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 The PICO-8 is a fantasy console by New Zealand developer Joseph "zep" White. A fantasy console is a virtual environment emulating hardware that never existed, trying to capture the feeling of classic home computers like the Apple IIe, C64 and the BBC Micro while being it's own, unique thing. As it's FAQ states, it has everything that makes a console a console - machine specifications and display format, development tools, design culture, a distribution platform, a community and a playerbase! You can play PICO-8 games in your browser, but purchasing PICO-8 yourself lets you download and play carts, freely tweak, edit or study them, or write your own games to share with others. It's USD$14.99 and can be purchased here: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php PICO-8 features a built in code editor, sprite editor, map editor, sound effect editor and music tracker.      They're all pretty straightforward to get to grips with thanks to some great tutorials that have been made by various community members. Games made with PICO-8 - or "carts" - are super easy to distribute. They're tiny enough that you can share them easily over the web. You can also publish them to the PICO-8 forum which means anyone can play it directly in their web browser if they just want to play it without buying the software - publishing it to the forum also makes it available in PICO-8's built-in app called Splore. The greatest thing though is that carts, well.... here's an example. Let's take PICO-8s most famous game - the 2016 game jam version of Celeste by Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry that would eventually be expanded into their 2018 hit.  That's not just a cute cartridge picture for Celeste, that's the actual game - exporting a PICO-8 cart encodes it as a .png with a screenshot that you can take for box art. How adorable is that? That said, PICO-8 has some pretty heavy constraints as to what can be done with it. Games are written in Lua only, limited to a 16 colour palette (though 32 colours are available total if you do some digging) and a 128x128 resolution, you've only got 32kb of memory to work with and a hard set token (code element) limit that sets a firm ceiling on the complexity of games you can write. Seeing the stuff that people can do within those limits though is frankly incredible. Come share cool stuff you find and enjoy and above all if any of this inspires you to create your own stuff I know I for one would love to see it. Development Resources/Tutorials PICO-8 Wiki [Written] Game Development With Pico-8 Zine by Dylan Bennett [Written] PICO-8 Fanzine #1-#4 [Written] Nerdy Teachers (various tutorials) [Written / Video] Lazy Devs (tutorials for a Breakout game and Roguelike) [Video] PICO-8 Top-Down Adventure Game Tutorial by Dylan Bennett [Video] Gruber's PICO-8 Music Tutorials [Video] Cool Stuff To Check Out Celeste: The obvious choice. 30 levels of precision platforming joy. It has its own speedrunning community and also a sequel called Lani's Trek that has a soundtrack by Lena Raine!  Flip Knight: VVVVVV-esque platformer where you manipulate gravity in a metroidvania style dungeon.  Cab Ride: A little like a PICO-8 version of Densha de Go. Drive your train from station to station enjoying the chill music and watching the world go by. Time your stops well and try for a good score. Or don't and just enjoy the atmosphere. I find this super relaxing!  Poom: Does it run a cut down but incredibly impressive for the hardware version of Doom? You bet your rear end it does. (I believe they get around a lot of limitations by stitching carts together).  PICO Night Punkin': Rhythm games more your thing? How about a demake of Friday Night Funkin?  PICO Racer: Cute little Pole Position style racing game!  Ad Astra: PICO-8 has a pretty cool demo scene, this is one of my favourites! No screenshot for this one - I couldn't seem to capture a good still moment in it that looked good and also I'm tired and give up. There's also a fun demoscene subset called tweetcarts - PICO-8 carts where the code is short enough to be contained in a single tweet. Here's a fun example!
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Sep 16, 2021 16:30
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One PICO-8 thing I tried was picoCAD: https://johanpeitz.itch.io/picocad An amusing and easy to use 3D modeling software that stores the models you make into a text file (including the textures). I don't know if this counts, but it seems to operate with the same kind of limitations. People have apparently made a functioning PICO-8 devices using Raspberry Pi, but nobody has made an entirely unique device for one yet.
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Sep 16, 2021 17:00
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Only just recently got into Pico-8 and have just followed some stuff in the zines they've released to make a basic shmup and a snake game but drat it's fun! The limitations have really brought back to me what I love about programming. Thanks for making the thread Mode 7! 
