Clock rate of the ARM7TDMI is indeed around double the GBC (GBA runs at 16.78Mz, while GBC runs at 8.4MHz), but cycles-per-instruction is far lower on the GBA's ARM7TDMI than the GBC's Z80-like processor.
On GBA, most instructions take 1 cycle to execute (when running from fast memory). Not all instructions take one cycle, memory Read/Write instructions, branches, and multiplying takes more than one cycle.
On GBC, an instruction basically takes 4 cycles per memory access. This includes the instruction fetch itself, each other byte of the instruction, each memory read/write performed, then 4 additional cycles if the instruction performed 16-bit math. (Also stuff for branches too)
But GBA doesn't always run code from fast memory. It gets the worst-case performance when executing code directly from the cartridge. When running 16-bit THUMB code, it takes 5 cycles. When running 32-bit ARM code, it takes 8 cycles. This means that a game needs to copy code into fast memory if it wants to run at a high performance.
So with the full penalties that come from directly executing code from the cartridge, and you're comparing the simplest instructions, it does end up being only twice as fast. But when running code from fast memory, it's around 16 times faster.
The default setup on startup is 4 cycles for ROM access as you mention, but with system control registers you can control how fast the memory is - apparently current ROM has 3/1 wait states (first/sequential) access for 16 Bit access. There’s also a prefetch queue instructions. I understand this means when running THUMB code from ROM, non-branching instructions can also run at full speed.
One clear trend in mobile devices since the GBA times is the increase in screen sizes. The Switch's screen is just so much bigger than the GBA's. You also see that on phones, with popular models approaching if not exceeding 7" which used to be reserved to small tablets. Where do we stop? Don't get me wrong, I like the bigger screens, but portability is suffering and most pockets no longer fit today's "portable" devices.
While screen sizes have increased since the game boy era, device sizes have not if you’re comparing to phones which are the true successor to that kind of casual gaming.
The average mobile phone is smaller than most generations of game boy.
Additionally, unless you’re purposefully buying phablets or only used the mini/micro/sp, device sizes on phones hasn’t been increasing significantly over the last decade. In most cases, it’s the bezels getting smaller and screen sizes growing to be a larger part of the same device size.
Here are a smattering of measurements in millimetres. By volume, modern phones are way smaller. The biggest change is they’re longer in one dimension, but still very comparable. .
Original Gameboy 148mm (height) x 90mm (width) x 32mm (depth)
Gameboy advance 81mm x 140mm x23mm
Pixel 9 152.8 x 72 x 8.5 mm
Gameboy mini 101.5 x 52.5 x 15.5 mm
Gameboy advance SP 82x23x84
Gameboy Micro 101 x 50 x 17.2
iPhone 16 147.6 × 71.6 × 7.8 mm
Taking the pixel vs the advance for volume, the Pixel is only 35% of the GBA, or if you take by area, ignoring depth, Pixel is 96% of the size of the GBA.
If your pockets could fit a GBA, they certainly can fit a standard mobile phone.
Interesting comparison. Though I believe he was comparing GBA to Switch, not GBA to phones. Phones just exhibit a similar trend (older phones were smaller than current ones).
That’s only true if you consider all portable consoles in the same category.
There’s always been a market for the large portable console, also with the promise of docking. It’s just that compute was difficult to achieve until recently, and the market for the small end has been eaten by phones, and so they only make the larger end now.
I think the main problem with large handheld consoles in the past was that large or high resolution LCD screens were quite expensive for a long time. And everyone overestimated how much people valued the console being pocket sized.
But realistically, there’s always been three categories to personal compute and gaming.
For lack of better words, mobile, portable and home use.
Mobile was the gameboy and now the mobile phone.
Portable back then was the game gear and sega nomad. Today it’s the switch, steamdeck, and for a while the PSP and PS Vita. These provide cut down versions of home console games or better fidelity than truly mobile.
Home use being permanently plugged in like the SNES/N64.
It’s not that the small handhelds have gotten bigger, it’s just that they’ve stopped making stuff in that smallest category.
The fact is that mobile phones have taken over that mobile market completely. There’s no space to compete so that market is dead for game console makers.
There is a niche for small, mobile handhelds, with companies such as Retroid and Ambernic making devices with smaller screens. Interestingly even in this niche the proportion of truly mobile vs. portable is seeing the same continuing shift to larger, more powerful handhelds over time.
It seems in all categories people tend to purchase devices with larger screens. I wonder if this is caused by the nowadays much larger proportion of adults using these devices, where the Gameboy, etc., we're seen more as children's toys - meaning smaller form factors and screens might have been a better fit.
The Gameboy was designed and marketed to be casual gaming on the go (while commuting etc) as well as for children. It was the spiritual successor to the Game&Watch after all.
Those sorts of games are best suited to smaller screens but that’s the market that smartphones have basically taken over.
So if you need to differentiate a gaming product from the smartphones that everyone owns, you kind of need things like bigger screens, better ergonomics and more immersive games etc
The Switch is a different class of device than the GBA or DS: a hybrid console, intended for use on the go or as a home console almost equally well.
