Nintendo - GameBoy Emulators
VisualBoyAdvance - Game Boy Advance emulator - LinuxLinks VisualBoyAdvance – Game Boy Advance emulator VisualBoyAdvance is a Game Boy Advance emulator that works with many ROMs that are publically available. It emulates GBA, GBC, SGB, and GBA roms. Latest Release: 0.8.4 Latest Development Version: 6740-466e0c5 mGBA 0.8.4 Oct 29, 2020. A new release of mGBA, version 0.8.4, is available. This version is a bugfix release, which contains many stability and accuracy fixes. As marketed by the developers, Mesen is a high-performing NES (Nintendo Entertainment. Please be there for me.
| Name | Description |
| Boycott | Nifty newer Gameboy emulator with many of the same features as VGB and it supports neat backgroud skins. |
| cingb | This is a open source Gameboy emulator for Linux. Some games run on it. |
| GBE | New open-sourced Gameboy emulator. Haven't tried this one yet.. |
| gbpablog | gbpablog is a recent Game Boy emulator written in C++, using WxWidgets and SDL. It doesn't seem to support GBC emulator, but does have sound and savestate support, and can play commercial games. Source code is only available via a Mercurial repository at the official site. |
| Gngb | Gngb is a GBC emulator for Linux written in C using the SDL. |
| gnuboy | gnuboy supports DMG, CGB and most MBCs, and has 99%+ compatibility. It still has yet to emulate the link cable, Super Gameboy extensions and obscure mappers (HuC1, HuC3, etc). Definitely worth the download. |
| GooBer | GooBer is a Gameboy emulator written in ANSI C with the Allegro game programming library. |
| KiGB | This is the Linux version of Ricky Liu's excellent GB/GBC/SGB emulator from Windows. |
| realboy | Complete, Fast, Yet Accurate, Free/Open-Source Game Boy/Game Boy Color Emulator for Linux/Unix. |
| VenGaboyTK | A GTK port of Boycott, only Linux port available. |
| VGB | VGB (Virtual GameBoy) is the only GB emulator available for FreeBSD, Solaris, and SunOS as far as I know, it also is available for Linux too.. It has good compatiblity, and good sound. This emulator is worth the download. |
| zBoy | zBoy is a pretty new Game Boy emulator created as a project by the author to learn about microprocessor architecture, assembly language, and so on. It's available for Windows, Linux, and (somewhat unusually for 2011) DOS. The source code is also available. Despite being as new as it is, zBoy seems to be able to play several games quite well, though all the site's screenshots are of classic GB games, so I don't think it does GBC emulation (at least not yet). |
Nintendo - GameBoy Emulators on Other Platforms
Windows (64)BeOS (3)
Best Gameboy Emulator Linux
Macintosh (7)
Amiga (6)
Consoles
-- Gamecube (1)
-- Playstation (1)
-- MSX (1)
-- Playstation 2 (1)
-- Nintendo 64 (1)
-- Game Boy / Advance (3)
-- Nintendo DS (2)
-- Game Park 32 (4)
-- Wonderswan (1)
-- Nintendo Wii (2)
-- GP2X (2)
-- Nintendo 3DS (1)
Java (7)
Palm OS (4)
N64 Emulator Linux
Pocket PC (5)
Calculators (2)
iOS (iPhone/iPod Touch) (1)
Android (4)
JavaScript (2)
Amiga (6)
Consoles
-- Gamecube (1)
-- Playstation (1)
-- MSX (1)
-- Playstation 2 (1)
-- Nintendo 64 (1)
-- Game Boy / Advance (3)
-- Nintendo DS (2)
-- Game Park 32 (4)
-- Wonderswan (1)
-- Nintendo Wii (2)
-- GP2X (2)
-- Nintendo 3DS (1)
Java (7)
Palm OS (4)
N64 Emulator Linux
Pocket PC (5)
Calculators (2)
iOS (iPhone/iPod Touch) (1)
Android (4)
JavaScript (2)
Emulators on:
Windows
Linux
Macintosh
Consoles
iOS (iPhone)
Android
Windows Mobile
Others
Other Releases
Music
Hacks
Savestates
Cheats
Movies
Translations
ROMs (Public Domain)
Frontends
Technical Documents
Extenders
Utilities:
General
Auditing
Cheating
Development
Game Modification
Music Playback / Manipulation
Plugins
Affiliates
Game Hacking.org
Windows
Linux
Macintosh
Consoles
iOS (iPhone)
Android
Windows Mobile
Others
Other Releases
Music
Hacks
Savestates
Cheats
Movies
Translations
ROMs (Public Domain)
Frontends
Technical Documents
Extenders
Utilities:
General
Auditing
Cheating
Development
Game Modification
Music Playback / Manipulation
Plugins
Affiliates
Game Hacking.org
Linux supports a variety of game emulators that allow users to play games that were originally intended for hardware like the Gameboy, arcade games, Atari, and many others. The emulators are relatively easy to setup as readers will see.
