For those who have played GBA before, I highly doubt that you have forgotten about the experience of playing on it. Turns out in 2022, there is a tonne of GBA Emulator PC available at your disposal. Each emulator comes with its set of features, pros, and cons that I have listed below. Check out the entire list to select the best GBA Emulator PC according to you. Also, Read: How to Install GBA Emulator on iOS 14
Best GBA Emulator PC to Download
1. No$GBA Emulator
Price: Free Certainly, one of the best GBA emulators available on PC, the No$GBA or No Cash GBA Emulator is feature-rich and can run any game from Nintendo DS/DS Lite as well as GameBoy Advance in existence. No$GBA Emulator supports multiplayer gaming on a single PC and has been optimized to run any game smoothly. It was first released as a GBA debugger but later transformed into a full-fledged GBA Emulator. It supports controllers and you can remap keys on the keyboard to suit your preferences. Pros:
Multiplayer supportRuns almost all Nintendo DS/DS Lite & GBA gamesStable & highly-optimized game deliverySupports controllers
Cons:
Doesn’t support cross-platformAvailable only on Windows
2. mGBA Emulator
Price: Free mGBA Emulator is among the most popular GBA emulators for PC made for devices that are low on specifications. It doesn’t compromise on the performance of the system and instead, the developers keep the emulator updated with new features and patch existing bugs. It does have a lot of bugs but rest assured as the pros will offset it. This includes an easy-to-use interface, the ability to play games from all ROMs, save and load game states, and so on. mGBA Emulator supports cross-platform and has a good color emulation for all the games you would play on it. There are exceptions such as some games for GBA don’t play on the emulator but overall, mGBA emulator is a must-try. Pros:
Allows cheat codesRuns on the low-end hardware configurationUpdates regularly
Cons: Bugs-friendly Stripped with some advanced features
3. Visual Boy Advance (VBA-M)
Price: Free Another among the best GBA emulator PC is the Visual Boy Advance (VBA-M) which lets you play all the games on your PC with ease. It is a bit laggy but works fine on Windows PCs with varying hardware specifications. It supports ROMS for SGB, GBA, GB, GBC, among others. You can even save the data for games on VBA and export it to another emulator if you want. There’s OpenGL, DirectSound, and other features as well. Pros:
Supports Cheat CodesGets regular updatesSupports Joysticks
Cons:
It can be a bit tricky for new usersMay crash on old machines and heavy ROMs
4. BatGBA
Price: Free Stripped away from advanced features, BatGBA is a simple and easy-to-use GBA emulator PC available for Windows with no cross-platform support. Albeit with an outdated user interface, BatGBA is a highly recommended GBA emulator that can play any games from GB, GBA, and GBC. The emulator displays FPS when you are gaming. You’ll need an original BIOS file to run games on BatGBA but once you have it, all the games run pretty smoothly. It doesn’t use much space in the memory and overall, it is lightweight making it decent enough to run on PCs with low-end specs. Pros:
Easy to useFPS display in real-timeSupports GBC, GBA, and GameBoy ROMs
Cons:
Doesn’t support cross-platformOutdated
5. RetroArch
Price: Free Another popular GBA emulator for PC, RetroArch gains cross-platform support so it runs on iOS, Android, Mac, Linux, and Windows. It can emulate any games for various consoles including GameCube, GBA, GB, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and so on. There are some advanced features with RetroArch such as slow-motion, fast-forward, netplay, save and load game states, and so on. You can even configure joysticks as well as gamepad and remap keyboard keys as well. There’s cheat code functionality with RetroArch as well. Once you decide to play games from any console, switch the cores and you are good to go. However, that adds to the time it requires to set it up. Pros:
Cross-platform supportAdvanced features like netplay, slow-motion, and fast-forwardKey remapping and joystick supportSave & load game states
Cons:
Takes time to set it upWay too many options to configure
6. Boycott Advance
Price: Free This one is curated for macOS users only and thus, there’s no Windows here. Boycott Advance has a simple and easy-to-use UI with all features perfectly laid out such as key mapping, a high-optimized CPU emulator, quick retrieval of games, and the game state saves and loads. Boycott Advance supports advanced video features for GBA such as rotation and scaling. It is lightweight so it won’t need a high-end computer to run it for sure. Other features include audio effects, full-screen mode, and so on. Pros:
Highly-optimized CPU emulationSupports GBA video features
Cons:
Supports macOS onlyGamepads and joystick support
7. Higan GBA
Price: Free Higan GBA Emulator runs on pretty much all the systems even with low-end specifications. This makes it a must-try if you are looking for the best GBA Emulator for PC. Higan GBA is easy to set up and use with everything pretty self-explanatory. It lets you play games from GBA, GBA Color, and GameBoy as well. The best thing about the Higan GBA emulator is that it can transform into an emulator for Sega, NEC, Famicom among other systems. Pros:
Supports Windows & LinuxCustom key mappingAll-in-one emulator for Nintendo, Famicom, Sega, and others.Top-notched color and graphics
Cons:
Suffers lags at timesAudio lags
8. GB Enhanced+
Price: Free GB Enhanced+ or GBE+ doubles as a GBC, GBA, and Nintendo DS emulator. It can run on Linux, Mac, and Windows supporting its cross-platform functionality. Apart from that, this emulator offers a stable gaming experience playing various games from the golden games when GBA and other consoles were a thing to must-have. Pros:
Offers stable gaming experienceCross-platform functionalitySupports DS, GBC, and GBA gamesCheat Codes support
Cons:
HeavyOccasional lag is a thing
9. Mednafen
Price: Free Although it would take some time to adjust to its command-line interface, once you get a hang of it, you will love playing GBA games on Mednafen. The emulator supports full-screen modes. You can’t just play GBA games but also SNES, Sega, PC-FX, Sony PlayStation to name a few. Mednafen plays games from various systems without a glitch although occasional lag. Pros:
Keyword remapping & joystickSave game states and loadSupport multiple gaming systems
Cons:
It has a command-line interface
10. Rascal Boy Advance GBA
Price: Free This is a Windows-only GBA emulator with a bit of a misleading name, to be honest. Rascal Boy Advance GBA emulator supports a varied range of GBA ROMs as well as supports multiplayer gaming. There’s a catch here. The multiplayer support is for local gaming and not gaming over a network. The developers keep Rascal Boy GBA updated and that is why it brings many features on-board such as it is available in multiple languages, there’s cheat code support as well. Overall, it is fun to use the GBA emulator out there. Pros:
Local multiplayer gamingCheat codes supportEasy to useLightweight
Cons:
Simple user interfaceNo cross-platform supportNo multiplayer support over the network
Final Verdict – Best GBA Emulator PC to Download
Of course, these aren’t all the GBA Emulator PCs that we could find, however, the list mentions those that are among the popular ones available. These emulators don’t just let you play GBA games but also record and share to social networks and more.
