this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026
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Why do GBA games boot so damn fast? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 day 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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[–] hayvan@piefed.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Today's equivalent of a GBA cartridge would be a special read-only DDR5 stick that you plug into your mainboard, and the game runs directly from the installed memory. They don't need loading, they don't need booting at all, when you power up it is already in the memory.