this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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Why do GBA games boot so damn fast? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 6 days ago by kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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For context: I have basically 0 experience with anything pre-PS2 except that I had a PS1 as a kid with a few games. Never had an official gaming handheld console, Gameboy, DS, PSP or anything like that.

I've recently started playing the GBA game Crash Bandicoot 2 N-Tranced on my R36S (Chinese low end emulator handheld) that was collecting dust and wow, the game boots up blazing fast!

It's very convenient as I don't want to leave the thing on sleep mode, as that drains battery.

Is this how it was like on the real console too and how were the loading times on the previous Gameboy and Gameboy Color? How about the NES and NES? Were the handhelds more optimized to be picked up on the go: were the PSP loading times short too?

I remember having to wait quite a while on the PS1 and PS2 and that is still a thing on an emulator on an actual gaming pc while this 27€ handheld boots GBA games so so fast.

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[–] Zarxrax@lemmy.world 38 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Cartridge games were always fast to start. There are essentially no loading times on them, just maybe some logos that you would have to wait through. CD based systems are what introduced the concept of loading times to console gamers, because cds read data from the disk at a massively slower speed than a cartridge.

[–] kuiskaaja@lemmy.ml 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

ohh, that makes a lot of sense!

[–] rowinxavier@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

Also the data on a cartridge is read using addresses just like memory, whereas on a disc you use tracks and then do a long sequential read. If you want one byte of data from a specific place you have to read much more than one byte from a disc, but from an addressed system you may be able to read an individual address then move on.

Also if you have 600mb to work with you tend to be a little less frugal thab if you have only a few megs to work with like on a GBA.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 days ago

I remember once watching someone play a game on a PSP when that was a current console... and being absolutely surprised that on occasion, frames didn't load completely instantly. I only owned Nintendo consoles (GBA, NDS) at the time, so wasn't used to this.