Feature Request:

a config.txt option to allow PICO-8 to respond to gamepad input even when the window is not in focus

I imagine this option would be disabled by default, but it would come in handy for a workflow which is very common for me, wherein both PICO-8 and an external text editor are open side by side (and sometimes also a terminal window for viewing printh output) and I want to be able to control something in the game with my gamepad, but then also be able to type in a different window using my keyboard, without having to switch windows as frequently. Obviously in this out-of-focus situation PICO-8 would have to ignore keyboard input, but still respond to gamepad input.

love,
kittenm4ster

1. Run the cart at this link: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=41062
2. Pick up the hen with the web
3. Slam into the right side of the screen repeatedly

observe that part of the lines which make up the web are visible on the left (opposite) side of the screen

This happens in v0.2.2 of the BBS player, the native version, and the HTML export from the native version. It does not happen in the previous version.

 

Spider-Bat: Horticultural Hero

by kittenm4ster

Cart #spiderbat-0 | 2021-01-04 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

18

This was made in two weeks for Toy Box Jam 2020, a jam in which we had to make something using only premade graphics/sfx/music assets.

@zep it looks like if you do a cstore from a cart in splore or an exported binary, what it saves to the .lexaloffle/pico-8/cstore folder is only those regions of cart ROM that were cstored, and then next time you launch it from splore (or next time you run the exported binary), only those regions of the ROM are copied to base RAM; everything else is blank

I'm guessing the cstore file is intended be overlayed on top of the original ROM contents when copying from cart ROM to cart RAM (and that's why it only saves the changed parts?), but it looks like there was a mistake in implementation and the cstore file contents actually are the only thing copied to base RAM?

I can't reproduce the behavior when using a p8 or p8.png file; this happens only with splore or from an exported binary

To reproduce:

1. load a cart from the splore or launch a binary export of a cart that contains data and calls cstore specifying a partial section of cart memory, e.g. cstore(0, 0, 0x2000) (which is what my jigsaw puzzle cart does but I'm about to change it to write the entire ROM as a workaround ;p)
2. exit splore or close the binary export
3. relaunch the cart
4. see that now all data regions of cart ROM are "permanently" empty, except for the spritesheet

Jigsaw Puzzle Pack Pro: Xmas Edition

by kittenm4ster

Cart #jigsaw_xmas-5 | 2020-12-12 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

22

~ ~ ~
The classic holiday pastime of jigsaw puzzles, now in the cozy confines of your PICO-8 fantasy console!
~ ~ ~

Like all "Pro" versions of Jigsaw Puzzle Pack sold by KITTENM4STERSOFT, this version allows any PNG image (up to 128x128 px) to be transformed into a custom puzzle via convenient drag-and-drop!

Features

• 4 Pixel Art Puzzles (+1 custom) In 1 Cartridge!
• Drag-and-drop Custom Puzzles!
• Auto-Save!
• Devkit Mouse support!
• Traditional Background Music!
• RandoCut technology for random cuts every time!

Controls

D-Pad: move cursor
[O]: Pick up/drop
[X]: (Hold) move faster

When Mouse Is Enabled (in pause menu)

• click to pick up/drop or click-and-drag
• player 2 D-pad (ESDF) moves camera
• scroll wheel scrolls up and down (just for the heck of it)

Credits

Images

1. "Snowman" by Aubrianne Anderson, CC4-BY-NC-SA
2. Untitled (VW Van) copyright Marco Vale, used with permission
3. Untitled (picnic) by zep, CC4-BY-NC-SA
4. John Berger from "Portraits 2" by PixellerJeremy, CC4-BY-NC-SA

Fonts

• Gravity Bold 8 by John Watson, modified by kittenm4ster
• Abaddon Bold by Nathan Scott, license CC BY 3.0

Music

"The Christmas Song" written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé, arranged by kittenm4ster

Libraries

This puzzle pack was made possible by PX9 Image Compression and Storing Binary Data as Strings

