Pico 8: The Gaming Console Without Hardware

[@ClaudioBalbin]

I played Celeste like a madman, but thought that PICO8 was just some nice developers touch. This is truly amazing! It's a shame that no official android emulator is available.

[@SackoYT]

Hey man, while that's true, there is still portable play available. There's a device called the RG351V that to my knowledge can run the official pico 8 rather than just am emulator of it.

[@AndrewTSq]

you can play pico8 games in the browser!.

[@parkerlreed]

Great content! Just found you randomly on recommendations.

[@tonipepperoni3424]

Watching ur videos is like watching a vsauce type of scientific rabbit hole channel but instead of investigating scientific discoveries, its innovations in game development and technology and its extremely fascinating. Like others commenting here have said, your niche video topics are very interesting as u show the niche sides of gaming and explore the mechanics behind these unique games in a way that is easy to understand for someone like me who has absolutely no technical knowledge in game development but who has a love for gaming

[@derekgeorgeandrews]

10:33 A PCM channel was added to PICO-8. Someone made a voice synth library for the system called speako-8. My favorite use of it was pahammond's remake of Berzerk. Check it out! Secondly, I think the appeal of the fantasy console idea starts to decrease as complexity and potential game scope increases. I am not sure where the threshhold is, but beyond a certain point, one may as well use a modern game engine like unity.

[@SackoYT]

Speako 8 sounds cool, I'll check it out! You're right about the scope. That's exactly why Celeste was remade in a more capable platform.

[@dinaari-vgm]

working to surpass the limitations and discovering new tricks in order to cram in more features and gameplay is the art of developing retro games

[@MotownBatman]

New Sub: Detroit, Michigan, US Well Done Sir! I Loved VirtuaRacing for the Genesis, but it was a Rent only, couldn't afford it. Growing Up playing that game, That DeMake looks WIZARD!

[@nybergsgarage]

incidentally, there is a full version of "poom" that has far more levels (at least six, I haven't gotten past level six yet) and four weapons, shotgun, chaingun, plasma rifle, and rocket launcher. don't know if it was done on pico 8 as well, I just downloaded it from the developer's website.

[@drakonolus7922]

After the Productive life for PICO-8. A new version such PICO-16 would arise? Just a question ......

[@PixelShade]

Perhaps this is just me being an old fart... But I think Pico-8 is quite powerful and flexible compared to 8-bit machines. having access to ALL of the 16 colors at once on any tile or sprite is actually a luxury in many scenarios, not to mention the insane amount of drawing and math capabilities. :) But yeah, I think it's for the better since it allows developers to be really creative at the same time as they are restricted the more basic restrictions of 8-bit hardware.

[@SackoYT]

It definitely seems to be the best compromise between hardware limitations but with modern applications. There is however the homebrew scene where people make new games for the 8 to 16 consoles using their sdk's, which is another thing you might be interested in looking at.

[@armorgeddon]

8:10 There's Digger!

[@vladcom95]

Great video!

[@TowerCardReader2]

I think a PSX style program is being developed called polybox

[@SackoYT]

There's also Dreambox, which is similar. But it'll be a while before we see anything come to a workable release.

[@wun_zee3599]

the colour pallet of the pico8 is actually 4 bit, not 8 or 16. it has 16 colours which is 2^4, making it 4 bit. if you wanna find out how many colours a certain number of bits has just take 2 to the power of the number of bit you have and that's your colour count. im partial to making art in 1 bit and 2 bit due to the extreme limitations forcing me to get creative.

[@SackoYT]

I see, thanks for clarifying.

[@quarteratom]

Roblox is a fantasy console. Minecraft too. Warcraft 3. Anything with modding/sandbox support and a big community.

[@closetGaming587]

people are talking about pico-8 again!

[@SackoYT]

And still going. The developer is making another new console which is the pico 8 on steroids, called picotron.

[@closetGaming587]

@@SackoYT :0

[@quarteratom]

What's the most popular open source fantasy console?

[@SackoYT]

The pico 8 and the tic-80. They both have the largest communities and the most documentation and resources available.

[@quarteratom]

@@SackoYT The PICO-8 isn't open source, but the TIC-80 is. Thanks, I'll look into it.

[@gerold55]

What's the "3D" side view racing game called?

[@SackoYT]

The one with trucks? Pico Off Road.

[@TheReferrer72]

Powerkiddy RGB30....

[@MiscName]

Didn't know about PICO 8 until I got my RGB30... perfect handheld for these square games.

[@pngn48]

anyone got the names of the gams he showcases here? that black and red racing one looked really cool

[@SackoYT]

The top down one? Night Ride.

[@quarteratom]

Would be nice if more people made real games, that you can play for days at least, on the Pico 8. Demos and demakes are stupid.

[@SackoYT]

I agree to some extent. Demakes are usually a proof of concept that entertains a different version of the game, any further development though could lead to legal issues unless the studio has given it a seal of approval. In the case of pico 8, the token limit for the games code in pico 8 makes it not possible to make a large scale project. Celeste was one such example that made a transition when the developers realised the game had more potential than what the pico 8 could provide.

[@Thunderbird1337]

I can't help myself, but these 128x128 pixels just don't to it for me, it's only 71% the pixel count of a Gameboy. I'm a huge retro handheld fand and love many of the old Gameboy games, but still I don't get warm with the 128x128 pixels of Pico-8. Of course it's still very impressive what can be done with 128x128 and with this extremely small file sizes, but imagine what would've been possible with fewer limitations (at least 256x256, roughly the pixel count of a C64 and with higher file sizes). In my opinion it was the wrong decision to make the limitations so high. Compared to the Pico-8 games, even many Gameboy games are much more complex. The Pico-8 games are all extremely limited without any complexity. You play it for 1 minute and you have already seen everything the game has to offer in most cases (somehow reminds me of the old Atari 2600 days). So my personal opinion: No, Pico-8 is not way underrated. A lot of potential has been wasted here.

[@SackoYT]

There are other fantasy consoles with fewer limitations. You'll find them on itch io with the tag, fantasy consoles.

[@SackoYT]

But to elaborate further. The idea of Pico 8 was to create a console from the past. Older generations had a limited scope with their game size too because of limiting hardware, and pico 8 is a reflection of that time period. But if you wanted to copy the visual aesthetics of the console. Then all you have to do is use the render resolution of 128x128 in your project, and make the game as big as you want.

[@billybolton6555]

poom has like 17 levels. im soo confused