Gameboy Advance Emulators

Gameboy Advance Emulators

The successor of the all time classic that shortly became a hit just like it's "father". The fact that Gameboy Advance plays the older Gameboy titles means you get to use the older games. There is also another version of the Advance called SP. Specs: CPU: 16 MHz 32-bit RISC-CPU + 8-bit CISC-CPU Memory: 32KB WRAM + 96KB VRAM + 256KB WRAM Screen: Reflective TFT Colour LCD Screen Size: 40.8 mm x 61.2 mm Resolution: 240 x 160 pixels Display Ability: 32 000 colours Sound: Mono speakers, stereo headphones Multiplayer Options: Up to four GBAs, up to two GB/GBCs Power: Two AA batteries, or battery pak Battery life: 15 hours for batteries, 10 hours for battery pack Dimensions: 82 mm x 144.5 mm x 24.5 mm

Emulators

• Visual Boy Advance
• BatGBA
• NO$GBA
• DreamGBA
• RascalBoy Advance

Visual Boy Advance

Visual Boy Advance

Since the first version of Visual Boy Advance which lacked some major features (such as an interface), this Gameboy Advance emulator has progressed greatly. I found compatibility to be quite good and many games were playable. Actually I didn't have any problems with every game I tried, though I must admit I didn't test a whole lot of games. The games ran at full speed (with sound) on my Celeron 900 Mhz., so if you have a similar or faster PC you shouldn't have any problem either. A Pentium III 500 Mhz. is the absolute minimum requirement to play games. The Gameboy Advance is a 32-bit machine so emulating it requires more CPU power. ZIP Support Visual Boy Advance has ZIP support. This means you don't need to unzip your ROMs before playing. Just select the ZIP file and Visual Boy Advance will automatically load the ROM from it. Gameboy Emulation Visual Boy Advance can just like a real Gameboy Advance also play original Gameboy (Color) games. So there is no need to get a seperate emulator. Because of this the author has stopped development of his "normal" Gameboy emulator Visual Boy. Default Keys Button A - Z Button B - X Button L - A Button R - S Movement - Cursor keys Start - Enter (Return) Select - Backspace Toggle menu - ESC System Requirements As with most emulators for Windows you may need to install the latest version of Microsoft DirectX.

Screenshots

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
Visual Boy Advance 1.8.0 Beta3	Windows	Freeware	Oct 2, 2005	645 Kb.

Download unofficial ports

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
VBALink v1.8.0 Beta 0 VBA with link support	Windows	Freeware	May 1, 2006	552 Kb.

BatGBA

BatGBA

No, it's not Batman, it's BatGBA, a promising new Gameboy Advance emulator .

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
BatGBA 2.25b	Windows	Freeware	Jul 10, 2002	230 Kb.

NO$GBA

NO$GBA

NO$GBA started as a Gameboy Advance debugger but was later released as a normal emulator(version 1.9). It is the first gameboy advance emulator to support multiplayer games on the same pc! Later versions added support for the NintendoDS portable console. How to use multiplayer put the GBA BIOS file in the emulator's folder, and rename it to "gba.rom" run No$GBA.exe pick a GBA image (no ZIP) go to "Options" / "Emulation setup" increase the number of "Emulated Gameboys" in "Link Gamepaks", set "Gamepaks in all GBA" in "Reset/Startup Entrypoint", set "GBA BIOS (Nintendo logo") click OK, you should then see 2 GBA screens side by side right click on the left window, click on "Link" so that the window comes back to normal. then redo the right-click and click "Link" , and here we go, the 2nd gameboy does boot! Please remember that the more gameboy's you emulate the stonger the pc will have to be!

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
No$gba 2.5c	Windows	Freeware	Nov 24, 2007	152 Kb.

DreamGBA

As you might have guessed from the name, DreamGBA is from the author of dream gbc. It runs several games already, including Castlevania and Tactics Ogre - with sound! Just like DreamGBC the emulator is a command line application which is started by a loader application.
A nasty problem of this emulator is that it requires the original Gameboy Advance BIOS to run. The GBA.BIOS file included with the emulator is a 0 byte dummy file and won't work.
Just like the Playstation BIOS it is not legal to distribute the real GBA BIOS (so you won't find it on this site) and just as hard to find. However using Google I was able to find it anyway. Just don't be afraid to search sites not in English as I found it on a Polish emulation site.
Note: If you get an "DLL not found" message when running the DreamGBA loader it means you don't have the Visual Basic 6 Runtime modules installed. You can download them from Microsoft.

