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Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

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Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#31
post #7

here are some other fantasy consoles: https://github.com/paladin-t/fantasy

Seems to be missing the original virtual console, CHIP-8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8

I have an ETI-660 that I built in the early 1980's around here somewhere. Possibly it even still works, though I'd need to find an old CRT TV to try. (probably need to replace the capacitors too). Coding in CHIP-8 was my intro to programming.

Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be missing the original virtual console, CHIP-8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8

I have an ETI-660 that I built in the early 1980's around here somewhere. Possibly it even still works, though I'd need to find an old CRT TV to try. (probably need to replace the capacitors too). Coding in CHIP-8 was my intro to programming.

I designed and maintain an IDE for CHIP-8 development (http://octo-ide.com) which you might find enjoyable. If you wanted to run your programs on an ETI-660 I could easily make the assembler's base address configurable to suit that machine's memory map.

Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an ETI-660 that I built in the early 1980's around here somewhere. Possibly it even still works, though I'd need to find an old CRT TV to try. (probably need to replace the capacitors too). Coding in CHIP-8 was my intro to programming.

I designed and maintain an IDE for CHIP-8 development ( http://octo-ide.com ) which you might find enjoyable. If you wanted to run your programs on an ETI-660 I could easily make the assembler's base address configurable to suit that machine's memory map.

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not even sure if any of my code from that era survives. I'll have a look sometime.

Cool project btw!

Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#34
post #21
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm working on something like this, but as time has gone on I've made technical constraint less of a priority and focused more and more on the I/O and "bus" model itself, because that's where the ultimate bottlenecks lie. If you have all the processing power in the world but only a 256x256 space to draw in and a limited number of commands to draw with, you still have an interesting constraint. One of the things I fou…

Very cool! Have a page or repo up to follow your work?

I have a little landing page on itch.io which can be followed if you have an account (but the content is getting embarassingly out of date): https://triplefox.itch.io/galapagos

Current release plan is to get some builds out late August/early September, both free and paid(paid simply gets the updates faster). Then later on, I can think about plans to open up development. PICO-8 took about two years from conception to release and I'm getting to around the end of year one of mine, and just about everything has had multiple iterations, but the first release will be a basic "run at the command line, code in your text editor, store assets in the file system" kind of environment. Releasing means I think the basic design is mostly settled, so after that all the UI and IDE functions will become possible.

Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#35
post #27
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Panic, the mac app development group, is making a custom handheld console for original retro-ish games: https://play.date/

AFAICT the Playdate is actually an instantiation of a less powerful abstract machine than even the PICO-8; closer to an Arduboy.

In my experience Pico-8 maxes out at something kinda-sorta approximating 4MHz, although in the words of the author, "PICO-8 CPU costs are made up and essentially silly when looked at too closely."[1]

The CPU in the Playdate prototype runs at 216MHz.[2] The numbers aren't directly comparable, but I'd wager that the Playdate will have _significantly_ more headroom.

1. https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=33883

2. https://twitter.com/zhuowei/status/1132447884719210497

Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#36
post #5
post #3

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. :)

You can kinda skirt some of the limitations with Pico-8's multi-cart feature. It gives you more storage space via a simulated cartridge swapping system.

Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#37

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

> imagine an internet that diverges with something other than html

Pico-8 has the "cartverse," which allows you to link between carts in various ways. It's all centralized around the BBS right now, though.

Re: Pico-8 Virtual Fantasy Console is an idealized constrained modern day game maker

#38

Interesting that it's just an "8-bit look" but not really "8-bit". Code is written in Lua which will be either 32- or 64- bit depending on what platform the Lua interpreter is compiled on. (From the name, I went to read the docs, because I thought they emulated an "ideal" 8-bit processor, too.)

Yeah, it's all on the Lua VM. It does behave kinda like an 8-bit computer in that you can go poking around in the RAM to create various effects or glitches.
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