What OP is attempting to do is actually not really something that was done 'in the day'. By the time games developers were shifting from writing in ASM the idea

What OP is attempting to do is actually not really something that was done 'in the day'. By the time games developers were shifting from writing in ASM the idea of development 'on the hardware' was largely disappearing, and most dev studios had low-end minicomputers or (16-bit, mostly) workstations running cross-compilers or cross-assemblers. Most indie devs, of that era, were sticking with ASM - it didn't help that the native compilers were often outrageously expensive for an individual to purchase. That said, I understand the allure of trying to work 'native', and it's a mistake/trap I often fall into myself.