mtrc [Lexaloffle Blog Feed]

Lulpeg/Lpeg/Lua execution inside Picotron

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 11:50:53 UTC

Hey folks,

I'd like to be able to parse a language (or just interpret Lua!) inside a Picotron cart. I'm aware of why this would be considered risky!

My initial thought was to look at Lua's own loadstring(), but that's not in Picotron. load() is, which one thread claims is very similar, but I can't get it to do execution of a string, or find its documentation.

I looked at lulpeg (https://github.com/pygy/LuLPeg) which someone claims to have gotten running on picotron (https://arnaught.neocities.org/blog/2025/03/14/year-of-the-picotron-desktop) but I'm having trouble with module imports and am wondering if load() will actually do what I need anyway.

Is there documentation for load() anywhere and will it let me do e.g.

s = "print(1+1)"
load(s)

Is there another alternative to the above approaches that might let me either write a simple DSL or interpret Lua strings at runtime?

Intercepting the return/enter key

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 12:55:34 UTC

Hey folks,

I'm working on a game/app where I'd like to use keyboard input. This has a few tricky things to it in picotron, but chief among them is I can't use the return/enter key as it causes the system menu to pop up at runtime. Is there any way to intercept the keypress or otherwise stop picotron from pausing the game when enter is pressed?

Portal Panic

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 12:50:45 UTC

portalpanic

by mtrc

[Click to Play]

Made for the GMTK 2025 Game Jam, theme 'Loop'. It came 56th for Creativity! The game is a little too hard, but I hope you enjoy it (especially if you like puzzle platformers).

Also available on itch.io here: https://illomens.itch.io/portal-panic

Instructions

Arrow keys: Move
Z: Jump
X: Clear dialogue, pull levers

Touching runes connects them together. Connect them all together and return to the first one you touched to escape the level. Good luck!