If you're looking for a complete portable PICO-8 solution, good news! PICO-8 is going to ship pre-installed on Next Thing Co.'s upcoming PocketC.H.I.P. -- a complete portable mini-computer with built-in storage, wifi, keyboard, battery, touchscreen and everything else PICO-8 needs! The last few months, I've been working closely with the team at Next Thing Co. to create "PICO-8 C" -- a fully functioning and compatible edition designed to integrate nicely with NTC's hardware and software. It will be available to Kickstarter backers, or you can also pre-order one for just $49 bucks.
You can read more about the PocketC.H.I.P. over at getchip.com
This got me to buy two, one for my gf. It would be pretty killer to have some kind of network stack for them...
Is there anything seriously different between the Pico-8 I downloaded and am running on Windows, and the one that comes pre-installed on the pCHIP?
I'm assuming there's nothing critical between the two and everything will be easily transferrable, but I've learned not to assume to much these days.
I think you can run every cartridge on the PocketCHIP as you can already do on the Raspberry Pi. See the video (http://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip). The cartridges are played from splore. I hope we can download cartridges and save changes. If not we will have to modify the flashed image. It may be a little bit more tricky but not undoable.
Yes, the tools and API are exactly the same and compatible; i.e. any cartridge made with any version of PICO-8 will run on any other version. Also, updates in the future will available (roughly) the same time as the main PICO-8 branch.
The differences are:
- The pCHIP version will be a separate product that doesn't come with multi-platform licenses.
- It has the html exporters, but probably won't have binary exporters if/when they become available.
- Some minor interface differences to integrate with pCHIP
- It has gpio mapped to pCHIP's pins, but other platforms will also be non-standard in that way too (e.g. the web version now allows pins to be read/written via javascript)
That might be happening in the future! See:
@jihem - so when you say Splore, does that mean any cart we make we'll have to upload to play on the pCHIP? Even WIP carts?
I guess I was expecting some method to just direct copy carts to the pCHIP and play without internet connection. Like copy through USB or something. And then only when I'm cool with others playing would I upload for access through Splore.
@morningtoast You may have to upload first then use splore to download and play (as shown in the youtube movies). You can escape and use the editor to modify or create new cartridges. I have seen a video where the user loads (with the load command) a cartridge stored on the PocketCHIP. So I'm confident : you will have the save command.
The CHIP use Debian Linux. I think pico run as an application in a Linux environment so you can use a shell to copy files using an usb device or use wget or sftp commands to download from your computer (running a local web server or sshd).
"It has gpio mapped to pCHIP's pins" --that sounds amazing! Are you saying I can blink an external LED using pico-8 code? This could replace arduino entirely! There are an estimated 10 million arudino boards in the world. If only they were all pCHIPs coded with PICO-8, the world would be a more code friendly place, full of innovation!
Any word on maybe a new screen resolution option for the pocketCHIP version?
I agree with you except on your last wish. I don't think it would be a good idea to change the rules each time there is a new device hosting pico. I prefer to be sure than I can run my cartridge anywhere and get the same feelings. I will be very sad to make a cartridge that run only on PocketCHIP (even if I like it a lot).
Just ordered a pCHIP. It's exactly the platform and form-factor I've imagined and wanted for mobile development and general tinkering, and it especially complements PICO-8. Also, $49 for a resistive touch screen, keyboard, battery, enclosure, and complete Linux computer that Just Werks™ is amazing in general. I'm hard pressed to find even a resistive screen alone for that price.
Thanks for making this happen, zep. Hopefully it bolsters this great community. That video has a whopping 56k+ views and I'll admit that it was what rejuvenated my interest in PICO-8.
International cost will be high after import charges.
So I'll wait to see if this makes it to the UK.
I'm in the UK if the folks above wanna see one in real life, I have purchased a couple for my own use and you are welcome to check them out sometime if you happen to be around the capital
@ixt, what can you say about the keyboard? Is easy to write code with it? And about shipping cost? Did PocketChip ship with UPS/other or with ordinary China post service?
Thanks
I'm still agonizing over whether or not to get one. How durable is it? How comfortable is it to use in 'dpad mode'? Typing on it?
ORDERED!
After coding a few trivial cartridges and looking at the code for some beautiful ones, I certainly want in. The idea of having portable hardware to play these on is very appealing. What's even more appealing is the idea of tweaking code and graphics on the fly.
Still looking forward to seeing Pico-8 on mobile and future systems like GameGirl.
Anyone get their PocketCHIP yet? I'm still unsure what "shipped by June" means exactly, but that should mean they all get shipped out within the next couple days??
It's still May. Even if they all go out today I wouldn't expect them for another couple of weeks at standard shipping rates. In my experiences with crowdfunded hardware, "shipped by June" means "shipped by the end of June" in the best of cases.
