for the GBA out in the market today. However, not many can surpass the speed and emulation quality of the MyBoy!. This emulator plays the most of the GBA rom library without any issues.
One really cool feature is the ability to save games and keep copies of those save states in Google Drive. One can then access those saves on another Android powered device with the MyBoy! emulator installed on it and continue playing the game on another device with absolutely no issues.
Do you have a MOGA input device knocking about in your desk drawer? If you do, you can easily connect it via Bluetooth to the emulator and play your favorite GBA titles on your device with a physical MOGA controller.
The icing on the cake is the custom virtual controls editor. This neat little features gives you the capability to set the position and size of the game controls on the screen of your phone or tablet.
Did you know that the MyBoy! Android emulator can use your mobile device’s gyroscope, tilt sensor and the built in vibrator to give that rumble senstion during gameplay? Neat.
Pizza Boy GBA
If you are looking for an ad-free GBA emulator that runs virtually flawlessly on Android devices like smartphones and tablets then look no further. Introducing the Pizza Boy!. The Pizza Boy has an excellent battery power consumption rate. In other words, the emulator does not put a strain on the battery life of the device, thanks to the fact that it is coded in C programming language.
Fast paced action packed fighting games and shooters are no match for the Pizza Boy since it can easily process game play at 60 frames per second (or FPS). The neat part about this 60 FPS (frames per second) feature is that it can achieve that same screen refresh rate on older Android hardware platforms.
Other features to mention are customizable on screen buttons as well as support for physical gamepads. There is also another feature where the animations of the sprites during gameplay can be sped up or seen in slow motion. Does the Pizza Boy allow you to take instant snapshots of a game in action? Yes it does.
GBA.emu – GBA Emulator
GBA.emu is an open-source GBA emulator created specifically for that legendary handheld that ruled the handheld gaming market after its initial launch in Japan in 2001.
GBA.emu runs on Android devices ranging from smartphones to tablets. The application can also run on the Sony Zperia Play smartphone as well as the Nvidia Shield portable Android video game console. Special thanks go out to those open source development teams who put in all of those programming hours to give us this great piece of code.
The GBA.emu comes with a large library of features such as a customization feature for the on screen controls. This means that the size, orientation and location of the D-pad and action buttons can be modified based on your gaming style. One of my personal favorite features is the support for the MOGA pro game pad – including a few of the generic USB video game controllers and even those archaic Wii controllers. Cheat modes are also available.
As with any emulator, the GBA.emu does not come with roms although it does have Motocross Challenge preinstalled. I only found a paid version on the Google Play store. Hopefully there is a free version around somewhere if there are those of you who cannot part with five bucks.
My OldBoy!
My OldBoy plays GBA as well as the famous GameBoy Color games. To give you a quick history lesson on the GameBoy Color, that console was launched about three years before the GameBoy Advance, which was back in October 1998 in Japan. It would have made its way to international territories a month later. The good news is that you can relive the days playing for hours on end right on your Android powered tablet or smartphone, while on that road trip to see your grandparents.
From a features perspective, the My OldBoy comes with a plethora of functionality. For starters, there are various cheat options like an infinite lives mode, where you are no longer given that near impossible task of clearing all eight stages of that side scrolling beat’em up game with only a mere three lives.
When playing space shooters, for example, you can program your spacecraft to always be in fire mode, which is a cool feature to help you avoid getting those button mashing thumb blisters. If the game is still too hard to beat there is also a “no enemies” mode so you can virtually walk through your game. “Where is the challenge in that?” I say.
There is also tilt sensor emulation that leverages the physical device’s motion sensors. There is the screen button and D-pad configuration tool where the button sizes and locations can be easily programmed within the game’s setup section.
Do not let the “Old” in MyOldBoy fool you as it can seamlessly handle playing GBA and GBC roms at a cool 60 frames per second (FPS). Finally, there also seems to be a free version available as well, if you cannot stomach parting ways with a five dollar bill.
John GBA – GBA Emulator
The first thing that impressed me about the John GBA emulator is the fact that it automatically searches your entire device’s directory structure for GBA roms or zip files. If there are no files that are found then it shows you where you should install your roms once you do get around to installing them on your device.
