Hi there.
I would like to make a suggestion to @zep: I would love if there was a public or private (developer key based for instance) API allowing to list all the carts with their associated meta data: stars, submit date, last thread update, tags, etc. to allow 3rd party pages to propose alternative ways to discover them.
I would love to be able to surface easily the latest new "hot" games when I come back to PICO8 every six months or to order them by popularity, just to find some gems I've never encountered yet.
I used to look at the picotracker website a user made long time ago, but it is now dead (and it had very limited features).
It could be achieved by scrapping the website but it's not respectful, not elegant and a pain to develop.
To avoid abuses, the API could do something like caching the result of the query once per day and return that?
I hope this feature request will get some attention :) ♥.
3 comments
Game Overview
"Block Shots" is a Pico-8 game similar to a block breaker or brick breaker style game where players shoot balls to break blocks. The game features:
- Blocks with numerical values that decrease when hit
- Balls that bounce off walls and blocks
- A launcher mechanism with directional aiming
- Progressively advancing blocks that create increasing difficulty
- Score tracking based on block hits
- Highscore
Controls
- ⬅️ ➡️: Adjust aim angle
- 🅾️: Fire/release balls
- ❎: Restart
Core Mechanics
Launcher System
- Player aims using left/right buttons to adjust angle
- Balls are released in sequence with a timer delay
- The launcher has a visual aim indicator
Ball Physics
- Balls bounce off walls and solid objects
- Ball speed and direction are determined by launch angle
- Balls are removed when hitting the kill zone (bottom of screen)
- Ball colors dynamically change based on the highest block value
Block System
- Blocks have numerical values that decrease when hit
- Blocks are removed when their value reaches zero
- New lines of blocks are added at the top after each round
- Blocks advance downward after each round
- Game ends if blocks reach the bottom deadline
Level Progression
- New rows of blocks are added with increasing difficulty
- Block count per row is randomized within min/max constraints
- Block positions within a row are randomized
- More balls are provided as levels increase
Technical Implementation
- Uses a tile-based collision system with flag checking
- Tracks game elements (balls, blocks) in tables
- Uses sprite-based rendering with dynamic sprite selection
- Implements simple physics for ball movement and bouncing
- Handles collision detection between balls, walls and blocks
20 comments
Hi!
I'm looking for a fellow game creator hobbyist to collaborate in making a game. I've been coding games for about six years using various technologies and for dirrerent platforms, such as the Commodore 64, NES, Pygame and Pico-8. I can handle programming pretty well, but I'm especially looking for some assistance in creating the graphics and in game design.
I want to make an adventure game with some storyline. I haven't decided yet if it would be an action game like Zelda or a Final Fantasy style RPG. I can usually manage drawing background art for my games, but where I need most help is in designing and drawing character art: player, enemies and bosses.
I'm a big fan of classic games and I always tend to copy their mechanics, but I'd like to create something new. So if you've got an idea for a game in mind, let me know and we'll chat about it and plan it together!
1 comment
It plays raw, headerless unsigned 8-bit PCM @ 44100Hz!
For technical info, see here:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=149091
USAGE: audio /full/path/to/file
This will play any .raw audio file exported by Audacity when exported as Raw (headerless) unsigned 8-bit PCM (stereo) at 44100 Hz.
0 comments
This is my first Pico-8 game.
Story
The four tribes of Dogs, Ducks, Slimes, and Humans are hosting a compitition! Find the statue of each one and go to the big sky island for a prize!
Features
- Play as one of four unique characters, each with their own physics
- Optionally grab the poly-bandanna, which lets you transform into the enemies you encounter (without it, attacks knock out the enemies)
- A big world with unique areas
Controls
O: Jump
X: Attack
D-pad: Move
Credits
Many thanks to Nerdy Teachers for their platformer engine and some textures (especially the humans, dirt, and grass)
6 comments
The font lil.font has bugged characters from 16 to 26. All of the pixels that should be there are indeed present in the userdata; however, their width adjustment nibbles are not set and so they appear cut off:
print(chr(26)) --Yen symbol is cut poke(0x4008, 34, 34, 34, 34, 34, 3) --fix nibbles print(chr(26)) --Yen symbol is whole again! |
1 comment
.jpg)
The people of earth are too busy with new developments in technology, like ai. They have forgotten how to touch grass. But how can they touch Grass if there is no grass to touch? Help save the people of earth by planting more grass!
Gameplay :
- Dodge the obstacles and throw while throwing seeds.
