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Beginners > C or Asm programming?

#16008 - Lukeage - Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:14 am

I'm new to GBA development, but consider myself a very decent programmer. I have experience in both C and Asm on the x86 platform and am curious as to what I should start with for the GBA? Should I learn both and program in a hybrid style when needed?

Thanks,
Luke

#16010 - poslundc - Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:43 am

C is usually the best place to start in order to familiarize yourself with the mechanics and idiosynchrocies of GBA programming. You can then pick up ASM relatively quickly (especially if you've done assembly-level programming before), but it should only be necessary for optimizing the occassional time-sensitive routine.

Good tutorials on C programming for the GBA are available from http://www.thepernproject.com and http://www.gbajunkie.co.uk.

You'll also want to keep the following references on hand: gbatek (more-or-less the bible of GBA programming) and the Cowbite spec (a little less complete, but a little more user-friendly).

Be sure to read the beginner's FAQ in this forum if you haven't already. When you want to break into ASM you can find good tutorials and references both here and also on the devrs site.

Good luck,

Dan.

#16011 - Lukeage - Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:48 am

Thanks for the quick reply. I hope to start playing with this stuff on the weekend.