Architecture of the Game Boy Advance | Hacker News Reader

Architecture of the Game Boy Advance

copetti.org

261 pointsbiwasa83 comments

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 to the crown as well. I’m old and don’t use it as much, but I recognize it’s ergonomics and ease of use. Very well done.

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.

luckily the GB/GBC was nice and slow so homebrew emulators could totally run your legally dumped gameboy carts onto your extremely legal flash carts

HackerNews, not CorporateBootlickerNews.

Ripping video games and playing them on other consoles or emulating them is no different than ripping CDs and playing them on your phone. Does any of this seem illegal? More importantly, does any of this seem to violate the agreement of purchasing and ownership?

???

I’m super contused at this post. This was just a tongue-in-cheek way of talking about emulators and ROMs (most people aren’t ripping their own carts, they’re downloading them from somewhere and probably never bought the original game)

I’m not making a value judgement, and like I’ve played a lot of stuff on emulators

>most people aren’t ripping their own carts, they’re downloading them from somewhere and probably never bought the original game

I’ve never seen a single ROM homebrew or console hacking community that supports piracy. If users are savvy enough to be able to work with ROMs then they likely know how to rip game carts. Piracy draws legal action from big companies that wish to remove rights. As the niche grows ever smaller, behaving well becomes ever more existentially important.

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.

The DS also used the ARM7 as a co-processor in DS mode. And the 3DS has an ARM11 as the main processor with an ARM 9 used for crypto and other low level operating system functionality. When playing DS games they also run on the ARM9. Of course the ability to play DS games implies there's also the ARM7, in fact you can (more or less) natively boot GBA games on it!

The Super Gameboy for SNES predates that by nearly a decade

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Game_Boy

It's such a bummer that it doesn't support GBC carts.

The DS Lite was top notch too. Both are my favorite game consoles and I still play them to this day.

> Had rechargeable batteries that you could charge by plugging in

I don't remember that. You sure you weren't using one of those battery packs or some such?

The amount of batteries I went through as a kid … yikes.

Parent is talking about the SP not the original

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy_Advance_SP

Oh damn, I forgot this was a GBA model. I always remembered it as a DS model, not GBA.

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.

Yes, compare the portability of https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JK9DFKH and https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D64QLQ1 with having to lug around the official dock and adapter. If you want to take your Switch with you to plug into other people's TVs, it's night and day.

3rd party docks are so much smaller and so much better. Makes it so much easier to bring along the dock on a trip so you can connect it to the TV in a hotel room, for example.

I have a third party dock about the size of zippo that plugs into the USB-C port, and has another USB-C port for charging, HDMI for picture, and a 'regular USB port for pairing and whatnot. it's great to bring along to friends so we can play on their tv without having to package my entire dock!

Get the Genki Covert Dock. [1]

Its perfect for portable gaming.

1. https://www.genkithings.com/products/covert-dock

Wow! Thank you. I don't think I can justify the purchase, already having bought a fairly small third-party dock and power adapter, but hopefully someone else sees this. The Genki is the obvious choice, assuming it works correctly.

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.

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.

They usually sell with pre-cut replacement cases in fancy colors.

Yeah, but that would mean using an aftermarket case. Some people just want the original non-augmented experience, with all the quirks (also I doubt an IPS mod + case could be any cheaper than just getting an AGS-101).

IPS mods have come down a lot in price and AGS-101s have soared in the aftermarket. American stores sell kits for $50 USD, Chinese-sourced kits are a little cheaper. Add a new case and LCD glass for around $10. A quick eBay search for AGS-101s shows they're going for well over $100.

AGS-101 are so expensive nowadays that yes, it's cheaper to buy a regular SP + new case + IPS screen.

The IPS V2 fixed the quality issues in the early displays.

I can honestly recommend buying another GBA and modding it. The panel is 4x upsampled, which brings a very cool look to many classic GBA games. It's also a fun experience hacking around in it.

The lack of native resolution kills it for me, on a sprite-based console.

Most these days double the resolution in each direction, so you have 4x integer scaling. It’s a different look for sure, but it’s razor sharp and you don’t have shimmering or other scaling artifacts.

I know some of it might be years of training from PC-based indie games with pixel art, but I really like the look of it.

I have it when playing GBA games on my Powkiddy RGB10 (also 480x320 native resolution), and I think it looks great, especially when compared to the 95 PPI display on my other handheld, a New 3DS XL.

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)

Except for use in sunlight.

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.

An R4DS!

You can get microsd gba carts nowadays.

You can, and they are weirdly expensive! Last I checked a recommended one that supports all features is about £100!

