morgan3d [Lexaloffle Blog Feed]

USB NES Controller recommendation?

Sat, 09 Sep 2017 09:33:07 UTC

I'd like to use a retro-styled NES USB controller with PICO-8 on Windows & Mac (and Raspberry Pi, eventually). The ones I've found so far on Amazon all have terrible reviews, though. Any recommendations for a good USB retro controller?

Atomic Pinball

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 08:41:11 UTC

Atomic Pinball 0.1

by morgan3d

[Click to Play]

Click with the mouse to drop the ball. Physics test doodle for a pinball game.

Top★Burn

Sun, 21 May 2017 17:42:33 UTC

Top*Burn 1.0

by morgan3d

[Click to Play]

This is my PICO-1k jam entry. The entire source code is 1024 characters in PICO-8, including the comment at the top. Arrows to fly, button (z on keyboard) to fire.

--top*burn
a=48n=32k=64_={}camera(-k,-k)c=16x=0y=0t=0o=0g=0q,b,r,s,h=sqrt,btn,rnd,spr,sspr::a::l=t%8/4map(0,0,-k,-k,c,c)for j=3,k do
z=j/4h(q(q(z))*c-l,1,k+k,1,-j*n,j,k*4*z,1)end
l=l<1o=max(o-1,0)f=b(4)and o<n
if f then m(r(3))o+=2
if(o>n)o=98
end
i=l and o>n and s(124,-k,-40,4,1)or h(0,56,min(o,n),6,-k,-a),l and t>650or h(a,n,n-t/n,8,n,-a)
i=b(1)p=24m=sfx
if(i and x<c)x+=2 p=c
if(b(0)and-k<x)x-=2 p=c
if(b(2)and y<n)y+=1 p=k
if(b(3)and-n<y)y-=1 p=74
s(86,x+8,a,4,2)
for e in all(_)do e.x+=e.d e.z+=.1 j=e.d<0w=88z=4/e.z
if(e.l==0or e.z>k)del(_,e)
if(e.l)e.l-=1 j=r(2)>1goto e
h(56,k,c,c,e.x*z+24*z,a*z,c*z,c*z,j)w=k
if(f and max(abs(u/z-e.x-21),abs(v/z-e.y-8))<8)e.l=8m(3)g+=.75
::e::h(0,w,56,24,e.x*z,e.y*z,56*z,24*z,j)end
if(r(98)<1)d=sgn(r(2)-1)add(_,{x=r(n)-d*k-c,d=d,y=r(k)-a,z=1})
z=.7u=x*z+13v=y*z-8s(2,u,v)
if(f and l)s(c,u*.9,v*z)s(17,u,y*z-5)z+=.1 s(38,x*z+10,y*z-2,2,1)z+=.1 s(46,x*z+14,y*z+1,2,1)
s(p,x,y,6,3,i)s(240,-30,-41,g,1)flip()t+=1
if(t<999)goto a
::g::s(137+t%2*k,t%192-140,-n,7,1)flip()t+=1
goto g

PICO-1K Jam

Sun, 21 May 2017 17:33:44 UTC

PICO-8 allows 65536 characters, which on one hand is a tight limit for some projects. But, on the other hand, we've seen amazing things from Tweet jam in 140 characters or fewer.

That made me wonder...can a whole PICO-8 game be written in 1024 characters (1k)? There are some impressive JavaScript 1k demos. Let's see what we can do!

Rules:

Entire program source code lists as 1024 characters or fewer inside PICO-8, including comments.
Must be a playable game, not just an animation.
No limits on music, sprites, or map, since they don't count toward PICO-8's character limit.

Minimal Jet Fighter

Tue, 28 Mar 2017 01:54:42 UTC

Minimal Jet Fighter

by morgan3d

[Click to Play]

This entire cart is 243 characters (plus six sprites). The code is just:

k,f,q,b=64,0,sqrt,btn
x,y=k,k::a::cls(12)for j=3,k do
s=j/4
sspr(q(q(s))*16-f%8/4,1,k+k,1,k-j*32,k+j,k*4*s,1)end
r=b(1)p=22
if(r)x+=2,p=16
if(b(0))x-=2,p=16
if(b(2))y+=1,p=k
if(b(3))y-=1,p=70
spr(28,x+8,99,4,2)spr(p,x,y,6,3,r)flip()f+=1
goto a

It was a successful attempt to code the basics of a game in two tweets. There's actually enough room to clamp x and y to the screen. I hope someone will use this as a starter to make a real game.

Plasma Road

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 09:54:23 UTC

Untitled

by morgan3d

[Click to Play]

3D Checkerboard [tweetjam]

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 08:02:12 UTC

Untitled

by morgan3d

[Click to Play]

Here's the whole thing:

k,i,q=64,0,sqrt
cls(1)memset(i,223,k)::a::for y=3,k do
s=y/4
sspr(q(q(s))*16-i%8/4,0,k+k,1,k-y*32,k+y,k*4*s,1)
end i+=1 flip()goto a

Leverages memset for the checkerboard, piggybacking off some code for the background rendering in my upcoming PLAT4MER cart.

@CasualEffects Particle System

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 23:08:22 UTC

Particle System by @CasualEffects

by morgan3d

[Click to Play]

A fast single-pixel particle system using bitwise operations and constant-time addition and removal. The top part of the program is the reusable particle system. It features acceleration, velocity, particle colors, and particle lifetimes. Please reuse, but please also keep my name attached to the code.

The bottom part is the waterfall demo and some generic particle emitter code.

You can save a few more cycles if you hardcode the gravity constant. Otherwise I believe that this is close to optimal.

More information at my github

Brick Breaker

Fri, 20 Jan 2017 21:58:11 UTC

Brick Breaker 1

by morgan3d

[Click to Play]

I wrote Brick Breaker as a full-featured, polished PICO-8 sample program. It was an opportunity for me to learn the PICO-8 Lua variant and now stands as a good example program for other programmers new to PICO-8.

It demonstrates (commented) use of:

loops
create & destroy objects
local vars
text
multiple levels
sprite animation
powerups
particles
map usage
title screen & game over
sound effects
music
sprite packing
basic physics
assertions

as well as some techniques for reducing token count, a limited resource on PICO-8.

I did most of this work in parallel with the 2017 Global Game Jam. The PICO-8 version of Brick Breaker is based on my JavaScript Brick Breaker sample program, which you can play here.