The Nintendo Game Boy is an 8-bit handheld video game console that was launched in Japan on 21tst April 1989, subsequently in North America, 1989, and in Europe, 1990. This was the company’s first portable handheld console in the Game Boy series and it had features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) home system and Game Watch hardware series. Although at the time there were other technologically superior handheld consoles such as Sega's Game Gear, Atari's Lynx, and NEC's TurboExpress, all introduced about the same time when the Gameboy was launched, the GB still had tremendous success. This was due to its battery life and how durably constructed it was. Containing a control layout that was similar to the established NES controller, a great TV tuner and master gear converter, cute and adaptable keys; the Game Boy also entered the market with a variety of games that most users could easily pick up and play the system with little or no gaming skill, this made it become popular amongst gamers at the time and it quickly outsold its competition. The Game Boy and its successors, the Game Boy Color, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Light and finally Game Boy Advance launched in 2001 all had cultural icon status in the years following their release.
The Gameboy handheld console was the first handheld game console that used cartridges for its video games since Milton Bradley's Microvision handheld console. With the influx of more modern video game set up and graphics, the GB monotone graphics and outdated console may have dropped in popularity but still has a loyal fan following that are nostalgic towards their favourite classic games and require way in which to relive great memories. The great news is that currently, all of the Gameboy games cartridges can be converted into GB ROMs, these Read Only Memory files more popularly known as ROM(s) are files that house a copy of your games ripped from the original game cartridge or saved from an online download. This means that anyone can easily and conveniently get the Gameboy ROMs without having a GB console.
Theses GB ROMs have been customized to allow you to install and play Gameboy games at the highest quality that is available right from your device browser. Since the Gameboy advance has its own custom ROM, GB game on its own cannot play on other devices with a default Firmware. It is therefore very important that you customize Gameboy Advance ROMs on your device so it enables you to play the original GBA games directly on your other devices without having to use a Gameboy console. . Simply download Gameboy ROMs from trusted game platforms online to enable play on your PC, Tablet or play free Gameboy games online if you don’t want to download.
Best Original Gameboy Games
With a vast catalogue of classic games that were ported from other systems, the Game Boy game libraries are one of the most impressive of any console. These games are a major part of what made the Gameboy popular even till date. Gamers enjoyed and can still enjoy action packed gaming entertainment; from super adventure titles such as Super Mario Land, Final Fantasy Adventure, Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Green, to action-packed tiles like the Warrior Blast, Metroid II: Return of Samus, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Donkey Kong Gameboy games, down to casual puzzle and arcade games like Bubble Bobble, Yoshi, Tetris Gameboy iconic games and a whole lot more. You are bound to find something you love and will keep you entertained for hours from the GB game titles library.
Original Gameboy Emulator Games
Once a Nintendo Gameboy game has been downloaded and saved in a ROM file, you would also need to download an emulator to enable you play the downloaded game. An emulator is a software that can mimic play of any file format on your device. There are quite a number of emulators you can download online, some of the most popular ones that support, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Pocket Gameboy Light and Gameboy Advance include;
BGB Emulator
BGB is a Gameboy emulator that lets you play Gameboy and Gameboy Color games on your PC. It allows you to play your GB ROMs and have a great game play experience with gamepad support, high quality sound and graphics, smooth V-sync animation, create cheat codes, and assist in creating and modifying ROMs. Because of how accurate the emulation of the BGB is, it is also certain to work on hardware too. This emulator has other great features such as; clock exact timing of LCD behaviour/state changes, is very fast and can load from ZIP and GZIP files, it likewise has a good OS platform compatibility and comes with low requirements.
ClassicBoy Emulator
This emulator is one of the pretty good all-in-one emulators out there. This one has a bunch of consoles, like the NES, Game Boy Color, Game Boy, and Game Boy Advance ROMs on it. It basically does what you expect an emulator to do. The app supports almost all of the games and additionally, you get to save states, load states, fast forward, and get cheat code support on it. It also comes with a hardware controller support. You can get this emulator for free and paid (premium) version, the free version has a few features missing that the paid version comes with.
RetroArch Emulator
This is a free open source multi-system emulator that uses the Liberto development interface. This system uses installable “cores”, each of which is essentially a video game emulator. Being that the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advanced all have “cores” that work in RetroArch, this makes it possible to play all of them with a single emulator app. Though it does not have as many features as an individually coded Gameboy emulator would have and it is a wee bit more complicated to use than other emulators, it makes up for this with its high compatibility rate and zero adverts.
GemBoy Emulator
GemBoy is another great emulator available. It is most compatible with Android devices, so you can find it for free download on Google Play Store. Its features include; a dual-emulator function offering both Game Boy Advance and GameBoy Color emulators, it allows you to save and load states, a hardware support, and a few other features. Most GameBoy Advance and GameBoy Color ROMs work well with this emulator as it has a surprisingly lightweight application.
If neither of the above listed emulators work for you, there is a list of other great Gameboy emulators to try out, such as; Higan, Visual Boy Advance (VBA), Dolphin, GearBoy, BasicBoy, John GBC, OpenEmu DreamGBC emulators and a ton of others you can get online or on your device app store.
Platforms That Support Gameboy ROMs
Before you start an emulator download, it is pertinent to note that some emulators are compatible with only specific Operating Systems. Below is a guide on which emulators are most suitable with your Windows, Linux, Android and iOS devices
iOS Supported GB Emulators
If you are looking for the best emulators to play GB ROMs for iOS either on your iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac devices then these ones listed below are sure to provide you with the best simulation of your Gameboy games and of course great entertainment. Note that it is advisable to have an iOS X version or higher before downloading any of these emulators:
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Dolphin
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GearBoy
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OpenEmu
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Higan
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VBA
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RetroArch
Windows Supported GB Emulators
One great thing about Windows is that it supports almost all the emulators out there. Most often these emulators are supported on a wide range of Windows OS, so you are easily able to play all you Gameboy ROMs on your PC. The most compatible emulators for Windows include:
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Dolphin
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GBG
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GearBoy
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Higan
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Pantheon
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BasicBoy
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ClassicBoy
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VBA
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RetroArch
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DreamGBC
Android Supported GB Emulators
Some of the best GB emulator for Android can be found on the Google Play Store for download (most of them are free). These emulators are often compatible with the Android 4 (KitKat) and other newer versions of Android. Some of them likewise support older versions of Androids:
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Dolphin
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GemBoy
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GearBoy
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VBA
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John GBC
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ClassicBoy
Linux Supported GBA Emulators
With these emulators listed below you are sure to get the best game play either by playing online or downloading the Gameboy ROMs to play all on you Linux devices. Compatible emulators for Linux include:
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Dolphin
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GearBoy
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Higan
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VBA
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RetroArch