Editing PICO-8

[[File:PICO-8 logo.png|thumb|right|PICO-8 logo]] '''PICO-8''' is a fantasy console created by [https://www.lexaloffle.com/ Lexaloffle Games]. The first to describe itself as a "fantasy console", PICO-8's success led to many other fantasy consoles being created in the years since. The harsh limitations of PICO-8 were specifically chosen, according to its website, to be "fun to work with, [...] encourage small but expressive designs, and to give cartridges made with PICO-8 their own particular look and feel."<ref name="pico8site">"PICO-8 Fantasy Console", https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php</ref>

== Capabilities ==

PICO-8 games are limited to a 128-by-128 pixel display with 16 colors available to be used out of a total of 32. In addition, games can take advantage of a 4-channel synth for music and sound effects, a 128x32 map with built-in functions for drawing and manipulation, and 256 8x8 sprites.<ref name="pico8site" />

== Programming ==

PICO-8 games are programmed in a special flavor of the Lua programming language. It does not include the Lua standard libraries, but it does provide functions that serve similar purposes.<ref name="pico8manual">"PICO-8 Manual", https://www.lexaloffle.com/dl/docs/pico-8_manual.html</ref>

PICO-8 programs are limited to 8192 "tokens". Tokens are:

* Literal values, such as <code>nil</code>, booleans, strings, or numbers
* Variables
* Operators
* Opening brackets (closing brackets are not counted as tokens)
* Keywords except <code>local</code> and <code>end</code>

In addition, programs cannot be larger than 64 KB, and must compress to 15 KB or smaller.<ref name="pico8manual" />

== Publishing ==

PICO-8 games can be published on the Lexaloffle BBS, which can be accessed within PICO-8 using the "SPLORE" cart explorer. Additionally, PICO-8 games can be exported to HTML or to binaries for Windows, Mac, and Linux.<ref name="pico8manual" />

== References ==

<references />

[[Category:Fantasy consoles]]
[[Category:FCs that support Lua]]