If you are a 90s kid, chances are that you have played games on retro consoles, and the GameBoy Advance was one of the most iconic of its time. The console from Nintendo started a trend that entertained an entire generation, but like all other tech, the consoles found its eventual end, making way for more modern and powerful hardware.
Today, there is on way to buy a fresh GameBoy Advance console, as the company has stopped production, and if you are still looking to buy one, your best chance is online auctions, or getting it from a friend who does not need it anymore. But, say you got yours hands on one today, to relive old memories, getting your favourite games is the next challenge. The cartridges are no longer in circulation, and once again, you have to scour the internet to see if someone is selling the game you want (probably at a premium), and even then, there is no guarantee that it will work.
But, what if I told you there is still a way for you to enjoy your favourite GameBoy Advance games, and that too, on your computer?
Say hello to emulators. To explain emulators in simple words, basically, this is what happened. A bunch of interested developers came together, took a GameBoy Advance, and reverse engineered it, converted into a software that ran on computers. These emulators mimic the respective consoles, with added functionality. For example, the GameBoy Advance emulators allow you to play your favourite GameBoy games on your computer, in full screen, allow you to speed up the gameplay, and also allow you to employ cheats to ease your progress. This is just some of the features.
Ofcourse, companies do not look to kindly on emulators, especially those that mimic more recent, market active consoles, but when it comes to consoles that have been discontinued, they tend to turn a blind eye. So, if you want to enjoy your favourite retro GameBoy Advance games, this is the guide for you. We will be tackling the two requirements separately –
- Downloading and installing the emulator.
- Downloading the games.
Let’s get started –
First, let’s look at how you can download the right emulator to run GameBoy Advance games on your computer. Our choice is VisualBoy Advance as it works on Windows and Mac.
Step 1. Open your web browser of choice.
Step 2. On your search engine, look up VisualBoy Advance. The search engine will present a host of links, but you want to choose the official one.
Step 3. On the VisualBoy Advance home page, you will see information regarding the emulator, and you will also see the ‘Download’ button.
Step 4. Clicking on the download button takes you to a new page where you will see the various operating systems that are currently supporting VisualBoy Advance. Choose the OS of your choice and click on the download button.
The file will be downloaded as a Zip file in your designated downloads folder. Unzip the file and you will see a single application. You can either keep the application where it is, or place it on your desktop or new folder. The choice is yours. There is no setup procedure, making VisualBoy Advance a plug and play application.
Now, let us look at how you can dowload games to play on your VisualBoy Advance emulator.
Step 1. On the VisualBoy Advance website, head back to the home page.
Step 2. Click on the Find ROMS button, which is placed next to the download button.
Step 3. You will now see a page that holds GameBoy games that you can download. If you do not see the game you want on the home screen, there is a search bar where you can manually search for your favourite games. The VisualBoy Advance site has a great repository of games, and you will surely get what you are looking for.
Click on the game title and you will be taken to the game page. You can read about the game and when you are conviced that this is the game you want to play, click on the Download button and the file will be downloaded, once again, as a ZIP file. Unzip this file and you will see a ‘.gba’ file. You can now save the .gba file in a dedicated folder, but this is completely your choice.
If you have VisualBoy Advance installed, you can simply double click on the .gba ROM file and it will automatically open in the emulator, and you are good to go.
This is how you can easily play your favourite GameBoy Advance games on your computer.
