gbajs3 vs VisualBoyAdvance-M

gbajs3 is a free, browser-based Game Boy Advance emulator for modern browsers, with no plugins required. It offers interchangeable mGBA WebAssembly and pure JavaScript gbajs cores. Both cores support a realtime clock. Controls include remappable keyboard bindings and virtual controls for desktop and mobile, alongside mobile interface support and offline progressive web app support. Fast forward is included. Save states and cheat codes work with the mGBA core, while a surface-level assembly debugger is available with the gbajs core. The project also lists a Go server for logged-in users, an Nginx server for content, an admin interface and PostgreSQL support. Self-hosting uses an environment file and Docker Compose. The setup guide says the default admin password is admin and instructs changing it after login. The README marks debugger and server enhancements as unfinished, and GitHub lists no releases.

VisualBoyAdvance-M is a free, open-source emulator for Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. Builds are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android, with Android nightlies for arm, arm64, riscv, and x86_64. The project lists Windows XP and later, macOS, and Linux among desktop requirements; Linux distributions may package it under visualboyadvance-m or vbam. Game Boy and Game Boy Advance linking is enabled by default. Build options also include Vulkan video output, Windows Direct3D support, and FFmpeg audio and video recording. A debugger is enabled by default, and Lua scripting is available for the wxWidgets port. The project provides a Libretro core option and nightly builds for Libretro. Graphics upscaling is supported, but the project cautions that xBRZ and ScaleFX may not run on older or weaker systems. The license is GPL-2.0. For support, the project points users to Discord and suggests trying Help → Factory Reset when issues occur.