I don't know if you're working with modern models. Grok 4 doesn't really know much about assembly language on the Apple II but I gave it all of the architectural information it needed in the first prompt of a conversation and it built compilable and executable code. Most of the issues I encountered were due to me asking for too much in a prompt. But it built a complete, albeit simple, assembly language game in a few hours of back and forth with it. Obviously I know enough about the Apple II to steer it when it goes awry, but it's definitely able to write 'original' code in a language / platform it doesn't inherently comprehend.
This matches my experience as well. Poor performance usually means I haven't provided enough context or have asked for too much in a single prompt. Modifying the prompt accordingly and iterating usually results in satisfactory output within the next few tries.
