simonh.uk - gaming

Game Boy and Game Boy Color Games Worth Playing in 2026 Part 1

2026-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

I never owned a Game Boy, or a Game Boy Color, so this isn’t a nostalgia post about games that I played when I was a little kid. I’ve also never played a Pokemon game, so none of those games are here either. Most of the games here are ones I’ve downloaded over the last few weeks and played for the first time. The main criteria for whether I’ve included a game here is whether you can start playing within a few seconds. I’ve also tried to include only games that I’ve actually felt the need to play more than once.

The Backstory

A few weeks ago, I picked up an Anbernic RG350M. It was an impluse buy after I’d confirmed it’d play up to PlayStation 1. I thought I’d use it for the odd bit of PS1, NES, SNES, GBA emulation while out and about. After a while I realised I didn’t have any Game Boy games. So I checked out a few posts similar to this one and started trying some out.

I’ve got to say, the 3.5”, 4:3 ratio, 640×480 pixel display on the RG350M really makes GB, GBC and GBA games look great. All of the screenshots were taken using the RG350M, with Retroarch Gambatte core for the Gameboy (GB Colorization: SGB / Internal Palette: GB Pocket). For Game Boy Color I used the Gambatte OPK (gambatte-dms-multi-r572u4-20231203.opk).

Game Boy

Mega Man I-V

These games are hard. Very hard. But, thanks to emulators and save states, your chances of beating them are better now than ever! If you’ve got a retro handheld, you need all five of these, it’s that simple.

Mega Man: Dr Wily’s Revenge

Classic Bubble Bobble

Shoot bubbles at enemies, then pop them and collect the fruit they leave behind. I’m a big fan of games that can be explained in one sentence. You might as well grab Bubble Bobble and Bubble Bobble Part 2 as well.

Kirby’s Block Ball

If you like Arkanoid or Breakout, you’ll probably also like this game. I find it quite a nice, relaxing game with great music.

Donkey Kong

You need this. Everyone does.

Balloon Kid

Galaga (Arcade Classic No. 3)

I love Galaga on the NES and Galaga 90 on the Turbo Grafx. I wasn’t sure if this port would be worth bothering with, but it’s actually really good. Plus Galaxian is the other game on the cartridge (another classic).

Catrap

I don’t think I’ve seen one list of the best GB games that hasn’t included Catrap. It really is a great puzzle game.

Game & Watch Gallery

Handheld gaming, 1980’s style. It doesn’t get much simpler than this. The screenshot above shows Manhole where all you need to do is stop the little mushroom people falling to their deaths. Simple, fun, addictive.

Boxxle 1 and 2

In this one, you’ve got to push the boxes into the squares marked with a dot. Sounds easy but it isn’t.

Nemesis 1 and 2

Game Boy Color

Frogger 1 and 2

Game & Watch Gallery 2 and 3

Mega Man Xtreme 1 and 2

Micro Machines 1 and 2 Twin Turbo

Mr Driller

Mario Tennis

Space Invaders

Pac-Man

Tetris DX

Conclusion

There are some great games for the first two Game Boy systems. The Game Boy Advance took things to the next level of course, but I’d recommend anybody to spend a bit of time building a libray of GB / GBC games. My main aim with this post is just to recommend a few games that I’ve found enjoyable and think you will too. I may do a part 2 in the future when I’ve tried out some more of these classics.

How to Get Windows Games Working in Batocera

2025-05-11T00:00:00+01:00

Over the last few weeks I’ve been setting up a retro gaming system using Batocera. The one system that I had real trouble getting working correctly was the Windows / PC system. Batocera does have a wiki section to help you out but here are my condensed tips that I’ve been using successfully to get things working. There are only two tips so this won’t take long.

One thing to note is that some games simply will not work. I list some of these at the bottom of the page.

1. Install games on another machine

This is my most important tip. Although Batocera tries hard to make installing games possible, it’s very hit and miss. I’ve found it far quicker and less annoying to simply install a game on my Linux desktop, then copy the installation directory to my Batocera machine. The screenshot below shows my gog.com games, all of which I’ve easily copied to my Batocera box:

Using The King of Fighters XIII as an example:

1. Copy the folder and rename the copy to The King of Fighters XIII.pc
2. Create an autorun.cmd file in the above folder with the following line:

CMD=kof13_win32_Release.exe

3. Copy The King of Fighters XIII.pc folder to /userdata/roms/windows on your Batocera machine
4. Update the game list and play!

