Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators

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The Game Boy.

The Game Boy is an 8-bit, fourth-generation handheld console released by Nintendo in 1989. It had a monochrome display that could show only two colors, black and white (though the white was more green). Nintendo re-released the console as the Game Boy Pocket in 1996, with a more compact body and a better screen. A front light was added to a special edition of the Pocket in Japan called the Game Boy Light, a feature that wouldn't be seen outside of Japan until the Game Boy Advance SP.

Nintendo released a peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called Super Game Boy in 1994, which was modelled like a cartridge but included its own cartridge slot for Game Boy games, as well as the hardware needed to translate the games. Many Game Boy emulators offer at least some of the special features it included, such as added borders, colorization, custom button mappings and other features. It was possible to link, but without the external port, as well as errors in the CPU, it would not be feasible to the end user; these issues would later be corrected in the Japan-exclusive Super Game Boy 2.

The Game Boy's successor, the Game Boy Color (GBC), was released in 1998. It was named such from its color screen, but it also had larger memory and a double-clocked CPU. The hardware similarities allow cross-compatibility between the two platforms and they are often treated as one. They would both by succeeded by the backwards-compatible Game Boy Advance.

Emulators

Because of how relatively easy popular 8-bit consoles are to emulate, tons of Game Boy emulators exist. For a list of open-source projects, see this GitHub query. For a list of accuracy tests, see GB/C Tests.

Name Operating System(s) Latest Version Game Link Support Libretro Core Active Recommended
PC
BGB Windows 1.5.6
Gambatte Multi-platform r571
SameBoy Multi-platform 0.10.1
Gearboy Multi-platform 2.3.1
BizHawk Windows 2.9.1
GBE+ Windows, Linux, OS X (untested) 1.2
higan Windows, Linux, OS X v110
MAME Multi-platform 0.264
mGBA Multi-platform 0.10.3 ?
Visual Boy Advance-M (VBA-M) Multi-platform 2.0.2 [N 1]
hhugboy Windows 1.2.1
KiGB Windows, Linux, OS X 2.05
TGB Dual Windows, Linux[N 2] "L" v1.2 [N 2]
GiiBiiAdvance Windows, Linux 0.2.0
Mobile
Gambatte Multi-platform r571
mGBA Multi-platform 0.10.3 ?
GBC.emu Android 1.5.19 ?
My OldBoy! Android 1.5.2 ?
John GBC Android 3.66 ?
GambatteDroid Android 1.2 ?
GBA.emu Android 1.5.19 ?
Consoles
mGBA Wii, Nintendo 3DS, PSVita 0.10.3 ?
GameYob DS Nintendo DS Git (NiFi)
GameYob 3DS Nintendo 3DS v1.0.8 ?
Visual Boy Advance-M (VBA-M) Wii, Gamecube r1231 (as VBA-Next)
MasterBoy PlayStation Portable 2.10
GeMP PlayStation Portable 3.3 Final
RIN PlayStation Portable 1.32
Virtual Console Nintendo 3DS 8.10 (Pokemon only)
  1. A VBA-M libretro core does exist, but it only emulates GBA.
  2. 2.0 2.1 As an SDL port (and the libretro core is based on this version).

Comparison

Game Boy-only emulators

BGB
A closed-source emulator for Windows (and Wine) with excellent Game Boy and Game Boy Color accuracy, as well as near flawless link support. It has a wealth of options for color palettes and even enabling Super Game Boy colors and borders, though it doesn't emulate all of its functions. It also has an advanced debugger.
Gambatte
Probably the most accurate open-source Game Boy Color emulator. It has a good range of options and features, though not quite as much as some other emulators. It has not been as active lately.
SameBoy
A relatively new emulator with very high accuracy. The UI is simplistic without many options. It includes open source bootroms, although these can be replaced with real ones. Also emulates Game Boy Camera and Game Boy Printer.
TGB Dual
An ancient emulator that supports link cable emulation. It also supports netplay, but it requires a VPN. The libretro port supports local multiplayer using player 2's controls.
KiGB
An old and obsolete emulator which boasted its accuracy but was proven to be full of game-specific hacks.[1][2][3] It has a wide selection of features, but other emulators have caught up and are already doing much better.
GiiBiiAdvance
Pioneered full GB Camera emulation, including webcam support. Aside from that, it's an unfinished emulator with the basics set up, but its promising future currently on hiatus. It has very accurate timing.

Backwards-compatible GBA emulators

mGBA
Primarily emulates the Game Boy Advance but it also includes GB/C support much like the original system. It's still in development, but it's already on the level of many other emulators.
GBE+
A recently rewritten emulator that has a large effort in preserving the functions of obscure accessories that other emulators don't focus on. It can also load custom tiles in games, including colorized tiles for original Game Boy titles.
VisualBoy Advance -M (VBA-M)
Used to be the go-to for Game Boy Advance emulation and even included solid GB/C emulation. It's now behind mGBA on both fronts.

