Developer(s) | Lexaloffle Games |
---|---|
Initial release | April 2015 |
Stable release | 0.2.6b [1] / 28 February 2024 |
Operating system | Windows, Mac OS, Linux |
Platform | PC, Raspberry Pi, HTML5 (player only) |
Included with | PocketCHIP [2] |
Available in | English, Japanese |
Type | Virtual machine, game engine |
License | Proprietary |
Website | lexaloffle |
PICO-8 is a virtual machine and game engine created by Lexaloffle Games. It is a fantasy video game console [3] that mimics the limited graphical and sound capabilities of the old 8-bit systems of the 1980s to encourage creativity and ingenuity in producing games without being overwhelmed with the many possibilities of modern tools and machines. Such limitations also give PICO-8 games a particular look and feel. [4]
Coding on the PICO-8 is accomplished through a Lua-based environment, [5] in which users can create music, sound effects, sprites, maps, and games.
Users are able to export their games as HTML5 web games or upload their creations to Lexaloffle's official BBS where other users are able to play the games in a web browser, and view the source code. [6] PICO-8 games can also be exported as executable programs, which will run on Windows, macOS, or Linux. [7]
Notable games released for the system include the original version of Celeste , which was created in four days as part of a game jam.
On March 16, 2024, Picotron was launched as a fantasy workstation that is conceptually similar to PICO-8. [8]
The PICO-8 program integrates a Lua code editor, sprite and map creation tools, and an audio sound effect and music editor. The program can load games saved locally on a computer, in the form of text or as specially encoded .png images. The interface also supports a splore mode, where games uploaded to the BBS can be previewed and then played in the PICO-8 program. [9]
PICO-8 games, as well as the program's interface itself, are limited to a 128 × 128 pixel, 16-color display, and a 4-channel audio output. [10]
As of v0.1.11, [11] users may export Pico-8 cartridges as stand-alone executables for Windows, Linux (64 bit), Mac and Raspberry Pi.
The PICO-8 palette contains 16 colors. Colors in the palette can be replaced with a different set of colors by indexing a palette update with a color ID larger than 128. These colors are not officially recognized by the creators; however, they are embraced by the community and given unofficial names. [12]
Joseph White, who is better known with his nickname Zep, has started working on a BBC BASIC styled BASIC interpreter dubbed LEX500. Joseph later returned to LEX500 while working on another game engine called Voxatron. During development, Joseph switched from BASIC to Lua 2 syntax as the latter is easier to use and more capable as a programming language. [13] He added built-in tools to it such as a music tracker and a map editor, and decided to rename it PICO-8. [14]
Joseph got inspired from older system while setting limitations to PICO-8. 16-color palette was inspired from Commodore 64, 4-channel trackers from Amiga 500 and overall aesthetics from other 80s hardware such as Apple IIe and Famicom. He coined the term fantasy console to describe systems like PICO-8 that have deliberate limitations to fit a hypothetical hardware. [15]
As a fantasy console, PICO-8 doesn't have an official hardware that its based on and all of its limitations are purely emulated. Homebrew computer and hardware hobbyists in general try to fit PICO-8 in low-end devices. PICO-8 has an official image for Raspberry Pi and CHIP (shipped pre-installed in Pocket CHIP), [16] and community managed to directly run the official software or the games via PICO-8 emulators available in RetroArch on other single board computers. [17] [18] [19]
While its not possible to run PICO-8 itself on devices that are not at least i386/amd64 or ARM-64 due to several libraries, people managed to emulate p8 games on various low-cost handheld consoles via open source emulators such as Fake-08 and tac08, which can function even on devices based on 32-bit microcontrollers (most notably ESP32). [20] [21]
The release of PICO-8 attracted the attention of programmers and video game developers who enjoyed the challenge of developing under these limitations, and spurred the development of similar game engines with intentional retro-style limitations. These engines are now commonly dubbed "fantasy consoles", based on a definition of the term on PICO-8's website, and roughly simulate the strict limitations of old game consoles and computers. Among these are TIC-80, which styles itself as a "fantasy computer," and Pixel Vision 8, which allows the user to specify the simulated hardware limitations they wish to develop under. [22] The development of fantasy consoles, as well as development of games for them, has evolved into its own, almost exclusively hobbyist, sub-community of game development and programming. [23]
PICO-8 gained additional attention in 2018 with the release of Celeste . Originally created as a PICO-8 game for a game jam, Celeste Classic became one of the most popular games on the PICO-8 BBS, prompting the developers to expand the concept into a more expansive, fully realized game. The original PICO-8 version of Celeste is fully playable as an easter egg in the full version of the game. [24]
A low poly cad software named picoCAD is based on PICO-8 and can be used to make models for use in both inside and outside PICO-8, able to export models OBJ/MTL as well as GIF as a rotating model animation. [25] [26] Since its release, picoCAD is used in many 3D PICO-8 games in creation of models. The software got popularized in general pixel art and retro game development community due to its unique retro aesthetic. [27] [28]
Several remakes and demakes of well-known retro and modern games alike are made on PICO-8. Most notable ones include Terra (Terraria), Poom (Doom), Fuz (Fez), Low Mem Sky (No Man's Sky) and unDUNE II (Dune II). [29] [30] [31]
PICO-8 has also seen interest among the demoscene, due to its harsh restrictions attracting programmers and musicians who wish to make retro-style demos for the console. [32] [33] [34]
In March 2024, several PICO-8 games are added as cabinets to Arcade Legend, a VR game where players can play retro arcade games. [35]
The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a home video game console officially released by Atari Corporation in 1986 as the successor to both the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. It can run almost all Atari 2600 cartridges, making it one of the first consoles with backward compatibility. It shipped with a different model of joystick from the 2600-standard CX40 and Pole Position II as the pack-in game. Most of the announced titles at launch were ports of 1981–1983 arcade video games.
