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Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

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Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#111

Post by LastTrain »

igrekel wrote: post #96
tmountain wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIC-80 is heavily inspired by PICO-8. Supporting PICO-8 enables the creator of the original technology to continue producing creative works that seem to inspire a lot of derivative projects. Whatever the case, if you don’t agree, then don’t buy it. It’s pretty simple in that regard.

I think you missed the point, I perceived the question (which I'm asking myself too) how do these differ? What makes one more fun or better than the other?

I use both pico-8 and tic-80. I like both of them, but I like pico-8 better. Why? Aesthetics pretty much - and isn’t that enough? These aren’t tools to get things done; they are more like songs you listen to.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#113

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

Quiark wrote: post #98

I'm just wondering if there's a toy project for implementing the operating system for a sci-fi spaceship. Would it run on Kubernetes?

About ten years ago, Markus Persson, the creator of Minecraft, was working on a game called 0x10c which was going to be a sci-fi spaceship game where the various functions of the ship were controlled by 1980s-era computers, leaving the programming parts to the player to build. There was a community that spung up that wrote code, device drivers, etc. An interesting idea that died on the vine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0x10c https://github.com/lucaspiller/dcpu-specifications

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#115

Post by onemoresoop »

PostOnce wrote: post #4

Pico-8 was and is one of the most pleasant pieces of software I have used. I can only imagine the wonders the community will produce for this thing. Of course, despite the machine itself (pico 8 that is, and this thing too) being proprietary, all the user-programs are source-available if not open source. It's really educational and I love it. There will be compatible implementations of this thing, but the pico-8 tool…

>Pico-8 was and is one of the most pleasant pieces of software I have used

Indeed, but I have a gripe with it that I cannot get over, the editor's font is too damn hard to read, I tried get used to it but to no avail. The games however are very playable, fun, inspiring and the community couldn't be better.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#117

Post by packetlost »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #114

> Picotron apps can be made with built-in tools, and shared with other users in a special 256k png cartridge format. I’m noticing a trend of newer indie software distributing assets in png files, what’s with that?

Picotron is by the same person as PICO-8 which is, to my knowledge, what made fantasy consoles popular.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#118

Post by rahimnathwani »

kelvinquee wrote: post #55
crq-yml wrote: post #42

I had a good time with PICO-8 - and I think it retains its core appeal - but I've moved on to "genuine" retro hardware with the new crop of machines like CX16, Mega65, or my personal choice, Agon Light. The specification ends up being tighter when there's a board design, chips and I/O ports, and these new machines, like Picotron, are relatively uncompromised in what they can achieve within the I/O spec. You can emula…

+1 My kids and I had a lot of fun with Pico-8, building simple games and learning basic geometry. The community (inherited from Pico-8) is already implementing cat/wget/grep[1] and, of course, Minesweeper[2] in Picotron! Whatever Joseph White/zep is building brings back the early days of Internet and IRC where the everybody builds and shares unashamedly while having a ton of fun! Thank you zep for making computing fu…

I'm curious how old your kids were when they started hacking on PICO-8 code?

My son (7yo) likes block-based programming (using Scratch, Scratch Jr and Octostudio) and Minecraft, but I'm wondering what a smooth on-ramp might be for PICO-8 or similar.

I got my first computer when I was about 10yo, so I was content to read through the books that came with it to learn the basics of BASIC and a little 6502 assembly. But I don't think that will work due to age, availability of other devices etc.

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