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Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

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Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#91

Post by jarvist »

Marazan wrote: post #90
kqr wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you – or someone else – write about why Pico-8 is so much better than other fantasy consoles? In particular, I've been intrigued by WASM-4 recently, and someone else mentioned TIC-80 which also looks good. I remember reading about Pyxel and getting inspired. All three of those have the benefit of being free, so why would I pay for Pico-8?

PICO-8 has a free online edition: https://www.pico-8-edu.com/

This is super useful to know about! The sprite designer & waveform editor / tracker is a really good creative introduction to computers for small children. And you can jump straight in to doing this with the above web link.

(For those new to Pico-8, hit 'esc' from the Lua console to bring up the editor tools, then click on the icon in the top right.)

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#92

Post by richardjdare »

bitwize wrote: post #15

It's a sign of the fact that personal computing has gone way, way off the rails that we make pretend computers to run on our real computers just to have fun ways to compute again. I really really appreciate work like this, but why aren't our actual operating systems "cozy" enough to support creative work anymore?

I agree, why do so many think that an immersive computer environment that makes the full power of the machine ergonomically ready-to-hand is some kind of retro thing? It sounds like a futuristic improvement to me. 40 years ago we had bicycles for the mind. Today I want a Kawasaki h2r for the mind, but the tech industry wants me to ride the bus.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#93

Post by p_l »

rob74 wrote: post #33
bitwize wrote: post #15

It's a sign of the fact that personal computing has gone way, way off the rails that we make pretend computers to run on our real computers just to have fun ways to compute again. I really really appreciate work like this, but why aren't our actual operating systems "cozy" enough to support creative work anymore?

Remember the days when all home computers came with a BASIC interpreter preinstalled, and that was the first thing you saw when you started the computer? Later generations (Amiga, Atari ST) also had BASIC included with the OS. Not that familiar with the original Apple Macintosh, but from what I read that was the first computer to ship without programming tools. Windows then followed suit, and today all OSes ship with…

"Classic" Windows usually came with DOS which included BASIC, with the main difference being that in Windows 95/98/Me it no longer had an editor, IIRC.

Original IBM PC in absence of other drive would attempt to boot from cassette and then drop you into similar BASIC interpreter - the "GW-BASIC" included in DOS was the same except it was shipped completely as file on disk drive instead of being ROM.

NT didn't have included programming language before NT 4.0 SP4, when WSH was added, it was also part of Outlook 97 and IE 3.0.\

The original computer to ship without any programming tools that was targeted at general population was Apple Lisa, I seem to recall mention of at least one loud consumer complaint if not lawsuit based around expectation that general purpose computer should have some tool included.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#94

Post by James-Livesey »

tazu wrote: post #2

This looks similar to what the cool couple at 100 Rabbits [1] are doing with Uxn. Overall, I love to support anyone producing hobby / cute software (especially with Lua!). [1]: https://100r.co/site/uxn.html

Potato (which uses Uxn) is even more similar to Picotron in that it's like a little desktop environment:

https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/potato.html

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#95

Post by exitb »

sitkack wrote: post #45
exitb wrote: post #40

It’s a bit of a shame that it’s apparently not fully compatible with PICO-8. I’d imagine it to be a perfect environment to create PICO-8 games.

In what ways? Maybe there is a chance to change it!

Don't know the details, but apparently "[it's] not designed to run PICO-8 carts out of the box". PICO-8 has a really low resolution, lower than a Game Boy, which makes it a bit difficult to write code in.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#96

Post by igrekel »

tmountain wrote: post #67
kqr wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy that argument – why shouldn't I donate to TIC-80 instead, since it has the potential of reaching also children whose parents don't have $15 burning a hole in their pockets? I'm not trying to be contrary, I'm really just trying to find what the unique thing about PICO-8 is since nobody has been able to articulate it, yet many people appear to feel it.

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?

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#97

Post by devjab »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #63
devjab wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t you need an Apple developer account to get certificates to sign your stuff? If so that might explain it since that would be… what $300 a year? On top of likely having to go through the whole Apple Store acceptance process.

you don't have to submit apps for them to be signed by you, but you do need to pay 99$/yr, tbh i think it's fair considering xcode is free

I’m too unfamiliar with Xcode to know much about it. Do you need it to release software for macs?

I’m not sure how Apple gets away with forcing people to pay $99/yr to be able to let people install software without getting a warning. I guess it’s a minor issue. I have added a few installs to my “yes I really want to use this software” list on my m1 air, but I still think it’s a little bit silly. It’s obviously some sort of security feature, but Apple isn’t my mother.

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#99

Post by GTP »

beagle3 wrote: post #87
layer8 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run Firefox on 8 GB without any trouble whatsoever. But I also rarely open more than a dozen tabs.

I use Firefox on an 8GB, early 2013 MBP, with hundreds of tabs and an extension, AutoTabDiscard that unloads/suspends them after a couple of hours. Works beautifully. I have to restart the computer about once a month because of Catalina bugs, but Firefox is super stable.

> I have to restart the computer about once a month because of Catalina bugs

I shut down my laptop at the end of the day and turn it back on the day after, regardless of bugs. Why do you try to reboot it as little as possible?

Re: Picotron Is a Fantasy Workstation

#100

Post by AlanYx »

sitkack wrote: post #45
exitb wrote: post #40

It’s a bit of a shame that it’s apparently not fully compatible with PICO-8. I’d imagine it to be a perfect environment to create PICO-8 games.

In what ways? Maybe there is a chance to change it!

One of the big differences is that Picotron supports floating point math whereas Pico-8 is all fixed point.
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