The John GBA does play Game Boy Advance games only and there is also a free version that you can download from the Google Play store if you just want to try it out before shelling out a couple of bucks for the fully loaded version.
There are many flavors of John emulators out there as well including the John GBAC which, as you have guessed correctly, can play both Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance roms. It was also recently announced that the John GBAC is now the successor to the John GBA, which is still available inside the Google Play Store.
Other features worth mentioning are turbo button support, Bluetooth controller as well as MOGA support. Games can also be accessed directly from the SD card inside your device in addition to the device’s main memory. The ability to customize your on-screen controls and D-pad comes standard with this emulator.
Best of all, no Internet connection is required when playing games. This can be a very important feature especially for those of us who want to be able to play the Legend of Zelda for the GBA while on that 8 hour trans Atlantic flight where there is no free Internet on that airplane!
As with most of the emulators that have been mentioned in this blog post, it runs on Android 4.1+ and requires your own game files (most commonly known as Read Only Memory or “Roms”).
VisualBoy Advance – GBA Emulator
Another great GBA emulator of the Game Boy Advance that is free and easy to setup and play is the VisualBoy Advance. In addition to playing GBA roms, the emulator also has the capability of playing Game Boy Color and even those pea soup green original Game Boy roms.
Did you know that the VisualBoy Advance can also play Super Game Boy and Super Game Boy 2 games as well? Nice.
Written in C and C++ this versatile emulator can work on a wide range of operating systems like MacOS, Windows, Linux, the Amiga OS just to name a few.
Looking at some of the key features that make this such a solid emulator include the follwing:
- Ability to do screen captures.
- Cheat code mode.
- Auto fire mode (this feature comes in handy in those fast paced scrolling shooters).
- Game save feature.
- Screenshots can be taken of active game play.
There is also Game Boy printer emulation, although I doubt if there are any real use cases for such an old printing technology that is practically three decades old!
EmuBox – GBA Emulator
The EmuBox is pretty much an all-in-one emulator for those of us who want to have the thrill of playing retro video games from some of our favorite consoles all in one place. EmuBox was built specifically for the Android platform which means that if you have a smartphone or a Tablet that is Android powered, then you are in luck.
In addition to GBA roms, EmuBox can play Playstation One (PSX), GameBoy Color (GBC) and NES (8-bit).
Looking at the features, the most important one to mention is the performance. Seeing that performance is key, there is a section within the settings page where settings can be manually configured for the best system performance. This focus on performance equates to a really great gaming experience, with no pixel ghosting, jittery sprites and the lot.
There is also a load and save capability during game play and there is also support for an external video game controller via a Bluetooth connection. One final feature to note is the fast forward feature which lets you skip through a certain part within a game.
RetroArch
RetroArch is an open sourced GBA emulator that comes with a library of custom built applications designed for digital entertainment like video games. In order to be able to use RetroArch there are these things called “Cores” that have to be preinstalled. If you are wondering where you can find these cores all you have to do is go to the Online Updater tab and select the “Core Updater” option.
When it comes to features, the list is not short. First off, there are a variety of custom menus that you can select, and the application can also scan your entire device to look for your game roms for you so you do not have to remember where you stored your games on your smartphone or tablet.
There is a key mapping tool that can be used to customize the layout of your game controls. There is also a cheat mode and screenshots can also be taken of active game play.
For those of you who have a soft spot for the Game & Watch handheld video games from the Eighties would really appreciate RetroArch because you can download Game & Watch games and play them within the embedded Game & watch emulator within RetroArch.
Gameboid
The Gameboid emulator for Android was derived from the gpSP2X platform and is the predecessor to the most recent RetroArch emulator. It’s a solid program that can run most of the popular Game Boy Advance titles out there.
So as you can see, there are various emulators out there that can play all of your Game Boy Advance titles. Some of them have free versions that give you the opportunity to test drive your games before you decide to spend a couple of dollars on the full version which has a couple more bells and whistles.
If you liked this GBA Emulator article then you may like my blog post on the GPD XD Android powered mobile game console designed to play roms. There is also another article on an Android tablet called the GPD Q9 that can run multiple emulators like the GPD XD that you also may want to check out.
Disclaimer: The emulators mentioned in this blog post are not affiliated with Nintendo, Gameboy, Playstation, NeoGeo or Sega in any way.