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Nintendo · Handheld · 1998 Experimental

Game Boy Color emulator for PC

Game Boy Color games run on the mGBA core, shared with Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. The zfast-lcd shader gives a handheld-style picture if you want one.

Written by vivusk, Nostyra maintainer Last reviewed Based on the Nostyra README and release notes

Game files

  • .gbc files are listed when the cartridge header logo bytes are present.
  • A .gbc renamed to .gb still plays but is not identified, because the No-Intro DATs name the two systems by extension.
  • Soft patches (.ips, .ups, .bps beside the ROM) work; the patched game shares the original's save folder.

Saves and clock

  • Battery saves go to saves/gbc/<ROM name> [<ID>]/save.srm.
  • Games with a real-time clock, such as Pokémon Gold, store it in rtc.bin so the in-game time keeps running while the game is closed.

Controls

  • The editor shows B, A, Select, Start and the D-pad.
  • Default keyboard: arrow keys = D-pad, Z = B, X = A, A = Y, S = X, Q / W = L / R, Enter = Start, Right Shift = Select.

Known limits

  • Marked Experimental: manual testing on real games is still in progress.

Before you start

Nostyra does not include, download or link to Game Boy Color games or BIOS files. Use games you own, dumped from your own cartridges or discs. See the disclaimer.

Features for Game Boy Color games

Save states A save state stores the whole emulated machine at one moment, so you can continue from any point, not only where the game lets you save. Rewind Rewind keeps a short history of the game in memory. Holding the rewind key plays it backwards at 2× speed. CRT and LCD shaders Shaders change how the picture is drawn, for example to imitate the scanlines of a CRT TV or the pixel grid of a handheld screen. Soft patching Translations, bug fixes and hacks are often shared as patch files. Nostyra applies them in memory when the game starts; the ROM file is never changed. RetroAchievements RetroAchievements is a community service that adds achievements to classic games. Nostyra supports it on 14 systems using rcheevos, the same library RetroArch uses.

Play Game Boy Color games with Nostyra

Free and open source. Portable zip, no installer, no account.

Download for Windows
macOS (planned) Linux (planned) iOS (planned) Android (planned)

Version 0.1.0 · 25.9 MB zip · Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit

Hosted on GitHub Releases. First time? Read the install guide.