game boy hardware autopsy part 2

Okay, so today I’m diving back into the Game Boy hardware stuff. It’s part 2 of my little adventure, and we’re gonna talk about memory. Sounds boring, right? But trust me, it’s kinda cool.

First off, I fired up my Game Boy, the old, trusty brick. I wanted to see how this thing actually handles memory. So, I started poking around, trying to access different memory addresses. Like, I messed with addresses C000 through DFFF. Turns out, when you hit those, you’re digging into the RAM. Every single time. It’s like the Game Boy’s saying, “Yep, that’s RAM, no questions asked.”

Then I shifted my focus to the range FE00 through FFFF. This was a bit different. Whenever I tried to access these, I ended up in the OAM, IO, or high-RAM areas. It was consistent. So, it seems like the hardware was hardwired to make sure you get what you expect in these ranges.

More poking around

Dug deeper into the whole memory mapping thing. It’s wild to think that back in the day, most games were coded in assembly. You know, with manual memory commands and all that jazz. I’m just a novice when it comes to programming, but even I can appreciate how intense that must’ve been.
I was reading some stuff online, and it blew my mind how much work went into making those old Game Boy games. It’s not like today where you have all these fancy tools and engines. Those developers were really working from scratch, managing every bit of memory by hand.
So, I kept experimenting, trying out different memory locations, seeing what would happen. It’s like exploring an old, mysterious house. You never know what you’ll find behind each door. Each memory address has its own little secrets.

It’s funny, this whole thing started out as just curiosity. I mean, who hasn’t wondered how those old handhelds worked? But the more I learn, the more I’m amazed by the ingenuity behind it all. It’s like peeling back the layers of history, one byte at a time.

Anyway, that’s all for my Game Boy memory adventure today. I might do more digging later, but for now, I’m gonna go play some Tetris. Gotta appreciate the classics, right?