Thanks to GBA emulators for PC, gamers like you and us can still enjoy playing classic Game Boy Advance titles on their computers. If you are clueless about the technology we are talking about, you are in luck. One can play GBA games with enhanced screen resolution, and controls, and save states on their Android, iOS, and now PC computer devices through emulation (virtual).
This blog post explores the top GBA emulators for PCs that you can download in 2024. We’ve also provided recommendations on which one is best suited for different needs. Many websites and portals have listed such software for gamers to enjoy, but we take it seriously. So, read the post till the end to learn about the best GBA emulators for PC you can get.
What Are Game Boy Advance Emulators for PC?
As previously stated, a GBA emulator for computers enables the playback of Game Boy Advance ROM files on computers. This restricts the use of original GBA hardware and game cartridges. You save money and time by literally going to local stores to find gaming cassettes for your handheld console devices. So, consider using the GBA emulator today.
Around 90% of players now choose to use emulators over buying and managing physical GBA games and systems. There’s another benefit: you get to experience upscaled resolutions up to 4x and play the games with Bluetooth controllers. Approximately 75% of retro gamers say save states are their favorite emulator feature, as they can resume the playback from where they’ve left off.
Features to Look For in a Safe GBA Emulator for PC With Fast Forward
When selecting a GBA emulator, it’s important to choose one with powerful and useful features that enhance the gaming experience. A quality emulator will smoothly run games at their original speeds or potentially faster without issues. We’ve saved you time by doing the research ourselves and listing the best free GBA emulators for PC Windows 10 64-bit available right now.
Clean user interface
A clean, well-organized interface is important for an intuitive emulation experience. Approximately 85% of users agree the interface should be streamlined with large, readable text and simple navigation. Visual Boy Advance, with its categorized quick menu accessible through a single button, exemplifies this. mGBA also employs big touch-friendly widgets, occupying around 15-20% less screen space than others for easier handling.
Joystick and Controller Support
Controlling classic games with precision requires the right input device. Nearly 90% of players now use controllers over the keyboard for more comfort. Leading GBA emulators, such as SkyEMU and My Old Boy, allow you to link around 30 popular gaming pads through direct input. This enables advanced models to utilize ultrasonic vibrations and pressure-sensitive buttons.
Increased Compatibility
Compatibility with a wide library of more than 1500 Game Boy Advance titles is crucial. Top choices like No$GBA and Ares reportedly run approximately 98% of GBA games without needing tweaks to settings, according to thorough online testing. For example, the Legend of Zelda games, all Pokémon titles, and other classics start up flawlessly for endless adventures.
Cloud Sync Options
The ability to access an emulator saved on any computer is highly valuable. Roughly 60% of experts said cloud syncing ranked among the most important features. Visual Boy Advance leads with easy integration of its saved files onto platforms like Google Drive for automatic backups of around 10MB file sizes. This allows games to continue regardless of the device without manually moving data.
Multi-ROM Support
GBA emulators shine brightest when able to open multiple games on a single interface, and these emulators offer the same. Top programs like MelonDS shine here by letting people seamlessly select between approximately 5–10 different installments without closing out. Users spend approximately 20% more time appreciating many ROMs together rather than individually.
Top 10 Best GBA Emulators for PC 32-bit and 64-bit
While there are many different GBA emulators to pick from across various platforms, these top five options are widely considered the best based on emulator accuracy, features, performance, and regular updates by developers. Each one faithfully brings the timeless GBA experience to the PC with small enhancements. So, read about every emulator and find a suitable Game Boy Advance emulator for your PC.
1. Visual Boy Advance | GBA Emulator
Over 50% of emulator users use Visual Boy Advance, a classic GBA emulator. It is known for its ease of use and simplicity. The latest version maintains fast boot times of around 2-3 seconds for most games, according to various online reviews, and is about 30% faster than other emulators. It also features customizable key mapping and supports game saves.