I’ve found that some Windows games will install and run fine on my desktop but don’t run on Batocera. So another benefit to this method is that you’ll know that the game runs on Linux, just not on Batocera (yet). It’s also far easier and quicker to install updates etc. on your desktop machine than on your Batocera machine.

2. Download the latest Wine build

Again the wiki clearly states this as an option and links to Wine Builds on Github. It’s worth downloading the latest stable version from the link and setting it up as another option if the Batocera provided Wine version gives problems with a game. The wiki has clear instructions so I won’t repeat them here.

Conclusion

That’s it really. As I wrote in my last post, Wine is fantastic software, especially for gamers. However, not all games / software is supported so you’ve just got to try and see what works. There aren’t that many Windows games that I’m particularly wanting on my retro box but the following are all working fine:

Mega Man 11
Ultra Street Fighter IV
King of Fighters 98, 2002, XIII, XIV
Street Fighter X Tekken
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

The following wouldn’t run :(

Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box
King of Fighters XV
A few others I’ve forgotten…

This is one of the huge benefits of using console roms: nothing to install! Just drop the ROM in and you’re done. Windows games are a pain in the arse. KOF XIII runs great through Wine, but very slow with the Xenia emulator so sometimes you have to endure some pain to get what you want.

Fighting Games That Work Well on Linux

2025-04-03T00:00:00+01:00

Well, Wine has come a long way in the twenty odd years I’ve been using Linux. It’s gone from being pretty much useless, to pretty awesome. As of today, I can now play all of my favourite fighting games with no issues (that I’ve seen so far)!

As far as I’m concerned, fighting games peaked in about 2014, so you won’t see anything newer than that here.¹

I’m using Wine 10, Intel i5-9400 CPU, 16GB ram, and a Radeon RX 550 low profile graphics card. OS is Linux Mint 22.1

Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Bought from gog.com for £0.79. It’s an old game and a fair price. I had an iffy copy but buying this for a few pence seemed the right thing to do.

King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match Final Edition

As with Garou, I had a dodgy copy of this but paying gog.com £1.69 made me feel better. Great game, for many one of the best fighting games of all time.

King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match

Paid gog.com exactly the same as KOF98. Amazing game and runs flawlessly on Linux.

King of Fighters XIII

£2.29 from gog.com. Sony got £15.99 from me to play this on the PS5 (cheeky little *******‘s)!. If I had to pick one favourite fighting game, it’d probably be this.

Ultra Street Fighter IV

gog.com don’t have any Street Fighter games except Alpha 2 so I got this “elsewhere”. Great game and yet again, works flawlessly.

Street Fighter X Tekken

This one was my biggest surprise. Over the years, I’ve tried numerous times to get this working on Linux and never succeded. All good things come to he waits they say, and this one was worth waiting for. This is version 1.08, by the way (the adept web surfer should find it fairly easily).

SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos

Another all time classic. Available on a variety of old consoles (Neo Geo, PS2, Xbox), you should pick this one up if you see it cheap for easily playing on PC.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Ok, this isn’t one of my favourites, but it can be fun in small doses. I’ve only included it here in case you’re a big fan and are wondering if it will work on Linux. Yep, perfectly!

Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics

Not played this in great depth yet, but all the games I’ve tried seem to work flawlessly. You get all the following games:

The Punisher
X-Men: Children of the Atom
Marvel Super Heroes
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes

It’s not cheap, but it’s worth it if you love your fighting games. Alternatively, I’m sure it’ll be on sale before long.

Updates

2025-04-04

King of Fighters XIV

Thought I’d try this out just to see if it works. Worked completely fine! As this is a bit newer than most of the other ones, my graphics card fan came on a bit louder than with the others. Didn’t experience any slowdowns or anything odd.

Conclusion

We’re getting to the point where using Windows makes less and less sense, even for casual gamers. As long as your PC is not a potato, you’ll probably be surprised what games will run flawlessly on Wine 10. Any issues you do have, should have solutions to try on the various forums.

Footnotes

¹ Sorry, Street Fighter 5 & 6 are not better than 4, KOF XIV & XV are not better than XIII. Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat whatever are ok but have no place in a list of best ever fighters.