Fast, user-friendly emulator offering broad compatibility with Game Boy, Color, and Advance libraries
Fast, user-friendly emulator offering broad compatibility with Game Boy, Color, and Advance libraries
Vote (247 votes)
Program license Free
Developer Visual Boy Advance
Version 2.1.11
Works under Windows
Vote
(247 votes)
Developer
Visual Boy Advance
Works under
Windows
Program license
Free
Version
2.1.11
Pros
- Fast and responsive
- Intuitive and functional default controls and settings
- Runs all sorts of GBA, GBC and even Game Boy games from the 90s
Cons
- Occasional bugs
- Some difficulties with gamepad/hardware support, due to age
Visual Boy Advance (sometimes stylized VisualBoyAdvance) is a fully-featured Game Boy Advance emulator.
With its first release in 2004, one might think that Visual Boy Advance is a poor choice of emulator these days. Nothing could be further from the truth: in fact, Visual Boy Advance was a nearly-perfect emulator at its time of release, in the early 2000s when Game Boy Advance titles were still being released, and it's hardly worse now. In fact, most of its alternatives are more recent versions by other developers, "forked" from the original Visual Boy Advance!
Visual Boy Advance is highly compatible with almost every commercially-released Game Boy game, from Nintendo's own titles to various RPGs. In fact, because many Super Nintendo games were eventually re-released from the Game Boy Advance, VBA is perfect for playing those titles, too. And for those looking to revisit their childhood or simply visit a simpler time, Visual Boy Advance also perfectly emulates Game Boy Colour and Game Boy games.
Additionally, although Visual Boy Advance provides plenty of options for users who need them (such as window size scaling), the default options – even the controls – work very well!
However, not all is well. Even though the program's functions all stand up to this day, programming as a whole has moved on, and Visual Boy Advance is not perfectly compatible with modern operating systems. Without changing the method Visual Boy Advance uses to render graphics (in the top menu bar), for example, playing a game in VBA temporarily disables Windows Aero – the slick-looking graphical function that's been in every Windows from Vista and onward!
Aside from this smaller problem, a few other bugs can crop up just in casual use of the program. For example, when you change Windows, the game may sometimes continue running in spite of your settings in VBA. This can lead to the music continuing to play, for example, and it can even cause you to lose games that demand fast reflexes. While these blemishes are not major, they are still a noteworthy part of using Visual Boy Advance on a modern computer.
Overall, Visual Boy Advance is a fully functional emulator on its own, regardless of the variants on it that exist to improve it in the modern world. It is extremely likely to be compatible with any game that you want to play, and likely to play it very well, too. It is an easy emulator to use, and for people who grew up with older Game Boy or Game Boy Colour games, it may even be a household name. If you are looking for a new game to play, Visual Boy Advance may be the "game" for you – because it acts as a gateway to three vast libraries of fun, easy to pick up video games!
Pros
- Fast and responsive
- Intuitive and functional default controls and settings
- Runs all sorts of GBA, GBC and even Game Boy games from the 90s
Cons
- Occasional bugs
- Some difficulties with gamepad/hardware support, due to age
Pros
- Multiple titles played at full speed
- It was so good it won an award
- Exceptional upgrades that have improved the software
Cons
- Audio lags on lower end computer systems
An astoundingly good emulator, the Visual Boy Advance can translate six different languages and can play a broad variety of games at full speed. Along with that, you can type cheats into the game, and it still handles the game at excellent speeds. This software has become a must-download for any Gameboy Advance players. You can play the games from your computer instead of installing a new game. Included in this emulator is the classic Gameboy Emulator Visual Boy, which in itself is a standalone product. This software has been so good that it even won the editor's choice award for the Gameboy Advance and Gameboy categories.
The roots of the Visual Boy Advance stretch back to the Gameboy Emulator. Soon after, designers created the Visual Boy Advance and integrated it into the core development of the project. In any emulator, the most important factor relates to compatibility. You want both the targeted platform and the form to function well. By far, Visual Boy Advance has one of the highest compatibility rates for respective platforms. In fact, the Visual Boy Advance emulator is so good that finding a Gameboy Advance title that is incompatible can be difficult. That excludes the titles that need cartridges like "Kirby's Tilt n' Tumble." Part of the reason that one doesn't work is because it requires a motion sensor.
For Visual Boy Advance to work, all the versions of Windows will have to meet the DirectX 7.0 minimum requirement. Outside of that, the software runs flawlessly. When it comes to the graphics engine of the emulator, we have seen some exceptional upgrades with the last two versions. For example, Visual Boy Advance has evolved so that you have DirectDraw that helps to accelerate the graphics, and you have the support of OpenGL, Direct3D, and Vsync. All of these updates to the graphics have a liquid smooth motion, and it uses enough power to support these systems. With all the features, they will apply to the Gameboy Advance Emulator and the Gameboy.
The sound emulation might be the only downside of the Visual Boy Advance. The biggest problem comes when you turn on the emulator from a low-end system. You will notice that the audio makes noise at slower speeds and breaks up. The only way that you can prevent the audio from crackling and keeping the performance at 100 percent is to increase your frame skip and choose the options that save on performance. Visual Boy Advance works like the higher-end emulators, and it simulates the same look that you might get from a regular Gameboy. The most notable feature that the Visual Boy Advance does not have is Game Link support. This was done; however, to prevent the piracy of the emulator, so it is not all bad.
Pros
- Multiple titles played at full speed
- It was so good it won an award
- Exceptional upgrades that have improved the software
Cons
- Audio lags on lower end computer systems
