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# Gambatte - RetroBIOS

Type | libretro
Classification | community_fork
Source | https://github.com/libretro/gambatte-libretro
Upstream | https://github.com/sinamas/gambatte
Version | v0.5.0
Profiled | 2026-03-23
Cores | gambatte
Systems | nintendo-gb, nintendo-gbc

Technical notes

Accuracy-focused GB/GBC emulator. No BIOS required for normal operation; built-in HLE boot sequence skips the Nintendo logo animation.

Core option gambatte_gb_bootloader (default: enabled) enables loading official boot ROMs from the system directory for the real startup animation. If missing, emulation works without them.

Boot ROM selection by hardware mode: - DMG: gb_bios.bin (256 bytes) - CGB or GBA: gbc_bios.bin (2304 bytes)

In GBA mode the core patches the CGB boot ROM at 0xF2 to fake GBA detection (ld b,0x01), enabling GBA-enhanced features in compatible GBC games.

The upstream standalone supports SGB boot ROM loading; the libretro port does not implement this.

Custom palette files (palettes/*.pal) are user-created colorization configs loaded when GB Colorization is set to "custom". These are user-generated content, not distributable files.

2 files | 0 required, 2 optional | 2 in repo, 0 missing | 2 with HLE fallback

`gb_bios.bin` -optional, HLE available : Original Game Boy (DMG-01) boot ROM

- System: nintendo-gb
- Size: 256 B
- Validation (core): size
- Validation (upstream): size, crc32
- Source: `libretro.cpp:1303-1363 (get_bootloader_from_file), bootloader.cpp:20-55 (load)`
- Platforms: batocera, lakka, recalbox, retroarch, retrobat, retrodeck, retropie
- Mapped at 0x0000-0x00FF, swapped out when register 0xFF50 is written.

`gbc_bios.bin` -optional, HLE available : Game Boy Color (CGB-001) boot ROM

- System: nintendo-gbc
- Size: 2.2 KB
- Validation (core): size
- Validation (upstream): size, crc32
- Source: `libretro.cpp:1303-1363 (get_bootloader_from_file), bootloader.cpp:20-55 (load)`
- Platforms: batocera, lakka, recalbox, retroarch, retrobat, retrodeck, retropie
- Mapped at 0x0000-0x08FF with cartridge data preserved at 0x0100-0x01FF. Also used for GBA mode with a patch at 0xF2. Presence required for FORCE_CGB flag when hw mode is GBC or GBA.

Generated on 2026-03-25T14:56:43Z