Reviews for John GBA

I loved this app on my OnePlus 8, and I'm super stoked to say it works just the same (beautifully) on my new phone, the Cat S22. This is a flip phone that runs android Go, and while I'm not a techie per se, I had a feeling it would work and it does. There's a very special feeling to pulling out a flip phone, opening it and then playing Mario kart haha

I've tried a few GBA emulators and this is by far the best. The interference is simple and easy, and the emulation is (relatively) easy on the battery while being very faithful and smooth. All the bells and whistles like save state, custom virtual buttons/dpad, speedup, etc are there. Well worth the small cost!

I'm loving this emulator. my only gripe is when playing a game such as the "sims:bustin out" where moving diagonally is required. I've fooled around with the settings( making diagonals larger, smaller etc.), but I can't get it to read diagonal movement very well. wish there was maybe a virtual control stick option, unless I glanced over it. Otherwise 5/5, awesome emulator.

EDIT: I found the solution on my end. You have to make a new folder in your SD card for games exclusively, so when you get to the scan step, use a created folder and place all the ROMS you have in there! Then, the emulator will recognize the game files. I'm giving 4 stars now, but only because this is a very specific workaround, and shouldn't be here to begin with. It's not a hard one, just oddly specific. You try to make the files inside the Johnemulators folder, and it doesn't work; use an SD.

Used to be an amazing app, found all GBA files no problem. But for some reason now it insists on using it's own file, and even when you move GBA files into it's file, it can't find them. I honestly have no idea why on earth this change was made when there was absolutely no problems with this app to begin with. Please revert this change ASAP or at least fix the app so it finds GBA files inside the john emulator folder

Used to find this amazing, was well worth the money. Could download a game, it would find it anywhere on my phone, read zips without extractions and add it to its library simple, no hassle. Just reinstalled it and i suddenly cant play ANYTHING. it cant find files, it isn't allowed to look into anything other than its own file, when i move games over to its own specific files it still cant recognise the games and insists theres nothing to play. Really frustrating.

I used to use this in the past, and it did use to be worth all the good reviews as well... But now this thing doesn't let you do ANYTHING. You can't select a folder for it to read games. It'll keep asking you to,but it won't let you because it CANT EVEN READ .GBA FILES. Do not use this app, at least until they fix these issues. If you can get the free version to work then you might be fine, but this app used to be so much better...

Honestly, I would have considered this emulator to be one of the better ones for GBA games, however, when I needed it the most (I was off the net, bored), a message popped up stating I had to have an internet connection to validate that I had paid for it and that I would be unable to use the app until I had done so. If you ever want to take a break from the net, or find yourself in places with no connection, this app is NOT for you.

I love this emulator and dig the ability to move my buttons around, its very streamlined as well. However, i can not get cheats working in any way shape or form regardless of the type of cheat. It always says invalid code when entering anything more than one line long (which most master codes are)

It once was my premier GBA emulator. Now it keeps asking for folder permission every single time I start the app and it doesn't detect my game at all anymore. Money was worth paying in the past. Now it was a waste. App is utterly useless nowadays and I had to ditch John emulators to buy an app which actually does work. So I'm forced to discard John Emulators.

My review used to be 5 stars, I've reduced it to 3 after switching phones. I had some issues with responsiveness on my new phone and tablet but I put that down to being the phones fault not the software. But I've recently started using a Samsung A70, and it is more responsive than my last phone an S8 but the landscape mode moves the game on my screen all the way to the right. Leaving about an inch of black to the left/top of my phone and making it extremely difficult to use in this mode.

I love this emulator. I've always had the free verison but finally upgraded. It's easy to load games, and everything runs smoothly. The only complaint I have is when playing with the on-screen controller, it is hard to diagonally move. I see now from other reviews I can easily use another controller via Bluetooth and I will try that to avoid this issue when playing games that require that type of movement, but I would love to see a custom button on screen for this also.

I honestly don’t see why this app is paid. It feels exactly the same as the free version, except now I have to keep my WiFi on just to prove it’s “licensed.” The whole point of buying an app is so I can use it offline without issues, but instead it constantly pops up saying it’s not licensed when I’m offline. That defeats the purpose of a paid version. I expected better when I purchased this. Please fix the licensing system so paying customers aren’t punished.

Originally came from MyBoy due to the emulator being unable to save, therefore, I decided to find another replacement and after searching and trying out several emulators, John GBA is one of the best emulators I've ever come across. Although the D-Pad UI is quite a bit hard to navigate, still, I'm quite satisfied in using this emulator. Highly recommended!

To those who are having some troubles still with not being able to play their favorite GBA games, I figured out how to fun them through JohnGBA. If you have the game as a Zip file, download into internal storage and then transfer that file directly into the "game" folder, the app is able to see the files and let you run the games. That's how I have mine set up atm and it's working fine. I hope this helps others out and I'm not just a special case

This is THE guy for emulators. Don't be fooled, the 1* reviews are people who don't understand how these things work. Follow these steps: Download your file and unzip it, go to downloads, and move it to a folder of your choice. I created a folder called "ROMs" in My Documents for easy access. Go to the emulator app and choose to have it read from that folder. I have never had a single problem with this app. Very few programs ever search your entire device every time for relevant files

Love it, if they had a way to connect to other phones using the emulator to simulate a Link Cable, that would be incredible! Also, it would be neat to have an option to disable the top left save state button. It's a bad habit to develop when you want to play Fire Emblem the way it was intended 😅 (won't deny that it saves time tho). Other than that, money well spent.

Thank you John, from the bottom of this twelve years old heart, that's stuck in much older body. Super simple and enjoyable, even the free version's adds were at an extreme minimum. I would honestly pay more. The complaints I've seen about having to transfer files are blatantly ignorant. John can only look at 1 folder now, instead of being able to scan your whole device... Copying a file from one location to another is quick and easy, just try.

It's a good and reliable emulator for when you're bored or on the go. No ads, you get what you pay for but I have noticed at least on my phone, if you set it to automatic landscape mode and try to boot it up it will just crash and not start, forcing you to have to reinstall and reset everything. If that was fixed it would easily be 5 stars

Had this for a while, PAID for it (totally worth it). But, lately, the software has hard locked me out telling me that it has no license and I need to buy it from the app store... The link takes me to this page that says that I already bought it and has the "play" button. FULL stars if it still worked, best out there. Glad I waited till now to review, might update when this gets fixed. _-_-_-_ Well, the issue fixed itself after being connected to the internet somehow. I needed it offline!