GBA Emulator 1

A sad reality of life is that time is passing, and old hardware loses its functionality. Without retro products, such as the recent Famicom and Super Famicom mini-console releases, emulators are becoming the only means through which modern gamers can experience the old classics. When it comes to the GameBoy Advance, handheld devices are the perfect medium for emulation.

My Boy! is a free GameBoy Advance emulator for the Android platform. To begin playing, you just need to produce a ROM file of the game, copy it onto your device, and have My Boy! run it.

The emulator works in both, portrait and landscape modes. Although the landscape mode provides a bigger game screen, the buttons become harder to see than when they're on the black background of the portrait mode. In any case, you can tweak the control scheme in many ways. The emulated buttons can be moved around and resized, as well as change function. You can set up multiple control schemes and switch between them when needed. Ultimately, it's all a matter of preference, screen size, and device weight.

The app uses linear filtering to smooth out the choppy graphics. This feature is especially useful on tablets, where the low resolution can set in eye soreness after a while. My Boy! also supports various GLSL shaders, but none come within the package.

My Boy! also emulates the network features that the GBA had with its wireless and infrared addons. The free version allows you to connect to local servers, while purchasing the full My Boy! package lets you create your own. The full version also lets you synchronize your game saves on Google Drive so that you can port the same game session over multiple devices.

Features

• Link cable emulation
• GLSL filter compatibility
• Multitouch virtual keypad
• Customizable layout
• Support for external controllers
• Cheat manager

Final Thoughts

I find My Boy! to be an excellent emulator. The compatibility with old ROMs is high, the performance is flawless, and the interface can adapt to any screen layout, thanks to its versatile customization options. I am so impressed with this emulator that I don't think I'll let nostalgia make me buy the real Mc. Coy anytime soon.