Not so weird; the demand fell away and so they're becoming scarce. They're growing to be priced similarly to sdcard carts for other old and far out of date systems.

Just have a look at what a decent cart for a Genesis, SNES or NeoGeo will cost.

I bought an EZ Flash IV last year for around £35.

Yeah, from my research the EZ Flash IV has some limitations(like max 2GB card support and miniSD only??), so the EverDrive X5 is recommended.....but that's £130 apparently??

https://www.deadpanrobot.co.uk/everdrive-gba-x5-mini-for-gam...

It's expensive because of economy of scale. EZ Flash sells way more devices. However, it's more power efficient than the EZ Flash I believe due to better use of the FPGA. The Omega looks good though, and it also supports save states (nice for games like Harvest Moon FOMT where it's basically impossible to get all the best items without save scumming).

The design was great too.

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

Yes! I’m kicking myself how I completely forgot this. This was as important as the charger to me

The greatest handheld console was the Genesis Nomad.

Cons:

- It was the size of a brick.

- It was designed with oddly skewed angles.

- It didn't have room for batteries inside, so they had to be shoved in a little pack that clipped on to it.

Pros:

- It was a handheld Sega Genesis.

- You could connect it to your TV.

- You could connect a second controller.

- You could run it off A/C power.

- Ergo it's also a console! In a roundabout, not-all-peripherals-supported kind of way.

I never had a Nomad, but did you ever find the console inconvenient to use? One thing I find Nintendo always does so well with their consoles is the ease-of-use and complimentary library. I feel like a clunky handheld that plays Gunstar Heroes for 2-3 hours might be harder to appreciate than Pokemon for ten.

I have one. It's not convenient to travel with; the carts are comparatively large and the unit itself is roughly the size of an early 90s camcorder, and as awkwardly shaped too.

The screen ghosts something awful...

It's mostly a cool gimick to show your friends who are Sega fans; akin to owning a working CDX or Activator.

The CDX is more practical than the Nomad, though. I will agree that it's a poor portable CD player, but it's the most compact Genesis and Sega CD. It even works with the 32X, and there are 3d-printed supports for the CDX/32X to help with the 32X weight.

I may just be proving your point, though.

It was definitely inconvenient as a portable. It was sheer fantastic novelty.

> Gunstar Heroes

I was so close to listing that game as a bullet point in its own right.

Calling the pack "little" is a stretch; the battery pack itself is larger and heavier than the GBA SP.

Also, the screen suffers from terrible ghosting. I can barely bring myself to play sonic on it.

Still, the Nomad is a neat piece of kit.

To be honest, I don't remember the ghosting. I do remember the ghosting on the Game Gear, so if it was even marginally better on the Nomad I probably overlooked it.

Nintendo's greatest technical achievement is the staggered backward compatibility between the original GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, DS, and DS 3D.

It's a game console compatibility lineage that stretches 30 years from the first GameBoy in 1989 to the end of the 3DS in 2020.

It's a remarkable achievement for a game console platform. It only happens with incredible foresight, planning, and strict software controls.

It's really only one generation of backwards compatibility. The GBA SP is the last one that can play GBC games, as it's the last one with the 8-bit coprocessor - the DS can play GBA games because it's "small" processor is the same, but it can no longer play GBC games. The 3DS can no longer play GBA games as they no longer physically fit.

The 3DS can play DS and GBA games natively. While the lack of a GBA cartridge slot is a hindrance, it’s nothing that ROM injections on a hacked console can’t get around.

That along with the capability to emulate up to SNES games makes my 3DS something that still makes its way into my travel backpack. I leave the switch and GBA SP at home. They’re too big for what they offer.

I think that the GBA is great because of the kinds of games you can make for it. It is a perfect blend of having hardware limitations to inspire creativity but being powerful enough to have games with enough depth to be compelling. Golden Sun comes to mind.

And... a reminder that I should go reply Golden Sun as I found my GBA SP while visiting the parents for Christmas.

Golden Sun <3

I think GS 1+2 must be the last great 2D JRPGs - nothing after the SNES era comes close in my book.

Advance Wars 2 is this game for me; I only recently discovered it and it blows my mind how much tactical depth there could be on such a tiny little screen with just a few buttons of controls.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike for the DS is also a treasure and expands upon AW2 quite nicely

Unfortunately the much more grim and depressing "Days of Ruin" sold poorly and the studio has seemingly drifted away from making another AW game

Competitors like Tiny Metal or WarGroove just don't scratch the same itch either unfortunately

Yeah, I played a bit of Dual Strike and enjoyed it also— my main complaint with it was that the slight 3D tilt on the gameboard mangles all that beautiful pixel art.

