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[]
| Name | Operating System(s) | Latest Version | GB/GBC | Game Link Support | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gambatte | Windows, Linux, OS X | 0.5.0 | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| RetroArch (Gambatte) | Multi-platform | 0.5.0 | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| BGB | Windows | v1.5.6 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| KiGB | Windows, Linux, OS X | v2.05 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| TGB Dual | Windows | Vol.8.3.1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Visual Boy Advance-M (VBA-M) | Windows, Linux, OS X, Wii, Gamecube | 2.0.0 Beta 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| BizHawk | Windows | 1.11.4 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| GameYob | Nintendo DS | Git | ✓ | ✓ (NiFi) | ✓ |
| higan | Windows, Linux, OS X | 0.106 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| MasterBoy | PlayStation Portable | 2.10 | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| RIN | PlayStation Portable | 1.32 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| GeMP | PlayStation Portable | 3.3 Final | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| gbc.sb2/gb.sb2 | Internet Broswer | 1.0 Final (GBC), 1.2 Final (GB) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
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.
- Visual Boy Advance doesn't emulate the color palette of the original hardware. Instead, it uses the color palette of a GBA, making Game Boy Color games look too 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.
- Unfortunately TGB Dual which has netplay has already stopped development.
- gb.sb2 is a GameBoy emulator made in the Scratch programming environment, by Scratch user @DCPU-16. You can only play files on there by converting a game to hex, and then converting the hex to decimal. A new version of gb.sb2 was released, called gbc.sb2, now able to play GameBoy Color games. Unfortunately, development stopped about 6 years ago. This is not recommended, as it is very slow, and there is a file size limit.