VisualBoyAdvance

VisualBoyAdvance is a free, open-source video game emulator that is capable of playing Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games right on your computer. Besides the Windows build, ports of the emulator exist for Linux, macOS, BSD and several other platforms. VisualBoyAdvance enhances many aspects of retro Nintendo handheld gaming while still keeping the nostalgic feeling alive. It is one of the simplest ways to play old Nintendo handheld titles on a PC, and it also adds extras such as a speed-up (turbo) key, save states and graphics filters that smooth out the low-resolution picture.

The emulator runs game ROM images that you have to supply yourself: it does not include any games, and you should only play copies of cartridges you legally own. Once a ROM file is opened from the File menu, the game starts instantly, and the battery saves that the original cartridge kept are stored on disk. Popular games like Pokemon FireRed, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Sonic Advance and many more run in VisualBoyAdvance. It also allows you to use a joystick or gamepad as well as the keyboard, with fully configurable controls, which brings the experience closer to the original handheld.

You can also use VisualBoyAdvance to play homebrew games and ROM hacks created by many people around the world. The emulator supports IPS patches: when a patch file with the same name as the ROM is placed next to it, the patch is applied automatically at load time without changing the original file. This is how fan translations are usually distributed, so games that were released only in Japanese can be played in English. For developers and hackers there are debugging tools such as a disassembler, memory, tile, map, palette and OAM viewers, logging and a GDB connection.

VisualBoyAdvance is easy to set up: the Windows version is a small program that runs from its folder without installation, and it is compatible with the vast majority of Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance ROMs. Cheat codes in GameShark, Action Replay and Code Breaker formats are supported, screenshots can be captured, and gameplay can be recorded to AVI video or WAV audio. The original project is no longer developed: the last stable release is 1.7.2 from 2004, followed by 1.8.0 beta 3 in 2005, and its maintained continuation is the VisualBoyAdvance-M fork.

Plays hundreds of handheld Nintendo video games right from your computer

Features:

• Compatible with Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance game ROMs
• Battery save and save state support
• Full-screen mode and graphics filters
• Joystick controller support
• Hacking and debug tools