11–20 of 38 posts
this might be childish wishful thinking, but I'd love to make something like that but with a physical console also. Share the software created between the physical console and the fantasy console, maybe allow alternate software evolutions (imagine an internet that diverges with something other than html). It's a fun little daydream at least
I'd love a PICO-16: a fantasy console almost-but-not-quite like a GBA, extended in some ways (e.g. resolution, sound channels) and reduced in others (e.g. palette, maximum ROM size.) There are tons of these little "retro console" devices lately—the Bittboy, LDK-game, etc.—that people just treat as emulation devices, when they actually have hidden potential for running native game software as well, with more power tha…
I'd love a PICO-16: a fantasy console almost-but-not-quite like a GBA, extended in some ways (e.g. resolution, sound channels) and reduced in others (e.g. palette, maximum ROM size.) There are tons of these little "retro console" devices lately—the Bittboy, LDK-game, etc.—that people just treat as emulation devices, when they actually have hidden potential for running native game software as well, with more power tha…
One of the things I found myself doing with PICO-8's setup was prematurely optimizing code for size, which presented a new kind of puzzle(how to express things in fewer Lua tokens) but didn't feel good in terms of authoring finished work(I made a nice 3D maze wireframe renderer - and then stopped there). So with my own fantasy console I'm prioritizing other things beyond size/retro aesthetic, while still thinking about limitations. "Diversity" has become one of those things: you will have some ability to swap out graphics and sound cores, and use a variety of programming languages. The fixed spec approach makes it harder to make each part really distinctive and not just another "tiles and sprites and chiptunes" doddle.
Since I made the foolish decision to support 3D cores it's taken a while to get a renderer going, though, and I finally decided to speed things up by releasing with 2D first and adding more later.
I'd love a PICO-16: a fantasy console almost-but-not-quite like a GBA, extended in some ways (e.g. resolution, sound channels) and reduced in others (e.g. palette, maximum ROM size.) There are tons of these little "retro console" devices lately—the Bittboy, LDK-game, etc.—that people just treat as emulation devices, when they actually have hidden potential for running native game software as well, with more power tha…
I'd love a PICO-16: a fantasy console almost-but-not-quite like a GBA, extended in some ways (e.g. resolution, sound channels) and reduced in others (e.g. palette, maximum ROM size.) There are tons of these little "retro console" devices lately—the Bittboy, LDK-game, etc.—that people just treat as emulation devices, when they actually have hidden potential for running native game software as well, with more power tha…
I would love to see a PICO-OS. Something in the same spirit, but for making little simple apps instead of games, in the style of a 90’s OS.
The way I imagined it working was a simple instruction set emulator that mmap()ed ROM images and had a fixed RAM size (in the order of 64k). Have an adjustable resolution, but simple fantasy console style display. Also the option to allow the apps to call host commands.
It would be ideal for things like volume controls, and pop up calculators etc. Maybe a really lightweight Winamp style mpd front-end.
Initially this struck me as an idea when I was hunting for what was eating memory on a 256Meg machine. I found the Volume control (one slider, and a menu dock item) required 4meg to operate.
(From the name, I went to read the docs, because I thought they emulated an "ideal" 8-bit processor, too.)
It's always fun to do some low level stuffs in these days.
I've made a game with PICO-8 with my 6-year-old watching along with me and telling me what to put into it. It was a great experience. I do think it's very nearly almost too constrained, specifically in the code editor. But, it did it's job. A QBASIC-like interface would be appreciated.
I wish you could configure your constraints. I understand why you can't. But I just want unlimited tiles and map sizes. :)
The Discord server and Forums are very active and friendly.
Specifically, Helder's Minty Pi[0], or various incarnations of the Game Boy Zero: Kite's Circuit Sword CM3+ AIO PCB[1], RenegadeLab's Game Boy Zero AIO PCB[2], and the always out of stock (but can be found on ebay with a markup) Retroflag GPi Case[3].
[0] https://heldergametech.com/shop/mintypi/mintypi-v3-pcb-kit/
[1] https://sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8488
[2] https://www.renegadelabs.net/product/gameboy-zero-aio-pro-pc...
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Retroflag-CASE-Raspberry-Zero-Shutdow...