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+--- Thread: Feature request: Visual Box Art / Grid View for ROM Selection (/showthread.php?tid=5874)
Feature request: Visual Box Art / Grid View for ROM Selection - GrayTsuchinoko - 11-08-2026
Hello mGBA community and developers!
First off, huge thanks to endrift and all contributors for maintaining the gold standard of Game Boy / Game Boy Advance emulation.
I’d like to propose a quality-of-life feature request for the desktop interface (Qt UI): a Visual Box Art / Grid View for game selection.
Concept Overview
While the traditional file tree/list picker works great for fast navigation, having an optional grid view displaying cover art (similar to frontends like OpenEmu, RetroArch, or Steam) would make navigating larger GB/GBC/GBA collections much more engaging.
Core Features Proposed:
View Toggle: A simple layout toggle button (or View > Library Grid) to switch between the traditional list view and a grid gallery.
Local Box Art Directory: A designated folder (/boxart/ or similar in user config) where mGBA checks for matching artwork (.png, .jpg, .webp) based on ROM file names or internal CRC/No-Intro header names.
Manual Custom Art Option: Right-clicking a game in the list/grid to select "Set Custom Cover Art..." and link a local image file.
Fallback Design: If no cover image is found, display a simple, clean cartridge silhouette (GB/GBC/GBA style) featuring the title text.
Optional Scraping (Nice-to-have): Ability to pull thumbnails from standard open repositories (like Libretro's thumbnail archive) via a toggle in Settings > Interface.
Why this would be a great addition:
Keeps mGBA complete as a standalone desktop player without strictly requiring third-party frontends (like Playnite or LaunchBox).
Greatly enhances usability for home-theater setups or users who prefer visual browsing.
What are everyone's thoughts on this? Is a simple grid/box art view something that could fit into the scope of the Qt desktop frontend?
Thanks for considering!