12 Best GameBoy Advance Emulators (For Windows, Mac, or Android)

Looking for the best GameBoy Advance Emulators? If yes, we have made this article just for you…

GameBoy Advance will be remembered as one of the best gaming consoles of all time. Before there were smartphones for playing mobile games, people had to play games only on video game consoles. There were many consoles which were great like the PS 1 & 2, Xbox Original, etc.

The GameBoy Advance is without a doubt, one of the best selling video game consoles of all time. It has sold more than 81 million units worldwide. The GameBoy Advance was the smartphone equivalent of its time. And it was surely damn popular, the craze for it was real.

But now, not many people know about the GBA, it was an advanced version of the former GameBoy Color and with it, you could run more advanced games of that time. The console was released back in 2001, so it’s simple to assume not many know about it and the classic games it had. (If you’re a millennial.)

While it may be one of the best selling video game consoles of all time, it isn’t a good idea to purchase the console now when you can play all of its games on any of your devices. Yes, with the help of GameBoy Advance (GBA) Emulators you can run all of its games on your android phone, Windows & Mac.

Also Read: Bluestacks Alternatives: 13 Similar Apps To Run Android Apps On PC

While there are many Emulators present for almost every console, today we will cover some of the very best GBA Emulators that too for every OS. In this list, you will find GameBoy Emulators that can run on Windows, Mac & Android smartphones. So, without further ado let’s begin…

Best GameBoy Advance Emulators Of 2019

Best GameBoy Advance Emulators

mGBA

First up on our list of GameBoy Emulators we have is mGBA which is regarded as the best GBA Emulator for PC. There are many things about this Emulator which makes it so good for playing GameBoy games on PC. mGBA is available for many OS like Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc.

While this Emulator lacks some of the advanced features it is still the best GBA Emulator for PC. Some of the features we like about mGBA are – it supports cheat codes, you can save the game whenever you want, it is compatible with NES Classic Series, etc. There are just many things to love about it.

Open EMU

Open EMU is an open-source Emulator which is created for playing games of many consoles on MacOS. It is one of the Emulators which works perfectly on MacOS PC, that’s what we like about it. However, it isn’t available for any other platform which makes it hard to get for many people.

Because it’s open-source it is completely free, there are no ads of any kind present in it. Most of the GameBoy games run perfectly in on Open EMU. It was first launched in 2007, that makes it more than a decade old and is still one of the best GameBoy Advance Emulators present in the market. That’s amazing!

Boycott Advance GBA

Boycott Advance GBA Emulator was created for achieving a single aim – making it easier to run GameBoy games on MacOS. We can say that it has surely achieved the aim and is now one of the top GameBoy Advance Emulators for MacOS. Boycott Advance is simple to use and it runs most of the games perfectly.

You should note that this Emulator can only run GameBoy Advance games, it can’t run the classic games from the original GameBoy. Also, it hasn’t been updated for a long time as at first when it launched it was a paid one, but now it isn’t so doesn’t have the support team it once had.

RetroArch

RetroArch is an open source, free cross-platform front-end for game engines, emulators, video games, etc. Basically, it’s an app by which you can interact with other applications like Emulators. You can use RetroArch as a Gameboy Emulator, and it runs all the games very well. It’s one of the best ones.

RetroArch isn’t limited to playing GameBoy Advance games, with it you can also play Nintendo 3Ds games and much more. If you’re looking for an Emulator which can run almost everything then this is the best choice. It’s available for mobiles (Android & iOS), PC (Windows, Linux, Mac OS), etc.

John GBA

John GBA is one of the best Emulators for mobile phones if you want to play GameBoy Advance games for free. This Emulator is only available for Android, so if you’re on a different platform you will have to look for other options. And, if you have an Android then this is one of the best choices.

To get this Emulator started, you will need to download the ROMS of the games. (Just like for any other Emulators.) John GBA comes with in-built cheats, options by which you can improve the rendering, save the games to Dropbox, etc. It is overall, a solid GameBoy Advance Emulator.

