Thread: Is Gameboy z80 ASM hard to program?

  1. #1
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    Is Gameboy z80 ASM hard to program?

    I'm just curious on how hard is z80 ASM of the Gameboy and not sure I'll be acin' that I bascially want to use this z80 assembler called Rednex GameBoy Development System which means I'll have to learn z80 in order to create some Gameboy Color games of my own which I do want to make it only for Gameboy Color if possible.

    So is this type of ASM is hard or should I use the C complier which is GBDK?

    I really would love to make some neat Gameboy/Color Games of my own so I could release the games for anyone to play around with and enjoy.

    my Dev name Scythe & Genesis Games is lacking a lot and never made a game before!

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    Programming Wraith GReaper's Avatar
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    The assembly itself is quite easy. The hardware shenanigans are the hard part... Managing memory banks, reading input from the buttons, playing sound, displaying graphics etc, etc. Memory mapping is nice, but the way it's implemented is... disagreeable.
    Devoted my life to programming...

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    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    I suppose the first step is try writing Z80 asm on an emulator, where you don't have to worry about all the excess baggage of actually getting your code onto a real device and understanding how to get feedback from it.

    Can you write asm competently for any other processor?

    Then there is the general realisation that it takes 10x longer to achieve the same thing in asm as it would have taken to write the thing in C to begin with.

    Unless this is purely academic for your own curiosity, I would suggest writing in C to begin with. When your program is complete and functional should you consider profiling to find out if some small heavily used code can be usefully written in asm (assuming you can beat the compiler).

    Modern C compilers are no slouches when it comes to optimising code.
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

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