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Sep 17, 2021 00:31
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Tombot posted:One PICO-8 thing I tried was picoCAD: https://johanpeitz.itch.io/picocad Totally counts and looks awesome, thanks! Similar to the Pi there's been a lot of buzz recently about installing PICO-8 on various models of Chinese produced handhelds of the kind discussed in the Third Party Retro Consoles thread. I think it's probably a fine addition to whatever else you wanted to do with one of those handhelds but it's never quite interested me - both because while the creator calls PICO-8 a fantasy "console" it very much feels like a computer to me rather than a handheld, and because a lot of the fun for me would be being able to make little things on the go which you'd need a decent keyboard for. If the PICO-8 actually existed, in my head at least it would have looked something like a ZX Spectrum The closest thing to a unique device was probably the Pocket C.H.I.P, a handheld console add on kit to the C.H.I.P computer board. It came with a specialised version of PICO-8 installed by default. The company went bust though and from memory people who did manage to get their hands on one weren't super impressed with the quality of the thing.  bovis posted:Only just recently got into Pico-8 and have just followed some stuff in the zines they've released to make a basic shmup and a snake game but drat it's fun! You're welcome! More people need to know this thing exists. As someone who has wanted to do some gamedev stuff for ages but never seems to quite make it off the launch pad, having some enforced restrictions on complexity has been great for making me firmly ground the scope of my game in reality and push to actually finish something. I haven't made anything outside of some little tutorial games so far but I at least feel like I've got a strong starting place to go off. One of the reasons I wrote up this thread was to encourage myself to keep playing around and actually making things with it.
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Sep 17, 2021 07:26
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pico-8 ftw
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Sep 18, 2021 17:56
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Browsing splore is fun, especially when you're not all that good at programming. 
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Sep 18, 2021 20:40
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Decided that I want to build a little shmup, wasn't sure where to start. Found some tutorials on YouTube (here if anyone is curious) for coding a little shmup in PICO-8. Fantastic! Unfortunately they're in French and I don't speak a word of French But! From other little tutorials I've done, the code is still very easy to follow along with even completely divorced from the explanation.Got my little self-drawn ship, some self-drawn bullets and a scrolling star background.  Going to keep this tutorial going to it's conclusion, play around with expanding on some of it a little to get familiar with concepts, then try and build and finish a complete little shmup game. I'll keep posting progress in the thread as I go.
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Sep 19, 2021 02:10
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You inspired me and I spent a couple hours this morning creating something super similar! (Don't have a gif right now since I'm not at my computer) Even made some basic enemies which come down and can be destroyed and blow up into particles (one of the zines explains how a simple particle engine works and it's so simple yet looks great). The in built sprite and sound making tools I think really put pico-8 up an extra level eh. The most annoying part about messing around with making games in other engines is assets and the ease of just being able to draw a sprite in engine and see how it looks straight away just makes it so much fun
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Sep 19, 2021 08:56
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I love pico-8! I have a million and one abandoned prototypes made in this lovely thing and precisely zero finished projects I’ll grab some gifs when I’m not phone posting.I’m a professional (non game) dev by trade but I still highly recommend the lazy devs tutorials. Krystian is a good egg who really wants people to learn and has a way of teaching that gels well with me at least. Here's my colony builder game, I got pretty deep into this one but early decisions lead to much debt that I could not pay off. One day I'll come back and start from scratch though. https://twitter.com/lefishy/status/1364178793695481856 A prototype of a very very bad micro roguelike idea that I will also revisit one day: https://twitter.com/lefishy/status/1370017969783398402 I thought I had a lot more of these on my twitter... I don't have many on my laptop either. I'll check my desktop in the morning too. LeFishy fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Sep 19, 2021 |
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Sep 19, 2021 19:37
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Oh drat, I forgot about lexaloffle but I think I have this for buying voxatron...most of a decade ago. I forgot about that and I'm kinda bummed it's never gonna be more of a thing, but this looks neat too.
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Sep 20, 2021 15:50
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woke kaczynski posted:Oh drat, I forgot about lexaloffle but I think I have this for buying voxatron...most of a decade ago. I forgot about that and I'm kinda bummed it's never gonna be more of a thing, but this looks neat too. He’s still working on voxatron and apparently has plans for a third fantasy console next year ish so I wouldn’t give up on it yet. I wouldn’t expect either voxatron or… picotron to have the mass appeal (lol) of pico 8 though.
