Most people that want to play Game Boy Advance games tend to prioritize popular emulators, especially the modern ones. But what about obscure alternatives like RascalBoy Advance. Are they any good? Can you trust them to run your GBA ROMs?
What is RascalBoy Advance?
RascalBoy Advance is a GBA emulator and it is as obscure as they come. Most GBA fans you encounter will tell you that they have never even heard of this emulator. And yet, it has been around since the early 2000s.
Those that have used it have made comparisons with Visual Boy Advance, probably because both programs support similar language packs. No one expects RascalBoy Advance to perform as effectively as Visual Boy Advance.
However, when both emulators debuted, RascalBoy Advance was a decent rival for VBA. That is no longer the case. VBA isn’t necessarily the best GBA emulator around. But it has a stronger presence on the internet because people appreciate its performance far more than they do RascalBoy Advance.
You can blame this on the fact that development on RascalBoy ended a long time ago. It no longer receives updates or support of any kind. The program’s limited visibility is also problematic because it doesn’t have a thriving community that can be trusted to either offer help to newcomers or to tweak and refine RascalBoy.
If you’re determined to experiment with this application despite its limitations, you should know that it supports local multiplayer. If you can believe it, players have the option of connecting four copies of RascalBoy. This allows them to play their favorite games together.
The application gave fans a lot of hope when it introduced this feature because it was one of the first GBA emulators to offer the function. Unfortunately, the project died before it could fulfill its considerable potential.
How To Install RascalBoy Advance
Step 1. Download RascalBoy Advance from a resource you trust
Step 2. Extract the files
Step 3. Run the RascalBoy Advance executable file. The emulator will immediately launch.
| File | Platform | License | Date | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RascalBoy Advance 1.3.0.0 | Windows | Freeware | Feb 12, 2006 | 275 Kb. |
| MultiPlayer Plugin 1.0.0.0 |
Best GBA Emulators
| Visual Boy Advance | Windows |
| BizHawk | Windows |
| NO$GBA | Windows |
| RetroArch | Multi-platforms |
| higan | Windows |
| BoycottAdvance | Windows |
| DreamGBA | Windows |
How To Use RascalBoy Advance?
RascalBoy has the same menus you see in other programs of this kind, including ‘File’, ‘Debugger’, ‘Options’, ‘Help’. If you have ever played GBA games using an emulator, the basic functions you encountered in those other emulators are available here.
Experienced gamers may attack the emulator for its simplicity and the fact that it lacks the sophisticated features found in modern emulators. But this will attract newcomers because they will have a much easier time loading ROMs and adjusting the video and audio settings.
Conclusion
RascalBoy Advance is so obscure that a basic search for the emulator on the internet tends to return results for VisualBoy Advance. This level of obscurity explains the emulator’s failure to gain traction in the emulator community. Development on the project ended so long ago that most people have given up on RascalBoy.
Other dated emulators have thriving communities that have continued to develop them. RascalBoy Advance doesn’t have that advantage. For that reason, if this emulator disappears from the internet in a few years, no one will notice.
