Page by vvave
The GBA(gameboy advance) is a common handheld gaming device that is used to play games by nintendo and possibly others. Well theres a emulator/virtual one on pc and it's free; the vba. Not only is the system free, but so is the games that goes with it! No more spending $20-40 on some cheap game. You can find every game available online and on some links provided down below. It can even connect with your friends so you may multiplayer with them up to four(4) can connect only on LAN sadly..But I believe for this issue; you can use Hamachi and play with distant friends and have fun.

Here is the common and useful download links for beginners:
Download VBALink 1.72 LAN edition!

Download VBALink 1.8 LAN / WiFi edition!

Modified VBAServer - Faster LAN play but 2P only

The original vba

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Now the rest of the info. will be instructions on how to set up the VBAlink; I do not take credit for this; It goes toward vbalink.info and to whomever wrote it:

How to use the singlecomp version?

• Start two (three, four) VBALink windows at once.
• In Options > Emulator, uncheck Pause when inactive window
• If you have changed thesis before Inside VBALink go to Options > Link > Settings. and select "Single Computer"
• Setup all the things, like controls, save paths & so on
• If you want to use save files, you must rename them - the save file extension for VBA #1 is .sa1 (e.g. Pokemon Ruby.sa1), for #2 .sa2 etc. (the same is true for savestates - #1 has .sg1 etc.) - another solution is to import them, that works too.

How to use the LAN version?

• Unzip it to a folder like c:\games\vbalink
• Setup all the things, like controls, save paths & so on
• Each player opens VBALink and goes to Options > Link > Settings.
  (Open VBALink and push [Ctrl] + [M] on your keyboard to get there without going through the menus.
• Check "Network"
• If you want better speed at the cost of slightly less stability, select 'Faster' on the slidebar (recommended for wireless Pokemon)
• One of you must select Server and click Start
• The others choose "Client", enter the IP address or name of the server and click Connect
• When all players are connected, a message box with the text "Connected" will appear.
• Load GBA game rom and play!
  
  (When someone closes the emulator, the others will become disconnected.)

Instructions for VBALink 1.72 (version 1.8 has a little different interface)

• In VBA Link Options > Emulator, uncheck Pause when inactive window.
  
  
  (Don't forget to do this for all 4 emulators you have started. )
  
• In options setup all the things, like controls, save paths & so on.
  
  
  (Go to Options > Joypad > Configure Joypad > 1 and set up the keys you want to use.)
  
• Get a friend and repeat the same step on their PC.
  
• One of you must start vbaserver.exe and when asked enter type in how many players there are (in this case 2) so type 2, and it will give you a IP that has to be entered on the other PC.
  
  
  
• Go to Options > Link and press on LAN
  
  
  
• Turn VBA off and wait for 3 seconds.
  
• Go to Options > Link and use the IP you just got in the box, and press CONNECT
  Now do the same for all your friends who will play.
  NOTE: When starting vba server if WinXP FireWall is turned on you will see a warning. Unblock it!
  
  
  
• Load the same gba rom / game you are gone play in all emulators.
  
• Go to link or VS mode and choose Multi Pack (I'm using Advance Wars II in this case)
  
  NOW you should be playing against each other

How to open ZIP files / Compressed archives

• In windows XP you can open zip files as if they are directories. If you don't have XP - Download WinZIP
• Need something better than WinZIP? Can't Open RAR or ARJ files? Download PowerArchiver that has support for ZIP, 7-Zip, CAB, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, RAR, ACE and many more formats
  

Default keys (can be edited in the Options menu)

Arrow keys - direction
Z - Button A
X - Button B
A - Button L
S - Button R
Enter - Start
Backspace - Select
Speedup - Space
Capture - F12

You can change the configuration above to use a joystick. Go to
Options ->Joypad ->Configure. menu.

The 1 through 4 joy pads allow you to have different settings which can be
easily switched.
Gameboy Advance Emulator Frequently Asked Questions Q: Is GAMEBOY COLOR rom linking fully supported?
A: Some GBC roms can be linked but do not expect full compatibility. This is the next think worked on after LAN multiplayer support. Good GBC emulator with LAN support TGB Dual (english)
Here is a list of games that currently work and not work on multiplayer:
Working:
Advance Wars
Advance Wars 2 - Black Hole Rising
Bubble Bobble Old & New
Digimon Battle 1&2
Driver 2 Advance
Fire Emblem
Golden Sun
Golden Sun: The Lost Age
Inspector Gadget Racing
Jazz Jackrabbit
Kirby - Nightmare in Dreamland
Kirby: The Great Mirror Labyrinth
Mario Golf
Mech Platoon
Megaman Battle Network 2
Megaman Battle Network 3
Megaman Battle Network 4
Mega Man 1-5
Pokemon Fire Red
Pokemon Leaf Green
Pokemon Ruby
Pokemon Sapphire
Shining Soul
Shining Soul II
Sonic Advance
Sonic Advance 3
Sonic Battle
Tetris World
The Sims Bustin' Out
V-Rally 3
Zelda: Four Swords When playing Zelda: Four Swords, you have to set Timeout in Options/Link to above 10000 or below 200 (these values worked for me) - anything in between might make the game not link. If you want to use save files, you must rename them - the save file extension for VBA #1 is .sa1 (e.g. Pokemon Ruby.sa1), for #2 .sa2 etc. (the same is true for savestates - #1 has .sg1 etc.) - another solution is to import them, that works too. NEW! Yu-gi-oh should work now

NOT working:
Super Mario Advance (perhaps uses a different link mode)
GBA roms links:

GRN.dl.am
GBA ROMs .org
Nintendo-DS-Roms.com
FrozenRoms
CoolRom.com
ROMNation.net
DopeROMs.com
DS-Rom-News
Oritsuru.com
Saiyan Unlimited.net
EmuWizards.com
Anime Downloads
GNUS roms
This is a pretty small list. For the rest of the links of sources go see http://www.gameboy-advance-roms.com/gameboy_advance_roms.htm

I thank vbalink.info for providing me the info. and to the creators who created the vba and vbalink.