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Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

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Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#11

Post by Kipters »

abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Game Boy Advance, especially the SP, was the greatest handheld console to me. Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in (back in those days, as a kid, it was a game changer), played all your existing library of game boy games, amazing folding mechanism and portable, small size and of course a great library as well. Perfection. And as I say that, the Switch has proven to be an amazing challenger…

And if you got the AGS-101 revision it was even better since it sported a backlit display that was better in every dimension compared to the front-lit AGS-001

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#12

Post by mikepurvis »

Kipters wrote: post #11
abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Game Boy Advance, especially the SP, was the greatest handheld console to me. Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in (back in those days, as a kid, it was a game changer), played all your existing library of game boy games, amazing folding mechanism and portable, small size and of course a great library as well. Perfection. And as I say that, the Switch has proven to be an amazing challenger…

And if you got the AGS-101 revision it was even better since it sported a backlit display that was better in every dimension compared to the front-lit AGS-001

You can now get IPS screen mods for basically all Game Boy models I think; there are some YouTube channels like Retro Future which cover Game Boy modding fairly extensively.

I had an original purple GBA as a kid and I had a great time on it with ALTTP, Mario Kart, Breath of Fire, and so on, but it having an unlit screen was what eventually killed it for me— I wonder if it's still in a box somewhere in my parents'. There's hardly any point now with having an Odroid portable that plays all the same games, but it'd be neat to see it working again.

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#13

Post by sharatvir »

abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Game Boy Advance, especially the SP, was the greatest handheld console to me. Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in (back in those days, as a kid, it was a game changer), played all your existing library of game boy games, amazing folding mechanism and portable, small size and of course a great library as well. Perfection. And as I say that, the Switch has proven to be an amazing challenger…

The DS Lite edges it for me. You could get a microsd ds cartridge adapter as well as an expandable flash cartridge for the GBA slot and store all of your home brew games on the microsd.

Back then, it felt so futuristic to have an entire library of games in one cartridge on the go.

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#14

Post by implicit »

I did a little bit of GBA homebrew development back in its heyday. It is a really fun little bit of hardware to hack on.

It's powerful enough that you can write your whole game in C++, but not so powerful that you should rely on the system allocator for anything.

It's in a lovely sweet spot for a particular dialect of zero-overhead C++ that's really fun to write.

As a simple example, I had a little class library of data types that were crafted to exactly map to the hardware registers of the GBA. The whole thing inlined away to nothing.

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#15

Post by Kipters »

mikepurvis wrote: post #12
Kipters wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if you got the AGS-101 revision it was even better since it sported a backlit display that was better in every dimension compared to the front-lit AGS-001

You can now get IPS screen mods for basically all Game Boy models I think; there are some YouTube channels like Retro Future which cover Game Boy modding fairly extensively. I had an original purple GBA as a kid and I had a great time on it with ALTTP, Mario Kart, Breath of Fire, and so on, but it having an unlit screen was what eventually killed it for me— I wonder if it's still in a box somewhere in my parents'. Th…

Most of these mods require you to destructively alter the original case, which is something some people (including me) would never do, also there are some quality issues in many of these displays.

It would also rub me in the wrong way to use an aftermarket display instead of the one that came with the device, even if it wasn't so destructive.

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#16

Post by CoolGuySteve »

EE84M3i wrote: post #4
bombcar wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The backward compatibility continued into the original DS - which was a phenomenal lineup increase - I also fondly remember the Game Boy Player for the GameCube - a precursor to the switch in some ways.

I always thought it was interesting that (as mentioned in the article) the GBA has two processors, one for GBA and one for original gameboy/game boy color games. Similarly, the DS has an ARM7 in addition to it's ARM9 in order to play GBA games, however it lacks the sharp processor to play original game boy games. The notches on the carts prevent you from putting an original gameboy game into a DS, IIRc.

The PS2 used the Playstation 1 chipset for backwards compatibility and to handle the disk/ethernet DMA.

I guess that design philosophy was scrapped when the Playstation 3 discontinued its PS2 compatibility mid-life by removing the PS2 chipset from their design.

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#17

Post by userbinator »

Kipters wrote: post #11
abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Game Boy Advance, especially the SP, was the greatest handheld console to me. Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in (back in those days, as a kid, it was a game changer), played all your existing library of game boy games, amazing folding mechanism and portable, small size and of course a great library as well. Perfection. And as I say that, the Switch has proven to be an amazing challenger…

And if you got the AGS-101 revision it was even better since it sported a backlit display that was better in every dimension compared to the front-lit AGS-001

The display was the worst part of the non-SP GBAs; the SP had a much better one. It's the only product I know of with a reflective colour LCD. The colour filters definitely block a lot of the light and even in the best conditions it's barely readable.

Not surprisingly, others came up with plenty of mods to try to remedy it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterburner_(modification_kit)

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#18

Post by kiwijamo »

anonunivgrad wrote: post #8
abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Game Boy Advance, especially the SP, was the greatest handheld console to me. Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in (back in those days, as a kid, it was a game changer), played all your existing library of game boy games, amazing folding mechanism and portable, small size and of course a great library as well. Perfection. And as I say that, the Switch has proven to be an amazing challenger…

The Switch is great but you have to get a third-party dock and AC adapter for optimal portability[1]. I'm kind of perplexed by the bad design of the official dock. [1] There were some issues with unofficial docks/adapters bricking consoles, but they seem to be sorted out in the current gen third-party accessories.

I use the official dock and just leave it at home attached to my TV. Are there any advantages to using third-party docks over the official ones? The official one seems to work well--it charges my Switch when unused (I actually mostly use the dock as 'storage' when I am not using it) and provides me with the option to play on my TV (not that I do that often). I also have a nice bag which I occasionally use to take my dock (and power/HDMI cables) with me.

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#19

Post by tolbish »

abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Game Boy Advance, especially the SP, was the greatest handheld console to me. Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in (back in those days, as a kid, it was a game changer), played all your existing library of game boy games, amazing folding mechanism and portable, small size and of course a great library as well. Perfection. And as I say that, the Switch has proven to be an amazing challenger…

It had a backlit screen too, which was also a game changer at the time.

Re: Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

#20

Post by [deleted] »

sharatvir wrote: post #13
abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Game Boy Advance, especially the SP, was the greatest handheld console to me. Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in (back in those days, as a kid, it was a game changer), played all your existing library of game boy games, amazing folding mechanism and portable, small size and of course a great library as well. Perfection. And as I say that, the Switch has proven to be an amazing challenger…

The DS Lite edges it for me. You could get a microsd ds cartridge adapter as well as an expandable flash cartridge for the GBA slot and store all of your home brew games on the microsd. Back then, it felt so futuristic to have an entire library of games in one cartridge on the go.

[deleted]
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