PICO-8: Difference between revisions

From Fantasy Console Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
temp>ThaCuber2a03
(changing the category of fcs that support lua to fcs that use lua so as to direct to the correct category)
temp>ThaCuber2a03
(change use to support)
Line 28: Line 28:


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

Revision as of 12:48, 27 May 2022

PICO-8 logo

PICO-8 is a fantasy console created by 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."[1]

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.[1]

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.[2]

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

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

In addition, programs cannot be larger than 64 KB, and must compress to 15 KB or smaller.[2]

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.[2]

References