Ask API. GET https://whichemulator.wtf/ask answers questions from the same data as this page, and it is the only place the setup steps are published. It takes the question as q and, optionally, this page's path as page, and returns JSON with answer, sources and follow_ups, or Markdown with Accept: text/markdown. No key needed.
curl -G 'https://whichemulator.wtf/ask' --data-urlencode 'q=Which Game Boy Advance emulator should I use on a Mac?' --data-urlencode 'page=/gba/'Questions it answers:
Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo, 2001.
whichemulator.wtf calls its recommendation for each system the Gold Cartridge pick. For the Game Boy Advance, the Gold Cartridge pick is mGBA.
mGBA gets the balance right: very accurate, fast enough for weak hardware, and full of practical features like link cable emulation, solar and tilt sensors, and cheats. Its developer's research has improved every other GBA emulator too. No BIOS needed.
Runs on Windows · Mac · Linux. Open source. Download: https://mgba.io
mGBA is the core to use unless your device can't keep up.
GBA emulation is in a good place. Several emulators now pass test suites that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, and almost every commercial game runs properly in mGBA.
The old favourite, VisualBoyAdvance, and its VBA-M fork still work, but they’re behind on accuracy and there’s no reason to start with them today.
mGBA has no official Android or iOS app. SkyEmu does, and it’s accurate, free and open source. On Android you can also run the mGBA core in RetroArch.
Reference: WEM-GBA-RZHZ