Picotron Desktop Pet

cubee

cubee

BBS

Picotron Cartridges

Desktop Pet (rev4)

by cubee

Cart #desktop_pet-3 | 2024-04-08 | Embed ▽ | No License

Some little poorly-drawn cat friends!
They run around on the desktop, sleep, hop, climb the edges of the screen, and bonk their heads on the toolbar if they jump into it.

-- Features and change history --

As of rev2 (BBS release), you can now:

Give them head pats. Sometimes they will go to sleep afterward.
Pick them up.
Place them on the side of the screen.
Wake them up from sleep.
Interrupt them when they jump; to catch them or make them fall.

As of rev3, they will jump to and sit on desktop icons!
You can place them on the icons yourself too, or move the icon and they will fall. Sometimes they will fall off on their own, heh.
^^ rev3a fixes a crash in the BBS player due to it lacking desktop icon metadata.

As of rev4, you can add custom characters using extra .gfx files and select them using the command line! See the Alternate Pets section for more information.
The cart currently includes Scribble the cat and Jelly the tiny bird. Simply run desktopPet.p64 jelly to set Jelly as the pet.

-- Alternate Pets --

-- Tips and how-to --

If you made too many or want to get rid of them, you can grab them with the mouse and press [X] to send them away.

If you'd like to have it autostart when Picotron opens, save the cart file somewhere, then edit or create "/appdata/system/startup.lua" and add the line:

create_process("/carts/desktopPet.p64")

... changing the path to lead to the cart file you just saved.
This will simply start the cart in the default workspace (the Desktop) as soon as Picotron boots.

-- Future plans --

I very much want to make them interact with other windows, but I don't know if there's a way to retrieve a list of window coordinates/dimensions at the moment. If I work something out, or you do, we can add the final piece of essential screenpet functionality! (that being, sitting on windows)

pet desktop companion cat programmerart

P#143729 2024-03-18 17:44 ( Edited 2024-04-08 01:22)

ahrotahn

this is so cute, i love him!! this reminds me of neko - was this the inspiration? i forgot about that little guy but i ran him constantly when i was a kid. so this little guy has definitely been added to my startup :)

P#143748 2024-03-18 19:21

Cutievirus

so cute!! it's perfect!!

P#143767 2024-03-18 21:52

cubee

@ahrotahn
Yes, exactly the inspiration! Though, the cat's movements are more similar to some "shimeji" app I'd seen a while back on Android.

I had Aneko on my tablet and Oneko on my laptop for a while, on my laptop I made a script that would spawn multiple nekos following each other, so there was a line of cats all neatly chasing the mouse in a line.

P#143769 2024-03-18 21:59

cubee

@Cutievirus

Thank you!

P#143770 2024-03-18 21:59

Fhinger

Omg I would die for him 🥺
He has become a permanent resident of my startup file too

P#143781 2024-03-18 23:00

profpatonildo

I love this! I was trying to make something similar and yours gave me some insight on how to make my own version.

P#143827 2024-03-19 13:35

cubee

@profpatonildo

Thanks! I'd be interested to see how yours turns out.

P#143858 2024-03-19 16:35

cubee

Heh, in the new web player it seems to be running about twice as fast. This is a 120Hz display, though desktop Picotron seems to run normally. I believe this was an issue with Picotron Playground as well?

P#143921 2024-03-20 02:48 ( Edited 2024-03-20 02:52)

cubee