Gameboy Development Forum

C+ASM, is usually the way to go, yes. There's this saying that 10% of the code is executed 90% of the time. Those 10% are the only parts that are really worth optimizing. (=Writing in ASM)
ASM only is defnitely a viable option. It takes a lot more work, and for the other 90% of the code that is being executed just 10% of the time, it won't matter much speedwise. However, that 90% will shrink alot because a C compiler tends to create bloated machine code. I can imagine many commercial games were written in ASM only, but then again, it's hard to know without seeing their source code.
And, the last option, C only. This could work for some smaller programs, or when you're experimenting with something before the stage where it becomes serious enough to care about speed. A big nono for serious projects.

I beleive ASM will ALWAYS be better than any higher level programming langauge. Its just whether you want to spend so much time coding and LEARNING for a matter of fact. It is good to at least experiance ASM if not learn it. I am looking into going into Univeristy, and by doing that i have been looking at some game programming jobs. ALL the jobs i have seen which require a good knowledge of ASM get a massive pay rise than for some one who knows C++. But of course the price is high becuase its hard to learn. Starting here where ofc you are keen on success with your favourite handheld IS THE BEST place to start. The Motivation that just brings with programming on a gameboy will be enough to get you somewhere. I wish to at least view ASM hands on here, see how it goes. Maybe we can learn one or two things from our experiance. Who knows.

True nitro, but to get the maxium out of a program, using ASM will privide a better result. But it is merly not feasiable to create a complex program using ASM, unless your a genius and have 20 years to waste!

dox wrote:

GB assembler language  is really simple. Imho easier to learn than gbdk-ish version of C
(knowing the "real" C doesn't helps in this case, but confuses).
The only problem could be non-orthogonal architecture and very limited instruction set.

Very true. I've jumped ship to RGBASM because of GBDK's bug-laden compiler and it's not much more difficult than writing in C with GBDK's quirkiness in mind; and this is coming from someone who has never written in assembly before.

dox wrote:

Mixing asm with c isn't  a good idea either. Not on this hardware platform.

And why is that? Most code has little benefit being written in assembly anyways. Only certain code actually needs that extra efficiency.