NOTE: In this article, 'apt-get' is used to installed many of these emulators. To do so on RPM systems, replace 'apt-get' with 'yum'. On Slackware systems with 'slapt-get', type 'slapt-get –install PACKAGES' to install software. Alternately, you can use a graphical package manager like Synaptic, RpmDrake, Gslapt, Muon, or others.
MAME:
For those of you that enjoy arcade style games, MAME is an application you may love. Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) acts like various arcade hardware for the ROMs that are loaded. A ROM is a file containing the contents of the ROM-chips that are used to store the data/game. In other words, the ROM chips (hardware) contains the game in real arcades and a ROM (file) acts like this chip for emulators. To install MAME, type 'apt-get install mame' and allow the dependencies to install. http://www.mamedev.org/
NOTE: On Debian systems, users may use 'apt-get' while on RedHat-based systems use 'yum' in place of 'apt-get'. Other types of Linux distros use other software to install packages. Also, the installation instructions work when the user is logged in as Root. As other users, place 'sudo' or some other equivalent before the command to execute the installation as Root. Also, keep in mind that not all distros have the same repos, so some of this software may not be found by your package manager. In that case, add the needed repositories.
Dolphin:
This emulator can run GameCube, Triforce, and Wii games. Dolphin May not be in your repositories, but can easily be obtained from the Dolphin website. The main page is https://dolphin-emu.org/ and the downloads page is https://dolphin-emu.org/download/?ref=btn. Currently, this page only offers a Debian file (as far as Linux is concerned). The source code is obtained via Git - git clone https://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/
Stella:
The Atari emulator for Linux is called Stella and can be installed like this - apt-get install stella.
Mednafen:
Mednafen supports a variety of game systems like Gameboy, Neo Geo, Sega Genesis, SNES, Playstation, and others. This emulator supports the use of optical discs, so your 'real' games can be played rather than ROM files. Mednafen also supports images of discs like ISO files. Mednafen can be installed using this command 'apt-get install mednafen'. http://mednafen.sourceforge.net/
FCEUX/FCE-Ultra:
These two are NES emulators, and FCEUX also runs Famicom Disk System (FDS) games. FCEUX forked from FCE-Ultra. FCEUX and FCE-Ultra can be downloaded via 'apt-get install fceux fceu'. The two do not depend on each other. http://www.fceux.com/web/
ZSNES:
ZSNES is a popular SNES emulator. The emulator itself is a 32-bit application that still functions well on 64-bit hardware. ZSNES also supports netplay which is an online-multiplayer mode. ZSNES can be installed via 'apt-get install zsnes:i386'. http://zsnes.com/
Higan/bsnes:
Higan is an emulator for Gameboy, NES, and SNES. The older Higan emulators are under the name 'bsnes'. Most repositories contain bsnes rather than Higan. {apt-get install bsnes} http://byuu.org/higan/
SNES9x:
SNES9x is another SNES emulator, and it is newer than ZSNES. (http://www.snes9x.com/) | (http://snes9x.ipherswipsite.com/)
Mupen64Plus:
Mupen64Plus is an N64 emulator. The installation process is easy - 'apt-get install mupen64plus'. https://code.google.com/p/mupen64plus/
VisualBoyAdvance (VBA):
Gameboy games can be played on Linux systems using the VBA emulator. There are two kinds - VBA and VBA-M. The development of VBA is inactive while VBA-M is an active fork of VBA. VBA can be install using this command - 'apt-get install visualboyadvance visualboyadvance-gtk'. An alternate GUI front-end can be installed via 'apt-get install vbaexpress'. VBA-M must be downloaded from its web-site (http://vba-m.com/index.php?ind=downloads).