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
DreamGBA 2.5 Requires GBA BIOS (not included)	Windows	Freeware	Dec 12, 2001	126 Kb.

RascalBoy Advance

RascalBoy Advance

RascalBoy Advance has alot of things emulated so far and it gets better. What more could you possibly need? This emulator supports language packs similar to those of Visual Boy Advance so hurry up and claim your language! At July 23rd, 2004 the multiplayer plugin was released. It currently allows up to 4 players to connect and play together at the same pc(no network support yet). Make sure you have a fast PC!

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
RascalBoy Advance 1.3.0.0	Windows	Freeware	Feb 12, 2006	275 Kb.
MultiPlayer Plugin 1.0.0.0 RBA MultiPlayer Plugin	Windows	Freeware	Aug 1, 2004	17 Kb.

Gameboy Emulators

Gameboy Emulators

The most well known portable gaming device in the world is Nintendo's Gameboy. Originally released in the late 80's it has sold more than any other portable game console in the world. Several years later Nintendo released the "color" version of the all time classic! Specs (of the Gameboy Color model): Processor: Z80 Sharp processor Processor Speed: 8 MHz RAM: 32K Video RAM (VRAM): 16K Colors Available: 32,000 Colors On Screen: 10, 32, or 56 Resolution: 160x144 @56 colors and 320x288 @24colors Sound: 4-channel FM sound Controls: 8-directional D-Pad, A, B, select, and Start buttons Power: 10+ hours on 2 AA batteries. AC adapter separately available

Emulators

• KiGB
• BasicBoy
• TGB DUAL
• Visual Boy Advance(reccomended)
• BGB

KiGB

KiGB

KiGB is a gameboy Color emulator that supports the following features: Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy (SGB and SGB2) emulated Best compatibility and accuracy in graphics, sound and timing (see Compatibility) Game Link Cable supported (allows 2 players to play over a TCP/IP network) MBC1, MBC2, MBC3, MBC5, HuC1, HuC3, Gameboy Camera and multi-carts supported All 4 sound channels and digital sound supported (each can be on or off) Graphics on background, window and sprites can be set individually on or off Battery supported Real time clock supported Zipped and gzipped files supported Screen size: 1x1, 2x2, 3x3 and full screen Frame skip supported Joypads/joysticks supported GameGenie and GameShark cheats supported Screen dump supported Save states supported Close colors as a real Game Boy Color Input playback supported Save states and input files are compressed Battery save, save states and input files are portable across all supported platforms, currently MS Windows, Linux and MS-DOS Default border image supported Up to 4 players are supported (SGB only) Gameboy Printer supported Per-game configuration Sound wave file output Customizable Gameboy palettes Adjustable emulation speed (25%, 50%, 100%, 200% and 400%) Graphics filters: Super 2xSaI, Super Eagle, scanline and bilinear Special effect: sprite shadow (experimental) Special porperties of LCD (Mix Frame) Generic flashcart (most public domain, trainers and hacks required this)

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
KiGB 2.04 Windows Port	Windows	Freeware	Nov 20, 2007	434 Kb.

BasicBoy

BasicBoy

BasicBoy is an emulator written for GameBoy and GameBoy Color made in pure Microsoft Visual Basic 6 and VB.NET

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
BasicBoy 2.0.3	Windows	Freeware	Jul 7, 2004	141 Kb.

TGB DUAL

TGB DUAL

TGB Dual is an emulator which forum member had been pushing me to add to this site. And for a reason: TGB Dual supports link cable support through TCP/IP (even on the same PC). I don't need to explain to Pokémon fans what the advantage of having link cable support is. TGB Dual also supports the latest Zelda games (Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages). The emulator is originally in Japanese, but someone has fortunately been able to convert a reasonably recent version to English, making TGB Dual usable by the rest of the world. Unfortunately though TGB Dual crashes without reason on my own PC. Of course your mileage may vary, so I don't expect it to crash on everyone's PC. As this is an emulator for Windows, having the latest version of Microsoft DirectX installed is recommended. What the controls are can be found in the README.TXT file.

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
TGB DUAL 7 7 2053-0_96 The only gameboy emulator with a link function	Windows	Freeware	Aug 5, 2003	263 Kb.

