Alternatives to SameBoy

Highly accurate Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as SameBoy.

  • mGBA

    A Game Boy Advance emulator that gets the accuracy right and still runs at full speed on weak hardware.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    mGBA also plays Game Boy Advance games with a built-in BIOS, rewind, Lua scripting and video recording, running at full speed on weak hardware, though without SameBoy's Super Game Boy focus.

  • BizHawk

    A multi-system emulator built for tool-assisted speedrunning, with rewinding, frame stepping, memory search and input recording.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinux

    BizHawk covers many systems with rewinding, frame stepping, memory editing and TAS recording on Windows and Linux, but its individual cores are less accurate than dedicated emulators.

  • RetroArch

    One front end for dozens of emulators, with unified settings, shaders and a controller setup you only do once.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxAndroidiOS

    RetroArch plays many systems through cores with one set of settings, shaders and controller setup on desktop and mobile, though standalone emulators are sometimes more accurate.

  • OpenEmu

    macOS emulator front end with a polished library interface.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOS

    OpenEmu is a macOS-only front end with a library interface, artwork handling and shared controller configuration across systems, with core updates depending on its team.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.