31–40 of 48 posts
[1] See http://i.imgur.com/1VOlxCt.png.
Only thing about PICO-8 that makes no sense: the 32k limit. Otherwise, an awesome set of limitations.
I want to point out that the console uses a (quite appealing [1]) fixed palette of 16 colors for all of its graphics. I think having a fixed palette is a great idea. I can see it helping would-be game developers overcome their initial art style analysis paralysis and helping ensure that the games have a recognizable "PICO-8" look. [1] See http://i.imgur.com/1VOlxCt.png .
Only thing about PICO-8 that makes no sense: the 32k limit. Otherwise, an awesome set of limitations.
The NES had 2 kb onboard and 8 to 16kb on the cartridge, 32kb ROM and 2kb display memory
I highly recommend this system to anyone. It's great and I've been having a tonne of fun with it. It's no Amiga 500, but boy it has that feel.
They have a very developer friendly environment (I spent many days programming there, they often hold Ludum Dare marathons) and Joseph is a first class indy developer.
The limitations really make it easy to not worry and just make a dang game! For those of you worrying about cart size limits: if your game is too big for one cart, make it a two-parter :P Also, apparently you can load data from another cart while your game is running so you could just chain a whole bunch of them together.
Two things I am really excited for are support on Pi-style hardware, and mobile support for the web player.
This system is quite amazing. Peek and poke! Extremely limited pallet! An integrated development environment. The restrictions make for some very interesting design choices and force you to limit the scope of your designs -- super important if you ever actually want to finish a game. I highly recommend this system to anyone. It's great and I've been having a tonne of fun with it. It's no Amiga 500, but boy it has tha…
[1] https://github.com/JohnEarnest/Octo [2] http://octojam.com
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't need to do that, though. It's an interesting set of visual limitations, but the size limit is an arbitrary pain in the ass if your program gets too big. Nobody's hosting is going to break at 256kb.
Your missing the point, it has nothing to do with download speed. 32k is not a pita, its the point, this is a fantasy retro consol, giving it 32 MB would do what ? make it pointless probably Its also a excellent opportunity to show off, for example, nobody would have thought you could make this on a C64 1984 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kJz_XfbxX0
Also note pico-8 limits the number of instructions executed per frame. So a faster CPU will not increase what you can do. The goal is to make sure all games run even on the least powered hardware.