Part of the problem is that the people who grew up with Game Boy type devices have shitty eyes now, and squinting at a little 2" screen is getting uncomfortable.
The max size I want a gaming device is probably that of the 3DS XL. Anything bigger than that definitely won't fit in my pocket. So screen size, what I really want is as big a screen as you can fit on a device that size without making it uncomfortable.
Nintendo handhelds from GB to New 3DS XL were mostly very pocketable (except for 2DS.) I am still a fan of the 3DS XL form factor, and the dual screen clamshell design. DS and GBA SP also had great clamshell form factors. 3DS was also fun to carry around for streetpasses.
But I really like the Switch in handheld mode, and I actually want a bigger screen since for me it's more of a baggable rather than a pocketable, and many games have tiny text or UI elements sized for docked/TV mode rather than handheld mode.
I don't mind the existence of baggable handhelds. I own both a Switch and a Steam Deck, and the Steam Deck won't even fit in the oversized pockets of cargo shorts. But I wish there were room in the market for both baggables and pocketables[0]. I'd 100% buy a scaled-down Steam Deck that is roughly 3DS XL-sized.[1]
[0] For a while Nintendo was claiming that the Switch wasn't their new portable console, it was just a console that happened to be portable. There would still be a successor to the 3DS at some point. I guess you could argue that's the Switch Lite, but I still feel a little betrayed to not get a smaller next-gen handheld.
[1] I'm aware there's a flourishing market of mostly Chinese arm64 devices running Android and loaded with emulators for every system you could imagine. But I want an x86 device to play my existing GoG and Steam games.
I think the assumption is that everyone is carrying a bag now anyway. When the GBA came out, most people were still not carrying mobile phones so you had a pocket free besides wallet and keys
Idk where you live, but bags are not any more common in my experience than in the 90s.
The more likely reality is that gamers have different expectations today.
The kinds of games you’d play on everything prior to the 3DS are things you’d play on mobile phones now.
That leaves the middle area of more high fidelity games, with better ergonomics and closer to home consoles. That’s what the Switch , the PSP and Vita and 3DS occupy.
They can’t compete anymore in the absolute mobile end of gaming space , so moved into the space in between. That requires larger devices to provide the experience gamers want that they can’t get on the average phone till recently.
I see lots of people playing smartphone and tablet games, usually at max volume, on public transit, in stores, at dining locations, and in many other public spaces. Mostly anti-social gaming and/or child sedation, though I saw multiple players playing the same online game once.
But I think you are on to something, and not just that kids (or adults) don't go outside or interact with friends as much as they did in the past. It's just very enjoyable and comfortable to curl up with a portable game system at home, much as one could with a good book (if we still read books.)
Oh yes, there is portable gaming happening outside, that's for sure. My point is that's a minority of the actual portable gaming. People typically have more free time at home, and there is less of a barrier to play games when not in public, and less distractions. Anyway, that's just a hunch, I don't really have numbers to support that claim.
The screens had to get bigger to accommodate the unification of all platforms. It's great for game devs that you can ship something and port it to every platform with almost no effort.
There are little hand-held emulation systems made in China these days that hobbyists enjoy developing for and playing with. Anbernic makes a model with the physical design of the GBA[0] and others make ones similar to the SP. They are neat little toys.
My wife asked the same question when I was restoring the GBA I found in the closet, so I set up an emulator with the ROM on her phone. Less storage space than most apps and doesn't need ads or tracking.
Lost Frontier on mobile is good. Better than Wargroove imo. It really feels like the original Advance Wars in its simplicity. Just in a Western cowboy setting.
I’ve had Warside wishlisted on Steam for a year now, as it looks to be just that. And when I looked it up just now to double-check the name, looks like it’s coming out next month! Fingers crossed.
What do you mean "No more HDMA tricks"? GBA literally does DMA transfers that are automatically carried out at the horizontal-blanking interval. It's just encoded differently than how the SNES did it - no scanline numbers, just raw data to transfer every scanline as the horizontal-blanking period happens.
Clock rate of the ARM7TDMI is indeed around double the GBC (GBA runs at 16.78Mz, while GBC runs at 8.4MHz), but cycles-per-instruction is far lower on the GBA's ARM7TDMI than the GBC's Z80-like processor.
On GBA, most instructions take 1 cycle to execute (when running from fast memory). Not all instructions take one cycle, memory Read/Write instructions, branches, and multiplying takes more than one cycle.
On GBC, an instruction basically takes 4 cycles per memory access. This includes the instruction fetch itself, each other byte of the instruction, each memory read/write performed, then 4 additional cycles if the instruction performed 16-bit math. (Also stuff for branches too)
But GBA doesn't always run code from fast memory. It gets the worst-case performance when executing code directly from the cartridge. When running 16-bit THUMB code, it takes 5 cycles. When running 32-bit ARM code, it takes 8 cycles. This means that a game needs to copy code into fast memory if it wants to run at a high performance.
So with the full penalties that come from directly executing code from the cartridge, and you're comparing the simplest instructions, it does end up being only twice as fast. But when running code from fast memory, it's around 16 times faster.