Alternatives to BGB
A Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator with a built-in debugger for Windows and Wine. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
BGB
A Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator with a built-in debugger for Windows and Wine.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as BGB.
SameBoy
Highly accurate Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator.
SameBoy is an open-source MIT Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator for Windows, macOS and Linux that passes hardware test ROMs and emulates the Super Game Boy, with a minimal interface.
Gearboy
An accurate Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy emulator with a built-in debugger.
Gearboy is an open-source GPL-3.0 Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy emulator with a built-in debugger, runs natively on macOS and Linux, and is also a RetroArch core.
Emulicious
A free multi-system emulator for Game Boy, Master System, Game Gear and MSX with debugging tools.
Emulicious is a free, closed-source emulator with an extensive debugger and reverse stepping that adds Master System, Game Gear and MSX, runs on three desktops, and is built on Java.
mGBA
A Game Boy Advance emulator that gets the accuracy right and still runs at full speed on weak hardware.
mGBA is an open-source MPL-2.0 emulator that adds Game Boy Advance support, rewind, Lua scripting and video recording on Windows, macOS and Linux, and runs at full speed on weak hardware.
VisualBoyAdvance-M
A Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance emulator that continues the original VisualBoyAdvance.
VisualBoyAdvance-M is an open-source GPL-2.0 emulator covering Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, with Windows ARM64 builds, a Flathub package and Android nightly builds.
SkyEmu
A low-level emulator for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
SkyEmu is an open-source, low-level emulator that covers Game Boy, Game Boy Color, GBA and DS in one program, but its documented builds are for macOS and Linux.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
no$gba
A Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and DSi emulator with a source-level debugger.
NooDS
A fast, portable open-source emulator for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance.
Gearsystem
An accurate Sega Master System, Game Gear and SG-1000 emulator with a built-in debugger.
BizHawk
A multi-system emulator built for tool-assisted speedrunning, with rewinding, frame stepping, memory search and input recording.
Mesen
Cycle-accurate multi-system emulator with a serious debugger.