Visual Boy Advance

Visual Boy Advance

Since the first version of Visual Boy Advance which lacked some major features (such as an interface), this Gameboy Advance emulator has progressed greatly. I found compatibility to be quite good and many games were playable. Actually I didn't have any problems with every game I tried, though I must admit I didn't test a whole lot of games. The games ran at full speed (with sound) on my Celeron 900 Mhz., so if you have a similar or faster PC you shouldn't have any problem either. A Pentium III 500 Mhz. is the absolute minimum requirement to play games. The Gameboy Advance is a 32-bit machine so emulating it requires more CPU power. ZIP Support Visual Boy Advance has ZIP support. This means you don't need to unzip your ROMs before playing. Just select the ZIP file and Visual Boy Advance will automatically load the ROM from it. Gameboy Emulation Visual Boy Advance can just like a real Gameboy Advance also play original Gameboy (Color) games. So there is no need to get a seperate emulator. Because of this the author has stopped development of his "normal" Gameboy emulator Visual Boy. Default Keys Button A - Z Button B - X Button L - A Button R - S Movement - Cursor keys Start - Enter (Return) Select - Backspace Toggle menu - ESC System Requirements As with most emulators for Windows you may need to install the latest version of microsoft xp

Screenshots

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
Visual Boy Advance 1.8.0 Beta3	Windows	Freeware	Oct 2, 2005	645 Kb.

Download unofficial ports

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
VBALink v1.8.0 Beta 0 VBA with link support	Windows	Freeware	May 1, 2006	552 Kb.

BGB

BGB

BGB is a Gameboy emulator that features: emulation of the GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and the Super GameBoy runs almost all roms perfectly. Accurate sound emulation, sounds exactly as on a real GB/GBC. sound can be written to .wav file. accurate video emulation. The screen looks exactly as on a real GB/GBC. This emulator is fast. Joystick/Gamepad support, everything configurable MBC3 Real Time Clock emulation. Auto delay/frameskip, gameboy runs at 100% real speed. GameGenie and GameShark cheat save/load state with quick (zsnes style) keys. Configurable keys and screen colors. Load from zip and gzip files This program does not use DirectX or runtime libraries. support for fullscreen mode with optional border bitmap. TCP/IP game link support

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
BGB 1.2	Windows	Freeware	Jan 5, 2006	265 Kb.

Nintendo 64 Emulators

Nintendo 64 Emulators

The N64 was released in mid-1996 as Nintendo's front-runner in the original next-gen console wars. Although it was a much higher powered machine than Sony's Playstation or Sega's Saturn, the N64 always lagged behind in sales. Nintendo chose to sell the machine on the merits of its fast-loading cartridge system and the insignificant fact that it featured a 64-bit architecture - unfortunately for Nintendo, people were more impressed by high-capacity CD media, in-game movie sequences and pre-recorded soundtracks than fast loading and the size of the machine's pipeline. developers

often preferred the Playstation for their titles due to the N64's inability to provide media rich content which games such as the Final fantasy series demanded. Although the hardware facilitated classics such as Goldeneye and the late Perfect Dark, it wasn't enough to win over the masses.

Fortunately the system is well-emulated, allowing us to play legendary games such as Zelda, Turok & Goldeneye. A fairly modern system is needed to play emulate the machine, and a 3D accelerated graphics card is an absolute must (onboard graphics won't cut the mustard here). Game ROMs are available from ripped cartridges, ranging in size (5MB-70MB).




Specs:

• CPU: MIPS R4300i, 93.75MHz, 64-bit, 24KB L1, 125 MIPS, 250 MB/sec Bus
• Graphics: SGI RCP, 62.5MHz, 100 MFLOPS, 150K Polygons/Sec, 32-bit Color, 500 MB/sec Bus
• Sound: SGI RCP, 64 2D Voices, ADPCM, 500 MB/sec Bus
• Data: 4MB (500 MB/s), Cartridge (32MB), Expansion 4MB RAM

Emulators

Corn

Mupen64

Nemu64

UltraHLE

1964

Project64(reccomended)

Corn

Corn

This used to be without a doubt the fastest Nintendo 64 EMULATOR available at that time(and it is?). It ran at full speed, with full sound on my old Pentium 233 with 3DFX Voodoo 1. Imagine what Corn can do on a system way more powerfull than that... Unfortunately it isn't very accurate though. Both of the games I played (Super Mario 64 and WaveRace) showed some serious emulation defects. But those defects didn't make the games unplayable fortunately.

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
Corn 0.3 The fastest N64 emulator	Windows	Freeware	Jul 13, 2003	96 Kb.

Mupen64

Mupen64

Mupen 64 is just another Nintendo 64 emulator. The only reason why it's here is because it has made a good progress in compatibility and because it has been ported to other operating systems as well. Give it a try.

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
Mupen64 0.5.1 N64 emulator	Windows	Freeware	Aug 28, 2005	2082 Kb.

