PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs. When you turn it on, the machine greets you with a shell for typing in Lua commands and provides simple built-in tools for creating your own cartridges.
Indie Retro News has published an extensive review of this unique game creation tool, that allows you to create 8-bit console games with the power and mostly the restrictions of a game hardware from the good old days.
These are the specs of PICO-8:
- Display 128×128 16 colours
- Cartridge Size 32k
- Sound 4 channel chip blerps
- Code Lua
- Sprites 128 8×8 sprites
- Map 128×32 cels
- Controls 2 6-button joysticks
It is important to understand that as a fantasy console, these are not an actual hardware, but a software that restrict you as if it was.
PICO-8 costs $15, but if you are an owner of Voxatron, you get PICO-8 included for free. The $15 will get you a DRM-free download for Mac, Linux and Windows and all future updates.
IRN article shows that there are quite a few games made with the tool already, and they can be played.
It looks like a good investment if you are looking for a simple tool to get you coding quickly small games, like the good old days!
Source: IndieRetroNews
Link: PICO-8
