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GBALATRO/balatro-gba

A demake of Balatro for the GBA

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GBALATRO/balatro-gba has 2k+ stars and 100+ forks on GitHub, is written in C, and was last pushed on Oct 15, 2026. Data as of . Signed-in members get hourly updates — create a free account.

Summary Information

Updated 8 minutes ago
Type:ApplicationCategory(s):Games, Mods & EmulatorsMedia, Graphics & Games
Added to GitGenius on March 4th, 2026
Created on January 31st, 2025
Open Issues & Pull Requests: 92 (+0)
GitHub issues: Enabled
Number of forks: 110
Total Stargazers: 2,470 (+0)
Total Subscribers: 34 (+0)

Repository Insights (GitGenius)

Median issue/PR response: 9.6 hours
Mean response time: 14.5 days
90th percentile: 33.3 days
Tracked items: 238

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Maintainer activity

6 people did triage or write work on this repository in the last 12 months.

Counts unlabeled, assigned, unassigned, milestoned, demilestoned, locked, unlocked over the last 12 months. These are issue and pull request events that require triage or write permission. Commits and code review are not counted. labeled and renamed are excluded because GitHub issue forms record the issue author as the actor. Figures from October 11, 2026. This count is not comparable across projects: each project's automation decides which of these events a person emits. How this is counted.

How this project is maintained

About 9% of issues opened in the past year have never received a reply. Only 23% of open issues come from outside the core team — the tracker reads mainly as internal planning. Work labelled "bug" is answered fastest, typically in about 6 hours, while "documentation" waits about 4 days. 50% of tracked open issues have had no activity in three months. 69% of issues opened in the past year have been closed, leaving a working backlog.

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Issue Activity (beta)

Open issues: 66
New in 7 days: 7
Closed in 7 days: 6
Avg open age: 67 days
Stale 30+ days: 42
Stale 90+ days: 33

Recent activity

Opened in 7 days: 5
Closed in 7 days: 5
Comments in 7 days: 5
Events in 7 days: 21

Top labels

  • Refactor (63)
  • enhancement (56)
  • bug (46)
  • good first issue (21)
  • documentation (20)
  • Optimization (11)
  • Emulator Specific (8)
  • Art (6)

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Detailed Description

The balatro-gba repository is a non-profit fan demake of the popular deck-building roguelike game Balatro, adapted specifically for the Game Boy Advance handheld console. Written primarily in C, the project aims to recreate the original game as accurately as possible while respecting the technical constraints of the GBA hardware. The developers explicitly state that this is a minimal tech-demo intended for players who already own and understand the official game, and the project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Playstack or LocalThunk, the original creators.

The repository contains a fully playable implementation with game controls mapped to the GBA's button layout. Players use the A button to pick cards and make selections, the B button to deselect cards, the L button to sell jokers or play hands, and the R button to discard hands. Card and joker movement in hand is accomplished by holding A and using the D-pad. The implementation includes a shop mode where holding B displays joker descriptions, providing players with the information needed to make strategic decisions during gameplay.

The project includes comprehensive credits acknowledging its sources. Music arrangements were created by cellos51 and MeirGavish, based on the original Balatro soundtrack by LouisF with transcription assistance from MrCrimit. Sprites and backgrounds derive from original Balatro imagery created by LocalThunk, with detailed joker art credits documented in a dedicated discussion thread. Sound effects include a toy records sample by poissonmort used under Attribution 4.0 license, while other effects come from LocalThunk's original work released under Creative Commons CC0 license.

The repository provides build instructions for multiple platforms including Docker, Linux, macOS, and Windows through its CONTRIBUTING.md file, making it accessible to developers across different systems. ROM downloads are available through the releases tab on GitHub. The project is classified across multiple gaming and development categories including Game Boy Advance, handheld console gaming, retro gaming, card games, deck building, roguelikes, and GBA development, reflecting its position at the intersection of classic handheld gaming and modern indie game design.