PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
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Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#2Wow, I've never heard of the PICO-8 before, but it's fantastic! This is exactly what I've always wanted, some ultra-simplified game console/emulator that's easy to create content for and easy to distribute that content. People have even built cool demoscene-esque content for it![2] And some of the games people have made are fantastic, and you can play them in your browser here: http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?mode=carts&cat=7&sub=2&orderb...
Also, I was a bit confused by the term "fantasy console" so here's what I've been able to learn with some reading: it seems the PICO-8 is a kind of ultra-simple game VM with it's original implementation being in HTML/JS with access being sold by the creator[0]. At some point, the PICO-8 vm was ported by its creator to work on the CHIP computer, and now the PICO-8 VM is pre-installed on all CHIP computers[1].
What the OP link is for is an open source implementation of the PICO-8 VM in Rust. This isn't the only open source implementation of PICO-8.
[0] - http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#3My first thought is that such a focused environment for the code to run in might make this a helpful tool to teach kids programming in a fun and engaging way. I sincerely believe that game creation is the single best vector to get children interested in programming, and this seems like a cool possible vector. (Python is a great beginning language!)
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#4Wow, I've never heard of the PICO-8 before, but it's fantastic ! This is exactly what I've always wanted, some ultra-simplified game console/emulator that's easy to create content for and easy to distribute that content. People have even built cool demoscene-esque content for it![2] And some of the games people have made are fantastic, and you can play them in your browser here: http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?mode=ca…
There are some PICO8 threads on HN which you might be interested in reading.
PICO 8 lighting parts one and two:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13598182
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13667272
And an old announcement thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10317026
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#5Wow, I've never heard of the PICO-8 before, but it's fantastic ! This is exactly what I've always wanted, some ultra-simplified game console/emulator that's easy to create content for and easy to distribute that content. People have even built cool demoscene-esque content for it![2] And some of the games people have made are fantastic, and you can play them in your browser here: http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?mode=ca…
Is it an actual VM with its own bytecode and so on? As far as I've looked it's more like the idea of a VM built as a set of Lua APIs and memory constraints. However, the creator seems to be doing a Java-like push where the language, runtime, standard library, and development tools are all marketed as one "technology", so it's not especially clear to me.
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#6To understand why some people (including myself) are going nuts about Pico-8, here's one random feature: when you save your virtual cartridge as 'mygame.p8.png' it automatically generates a neat cartridge png representation with the screenshot of your choice from the game. Like so: http://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/cposts/1/10022.p8.png.
Big deal you say! well, check this out: this png IS the game. It embeds the executable written in LUA. Try it for yourself - take the png I posted above, load it in pico8 then press escape: voila, full source code, sprite sheet, tracker data, etc. Type "RUN" and the game plays.
Pico8 (and its cousin voxatron) also contain an online cartridge browser that lets you discover and learn from everyone who contributed a cartridge.
Pico-8 is choke-full of these incredible little details that make all the difference. Unfortunately it's not open source itself, which some find a bit odd considering it encourages the open sourcing of the cartridge written for it. Good to see some projects such as TIC-80, LIKO-12 and now PX8 mixing things up a bit, that said it's still a nascent environment and let's not forget it's very much the arbitrary, sometimes amusing limitations imposed by the lead dev that makes these things fun.
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#7Just a quick heads up. Ludum Dare 38 is happening this weekend (theme: "a small world"). And I've certainly noticed an uptick in gamedevs targeting PICO-8 and SCUMM-8 platforms. Rather apropos given the theme, no?
A few Gifs of WIPs:
https://twitter.com/Huginn18/status/855857089960345600
https://twitter.com/quaIiaa/status/855878802563633152
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#8Be sure to get the PICO-8 bundled with Voxatron for only a few bucks more!
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#9[deleted]
Re: PX8 – A PICO-8 compatible fantasy console written in Rust
#10My first thought is that such a focused environment for the code to run in might make this a helpful tool to teach kids programming in a fun and engaging way. I sincerely believe that game creation is the single best vector to get children interested in programming, and this seems like a cool possible vector. (Python is a great beginning language!)
Pico-8 already has great licensing for schools [0], and honestly, in that environment, its easier to say "Buy this" than "this is free".