¶ Technical data
- Manufacturer: Nintendo
- Year of release: 2001 (March in Japan, June in North America and Europe)
- Units sold: 81.51 millions (all revisions combined)
- Best-selling game: Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
- CPU: ARM7TDMI 32-bit @ 16.78 MHz, plus a Sharp LR35902 8-bit chip dedicated to Game Boy / Game Boy Color backward compatibility
- RAM: 32 KB internal + 256 KB external, 96 KB of VRAM
- Screen: 240x160 colour LCD, palette of 32,768 colours
- Sound: 4 channels inherited from the Game Boy + 2 PCM channels (Direct Sound)
- Media: cartridge
- Power: 2 AA batteries (original model)
¶ Presentation
The Game Boy Advance succeeded the Game Boy Color in 2001 and moved Nintendo's handheld to 32-bit. Its ARM7TDMI processor, its hardware graphics modes — including Super Nintendo style rotation and scaling — and its wider 240x160 screen place it technically between the Super Nintendo and the 32-bit home consoles. A Game Boy chip is kept on board, which lets it read original Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges.
The horizontal launch model suffers from a non-backlit screen that is hard to read. Nintendo fixed that with the Game Boy Advance SP (2003, clamshell design with a front-lit and later backlit screen on the AGS-101 revision), then with the Game Boy Micro (2005), tiny and without Game Boy backward compatibility.
The library mixes sequels to in-house series — Metroid Fusion, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, Golden Sun — polished ports of 16-bit classics and major Pokémon entries (Ruby and Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen, Emerald). The machine is also known for its adapters and Link cables allowing multiplayer sessions and interconnection with the GameCube.
¶ Emulators
Emulator availability per board:
| Emulator | RPI3/RPI02W | RPI4/400 | RPI5/500 | OGA/OGS/RG351 | PC | RG353 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libretro mGBA | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro gpSP | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Libretro Meteor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
All three emulators are available on every board. mGBA is the one used by default: it is the most complete and the most accurate, and the only core in the list that declares CRT display support. gpSP is a lighter alternative, historically designed for modest machines. Meteor is an older core, best kept for edge cases. Netplay is supported by mGBA and gpSP. Softpatching (automatic application of .ips, .bps and similar patches, very handy for fan translations) works with mGBA and Meteor, but not with gpSP. RetroAchievements are supported on this system.
¶ BIOS
The BIOS is not mandatory: all three cores can replace it with a built-in implementation. Adding it is still recommended, since it restores the original boot sequence and improves compatibility with the few games that call its routines directly.
| File name | Description | MD5 | Emulators |
|---|---|---|---|
gba_bios.bin |
Original Game Boy Advance BIOS (optional) | a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6 | gpSP, mGBA, Meteor |
open_gba_bios.bin |
Free replacement BIOS (optional) | 1876f71b0d8c65eef3454547896ffb11 | gpSP |
Place your BIOS files like this:
/recalbox/share/bios/gba/
├── gba_bios.bin
└── open_gba_bios.bin
¶ Roms
Put your games in:
/recalbox/share/roms/gba/
Supported extensions per emulator:
| Emulator | Extensions |
|---|---|
| mGBA | .bin .gba .zip .7z |
| gpSP | .agb .bin .gba .gbz .u1 .zip .7z |
| Meteor | .gba .zip .7z |
No-Intro romsets are recommended: one .gba file per game, cleanly named, which makes scraping much easier. Games can stay compressed as .zip or .7z, with a single game per archive.
Game Boy and Game Boy Color games do not launch from this system: use the dedicated Game Boy and Game Boy Color systems instead.