How to Play Game Boy Games on PC in 2026
The Game Boy family — original Game Boy (1989), Game Boy Color (1998), and Game Boy Advance (2001) — produced some of the greatest games ever made. The fact that they ran on hardware you could hold in your hands makes playing them on a large PC monitor with proper shaders and controller support even more satisfying today.
Here's everything you need to play GB, GBC, and GBA games on PC in 2026.
Which emulator should you use?
For Game Boy emulation in 2026, there are three solid options:
mGBA — The gold standard for Game Boy Advance emulation. Cycle-accurate, near-perfect compatibility, and fast enough to run at full speed on any modern PC. Best standalone option.
RetroArch (mGBA core) — mGBA packaged as a RetroArch core. Adds shader support, RetroAchievements integration, netplay, and save state management on top of mGBA's accuracy. Best if you want everything in one place.
RetroApp — The easiest option for beginners. Integrates the RetroArch mGBA core automatically, handles controller mapping, downloads box art, and manages all three Game Boy generations in a single library. No configuration files required.
For this guide, we'll focus on RetroApp since it handles the complexity for you.
Step 1 — Install RetroApp
Download and install RetroApp from [retroapp.fr/download](https://retroapp.fr/download). You'll need a free account. The installer is around 368 MB and takes about 2 minutes to install.
When you first launch RetroApp, the onboarding wizard will ask you for your ROMs folder. Point it at the folder where you keep your .gb, .gbc, and .gba files.
Step 2 — Get your ROMs
RetroApp does not provide ROMs. Game Boy ROMs are typically small files (a GBA game is usually between 8 and 32 MB, original GB games can be as small as 32 KB). If you own the original cartridges, you can dump them with a hardware flasher like the GBxCart RW.
For ROMs you already own, searching the game title on Google will surface the usual archival sites — we'll leave that to your own judgment.
**Supported file formats:**
Game Boy: .gb
Game Boy Color: .gbc
Game Boy Advance: .gba
Step 3 — Optional BIOS for GBA
GBA emulation works without a BIOS, but using the official GBA BIOS (gba_bios.bin, 16 KB) improves compatibility for certain games and produces more accurate audio. If you have it, place it in RetroApp's BIOS folder (Settings → Emulation → BIOS folder).
The original GB and GBC also have optional BIOS files — they're not required but enable the original boot animations.
Step 4 — Configure your controller
Any modern controller works with RetroApp and GBA emulation. The A/B button layout on GBA maps directly to Xbox (A=A, B=B) or PlayStation (Cross=B, Circle=A) controllers. RetroApp auto-maps these on first connection.
For the shoulder buttons (GBA's L and R), RetroApp maps them to LB/RB by default. You can reconfigure in Settings → Controllers.
Keyboard also works: arrow keys (D-pad), Z (A), X (B), A (L), S (R), Enter (Start), Backspace (Select).
Step 5 — Shaders and visual filters
This is where PC GBA emulation becomes genuinely better than the original hardware. The original GBA screen had no backlight — games were designed with oversaturation to compensate. Playing on a bright modern monitor without any adjustment can make colors look washed out.
RetroApp includes several shaders tuned for handheld systems:
LCD Grid — Simulates the Game Boy Advance's dot-matrix LCD screen. Each pixel is rendered with its original border. Works especially well at 3x or 4x integer scale. This is the most authentic option.
GBA Color — Adjusts the color curve to approximate the original GBA screen's color response. Makes colors pop correctly without the LCD grid effect. Subtler, but games look right.
GB DMG — For original Game Boy games, this shader adds the original greenish tint of the DMG-01's screen. Makes your original GB games look like you're playing on the real hardware.
Sharp Bilinear — Clean pixel art without any CRT/LCD effect. Good for playing at very high resolutions where you want crisp output.
To apply a shader in RetroApp: right-click the game → Settings → Shader → select your preset.
The best Game Boy games to play first
If you're new to the Game Boy library, these are the games to start with:
**Game Boy Advance:**
Pokémon FireRed / LeafGreen — The Kanto remakes, still the best mainline Pokémon games to replay
Golden Sun — Camelot's epic JRPG duology starts here. Stunning for a handheld in 2001
Metroid Fusion — Samus on BSL station, claustrophobic atmosphere, some of the best boss design in the series
Fire Emblem (2003, first Western release) — The game that introduced most Western players to the franchise
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow — A Metroidvania masterpiece on GBA hardware
Advance Wars — Turn-based tactics that defined a generation of strategy fans
**Game Boy Color:**
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons — Capcom's Zelda duology. Link them together for a secret ending
Dragon Warrior Monsters — Pokémon-style monster collection in a Dragon Quest world
Metal Gear Solid (Ghost Babel) — A completely original Metal Gear on GBC hardware
**Original Game Boy:**
Tetris — The pack-in game. Still the best portable Tetris
Kirby's Dream Land — The game that introduced Kirby
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening — One of the most surprising Zelda stories ever told
Performance and compatibility
GBA emulation on modern hardware is essentially perfect. Any PC made in the last 10 years will run GBA games at 60fps with no slowdown. The original GB and GBC are even less demanding.
Compatibility with mGBA is above 99% for the full GBA library. Only a handful of edge-case homebrew titles have issues. Every commercial GBA game you're likely to play runs without problems.
Play everything in one place
RetroApp manages your entire Game Boy library alongside your NES, SNES, N64, PS1, PS2, and 15 other console libraries in a single launcher. Box art downloads automatically, metadata is fetched on scan, and save states work across all three Game Boy generations.