34
votes
Why would poking an inserted Game Boy cartridge while powered on cause a game/device to hang?
Surely data is not constantly transferred to and from the cartridge?
Surely it is. That's the huge benefit of cartridges.
Only when loading a new level or starting the game and things like that? ...
- 4,475
12
votes
Accepted
What sort of LCDs are used by the Game Boy/TI-83 calculator/etc.?
The original Gameboy, which I assume this is about, is, as Wiki states a Reflective, 160 × 144 Pixels, STN LCD.
Reflective means that it has no backlight nor other means of ilumination but simply ...
- 213k
4
votes
Why would poking an inserted Game Boy cartridge while powered on cause a game/device to hang?
On the Game Boy and Game Boy Color the cartridge roms were connected more-or-less directly to the main memory bus and were as fast as any other memory. Working ram in the console was also quite ...
- 2,662
3
votes
Why would poking an inserted Game Boy cartridge while powered on cause a game/device to hang?
The other answers have corrected the misconception about whether games run directly from ROM (they do), but I wanted to add a second reason why messing with the electrical connection could cause ...
- 2,230
2
votes
Why would poking an inserted Game Boy cartridge while powered on cause a game/device to hang?
The X-factor is, fast ROMs were far cheaper than RAM
Surely data is not constantly transferred to and from the cartridge?
You're thinking modern - where RAM is cheap and abundant, and all software ...
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