PICO-8

PICO-8 is a Lua-based fantasy console designed for programming, sharing, and playing small games and other computer programs. The application boots into a shell prompt, providing easy access to a variety of game development tools. Upon launching, the machine presents you with a command line, a suite of cartridge creation tools, and an online cartridge browser called SPLORE. ### Specifications PICO-8's strict limitations are carefully chosen to make development fun, encourage small yet expressive designs, and give cartridges made with PICO-8 their own unique look and feel. ### Creative Tools PICO-8 includes built-in tools for editing code, music, sound, sprites, and maps—all directly within the console. You can create an entire game or program without ever leaving the cozy development environment! ### Shareable Cartridges PICO-8 cartridges can be saved in a special .png format and shared directly with other users, played via the web cart player, or exported as standalone HTML5, Windows, Mac, and Linux applications. Any cartridge can be reopened in PICO-8, allowing you to peek inside to modify or study the code, graphics, and sound. ### Explore the Cartridge Universe PICO-8 comes with a built-in cartridge browser called SPLORE, which lets you search and favorite cartridges from an online collection. ### Community Resources PICO-8 has a friendly user community where people collaborate, share knowledge, and create tools, snippets, and tutorials. Check out what people are up to on forums, Twitter, and elsewhere. ### Just Add Hardware PICO-8 has a tiny download size, is easy to install, and runs on almost anything! To use PICO-8, you'll need Windows, Mac, Linux (i386/amd64), or a Raspberry Pi with a ~700MHz CPU. Turn your old, unused netbook or microcomputer into a PICO-8 machine! https://www.PICO-8-edu.com/ There’s also a free web version of PICO-8, though it lacks exporters and permanent storage. ### PICO-8 vs. Voxatron? You can learn about the intertwined history of these two projects in PICO-8 Zine Issue #1. They are now separate projects but follow the same fantasy console format and even share some components. The PICO-8 display (128x128) is part of Voxatron’s display, and both include the same audio mixer and tools. Voxatron 0.4 will be able to load and play PICO-8 cartridges.

PICO-8 is a Lua-based fantasy console for programming, sharing, and playing small games and other computer programs. It encourages small yet expressive designs through carefully designed constraints and offers a unique visual and experiential appeal.