Nemu64

Nemu64

Nemu64 is one of the oldest Nintendo 64 EMU in existance. For a long time it was also nearly unplayable due to being to slow for most PCs to run. Fortunately as both Nemu64 and the development of faster multi-Ghz CPU's progressed, Nemu64 can be played without much slowdown. For a while Nemu64 was the second best Nintendo 64 emulator available after UltraHLE. With the advent of Project64 and 1964 however it's lagging behind even futher. But as the screenshots indicate it is certainly possible to play games with Nemu64. Nemu64's last release was March 2003 and there will probably not be a new version as it has been discontinued.

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
Nemu64 0.8	Windows	Freeware	Mar 22, 2003	4862 Kb.

UltraHLE

UltraHLE

January 28, 1999 is a day which wrote emulation history. UltraHLE was released, the first succesful Nintendo 64 EMU. What many thought of as impossible was achieved by UltraHLE as the first (and only) release was able to properly play many popular titles, including Super Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. High Level Emulation UltraHLE also pioneered a new approach to emulation. Instead of trying to emulate all components of of a game console (such as CPU) as accurately as possible, it tries to recognize what a game is trying to achieve (like playing a sound) and emulates that function. This is known as High Level Emulation (HLE) and it is what makes UltraHLE and other emulators which have incorperated (some of) this TECHNOLOGY so relatively fast. It has a drawback however. If game does things a little differently the emulator won't be able to accuratly guess what the game is doing, which means the game may not play properly. INI files Bacause of this limitation HLE emulators usually only work well with the games they have been specifically optimized for. Because there was never an update to UltraHLE, this would have been a major limiting factor for it's success as newer games probably wouldn't run on it. Fortunately most of the information on how UltraHLE should treat and emulate games was stored in a seperate INI file. Certain people started to experiment with UltraHLE and expanded and enhanced this INI file, which allows UltraHLE play a lot more games. As such, be sure to download an updated INI file if you want to try UltraHLE. Discontinued The reaction of the general public to UltraHLE was so intense that the creators of UltraHLE discontinued the emulator only a few hours after it's initial release. One of the authors, RealityMan, later continued the project again and started WORKING on a new version of UltraHLE. Unfortunately, there are many people who believe that emulators exist solely for piracy and that emulator authors are their slaves. The comments and "demands" received from these people combined with legal pressure from Nintendo forced RealityMan to decide to completely abandon UltraHLE and emulation. In other words, there will never be a new version. Missing GLIDE2X.DLL? There is one major limitation of UltraHLE which has probably plagued almost everyone since it's release. It was designed to operate exclusively on 3DFX Voodoo 1 and 2 secondary 3D cards. By default it will not run on any kind of other VIDEO CARD because it can't find the "Glide" drivers it needs (specifically the file GLIDE2X.DLL). Of COURSE a solution was designed for this. The Glide drivers can be emulated by using a "Glide Wrapper". These wrappers redirect the commands issued by UltraHLE to your video card, no matter which one you are using (depending on which kind of wrapper you use).

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
UltraHLE 1.1.0 The legendary N64 emulator!	Windows	Freeware	Jul 13, 2003	209 Kb.

1964

1964

I've have had many requests to add 1964. But due to time constraints and a little lazyness on my part, I have only added this EMU in January 2002. Which is a shame, because after trying it I can say for sure it's in the same "league" as P64 , in other words, it's GOOD. Getting the Plugins By default 1964 already comes with a capable video plugin. However, as the authors admit themselves, it's not great. For a far better video plugin, copy Jabo's Direct3D video plugin from PROJECT 64 to 1964's plugin directory. You can find Jabo's plugin in the plugin directory of Project 64. The Newest plugin != Fastest plugin One of my older PCs wasn't quite up to specs for running 1964. Though everything ran pretty fast with sound turned off, when I turned sound on the speed dropped considerably, below playable speeds. However, just by selecting an older version of Azimer's audio plugin gained much speed (but probably lost some quality). What this means is that you probably need to play with the settings and plugins a bit to get a combination that works best for you. System Requirements Emulating the Nintendo 64 is not easy. 1964 needs a reasonable PC to run comfortably. Pentium III 800 Mhz. or better GeForce 2 or better DirectX 8.0 or better 128 Mb. ram or better If your PC's specifications are less than this, you don't need to bother to even try to run 1964 as all games will run to slow to play.

Screenshots Conker's Bad Fur Day Paper Mario Banjo Kazooie (Japanese version)

Download

File	Platform	License	Date	Size
1964 0.9.9	Windows	Freeware	Jan 3, 2005	1458 Kb.