Have tried Wargroove (it was in a recent Humble Bundle) and it was fun, but agree that it's just not quite the same.

Did you ever try the Micro?

I have hands large enough to find the original xbox controller to be comfortable and preferable to the S, but even still the Micro with its superior display and larger shoulder buttons is preferable to the SP. I feel a bit like I'm balancing it on my fingertips, but nevertheless, it's the pinnacle of mobile gaming.

The problem with the Micro nowadays is that it's very very hard to find one at any kind of reasonable price. I suspect it never sold that much, so the supply of units in good condition is very low, and hence stupid prices on eBay.

I've bought myself a modded original Gameboy Advance with a modern backlit IPS screen and it's a marvel, absolutely love this thing. Spent a small fortune re-buying all my childhood games for it just so I can play them again. And yes, the form factor is nearly perfect.

I've got a Micro (well, two actually). It's super-cute, but the screen is just too tiny for me to be comfortable. You really need to strain your eyes a bit too much.

Micro had the best dpad and buttons by a large margin. Definitely felt less cramp in my hands using it than with the SP.

The one thing I remember the SP failed on was the unified charging/audio port. So unless you used an unsupported third-party dongle you couldn't charge and use headphones at the same time.

Otherwise agreed, it was a fantastic console.

Apart from web stuff, ARM C on the GBA was my primary early programming experience after dabbling around with QBASIC and GB(C) z80 C as a kid. There were a lot of community-made dev tools, example code and guides online that were reasonably approachable for a curious 12-year-old.

I owe a lot to the GBA homebrew community.

I've recently taken a plunge and bought a modified GameBoy Advance(not the SP) with a backlit IPS screen. My 8 year old self would have gone insane seeing such a thing, it's beautiful, crisp and makes playing all the original games a pleasure again, there's something to be said about playing on "original" hardware(I know the screen isn't original but I also have an unmodded GameBoy Colour and it's exactly as I remember - an exercise in sitting somewhere near a light source to see anything, but not near enough so that you can't see anything on the screen). Would highly recommend if someone fancies a good dose of nostalgia.

Yep :) I totally forgot about the backlit screen, a few people have also mentioned it in the comments. It was definitely a killer feature too! Playing in the night without a worry!

The DS was way better IMHO. I got overhyped on the GBA because of how it was marketed as a pocket SNES. Only two face buttons and the shitty sounding music were a big disappointment to me. The games did look nice, whenever it was possible to see them.

I strongly recommend upgrading your GBA if you still have it - you can get an IPS replacement screen (bare minimum, it's an enormous improvement), USB-C Lipo battery, new shells/buttons, louder speaker, etc. I think it costs around $100 for the lot, but it breathes a lot of life back into the platform. Personally, I prefer the standard GBA for superior ergonomics, and the lack of moving parts (and it's the one I had!)

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.

Did a bit when I was abt 12yo, embarrasing/naive code: https://github.com/benoror/gbadev/blob/master/%40rkanoid/jue...

Hey now; if you genuinely wrote that when you were 12 then there's nothing to be embarassed about.

The programmer you are today is the result of all the code you ever wrote, good and bad;

I've gotten into GBA homebrew again recently. The community is small but getting a bit bigger. gbadev on Discord is a fun place to hang out.

The tooling doesn't seem to have changed all that much from back in the day, which isn't a bad thing: the best way to get music on the GBA is still to compose something in an old-fashioned tracker and using Maxmod to import it. Sprite conversion tools haven't changed that much.

Programming it is just so lovely bare-metal: poking/prodding registers, writing backgrounds and sprites into memory regions.. Really fun stuff.

Reading this article gave me the warm fuzzies for the same reason; The GBA was a dream to homebrew for.

If you liked this article I can also recommend the "Ultimate Talk" series on media.ccc.de (or the media.ccc.de YouTube channel), starting with "The Ultimate Game Boy Talk" by Michael Steil: https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8029-the_ultimate_game_boy_talk

I've been having tons of fun lately making GBA games, it's far enough from my webdev day job to be intellectually stimulating. I'm quite impressed with people saying they use to built games when 12, some of the stuff in tonc took a bit to click for me.

I definitely recommend Aseprite for pixel art, it's really good.

I miss Lik Sang.

Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I still have a VGA box that turns a monitor into a TV allowing composite cables to be used I purchased from there. Good times!

With posts like this I always have to think of the fivemouse.com website that I stumbled on via Slashdot [1] in 2002. It made a great impression om me back in the day. It still lingers on archive.org [2].

[1] https://m.slashdot.org/story/24564

[2] http://web.archive.org/web/20020801000000*/fivemouse.com

The new processor from UK won the 21st century over :)

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