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Game Developer Rule (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 weeks ago by Clbull@lemmy.world to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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[-] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 3 weeks ago

That one is about Chris Sawyer. He'll remind people that there was a bit of C in there, but 99% x86 assembly / machine code in his words.

[-] Clbull@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

I think he only used C to build the installer. The rest was coded in x86 assembly.

Building anything in x86 assembly is a gargantuan effort, but then Chris Sawyer built a game on the same level of scale as RollerCoaster Tycoon...

[-] mriswith@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

There is some C in the game as well:

It's 99% written in x86 assembler/machine code (yes, really!), with a small amount of C code used to interface to MS Windows and DirectX.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201108105209/http://www.chrissawyergames.com/faq3.htm

[-] paris@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 weeks ago

For anyone interested in why, C was new and didn't yet optimize to the same level that a clever and experienced human could optimize Assembly. IIRC, by the time he was developing Roller Coaster Tycoon, C compiler optimization was on par with human Assembly optimization, so it was the last notable game written entirely in Assembly for optimization purposes.

I think this was the video I watched where I learned this: https://youtu.be/0JouTsMQsEA

this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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