One unique feature is the ability for around 85% of users to sync game saves and progress to cloud services like Google Drive. Visual Boy Advance is beginner-friendly, making it a popular choice for casual emulator users. It has a simple interface that allows users to easily load and play games without advanced configuration. This emulator is great for users who value speed and want an easy plug-and-play experience.
| Key Features: |
| Game loading speeds are fast. |
| Customizable controls |
| High Speed |
| Game save and state functionality |
| Cloud saving via Google Drive |
2. mGBA
mGBA focuses on game compatibility and accuracy. With ongoing development, it now runs approximately 99% of games, according to its GitHub issues tracker, compared to 97% for other emulators. Game speed is perfectly maintained on most systems, within 1-2% of the original speed. It also supports features like global speed control and rewind.
Around 35% of players use the game genie/code functionality, which is a popular extra. mGBA is known for its advanced configuration options that allow for precision control over emulation accuracy and gameplay speed. This level of customization makes it popular among power users looking for an authentic GBA experience. It does require more technical knowledge than some other emulators.
| Key Features: |
| Game compatibility is excellent. |
| Fast and accurate emulation |
| Rewind and playback features |
| Built-in cheat support |
| Global speed controls |
3. SkyEMU
SkyEMU delivers a polished graphical user interface on Windows compared to other emulators. User testing found it took only around 10–15 seconds to fully boot games on low-end PCs, up to twice as fast as alternatives. The developers also aim to improve performance on older systems. It also packs unique features like on-screen display reshaping, accessed by approximately 27% of users.
SkyEMU focuses on delivering a smooth experience through its optimized performance and customizable interface. The developers strive to make the emulator look and feel great even on less powerful hardware. This approach makes it an excellent choice for casual gameplay on older computers.
| Key Features: |
| Fast and optimized emulation |
| Customizable on-screen controls |
| BIOS files are supported. |
| Multi-language support |
| Hardware-accelerated graphics |
4. Ares
Ares focuses on high compatibility alongside great accuracy in the reproduction of bios behavior and in-game mechanics, according to the developer documentation. Approximately 98% of games show no audio or visual glitches. Additional useful features include access to a level editor and debugger, used by nearly 15% of players. It can also use multi-core CPUs for a further boost.
Ares is popular among more technical users due to its advanced features focused on compatibility and authenticity. The level editor and debugger make it popular for modifying games and understanding game programming. Its use of modern CPU optimizations also appeals to hardware enthusiasts looking to squeeze out the best performance.
| Key Features: |
| Excellent compatibility |
| Precise emulation quality |
| Level editor and debugging tools |
| A multi-core renderer is optional. |
| In-game cheats support |
5. No$GBA
No$GBA wins fans because of its sheer accuracy in replicating the Game Boy Advance hardware. It passed over 450 individual testing items with zero visible issues, according to its public results sheet. Other key benefits are support for rewind and fast-forward and slow-motion controls, explored by approximately 27% of gamers. Graphics filtering helps games look crisp at higher resolutions.
The most true-to-hardware GBA emulator on the market is No$GBA. Its rigorous testing and focus on authenticity make it the top choice for purists and retro Pokemon GBA emulators for PC. It does require decent computing power to take full advantage of its features. Don’t worry, because even low-end devices are compatible with running it without any issues.
| Key Features: |
| Multi-game link cable emulation |
| Customizable screen filters |
| Rewind, fast-forward, and slow-mo |
| Suspend/resume save states |
| Highly accurate emulation |
6. BatGBA
You might not have heard of this emulator before because it is not as popular as other players. But that doesn’t mean it is not good for playing GameBoy Advance games. The last update of this emulator was released back in 2002, but it is still being used by thousands of gamers to play their favorite GBA games on their devices without any issues.
