The author shares their experience developing a game for the Game Boy Advance using Zig, a niche language known for its efficiency in embedded programming. They highlight Zig’s advantages such as its ability to simplify cross-compilation and toolchain management, packed structs for handling memory layouts, comptime for compile-time data compression, and a flexible standard library. The author also discusses some challenges faced with Zig, including limitations in inline assembly, Thumb code vs. Arm code compatibility, and peculiarities of the Game Boy Advance’s memory structure. Overall, the blog post provides valuable insights into using Zig for retro console game development.
https://jonot.me/posts/zig-gba/