Everything Else

Everything else is by kittenm4ster and licensed CC4-BY-NC-SA

I seem to have found a weird bug. Normally sfx(-1, -2) will stop sfx on all channels, but if it is triggered by a menuitem callback, it doesn't work; in that case only explicitly stopping sfx on each channel works

to reproduce, enter some notes on sfx 8 (so you can hear when playback stops), then use this code and compare the behavior of the two menu items:

function stop_all_sfx_short()
  sfx(-1, -2)
end

function stop_all_sfx_long()
  for i = 0, 3 do
    sfx(-1, i)
  end
end

function _init()
  menuitem(1, 'stop sfx (-2)', stop_all_sfx_short)
  menuitem(2, 'stop sfx (long)', stop_all_sfx_long)

  sfx(8)
end

function _update()
end

function _draw()
end

In the web player here on the BBS which currently says it's version 0.2.1, it appears print() now displays numbers as hex:

EDIT: oh wow I didn't realize v0.2.1 was out for real and not just in the BBS web version; I downloaded it and tried running the same cart (#xmasfish) and figured out how to reproduce it so I have corrected the title and description since my first report wrongly said the issue was with tostr()

as you can see here, it only displays as hex when x,y arguments are given to print():

btnp seems to completely stop working iff _update60 is used instead of the normal _update

to reproduce:

1. run the program below
2. press Esc
3. type some sort of statement (for some reason the bug only occurs if you type something before typing resume) e.g. ?"hello"
4. type resume
5. push or hold down the button (O)

expected: "pushed" will appear onscreen
actual: "pushed" no longer appears onscreen

function _update60()
  pushed = btnp(4)
end

function _draw()
  cls()
  if pushed then
    print("pushed", 52, 60, 8)
  end
end

shift + q/w can be used to move up/down in the spritesheet, but when zoomed, the number of sprites it moves by seems to be greater than it should be, i.e. different from how normal q/w (left/right) works when zoomed.

(version 0.2.0i)

@zep seems like something in 0.2.0d (I don't know if it's present in earlier bugfixes of 0.2.0) is wonky with coroutines not updating sometimes or something?? different unpredictable problems are actually happening almost every time I run it; check this out (the dialogue is updated in a coroutine):

so far it seems like most of the time it seems to lead to crashing because variables that are declared inside coroutines are attempted to be referenced by code in the main thread but the variable hasn't been defined yet, which seems to also point to the culprit being coroutines mysteriously not updating every frame like they should (the _update60 method in this cart calls coresume on both of the coroutines every frame; there is one for the dialogue and one for controlling the presentation of the "pins" in each level--both of those are the things that seem to be breaking)

EDIT: okay I've done a bit more testing and there is definitely an issue where a coroutine just starts updating suuuper slowly (seems likely the same issue as is visible in the GIF above) and basically yields in the middle of itself where I don't have any yield statement. For reference, here is some code inside a coroutine where I added debug printh statements:

    repeat
        printh('offset.y:' .. offset.y)
        printh('vy:' .. vy)
        if offset.y >= maxtargetoffset then
            vy = -abs(vy)
        end

        printh('one')
        if targetzipy then
            if vy < 0 and offset.y < targetzipy then
                vy -= .1
            end
        elseif offset.y <= 0 then
            vy = abs(vy)
        end

        printh('two')
        offset.y += vy

        printh('three')
        for _, t in pairs(targets) do
            if not t.isknocked then
                t.y += vy
            end
        end

        printh('four')
        while playercount == 0 do yield() end
        yield()
    until state ~= state_play or all_offscreen(targets)

and here is the console output:

vy:0.09
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
one
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
two
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines
resuming coroutine 1
resuming coroutine 2
done updating coroutines

you can see it's yielding all by itself in the middle of those lines for some reason?? (i.e. the "offset.y:whatever", "vy:0.09", "one", "two", "three", "four" should all be next to each other in the console but they are interrupted by several frames)

after moving (via cut/paste) some SFX in the new super-cool pattern editor view, it seems sometimes it breaks the SFX editor's copy/paste in that when I highlight a few notes, copy them, and try to paste them, it keeps saying a message like "pasted 2 sfx" (instead of "notes") and has no apparent effect (at least not that I can see from within the SFX editor). I haven't found any way to fix it besides reloading the cart.