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Sep 20, 2021 19:14
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Great topic. Like many people I have a million tech demos and no complete games, but I loved the simplicity when I was trying to grasp concepts like A* and autotiling. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't look into getting a Pocket C.H.I.P. just for PICO-8. I would love a dedicated handheld.
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Sep 21, 2021 03:37
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Pocket C.H.I.P clones are available in Aliexpress, but I don't know about their performance.
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Sep 21, 2021 03:41
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I absolutely love the idea but I really wish PICO-8 didn't limit itself to 128x128. It's just.... too small. Even the Game Boy had a resolution of 160x144 which is quite a bit more. 
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Sep 21, 2021 03:46
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When I saw this topic again, I thought of Fallout 4 and the computer and Pip boy interactions. Pico-8 might make for an excellent in-universe computer system for an open-world rpg of some kind, perhaps with Quadrilateral Cowboy style interactions.
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Sep 21, 2021 04:15
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Yeah, both Voxatron and Pico8 still get updates. It can be slow sometimes between updates but zep seems to just keep plugging away on them.
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Sep 21, 2021 23:54
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Pico-8 is great. Seeing what people have done within the limitations of the engine is crazy, between PicoCAD, the various 3d racing games, and full on raytracing engines. I played through all of Out Of This World on it. Your Computer posted:I absolutely love the idea but I really wish PICO-8 didn't limit itself to 128x128. It's just.... too small. Even the Game Boy had a resolution of 160x144 which is quite a bit more. Picotron is a 3rd "console" being made that will have a 480x270 display with a 64 color palette. https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php
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Sep 22, 2021 00:09
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Your Computer posted:I absolutely love the idea but I really wish PICO-8 didn't limit itself to 128x128. It's just.... too small. Even the Game Boy had a resolution of 160x144 which is quite a bit more. You could take a look at games from the low-rez jam on itch if you need some ideas, those are limited to 64x64 (which I found quite difficult to work with, but now I'm also gonna be participating in a jam with even worse restrictions... )
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Sep 22, 2021 07:58
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BONESAWWWWWW posted:And I'd be lying if I said I didn't look into getting a Pocket C.H.I.P. just for PICO-8. I would love a dedicated handheld. Never thought I'd see people discussing the PocketCHIP these days! I have one and wouldn't recommend it. The buttons are incredibly uncomfortable to use after a few minutes. They're basically little metal dimples and you have to use a lot of force to push them. It's a great way to give yourself carpal tunnel. People used to suggest buying little silicon adhesive bumpers but I could never find ones that covered the buttons well enough. Also, after a few years the plastic covering has started to curl at the edges and the power button barely works anymore, sometimes when I turn it on it fails to boot and since I can't shut it down and the power button doesn't work I have to wait until the battery drains. In fact I just dug mine out of the closet, and it turns on but doesn't boot, which means it needs to be reflashed. Sometimes if you don't use it for too long the memory gets corrupted and you need to wipe it. Which means I need to dig up the last firmware and flashing utility released before the company went under, yadda yadda. It was a cool idea at the time but I wouldn't spend money on one of these things in 2021. Once I've rescued mine I'll see what I had in my favorites. There was this one sloth endless runner game with kickass music that I can still hear in my head.
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Sep 22, 2021 13:58
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That's a shame. Such a cool concept. I've heard the GameShell also has the ability to do PICO-8 stuff but the price put me off from ever picking one up. Does anyone have experience with that?
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Sep 22, 2021 15:05
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This thread reminded me that I got PICO-8 in a humble bundle ages ago and was really excited to make stuff for it before life got in the way, as it often does  But now that I've remembered, maybe I can give it another try!
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Sep 22, 2021 16:22
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BONESAWWWWWW posted:That's a shame. Such a cool concept. There are much, much cheaper options  Pretty much any handheld with a custom firmware available has a pico-8 port
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Sep 22, 2021 17:11
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Can you use Splore with that thing?
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Sep 22, 2021 20:38
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There's a working Pico-8 emulator on Vita, without splore. I'm tempted but I think I like the idea of the system more than the execution.
