Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators

From Emulation General Wiki
Revision as of 23:18, 30 June 2014 by Error (talk | contribs) (Added MESS, but due to low accuracy on the GBC set it as not recommended. No clue about game link support for MESS.)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The Gameboy handheld console

The Game Boy is an 8-bit, 4th generation handheld console released by Nintendo in 1989. It had a monochrome display. Its successor, the Game Boy Color (GBC), was released in 1998. Unlike the original, it features a color screen.

Emulators

PC
Name Operating System(s) Latest Version GB/GBC Game Link Support Libretro Core Recommended
Gambatte Multi-platform 0.5.0
BGB Windows v1.4.3
Visual Boy Advance-M (VBA-M) Multi-platform r1229
BizHawk Windows 1.5.2
higan Windows, Linux, OS X 0.93
MESS Multi-platform 0.153 ?
Consoles
Name Operating System(s) Latest Version GB/GBC Game Link Support Libretro Core Recommended
Visual Boy Advance-M (VBA-M) Wii, Gamecube r1229 ✓ (as VBA-Next)
MasterBoy PlayStation Portable 2.10
RIN PlayStation Portable 1.32
GeMP PlayStation Portable 3.3 Final
GameYob Nintendo DS Git ✓ (NiFi)

Comparison

  • Gambatte is hands-down the most accurate Game Boy/Color emulator. It has a good range of options, though not quite as much as some other emulators.
  • BGB also has 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 Gameboy colors and borders, though it doesn't emulate all of its functions. Because of that, if you're looking for highest compatibility you should get both Gambatte and BGB so you can switch between them when needed.
  • Visual Boy Advance emulates GB/GBC games as they appear on a GBA. This causes games to look unusually bright and saturated.
  • GameYob (on the DS) is the best GB/GBC emulator for that platform.
  • Higan is the only emulator that properly emulates all of the Super Game Boy's features, though the quality of its Game Boy emulation is inferior to that of other emulators, unless one hunts down an older version of bsnes, which used the Gambatte core for its Super Game Boy functionality.
  • GeMP and RIN have some incompatibilities with later PSP models. GeMP is incompatible with GameCategories folders.

Gameboy Resources