Multi-system emulators

higan
Because it started out as an SNES emulator (its original name was bsnes), it was the only one that properly emulated all of the Super Game Boy's features, such as SPC sound chip utilization. Versions of bsnes at and before 0.73 used the Gambatte core for its Super Game Boy functionality, but Byuu eventually made his own Game Boy core, which ended up having pretty good accuracy.
BizHawk
Uses a modified Gambatte core. It provides speedrunning tools.
MAME
Has solid Game Boy emulation through its gameboy driver despite the sound being imperfect, as well as slightly worse GBC compatibility through its gbcolor driver (where both the graphics and sound are imperfect). Despite its setbacks, it aims to feature compatibility with obscure mappers that other emulators usually ignore, like Wisdom Tree games or MMM01 multicarts. Accuracy was improved upon with contributions by Judge_.
Mednafen
Its Game Boy Advance core is forked from an old version of VisualBoy Advance.

Emulation issues

Oversaturation

Comparison of saturation levels in VBA-M and Gambatte.

The Game Boy Color's screen is understaturated. Game developers often work around this by using brighter colors knowing it'll be compensated for on hardware. This does not translate well in emulation, because standard LCD screens don't account for this sort of issue. Many emulators attempt to combat this issue with options that adjust accordingly; if not directly, then shader functionality may be implemented.

This issue also affects Game Boy Advance emulation.

Game Boy features

Hardware

IR Transmitter

The Game Boy Color had an infrared transmitter and receiver. Generation II Pokémon games made use of this feature through Mystery Gift. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe could send high scores to another cartridge. GBE+ has basic IR emulation but currently it only works with Pokémon games.

Game Boy Camera

Name Operating System(s) Build to Use Recommended
mGBA Multi-platform Dev builds post 0.6.0
GiiBiiAdvance Windows ?
BGB Windows ?
Hashcam Windows [2]

The Game Boy Camera is an official Nintendo accessory for the Game Boy and was released in 1998. Users can take pictures and modify them with stickers and frames, as well as play several included minigames. In addition to the original model, there was a US-exclusive Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time edition that included different stamps.

The first emulator to have some capability of emulating the Game Boy Camera was a modified version of an old emulator called Hash. This version, named Hashcam, can still be found on the author's website. While there were some efforts to run the Game Boy Camera ROM in BGB unofficially, the author didn't show much interest in it. However, it is fully emulated with webcam support in a lesser-known emulator called GiiBiiAdvance.

The latest dev builds of mGBA post 0.6.0 release can emulate the accessory by either using the PC's webcam or send a BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, or other image format to the game, as if it was coming from the camera itself.[4] To enable the PC webcam, go to Game Boy under settings and switch the camera driver to Qt Multimedia, or by editing qt.ini and setting cameraDriver=1 under [General].

Tilt sensor

Two Game Boy Color games featured a built-in tilt sensor: Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble and Command Master. These games cannot be played without support for this feature. While VBA and KiGB have a "Motion Sensor" option to map four directional keys to emulate the cartridge tilting, BGB can emulate the tilting features with the use of the mouse.

Rumble Enhanced Games

Some cartridges came with built-in rumble that required an AAA battery to power, such as Pokémon Pinball, but the feature is optional. It is unknown if any emulator supports this feature.

Game Boy Pocket Sonar

Japan only cartridge released by Bandai. It is a sonar-enabled device used for fishing with a fishing game included. No emulator supports this feature.


Accessories

There are a few accessories that the Game Boy and Game Boy Color had.

Link Cable

BGB, KiGB, some versions of VBA-M and TGB-Dual supports link cable.

4-Player Adapter

Currently only GBE+ supports it.

Game Boy Printer

VisualBoy Advance 1.8.0-beta 3 and GBE+ had Game Boy Printer support that turned the signals into a bitmap form of the image. Some notable games and accessories to make use of this feature are the RPG Pokémon games, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, and Game Boy Camera. mGBA plans to support this feature but it is unknown if other emulators support or have plans to support it.

Barcode Boy

An obscure Japan only barcode-scanning device released by Namcot (then-Namco's consumer division) in 1992. Total of 4 games were released to utilize this accessory. KiGB and GEST claim support for this device, but they only feed random data to Game Boy until the game accept it as a valid barcode. GBE+ has proper emulation with the ability to read barcode from binary files.

Barcode Taisen Bardigun

Another Japan only barcode-scanning device with the dedicated game. GBE+ supports this accessory.

Mobile Game Boy Adapter

There is a Japan only accessory that communicates with Mobile Golf and Japanese Pokémon Crystal. It was bundled with Mobile Trainer cartridge which allowed the player to use e-mail as well as browse Nintendo's website. It is possible to partially emulate its feature for Pokémon Crystal by using BGB's scripting capability, and GBE+ can at least reach the title screen of Mobile Trainer, but otherwise no emulators properly supports this accessory.

Singer Sewing Machine

There is link cable support for the Singer IZEK Digital Sewing Machine. The IZEK was unique in that it came bundled with a specially coloured Game Boy and a cartridge for interfacing with the machine.[5][6] No emulator supports this, mostly due to the IZEK being a rare item, along with the complexity of implementing a similarly automated sewing machine.

Hudsonsoft KISS Link

This accessory allowed users to download exclusive content by them from Hudsonsoft's website. No emulator supports this.

References

External links