VBA (http://ngemu.com/)|VBA-M (http://vba-m.com/)
DeSmuMe:
A Nintendo DS emulator is available for Linux and can be installed via 'apt-get install desmume'. The emulated touch screen is 'touched' with the mouse cursor. (http://desmume.org/) | (http://www.desmume.com/)
Yabause:
The Saturn emulator is called Yabause and is installed via 'apt-get install yabause'. Yabause can load Saturn games off of optical discs and ISO files in addition to ROM files. http://yabause.org/
Multi-Emulator Super System (MESS):
MESS is an emulator that supports a large variety of systems like Apple II, Lynx, Vectrex, Gameboy, NES/SNES, Commodore, Colecovision, and many others. MESS can be installed in a command-line by typing 'apt-get install mess'. http://www.mess.org/
PCSX:
The Playstation emulator is covered in more detail here (http://www.linux.org/threads/linux-playstation.4202/).
NOTE: On some websites, you may see 'W32', 'L64', 'S', etc. These represent the system that can run them.
L = Linux
M = OS X
W = Windows
S = Source
32 = 32-bit
64 = 64-bit
Expand Your Repositories:
For those of you that use Debian-based systems, there is a PPA that can be added to your system to have a repository for Higan, VBA-M, and other game emulators. In a command-line, type 'add-apt-repository ppa:hunter-kaller/ppa' (doing so requires Root privileges). Now, you can install more emulators via a repository. Here is the developers project/PPA page - (https://launchpad.net/~hunter-kaller/ archive/ppa). If you find an equivalent repo for RPM systems, please share the link with us on this site. Once such a repo is found/made, use this command to add it to your RPM system - 'yum-config-manager --add-repo=URL_HERE'.
Obtaining ROMs:
Numerous places on the Internet offer ROMs. Search Google for a game like 'super metroid rom download' or 'super metroid zsnes rom download'. Be sure you use the ROMs and emulators legally (no pirating). Also, make sure to get a ROM for your emulator. For example, downloading a MAME (arcade) ROM for an Atari emulator (like Stella) will not work. Arcade games work with Arcade emulators and Gameboy ROMs with Gameboy emulators. Remember, ROMs are not specific to a particular emulator. For example, a Gameboy ROM will work on any Gameboy emulator.
Install the Ultimate Game System:
Here is a copy-paste command that will add the PPA and install the emulators for Debian-based system users.
Many other emulators exist, but these are the most popular/recommended for GNU/Linux. Others are being developed like the up-coming PS3 emulator called RPCS3 (https://github.com/DHrpcs3/rpcs3).
Enjoy making your ultimate gaming system!
NOTE: In this article, 'apt-get' is used to installed many of these emulators. To do so on RPM systems, replace 'apt-get' with 'yum'. On Slackware systems with 'slapt-get', type 'slapt-get –install PACKAGES' to install software. Alternately, you can use a graphical package manager like Synaptic, RpmDrake, Gslapt, Muon, or others.
MAME:
For those of you that enjoy arcade style games, MAME is an application you may love. Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) acts like various arcade hardware for the ROMs that are loaded. A ROM is a file containing the contents of the ROM-chips that are used to store the data/game. In other words, the ROM chips (hardware) contains the game in real arcades and a ROM (file) acts like this chip for emulators. To install MAME, type 'apt-get install mame' and allow the dependencies to install. http://www.mamedev.org/
NOTE: On Debian systems, users may use 'apt-get' while on RedHat-based systems use 'yum' in place of 'apt-get'. Other types of Linux distros use other software to install packages. Also, the installation instructions work when the user is logged in as Root. As other users, place 'sudo' or some other equivalent before the command to execute the installation as Root. Also, keep in mind that not all distros have the same repos, so some of this software may not be found by your package manager. In that case, add the needed repositories.
Dolphin:
This emulator can run GameCube, Triforce, and Wii games. Dolphin May not be in your repositories, but can easily be obtained from the Dolphin website. The main page is https://dolphin-emu.org/ and the downloads page is https://dolphin-emu.org/download/?ref=btn. Currently, this page only offers a Debian file (as far as Linux is concerned). The source code is obtained via Git - git clone https://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/
Stella:
The Atari emulator for Linux is called Stella and can be installed like this - apt-get install stella.
