The Top 5 Best GBA Emulators For Android Do you still remember the very first Game Boy? If you’re an old dude like me, the dynamic cartridge based entertainment system would look familiar to you. The Game Boy, followed by the GameBoy Advance, completely changed the notion of gaming and nothing could quite compare to them back then. Of course, both are no longer being sold today. So if you’re feeling a bit nostalgic, you’re out of luck because these consoles are very hard to find these days. But don’t give up just yet because now there’s emulation. If you have spent a bit of time on this site then you know we’ve discussed the topic of Android emulation in detail already. But most of the time, we only delved into a program that enabled you to emulate an ANDROID phone or tablet. Now we’re going to change our gears to talk about emulators that you can run on an Android platform. We will talk about some of the best GBA emulators you can find on Google Play.
The Best GameBoy Advance Emulators for Android Do you still remember when cell phones started to have games? We’re not talking about smartphones or touchscreen phones here. We’re referring to cell phones from 10-15 years ago that had all those fun games. OK so not everyone was impressed. The games, in truth, were underwhelming (think Tetris and Mastermind) and the graphics were atrocious. But they sure helped us pass time right? Back then, the benefits of having games in phones were not quite obvious. Some even called them toilet games because people only played them in…well, toilets. But eventually, the software and hardware for phones improved and there was a push to add more functions. It is not so clear whether the push for games was a direct result of the improved technical features of the smartphones or if the improvements were driven by the need to have another viable platform for gaming. Either way, it solidified handheld gaming to a whole new level. There were other gaming handheld systems in the past. Every company used different formats and yet each one changed their platforms every few years to keep up with the technical demands that were constantly improving. Before phone based mobile gaming, we wee very limited in terms of the titles we could access. That is unless we had in our possession a very relevant and advanced system.
Fast forward many years later and we are being given a whole new technical landscape for gaming. There are now a wide variety of hardware specs especially for Android and just a few big markets. App store games work on every device. Google Play games are just as versatile as well. If you upgrade your hardware, you don’t have to let go of your library and if you have a new game you don’t need to track down a competitor hardware model. Obviously, there are still plenty of great old games. And despite porting popular console games being ported over to mobile-based platforms, it’s not always the case. And here’s where we can really take advantage of emulation. Apple users are unfortunately out of luck here because they have to have their devices jailbroken to be able to use emulators. However, Android users are quite lucky because emulators are available right on Google Play and best of all, there’s several you can choose from.
Here’s one thing you need to understand – using emulators is perfectly legal. If it weren’t, then Google Play wouldn’t even be selling them, right? But it’s not just about having an emulator. That’s only half the requirement. You also need to have a ROM for every game and there are some legality issues that you need to know about. You see, ROMs have been considered as illegal copies of the IPs which are copyright protected. Previously, some said it’s legal to use a ROM as long as you own the game’s physical copy and then simply delete it after 24 hours. There are also those who have maintained that downloading or coding ROMs is not actionable from those that have been in the market for a long time (also known as Abandonware).
In any case, it’s worth being aware of what Nintendo has posted on the legal section of their official website. They are actually taking a hard stand on the matter. Here’s what Nintendo has to say:All ROMs are illegal.
Due to the fact that all emulators are designed for the GBA system of Nintendo, then it means that they deem all ROMs illegal. But how likely is it that the company will find out and sue your ROM library? Rather unlikely. However, the inherent legality will pave the way for other problems. Because ROMs are deemed illegal, hackers will know that you really can’t do anything if a ROM jacks up your system. You won’t be able to report anything if say a virus is contained in your ROM because doing so will let the authorities know about the illegality of your actions and you could be fined for it. Trojan coders as well as ransomware coders know they can easily manipulate you.
It doesn’t mean though that such a scenario is going to happen to you. It is unlikely. However you need to be aware of it nonetheless. If you have a reliable source whom you absolutely trust for your ROMs, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use any of the top GBA emulators for Android tablets and phones. Not all ROMs will play on these emulators so you should try the free ones first to see if they’ll work for you. The premium or paid ones do a swell job too.
Best Nintendo DS Emulator is DeSmuME and you can download it for free! Verions for playing DS games on Android, iPhone, Windows and Mac.