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.
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.
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
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…
There is some C in the game as well:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201108105209/http://www.chrissawyergames.com/faq3.htm