mGBA Core on iPhone & iPad | Retropa

Systems and file formats in the catalog

Retropa builds its mGBA support on the project at https://github.com/mgba-emu/mgba, so the list below describes what this app ships, not everything upstream can do. Having one of these extensions is not a promise that any particular game will boot. Retropa includes no games and no BIOS files, so import only what you have the right to use.

• Game Boy: .gb
• Game Boy Color: .gbc
• Game Boy Advance: .gba

Your first launch, generation by generation

Fetch the game into Files before anything else, then import it from the Retropa library and let the app name the system on its own. A Game Boy Color game needs the color path; renaming the file will not add or remove color features. On Game Boy Advance, try the shoulder buttons as well as the face buttons, because a layout built for the older handhelds often leaves L and R out.

• Check sound and input after the title screen.
• Test the default skin before importing a custom layout.
• Keep the original file outside the app.

Telling emulation bugs apart from display filters

Before blaming the core, turn the filters off and look again. A green-screen treatment and an LCD grid both change pixels on purpose, so neither one can tell you whether mGBA is drawing the game correctly. For an audio or timing complaint, note a scene you can replay and the app version you are running; the opening logo is a poor test.

Swapping cores without losing progress

mGBA is the default for Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and for most games that default is where you should stay. Switching to another core is a Retropa Plus feature, even though those systems themselves cost nothing to play. If you do switch, pick a core that handles both the system and the file format, since the choice is saved per game. Copy the in-game save and any save states from the core you are leaving before you compare the same scene for sound, picture and input.

• mGBA save states belong to mGBA's internal state; do not expect them to open under another core.
• Keep a verified copy of the game's own save as well; mGBA cannot migrate it for you automatically.
• Changing away from mGBA does not convert the game file or provide firmware the app does not ship.

Where the handheld scope ends

Keep DS games away from this core: Nintendo DS runs on SkyEmu in Retropa, and renaming a .gba file will not change that. A save state from another emulator is not a game file either, so do not import one in place of a ROM. If the app asks for a BIOS after you pick a system, supply your own; Retropa does not carry firmware.