What are some retro systems that wouldn't be too hard to

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>C++
There's a compiler for pic related. Pier Solar was made with it iirc.

Obvious Dreamcast.

Many retro consoles, particularly before 5th gen, are simple systems. The programmer's manual for a system like NES is not terribly long. It's nothing like coding assembly for an x86 system.

>>4209605
I've also read that the Sega Master System is friendly since it uses a Z80, at least compared to the GameBoy which uses a mix of 8080, Z80 and it's own stuff.

Thought my hangup with using assembler is that doing the simplest things requires reinventing the wheel. So it just sounds daunting. Or am I wrong?

Googling "(console) C compiler" gave me results for lots of retro systems, so you might want to look into that. Honestly though, assembly isn't that difficult to grasp, but as you said, it's pretty basic so simple instructions in modern languages will be much more complicated in assembly.

>>4209585
Commodore 64. 6502 Assembly has plenty of resources available and visual 6502 breaks down exactly what's going down with the processor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWqBmmPQP40
http://www.visual6502.org/

On top of that plenty of the C64 demo authors have written complex breakdowns on everything about the system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsRRCnque2E

Neo Geo Pocket Color dev is pretty fun, here's a devkit (note that it requires Win XP or below)
http://sebastianmihai.com/main.php?t=63&n=Neo-Geo-Pocket-Color-development-NGCollector
and here's a good tutorial
https://web.archive.org/web/20021207041122/http://www.ahchay.com:80/ngpcdev/tutorial.htm

>>4211502
i don't think you can make anything too big using a c compiler for nes or snes because the 6502 and 65c816 can't handle the overhead. the 68000 in the mega drive can however, hence sonic spinball supposedly being written completely in c

i suggest op should look into sgdk, it's really easy to use and i've had a lot of fun with it, but devoting enough time to make a full game for a retro console is idiotic

>>4209585
>retro systems
Yeah mate just program some stuff in dos.

>>4209585
Amiga/ST

>>4209612
You're wrong. Every simplest thing you would want to do has been done and you can copy and paste. You can copy and paste?

>>4211558
>hence sonic spinball supposedly being written completely in c

Its one of the laggiest games on the system too

Sounds like a fun thing to do in your spare time. Good luck with it

Go for it my dude. When I was at school in 2015, I wrote a clone of Flappy Bird for the Sega Master System in a couple of weeks. It was good fun and I learned a lot, and the resultant "Experience programming in Z80 Assembly" that I put on my CV caught people's eyes and last month I started my first job, as an embedded systems software engineer (a year long paid internship between my second and final year of university), as a result.

Honestly, it wasn't as difficult as I expected. Assembly can difficult to read (so don't make my mistake back in 2015, remember to comment heavily), but it's not that difficult to write. I can't speak for other systems, but SMSPower has some really good documentation available for the Sega Master System. The Z80 (used in the Master System and a fair few 8-bit home computers), the 6502 (used in the Commodore 64 and NES), and the 68k (used in the Mega Drive and a fair few 16 bit computers) were all fairly widely used in their time, so it shouldn't be difficult to find info on any of them, and most popular consoles and computers should have specific development info available somewhere.

Just pick a console you like and get to writing some assembly.