Mednafen:
Mednafen supports a variety of game systems like Gameboy, Neo Geo, Sega Genesis, SNES, Playstation, and others. This emulator supports the use of optical discs, so your 'real' games can be played rather than ROM files. Mednafen also supports images of discs like ISO files. Mednafen can be installed using this command 'apt-get install mednafen'. http://mednafen.sourceforge.net/
FCEUX/FCE-Ultra:
These two are NES emulators, and FCEUX also runs Famicom Disk System (FDS) games. FCEUX forked from FCE-Ultra. FCEUX and FCE-Ultra can be downloaded via 'apt-get install fceux fceu'. The two do not depend on each other. http://www.fceux.com/web/
ZSNES:
ZSNES is a popular SNES emulator. The emulator itself is a 32-bit application that still functions well on 64-bit hardware. ZSNES also supports netplay which is an online-multiplayer mode. ZSNES can be installed via 'apt-get install zsnes:i386'. http://zsnes.com/
Higan/bsnes:
Higan is an emulator for Gameboy, NES, and SNES. The older Higan emulators are under the name 'bsnes'. Most repositories contain bsnes rather than Higan. {apt-get install bsnes} http://byuu.org/higan/
SNES9x:
SNES9x is another SNES emulator, and it is newer than ZSNES. (http://www.snes9x.com/) | (http://snes9x.ipherswipsite.com/)
Mupen64Plus:
Mupen64Plus is an N64 emulator. The installation process is easy - 'apt-get install mupen64plus'. https://code.google.com/p/mupen64plus/
VisualBoyAdvance (VBA):
Gameboy games can be played on Linux systems using the VBA emulator. There are two kinds - VBA and VBA-M. The development of VBA is inactive while VBA-M is an active fork of VBA. VBA can be install using this command - 'apt-get install visualboyadvance visualboyadvance-gtk'. An alternate GUI front-end can be installed via 'apt-get install vbaexpress'. VBA-M must be downloaded from its web-site (http://vba-m.com/index.php?ind=downloads).
VBA (http://ngemu.com/)|VBA-M (http://vba-m.com/)
DeSmuMe:
A Nintendo DS emulator is available for Linux and can be installed via 'apt-get install desmume'. The emulated touch screen is 'touched' with the mouse cursor. (http://desmume.org/) | (http://www.desmume.com/)
Yabause:
The Saturn emulator is called Yabause and is installed via 'apt-get install yabause'. Yabause can load Saturn games off of optical discs and ISO files in addition to ROM files. http://yabause.org/
Multi-Emulator Super System (MESS):
MESS is an emulator that supports a large variety of systems like Apple II, Lynx, Vectrex, Gameboy, NES/SNES, Commodore, Colecovision, and many others. MESS can be installed in a command-line by typing 'apt-get install mess'. http://www.mess.org/
PCSX:
The Playstation emulator is covered in more detail here (http://www.linux.org/threads/linux-playstation.4202/).
NOTE: On some websites, you may see 'W32', 'L64', 'S', etc. These represent the system that can run them.
L = Linux
M = OS X
W = Windows
S = Source
32 = 32-bit
64 = 64-bit
Expand Your Repositories:
For those of you that use Debian-based systems, there is a PPA that can be added to your system to have a repository for Higan, VBA-M, and other game emulators. In a command-line, type 'add-apt-repository ppa:hunter-kaller/ppa' (doing so requires Root privileges). Now, you can install more emulators via a repository. Here is the developers project/PPA page - (https://launchpad.net/~hunter-kaller/ archive/ppa). If you find an equivalent repo for RPM systems, please share the link with us on this site. Once such a repo is found/made, use this command to add it to your RPM system - 'yum-config-manager --add-repo=URL_HERE'.
Obtaining ROMs:
Numerous places on the Internet offer ROMs. Search Google for a game like 'super metroid rom download' or 'super metroid zsnes rom download'. Be sure you use the ROMs and emulators legally (no pirating). Also, make sure to get a ROM for your emulator. For example, downloading a MAME (arcade) ROM for an Atari emulator (like Stella) will not work. Arcade games work with Arcade emulators and Gameboy ROMs with Gameboy emulators. Remember, ROMs are not specific to a particular emulator. For example, a Gameboy ROM will work on any Gameboy emulator.
Install the Ultimate Game System:
Here is a copy-paste command that will add the PPA and install the emulators for Debian-based system users.
Many other emulators exist, but these are the most popular/recommended for GNU/Linux. Others are being developed like the up-coming PS3 emulator called RPCS3 (https://github.com/DHrpcs3/rpcs3).
Enjoy making your ultimate gaming system!
