Introduction

Welcome! This guide will walk through getting started with the mGBA emulator. Our goal is to configure some common settings including setup for ROMs, controllers, audio, and more.

mGBA is a popular desktop emulator for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) system. It offers a relatively simple setup, as well as many options for configuring it to suit more specific needs.

Intended users

This guide is intended for those:

• new users wanting to get started with mGBA
• users who want to configure mGBA beyond the default settings

Requirements

mGBA is lightweight, but there are couple things to have before you get started.

Warning

This guide does not go over where to obtain game ROMs.

Knowledge

This guide assumes an understanding of:

• how to use desktop environments (opening, extracting, and running files/folders),
• video games and controllers (controller buttons, connecting via Bluetooth/USB, and graphics)

Check!

Do you know these words?
File manager, ROM file, Emulator

Software requirements

• A Windows, MacOS, or Linux system.
• Internet access.

Operating System

This guide is uses Windows 11, but mGBA and its configurations are similar across the available systems.

Guide contents

These are the main ideas this guide goes over:

• Getting started
  • Goes over installing mGBA and loading game ROMs.
• Configuring controls
  • Goes over customizing controls and shortcuts with keyboard/controller.
• Configuring audio and video
  • Goes over common audio/video settings and setting up drivers for each.
• Patching ROM hacks
  • Goes over how to manually/automatically patch ROM hacks

Typographical conventions

• Bolded words represent actions or important ideas.
• Italicized words represent elements on the screen or relevant concepts.
• Blocks represent file names or text you might input.
• Keyboard + annotations represent a key or combination of keys to input on your keyboard.

• The following example represents a series of actions/elements to follow to complete a goal (left-to-right):

  File > Option > Sub-option > Feature

Annotations

Occasionally, a note block will be used to get your attention. These vary from potentially useful tips to important warnings. Here are the types of note blocks, from most to least important:

Danger

Contains information about potential errors or mistakes.

Warning

Contains a note that should be read before continuing past.

Success

Contains a message about what a successful task looks like.

Check!

Contains a quick overview of where you should be after completing a step or task.

Info

Contains additional tips or information about a section.

Some blocks are collapsible, click on them to reveal extra information

Contains information that is longer in length, or not as urgent.