The Game Boy Color is an 8-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and part of its product line. Compared to the original, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen rather than monochrome, a processor that operates twice as fast, and four times as much memory. It retains backward compatibility with games initially developed for its predecessor. However, reviewers considered these improvements insufficient to justify Nintendo's releasing it as a separate product.
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. In 1984, Mattel sold its video game assets to a former Mattel Electronics executive and investors, eventually becoming INTV Corporation. Game development ran from 1978 to 1990, when the Intellivision was discontinued. From 1980 to 1983, more than 3.75 million consoles were sold. As per Intellivision Entertainment the final tally through 1990 is somewhere between 4.5 and 5 million consoles sold.
The Konix Multisystem was a cancelled video game system under development by Konix, a British manufacturer of computer peripherals.
The Neo Geo, stylized as NEO•GEO and also written as NEOGEO, is a ROM cartridge-based arcade system board and fourth-generation home video game console released on April 26, 1990, by Japanese game company SNK Corporation. It was the first system in SNK's Neo Geo family.
Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the IBM PC compatible industry within three years. The term can now refer to the computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector, or the 640 × 480 resolution characteristic of the VGA hardware.
Pixel art is a form of digital art drawn with graphical software where images are built using pixels as the only building block. It is widely associated with the low-resolution graphics from 8-bit and 16-bit era computers, arcade machines and video game consoles, in addition to other limited systems such as LED displays and graphing calculators, which have a limited number of pixels and colors available. The art form is still employed to this day by pixel artists and game studios, even though the technological limitations have since been surpassed.
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional bitmap that is integrated into a larger scene, most often in a 2D video game. Originally, the term sprite referred to fixed-sized objects composited together, by hardware, with a background. Use of the term has since become more general.
ROM hacking is the process of modifying a ROM image or ROM file of a video game to alter the game's graphics, dialogue, levels, gameplay, and/or other elements. This is usually done by technically inclined video game fans to improve an old game of importance, as a creative outlet, or to make new, unofficial games using the old game's engine. ROM hacks either re-design a game for an all-new, fun gameplay while keeping most if not all of the items the same, as well as unlocking and/or reimplementing features that existed in the game's code but are not utilized in-game.
Hold-And-Modify, usually abbreviated as HAM, is a display mode of the Commodore Amiga computer. It uses a highly unusual technique to express the color of pixels, allowing many more colors to appear on screen than would otherwise be possible. HAM mode was commonly used to display digitized photographs or video frames, bitmap art and occasionally animation. At the time of the Amiga's launch in 1985, this near-photorealistic display was unprecedented for a home computer and it was widely used to demonstrate the Amiga's graphical capability. However, HAM has significant technical limitations which prevent it from being used as a general purpose display mode.
Retrogaming, also known as classic gaming and old school gaming, is the playing and collection of obsolete personal computers, consoles, and video games. Usually, retrogaming is based upon systems that are outmoded or discontinued, although ported retrogaming allows games to be played on modern hardware via ports or compilations. It is typically for nostalgia, preservation, or authenticity. A new game could be retro styled, such as an RPG with turn-based combat and pixel art in isometric camera perspective.
Final Fantasy VII is an unlicensed "Shanzhai" demake of SquareSoft's role-playing video game Final Fantasy VII, originally released for PlayStation in 1997. The two-dimensional "port" was developed and published by Chinese company Shenzhen Nanjing Technology for Subor, a Famiclone. The cartridge itself is unique, as it is structurally different from licensed Famicom cartridges in terms of hardware and programming.
A video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass limitations of the original hardware, such as broader controller compatibility, timescale control, easier access to memory modifications, and unlocking of gameplay features. Emulators are also a useful tool in the development process of homebrew demos and the creation of new games for older, discontinued, or rare consoles.
LÖVE is a free, open-source, cross-platform framework released under the zlib license for developing video games. The framework is written in C++ and uses Lua as its scripting language and is still maintained by its original developers. The framework is cross-platform supporting the platforms Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS.
A fantasy video game console is an emulator for a fictitious video game console. In short, it aims to create the experience of retrogaming without the need to emulate a real console, allowing the developer to freely decide what specifications their fictional hardware will have.
Aseprite is a proprietary, source-available image editor designed primarily for pixel art drawing and animation. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and features different tools for image and animation editing such as layers, frames, tilemap support, command-line interface, Lua scripting, among others. It is developed by Igara Studio S.A. and led by the developers David, Gaspar, and Martín Capello. Aseprite can be downloaded as freeware, or purchased on Steam or Itch.io. Aseprite source code and binaries are distributed under EULA, educational, and Steam proprietary licenses.
TIC-80 is a free and open-source fantasy video game console for making, playing, and sharing games on a limited platform that mimics the 8-bit systems of the 1980s. It has built-in code, sprite, map, music, and sound effect editors, as well as a command line interface that allow users to develop and edit games within the console.
Picotron is a virtual machine and desktop environment created by Lexaloffle Games. Its a fantasy workstation that is aimed at making retro games and mimics the specifications of 16-bit computers of late 1980s. Its said to be a successor to PICO-8 and Voxatron. Alpha release of Picotron became available on March 14, 2024.