EDIT: actually I just saw it happen even without using the pattern editor...copy/paste just mysteriously stops working sometimes. it looks like entering some notes makes it start working again though?

The new options menu with controls documentation is so great to have in the binary exports! :)

There just seems to be a small problem where it says there are "0 joysticks" even though I have one plugged in and it is working fine:

(this is in a exported binary player on Linux)

Skills of Detection

by kittenm4ster

Cart #skills_of_detection-1 | 2020-01-02 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

9

i barely finished this in time for the jam, but here it is in its raw form for your enjoyment :)

this was made for Toy Box Jam!

Christmas In The Coral Caves

by kittenm4ster

Cart #xmasfish-1 | 2019-11-27 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

58

This is my entry for the 2019 Advent Calendar =^w^=

Controls

• Up/Down/Left/Right: move
• O: do actions
• X: show/hide inventory

Backstory

My wife Aubrianne wrote a 100% completely original poem which provides the deep lore behind this game:

Credits/Special Thanks

• the amazing cover/intro art was drawn by Aubrianne
• gfx were compressed by zep's PX9​
• fade routine colors were based on this tool by kometbomb

The new (just noticed it changed today) HTML player here on the BBS doesn't seem to be able to keep a steady 60 FPS

I can really feel a bunch of frame jitter when playing Alfonzo's Bowling Challenge and it makes the physics feel very noticeably off

(testing on a MacBook Pro in both Chrome and Firefox. The old exported HTML version (0.1.12c) on itch still runs smoothly on this same computer)

The layout of the clickable buttons (fullscreen, control help, mute, etc.) on the side in the 0.1.12c version of HTML exports appears to have broken in Google Chrome all of the sudden. All of the buttons now appear stacked on top of each other :\

screenshot:

The layout still works in Firefox. I guess Chrome recently changed their interpretation of CSS rules in a way that broke this?

ghosthouse

by kittenm4ster

Cart #ghosthouse-0 | 2019-10-01 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA

86

here is my submission for Spooky September 4-Color Jam!

it was a collaboration between me and my wife; she drew all the amazing background art! (using a vector drawing tool I made)

enjoy, and happy september/october/autumntimes! :>

The BBS PICO-8 player is showing up blurry in Chrome on macOS.

(version 76.0.3809.100)

This seems like it might be a bug with Chrome, not this site, but I'm posting it here just in case...

The other puzzling factor is that this started happening all of the sudden, without updating Chrome or anything, e.g. I had the same Chrome session running and at some point this started happening. I then tried restarting my computer and it's still happening.

Screenshot

A Workaround (as a user)

1. Use "inspect element" on the canvas (e.g. push Option + Cmd + I, click the hover tool thing, and then click on the canvas)
2. uncheck image-rendering: pixelated
3. check it again

That fixes it for some reason :| It makes no sense, which makes me think it's Chrome's fault.

(EDIT: actually sometimes unchecking/checking that CSS rule makes the canvas start flickering like crazy...uggh)

More Info

• It works fine on the big TV player on the front page (in macOS Chrome)
• It works fine in HTML exports of carts (in macOS Chrome)
• It works fine in Firefox on macOS
• It works fine in Chrome on Linux
• It works fine in Chrome on Android

anyway this is lame and I hope it magically starts working again soon :p

feature request: a keyboard shortcut to switch tabs/pages of the sprite editor. Something like a Page Up/Down.

(if this already exists, someone please let me know!)

holding W technically works but it takes foreverrrr :)

edit: WHOAA I just discovered you can hold Shift + Q/W to go up/down which is a much better workaround! Still I think if there are tabs which are selectable via mouse, they should also be selectable via keyboard somehow.