Gearboy
An accurate Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy emulator with a built-in debugger.
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1 more ways to get Gearboy
Package managers
- Homebrew
brew install --cask gearboy
About Gearboy
Gearboy is a cross-platform emulator for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy, written in C++. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD, and is also available as a RetroArch core.
Alongside accurate emulation it includes a debugger for inspecting games, and an embedded MCP server so AI tools can connect to the emulator. That mix suits both players and homebrew or reverse-engineering work.
Strengths
- Built-in debugger
- Super Game Boy support
- Also available as a RetroArch core
- Embedded MCP server for tooling
Limitations
- Limited to Game Boy family systems
Details
- Pricing
- FreeFree and open source.
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Developer
- Ignacio Sanchez (drhelius)
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- How it runs
- Downloadable app
- Account
- Not required
- Works offline
- Yes
- Best suited for
- Game Boy players and homebrew developers who want a debugger
- Categories
- Emulators, Developer tools
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to Gearboy
Compare allSoftware that can replace Gearboy for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
mGBA
A Game Boy Advance emulator that gets the accuracy right and still runs at full speed on weak hardware.
mGBA adds Game Boy Advance support alongside earlier Game Boy models, with a built-in BIOS, rewind, cheats and Lua scripting, and runs at full speed on low-end machines.
SameBoy
Highly accurate Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator.
SameBoy focuses on Game Boy and Game Boy Color accuracy that passes hardware test ROMs, with Super Game Boy borders and palettes, but offers a minimal standalone interface and no built-in debugger listed.
VisualBoyAdvance-M
A Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance emulator that continues the original VisualBoyAdvance.
VisualBoyAdvance-M covers Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, with Windows ARM64 builds and a Flathub package, but no built-in debugger is mentioned.
BGB
A Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator with a built-in debugger for Windows and Wine.
BGB offers high accuracy, a debugger, rewind and low latency for Game Boy and Game Boy Color, but it is closed source and Windows only, relying on Wine elsewhere.
Emulicious
A free multi-system emulator for Game Boy, Master System, Game Gear and MSX with debugging tools.
Emulicious covers Game Boy plus Master System, Game Gear and MSX with an extensive debugger and reverse stepping, but it is built on Java and its source is not published.
SkyEmu
A low-level emulator for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS.
SkyEmu covers Game Boy, Game Boy Color, GBA and DS with low-level emulation in one program, though it lists only macOS and Linux and platform support is not clearly documented.
RetroArch
One front end for dozens of emulators, with unified settings, shaders and a controller setup you only do once.
RetroArch runs Game Boy cores, including Gearboy, inside one front end with shared settings and shaders on desktop and mobile, but it lacks Gearboy's standalone debugger focus.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
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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.
BizHawk
A multi-system emulator built for tool-assisted speedrunning, with rewinding, frame stepping, memory search and input recording.
melonDS
A Nintendo DS and DSi emulator focused on accuracy and speed, with local wireless between emulated consoles.