- The Pollen you collect from the thrown seeds increases your score.
- Throwing seeds increases fills the "seedometer". When the seedometer is full, the player generates a shield to protect themselves from obstacles.
- Increase your score to grow the tree in the main menu!
- Game over when the player's HP reaches 0.
Controls :
- Press arrow keys to move
- X button to throw seeds
- Z + any arrow key to perform dash
Made for Clear Skies Game Jam 2025
Made by QCrimson and Krump
0 comments
Hello! I whipped up this stupid meme in about an hour..
So let me tell you how it works!
Audio
So, I used @luchak 's Picotron PCM Driver: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=141655
It uses Unsigned 8bit PCM @ 44100KHz, so I used audacity to export my normal audio file as a Raw (headerless) 8bit Unsigned PCM Audio file at 44100KHz.
I then dropped that into my cart, and that's that.
As for playback, here is my code:
include "pcm.lua"
audioraw = nil
sample = 1 -- Index in terms of frames (left and right samples)
function get_audio(n_samples)
local sound_left = userdata('f64', n_samples)
[ [size=16][color=#ffaabb] [ Continue Reading.. ] [/color][/size] ](/bbs/?pid=167276#p) |
3 comments
Hello! Welcome to TronStore!
Its a small appstore I just made for Picotron.
It loads carts from bbs:// and displays them somewhat neatly.
You can run apps sandboxed without installing, or you can install them!
When you install an app, it installs it to /appdata/TronStore
The code is a bit jank, but if you'd like to improve upon this code, go right ahead!
You can browse sandboxed / on web, but installation and running only works when TronStore is installed.
Also, it's pretty slow, since it fetches every BBS entry in the current tab, so it won't redraw whenever its loading bbs entries.
4 comments
.png)
Here is a small visualizer I made to test out the pico 8 bitwise operations.
Use O to switch operations and X to randomize the bytes.
0 comments
Hello everyone,
I’ve just released my latest game, A Buzz Life, made for the 1-BIT JAM 6!
It’s a fast-paced collection of microgames inspired by the WarioWare series, where you control a fly trying to survive a series of strange and often ridiculous challenges — like digging through trash, dodging spiders, or freezing in place to avoid getting swatted.
The twist is that your fly is aging in real time. You start as a maggot and go through its entire life cycle as you play. If you don’t finish the sequence of games before reaching the end of its life, it’s game over. That time pressure adds a layer of urgency to everything, and (hopefully) some dark humor too.
3 comments
Duckflight
This is my first and potentially last game. You fly a plane and try avoid the ducks in order to avoid dying as well.
controls
- left/right move
- x dash
Dash:
There is an icon in the top right corner. If that one turns green, you can activate the dash. press an arrow key and x at the same time. Releasing the arrow key early allows to stop the stop the active dash.
Once activated the dash icon at the top (the <>x) turn white again which indicates that it is inactive.
Changelog
0.02:
- Added Score Counter
- delete birds on restart
- limit player movement to screen boundaries
- added a soundtrack
- changed to CC licence
0.03:
- added 6 Levels of difficulty
- added Highscore counter (saved between sessions)
- improved collision
- added score counters to menu
0.04
- reset level after game is lost
0.05
- decreased vertical distance between birds to make it harder to fly between them
- decreased horizontal distance between birds to reduce gaps
- added second soundtrack
0.06
- added a dash ability
- added clouds in the background
- moved from Work in Progress to cartridges. Furter changes are unlikely bit not impossible.
5 comments
We all have to start at the beginning
Having hunted high and lo for what felt like the 'right' tool for me to use to attempt to build an homage to the classic Gauntlet arcade game. pico-8 found it's way into my world and I went in hard.
So here we are, a pre-alpha-alpha prototype just so I can get used to the syntax and concepts.
It's like being a kid again.
ToDo List
Hahah.
Well, Monsters for one. Which then means 'combat' or more likely 'Whack or die'. Then we get the fun of map 2, maybe another character, music, title screen, menus, that little spinning move you did when you got to the level door......
But, as they say, the hardest step is the first one.
0 comments
Fetching() a url ending in .png freezes the program in certain cases
Can be seen by calling fetch() on this page https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picotron_screenshot_v1.png
The page itself displays a regular html page with an embedded image
1 comment
An interactive quilt for TTJ10, made in <500 chars of code.
More toy than game; think of it as a jigsaw puzzle, if you like.
controls
Left click to pick up a patch, left click again to drop it.
Also hosted on itch.io
0 comments