Skip to content
PCPortpt
Native

Pokémon Ruby on PC

Game Boy Advance Pokémon Ruby running on PC through native. Supply your own copy of the game.

About the game

The third generation, set in Hoenn. It introduced double battles, passive abilities and the nature bonuses that went on to define competitive play.

Developer
Game Freak
Publisher
Nintendo
Genre
RPG
Original game
21 Nov 2002

How this port works

This is a native port: the game was rebuilt to run as a real PC program with no emulator in the loop. That usually means better performance, arbitrary resolution and mod support — and it is why these run well on modest hardware.

Decompilation of Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire

How to install

  1. 01First things first: this is a disassembly of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, not a PC port. What comes out are Game Boy Advance ROMs.
  2. 02Building it yields pokeruby.gba (SHA-1 f28b6ffc97847e94a6c21a63cacf633ee5c8df1e) and pokesapphire.gba (SHA-1 3ccbbd45f8553c36463f13b938e833f652b793e4). Checking those hashes is the proof the build came out right.
  3. 03The repository carries no game data: your own copy is required.
  4. 04The setup steps live in the repository INSTALL.md. Follow them there.
  5. 05Note that pret also maintains pokeemerald, the more complete decompilation of the same generation, which is usually the recommended base for modding.
  6. 06For contacts and the other pret projects, the reference is pret.github.io.

These projects ship no game data. Supply your own copy.

Frequently asked

Do I need the original game to play Pokémon Ruby on PC?

Yes. The project distributes no game data — you supply your own copy or dump. Every project in this scene works this way, and it is what lets them stay publicly hosted on GitHub.

What does "native" mean?

This is a native port: the game was rebuilt to run as a real PC program with no emulator in the loop. That usually means better performance, arbitrary resolution and mod support — and it is why these run well on modest hardware.

Will Pokémon Ruby run on a low-end PC?

Native ports and recompilations skip CPU emulation entirely, so they are usually far lighter than an emulator for the same console. With no published measurement for this project, though, any estimate would be guesswork — test it on your own machine.

When was Pokémon Ruby released?

The original game shipped in 2002, developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. This PC port is from 2026.

Which systems does it support?

The current release ships builds for Windows. The game originally shipped on Game Boy Advance.

Is it legal to use?

The project is public and open source, maintained by pret, and contains nothing from the commercial game. Responsibility for the game copy you use is yours — which is why the developers require you to supply your own.

More Game Boy Advance ports