GBAoid

GBAoid is almost as old as me using my first smartphone. In fact, when I got into using Emulators this was one of the first ones I used and it got me into the world of playing GameBoy games on Android. This Emulator app works only on Android if you don’t have an Android smartphone you can look into other Emulators.

However, even though it works well on many devices it hasn’t received an update for years. The last time checked the updated date it was back in 2012 (that’s a long time…). It may work on some devices or may not work at all. Using this Emulator can be a hit or miss if you want to try it out.

GBA.emu

GBA.emu is another GameBoy Emulator for Andriod. It isn’t free though, it will cost you around 3.99$ to buy this app from the play store. But you know when you pay for something it is usually packed with quality. It’s the same case with GBA.emu you get what you pay for, it won’t disappoint you.

There are many Emulators which advertise them as free but then bombard you with ads, GBA.emu charges you so that you don’t get those irritating ads. It’s much better this way. You can play almost every game with this Emulator app, it is worth your time and money. It is one of my favorites.

My Boy!

My Boy! is one of the most popular GameBoy Emulators for Android, it competes with NO$GBA, GBA.emu, and RetroArch to be the best Android app to play GameBoy games. When it comes to popularity it is second to none as it is the most well-known GBA Emulator for mobile phones.

While it is free to use GBA Emulator it also has a paid version. The free version will show you ads, and if you want to remove them then you can get the paid version. That doesn’t mean the free version is bad, there are a few ads but they don’t hinder the gaming experience at all. You can play any game you want.

BatGBA

BatGBA is a GameBoy Advance Emulator that you can use on your PC. It’s only available for PC and is perfect for those who prefer to use a simple Emulator i.e, with not too many nonsense options. It has been in the game for more than a decade so you can also trust it. You can’t use it on other platforms though.

What we like the most about this Emulator is that it’s very light and takes way too less space on your hard drive. You will be able to play the GameBoy games without any hassle. If you like lightweight Emulators then this is one of the top choices. Also, installing this Emulator is very easy.

Higan GBA

Another GBA Emulator which is made only for PC, Higan GBA is one of the great ones. Just like the BatGBA this Emulator boasts of its simplicity, you can run it on almost every device. Even if there’s a decade old PC you can run Higan GBA on it without breaking a sweat. It’s such a good Emulator.

You can customize the Emulator in any way you like. There are lots of consoles it supports like – GameBoy Advance, Famicom, GameBoy Color, Mega Drive, Game Gear, etc. There are only a few Emulators which support so many consoles. However, you will face an audio issue sometimes.

VisualBoy Advance

VisualBoy Advance Emulator is itself as old as the GameBoy Advance. It is one of the oldest if not, the oldest GameBoy Emulators present in this list. VisualBoy Advance has so many amazing features which you won’t even get in the original ones. Some even say it’s better than the console.

However, VisualBoy Advance is only available for PC if you’re looking for emulators which work well on mobile devices check out other ones in the list. You can run pretty much every GBA game on the VisualBoy Advance Emulator. What’s more, is that it’s free. You will just have to deal with a few ads.

No$GBA

No Cash GBA or No$GBA is one of the popular GBA Emulators in this list. One of the reasons for its popularity can be due to its unique name but that’s not the only reason for its success. This is a very powerful Emulator which can also run some Nintendo DS games (but not all).

As a user, it lets you configure the game you want to play in any way you like. No$GBA can run all of the GameBoy Advance games with ease. You can also add a controller if you want, it is supported. And it is also a free Emulator which will show you some ads but the ads can be ignored easily.

Final Thoughts…

There you have it, folks, these were some of the very best GBA Emulators you can find and use to play GBA games. One thing that’s the best about these GameBoy Advance Emulators is that they are completely free. You can play these games without any issue and the game will run buttery smooth as it doesn’t require many resources.

We tried and tested all of these GameBoy Advance Emulators, we have also included the ones which were good. There’s hardly any GBA Emulator which doesn’t work properly on this list. You can run GBA games with these Emulators without any hassles and on any device you want.

So, these were the best Game Boy Advance Emulators. Which one of these is your favorite? Did we miss any good GBA Emulator? If yes, feel free to suggest us and if you’re facing any issues you can also put them in the comments below. Cheers!

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