@ixt I'm in London for the next month, then moving away, would love to meet up and try this out! And generally talk pico8, gamedev, games, etc. I'm in N4 but can travel.
Ordered mine today. I wanted one before, but PICO-8 is kinda the killer app for the platform for me. (Was considering making a handheld with the Pi, but this is nicer than I would be able to make on my own without a ton of work I'm not about to do).
Zep, I really really hope you are getting paid per unit for this, and that it makes you filthy rich so you can keep working on the stuff you do.
Here's hoping "June 2016" means early june...
In the pocketchip manual, the licence for pico-8 says:
"Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software"
http://docs.getchip.com/pocketchip.html#pico-838
does it mean pico-8 will be open source?
@farvardin Probably this part is about the Lua language, you can see above the text: "Copyright © 1994–2015 Lua.org, PUC-Rio."
@arnaud_debock yes, i'm up for that!
@ixt says he will let me know when his PocketCHIP arrives
damn that PocketCHIP website is good.
"Pre-orders are scheduled to begin shipping by order number on June 25th and continue through mid-July. Once you have confirmed, you will be in the shipping queue." eeeeeeeeeeeee!
Hey all, I have a pocketCHIP, not the one i originally ordered but another one. I can answer questions if you have them. I'm not sure how this one shipped to its original owner. I am not currently in London, but I should be returning in a few days for about a week and then for a longer period more in early august. So if anyone wants to see a pocketCHIP in london uk, hmu. Sorry for late reply :P
Sold. If I get nothing else from it, I can wi-fi over my phone and Splore games from anywhere. But it's also great for dev on the go, which will likely be my main motif for awhile.
"-Some minor interface differences to integrate with pCHIP"
Is there a definitive list available anywhere? I have a PocketChip, but currently have to rely on xfce4-screenshooter to take screenshots, which isn't ideal. (F6 and F1 don't seem to have any effect...)
Thanks!
I read through all the dox for this device. It's not stating a few things I wanted to check.
-
Can you FLASH any files to it ? Not saying the files will run but they will not be denied. Curiously I saw no information about how to flash your own personal files to the unit, only to upgrade the OS.
-
Does it have the ability to play movies, view pictures, listen to Mp3s/WMAs, eBook reader, and read comics as the PSP does ?
- Is there existing software for it to run old gaming systems like Atari 2600, SNES, NES, GB, GBC, GBA, MasterSega, Genesis, N64, and GG as PSP does ?
And ... hopefully still on topic, can I run any PICO in the PSP 1000 ?
Aw, I was typing out a long reply and I lost it.
Anyways - chip runs debian linux, so you're covered for standard programs. (vlc and more for video, default image viewer, ebook reader, web browser, etc etc) You can plug in a flash drive and copy files wherever you want to. (caveat copy-or)
People have been working on mame and mednafen, but I didn't come across any other systems. (apparently video drivers aren't there yet, and no sound in mame at the moment)
Hi Tyrone:
- Thanks !
This answers a lot. MAME I would think to be a lot more difficult than to emulate Gameboy (B&W), Nintendo (8-bit), or Atari (2600).
I just recently found that you can run LUA uncompiled in PSP, as it is interpreted from a separate eBoot, and it's rather fast at that.
With this bit of news I am now definitely wondering if PSP can run PICO.
As for the media, movie player, etc. that's great ! I do use quite a bit of these features to keep Katy happy on long trips.
Now the system mentions that it can run LINUX. That in itself should have several game emulators.
http://www.linuxlinks.com/article/20081012160727880/VideoConsoles.html
Or ... is it not the same type of Linux ? Cause I'm not sure.
Debian arm. (I belive it's basically the Jessie release) If you're searching the packages, the compatible architecture that seemed to have the most hits was "armhf". (modern 32 bit 7-something instruction set)
help! PICO-8 on PocketCHIP
Where is the default path of "desktop path" that GIF animation and screen shot is saved?
@dw817 the PSP could only run PICO-8 if there was a build made for PSP. PICO-8 isn't coded in Lua, it's coded in C, and the games need the player in order to run. The games aren't even technically coded in valid Lua in many cases anyway, since zep made the interpreter himself. It's just based on Lua 5.4.
@Time_Tripper: Previous discussions on the subject of screenshots have concluded that the Pico-8 function keys don't work on PocketCHIP, and I can't get them to work with experimentation. The xfce4-screenshooter command is installed, and you can run it from the terminal, set a delay, then switch to Pico-8. Not ideal but that appears to be the only option right now. Considering that the function keys are part of the process of publishing a cart (to capture the label), I hope that this issue gets some attention.
@Scathe: Pico-8 uses the official Lua 5.2 interpreter. The language extensions are implemented with a preprocessor pass. But your general point is accurate: the engine only uses the interpreter to run game code, not the engine code itself.
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