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Sep 22, 2021 22:33
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Daedalus1134 posted:Picotron is a 3rd "console" being made that will have a 480x270 display with a 64 color palette. oh dang, I am very interested in this
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Sep 23, 2021 07:02
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Is there a way to get the code tab to wrap lines? Reading/writing code is kind of a hassle. (Yeah you could use an external editor but it loses the immediacy.)
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Sep 25, 2021 03:07
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Kept pottering along with the shmup tutorial I'm following. Part 2 got me a respawning enemy, little particle effect explosion, and some basic bullet interactions. Part 3 should round everything out into a finished, playable, incredibly simple shmup game. I think my plan after that is to see if I can recreate something simple like Space Invaders using the concepts I've learned to make sure I actually understand them. Then on to something of my own design!
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Sep 30, 2021 00:15
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Hey everyone, I just wanted to shill and/or make an informative post about a new PICO-8 itch.io bundle that just went live. It's the PICO-8 Premium Bundle by brook.p8 (@beanborg), and it's got lots of premium PICO-8 games as well as some tools, tutorials, and even a copy of the PICO-8 software! The bundle costs just $10, and 20% of the proceeds go to Girls Who Code, with the rest going to the creators. My PICO-8 game, Cyber Badminton 2020, is included in this bundle, but there are a ton of really cool and interesting games that you get as well. Here are some of the games in the bundle that I could easily grab gifs of: Aeronaut  Altidudes  Cyber Badminton 2020  Explorers  Galactic Wars  Get Dis Money  Imi's Dungeon  Monster Trainer  Nano4x: Supremacy  Nebula Fighter XL  NOG Arcade  PicoQuest: Darkness Rising  Pixel Session Vol. 1  pod3x3  Pullfrog  Pushamo  Snack Scoffer  Space Station: Alpha  Super Mega Bread  The Lost Night  Tiny Fisher  Tiny Platformer  Sorry for the massive gif dump, I just wanted to give everyone a taste of what's available in this bundle. If you're interested in PICO-8, give it a look!
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Nov 3, 2021 18:59
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Sir_Phobos posted:Hey everyone, I just wanted to shill and/or make an informative post about a new PICO-8 itch.io bundle that just went live. It's the PICO-8 Premium Bundle by brook.p8 (@beanborg), and it's got lots of premium PICO-8 games as well as some tools, tutorials, and even a copy of the PICO-8 software! Thanks for the heads up on this. Just purchased the bundle and I'm looking forward to checking out all the games!
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Nov 5, 2021 02:51
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flavor.flv posted:There are much, much cheaper options
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Nov 5, 2021 03:32
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Oh wow, that's a lot of really cool stuff!
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Nov 5, 2021 08:12
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Sir_Phobos posted:Hey everyone, I just wanted to shill and/or make an informative post about a new PICO-8 itch.io bundle that just went live. It's the PICO-8 Premium Bundle by brook.p8 (@beanborg), and it's got lots of premium PICO-8 games as well as some tools, tutorials, and even a copy of the PICO-8 software! This is awesome, thanks for the heads up!
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Nov 5, 2021 13:43
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Hello here are my Pico-8 things. Pico-8 has a surprising amount of of old-school things under the hood if you go poking (oh-ho-ho-ho) about.
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Nov 6, 2021 00:24
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Cicero posted:Ooh, what handheld is this? Any good? It looks like one of the Anbernic handhelds. They're supposed to be a decent cheap option for portable Nintendo and Sega games. Check out the 3rd party systems thread.
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Nov 6, 2021 00:34
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 https://prettypinkpansy.itch.io/pico8spritesheet I made a Pico-8 sprite sheet some time ago, free for non-commercial use. Anyone who wants to use it can do so if they're not making dollars off of it. 
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Nov 6, 2021 01:04
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For Pico-8 fans, you may consider picking up an RGB30 Linux handheld. The screen is 4 inches with a 1:1 resolution, perfect for Pico games. There's quite a bit of buzz going around about these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTb6ik1Eb40 That said, is anyone following current releases? Anything great? I'm really digging Crossgunr, a unique shmup by Aktane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7cwbdf_xUg
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Sep 18, 2023 08:32
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