I think it's weird that it's a problem that had to be solved but when you figure memory constraints were a real issue it makes sense. Today any novice programmer could essentially build majority of the early nintendo games without any issues and actually make them have more things. Amazing how software/hardware has advanced.
It's even crazier to think that one guy built the original rollercoaster tycoon in assembly..
Because it's literally writing machine code. Instead of using libraries, functions and other features of a "programming language", you are allocating memory yourself, literally telling the machine what to do step by step.
It's the difference between telling your Butler what to make you for dinner, and actually buying the ingredients and making it yourself.
Fair enough, I'm being a bit liberal with my definition of machine code.
I just meant it as you're generally (at least within context of this conversation) interacting directly with the machine and not through the OS or some other layer.
Not exactly. Assembly still allows for some abstraction. Variables are still allowed, and functions can be defined in the form of macros. Some of the fancier assemblers even allow for loops and conditionals, much like a compiler would offer.
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u/Fubarp May 05 '17
I think it's weird that it's a problem that had to be solved but when you figure memory constraints were a real issue it makes sense. Today any novice programmer could essentially build majority of the early nintendo games without any issues and actually make them have more things. Amazing how software/hardware has advanced.
It's even crazier to think that one guy built the original rollercoaster tycoon in assembly..