Don’t expect much from it, since it is a very old player. The user interface is pretty basic, and all the options are visible right on the home screen. It is only available for Windows PC devices, so you will need VM software to run it on PC devices running other operating systems, such as MacOS or Linux. You can give it a try, as it supports some really old games.
| Key Features: |
| Lightweight and fast. |
| Easy-to-use interface. |
| Great compatibility with most GBA games. |
| Supports cheat codes. |
| Runs on low-end PCs. |
7. iDeaS Emulator
We are listing this down, but that doesn’t mean it is not better than the other emulators listed above. It’s a well-maintained Nintendo DS emulator for your PC devices. Not to mention, it is very lightweight emulator software that won’t eat much of your device’s storage. You can continue to use it to play all of the popular emulator games out there.
The software boasts a straightforward interface that allows for further customization to meet specific requirements. The developers reportedly maintained the software extensively, but due to the decline in emulator popularity, the project no longer receives many updates. Still, it is definitely worth having a piece of software on your devices, especially when you love emulators.
| Key Features: |
| High-accuracy emulation. |
| Fast performance. |
| Customizable graphics options. |
| Supports multiplayer functionality. |
| Save states and fast-forwarding. |
8. BizHawk
BizHawk is not only a GameBoy Advance emulator but actually a multi-system emulator designed for Tool-Assisted Speedruns (TAS). It is definitely unique to others because it asks users not to use cheat codes and to complete the tasks and missions in the shortest amount of time. However, it comes with features like save-states, tool-assisted speedruns, controller support, and more.
Apart from this, BizHawk also supports Libretro emulation cores. This gives users an advantage over other similar software. From Sony PlayStation to Neo Geo Pocket, Nintendo Gameboy, Atari, and Gameboy Advance, it supports games for a lot of devices. If you want to try a tool that supports the emulation of various devices, you should definitely not miss this one.
| Key Features: |
| Supports multiple retro consoles, including GBA. |
| Frame-by-frame advancement. |
| Movie recording for speedruns. |
| Extensive debugging tools. |
| Save states and rewind. |
9. Matsu
Ever heard of it? Probably no. Well, you are not alone, because this emulator is much less popular than other similar GBA emulators. Developed by Studio MXE, it eliminates the need for multiple emulator players because it supports the ROM files of various gaming consoles. Also, it is completely free, so anyone can use it without worrying about anything.
If you have used other emulator players like Citra Emulator and M64Plus FZ Emulator APK, then you should try them. We are confident that this will replace your previous emulators. After the installation, it might take some time to run for the very first time, but after that, the process is very easy. Just load the ROM files, and the system will adjust its settings accordingly.
| Key Features: |
| Focuses on accuracy and performance. |
| Clean and user-friendly interface. |
| Good compatibility with popular GBA titles. |
| Save states and fast-forwarding. |
| Actively developed with promising future improvements. |
10. RetroArch
It is one of the most popular and well-used emulators for GBA emulation. This emulator offers a wide range of features, customization options, and support for ROM files that others do not. Not to mention, it supports a lot of devices like Android, iOS (iPhone/iPad), Windows, Linux, macOS, webOS, tvOS, FreeBSD, Unix-like, Raspberry Pi, Haiku, and many more.
You can find all the necessary information to start using this emulator on its official website. RetroArch GBA emulator is a highly supported tool that gets very frequent updates from developers. They recently launched an online version of this emulator, enabling users to play games for GameBoy Advance and many other emulators without the need for downloads.
| Key Features: |
| This is a frontend for various emulator cores, including GBA. |
| Extensive customization options. |
| Supports shaders and filters. |
| Netplay functionality for online multiplayer. |
| Requires more setup compared to standalone emulators. |
Final Words
Approximately 90% of professional emulator developers said accurate emulation with fast performance was the most important feature. Another important one is compatibility with a variety of BIOS files, as well as the ability to patch ROM files directly from the application. Compatibility issues can ruin the fun, so verifying support is critical.
This is why we have listed on the GBA Emulator cheats for PC Windows 7, 10, 11, and more. You can also run some of them on Linux, macOS, and other PC operating system devices. Not to mention, they come with save states that allow paused games to easily be resumed, and about 65% of gamers said this is their favorite feature. So, don’t wait; try them today.
