mGBA emulator is amongst the best GBA emulators for Windows, Mac & Linux systems and is jam-packed with features such as its support for cheat codes, which can be used to execute hacks in games in return for things like, unlimited energy, infinite lives, skip levels, or access other hidden elements of games.
Follow the steps in this mGBA cheats tutorial to find out where to enter your cheat codes, how to save them, and activate/deactivate them as required.
Step 1 – Open The mGBA Cheats Menu
First of all, you will need to boot up a game ROM in mGBA. In this example, I’m running Sonic Advance 2.
Access the cheats menu by going to the ‘Tools’ menu and selecting ‘Cheats’.
This will open the cheat code menu where you enter your game cheat codes.
Step 2 – Add Cheat Code to mGBA
Next, copy and paste your cheat code into the section where it says ‘Enter codes here…’ and click the ‘Add’ button.
This will then add save your cheat code into mGBA and apply it to the game.
Step 3 – Name Your Cheat Code
Once you have added your cheat code, you will notice that it will appear as ‘Untitled’ in the left-hand section.
To rename this, simply double-click the ‘Untitled’ text and give the cheat code a specific name, like in the example below.
Step 4 – Check The Cheat Code Is Working
Now you can check if your cheat code has worked.
In this example, I have used a set timer to zero cheat code in Sonic Advance 2, you will see in the image below that the timer is now set to 0:00:00 when the box is checked.
You can activate/deactivate cheats at any time as you are playing a game simply by checking/unchecking the box against the required cheat code you have saved via the cheat menu.
Another useful tip is that you can also enter multiple cheat codes in one block to have them all activated at the same time, then save them as a single cheat code which can be switched on/off as required.
A lifelong avid gamer and computing enthusiast, Matt has decades of Retro Gaming experience. Now over 40 years old, Matt now even considers himself retro, but fortunately, nobody has developed a Matt emulator (not yet at least!).