4 ms·

Alone in Pico: Postmortem of a 3D demake

83 points by phoboslab 10y ago

tluyben2 10y ago
Nice! I recently got my PocketCHIP[0] which has PICO 8 on board and I'm working on some small projects when in on the go (airplanes mainly). Great to see what other people are doing; PICO-8 is nice to work with so far! [0] https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip
- dcw303 10y ago
  I got a Pocket CHIP recently too. I'm having lots of fun with the music tracker in PICO-8. I just wish I could figure out a way to write chords that didn't take up three of the precious four channels! Makes you realise how impressive some of those 8-bit chip tunes really are.
  - qwertyuiop924 10y ago
    >I just wish I could figure out a way to write chords that didn't take up three of the precious four channels! As a semi-long-time tracker user (BTW, if you've got a gameboy or gameboy emulator, check out LSDJ. If you don't, try LGPT, which should work well on the pocketCHIP. They are both fantastic trackers) I can tell you the secret: arpeggios. You play several notes very rapidly (and I mean very rapidly) on a single channel. This is so common that most trackers have the capability to do so built in. In PICO-8's tracker, it's effects number 6 (arpeggio slow) and 7 (arpeggio fast). Strangely, PICO-8's docs claim that it arpeggiates over groups of four notes. Typically, (in, for example, MilkyTracker), the effect command would be 0xy, where x and y are semitone offsets for the second two notes in the arpeggio, for a total of three. I am unsure how PICO-8's arpeggio works precisely, as I don't own it.
    - dcw303 10y ago
      Thanks for this! Strangely, I had tried fx 6/7, but I was putting them over the existing chords, which was as ugly as it sounds! Guess I should RTFM :D
andrewclunn 10y ago
When they standardized what the Pico8's specs would be, I thought it was too underpowered for a whole slew of ideas, but since then I've been consistently proven wrong. Really impressive.
- tluyben2 10y ago
  That is the funny thing about providing people with a lot of limitations for a longer time. What they get out of the 80s home computers well after the 80s was considered impossible by even the makers of those systems. People will find ways if they can shoot at the same (virtual) hardware for a long time.
  - corysama 10y ago
    For example https://www.google.com/amp/s/scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/8088-mph-how-it-came-about/amp/?client=safari https://www.google.com/amp/s/scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/1...
    - eriknstr 10y ago
      Link to blog instead of Google: https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/8088-mph-how-it-came-about/ https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/8088-mph-how-it-cam...
hitekker 10y ago
Pico looks promising. Pocketchip is one of the few products I couldn't see myself buying, but would love to receive as a gift.
- AlexeyBrin 10y ago
  You can buy Pico-8 separately if you want, it works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi and of course Pocketchip.
tekromancr 10y ago
This is incredible. These types of posts are some of my favorite ones that appear on HN.
malkia 10y ago
FYI: Picochip (well Chip itself) got upgrade where 3D acceleration is now possible (thought this not affect Pico-8). My picochip also got from 4GB -> 8GB storage with that recent upgrade.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- eriknstr 10y ago
  >Picochip Did you mean PocketCHIP? https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip
  - malkia 10y ago
    Yes :) At least I ddin't write it out as Nanochip
  - eriknstr 10y ago
    They also have a console kit version for $29 apparently. https://getchip.com/pages/chip https://getchip.com/pages/chip

83 points by phoboslab 10y ago

Nice! I recently got my PocketCHIP[0] which has PICO 8 on board and I'm working on some small projects when in on the go (airplanes mainly). Great to see what other people are doing; PICO-8 is nice to work with so far! [0] https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip

dcw303 10y ago
I got a Pocket CHIP recently too. I'm having lots of fun with the music tracker in PICO-8. I just wish I could figure out a way to write chords that didn't take up three of the precious four channels! Makes you realise how impressive some of those 8-bit chip tunes really are.
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  >I just wish I could figure out a way to write chords that didn't take up three of the precious four channels! As a semi-long-time tracker user (BTW, if you've got a gameboy or gameboy emulator, check out LSDJ. If you don't, try LGPT, which should work well on the pocketCHIP. They are both fantastic trackers) I can tell you the secret: arpeggios. You play several notes very rapidly (and I mean very rapidly) on a single channel. This is so common that most trackers have the capability to do so built in. In PICO-8's tracker, it's effects number 6 (arpeggio slow) and 7 (arpeggio fast). Strangely, PICO-8's docs claim that it arpeggiates over groups of four notes. Typically, (in, for example, MilkyTracker), the effect command would be 0xy, where x and y are semitone offsets for the second two notes in the arpeggio, for a total of three. I am unsure how PICO-8's arpeggio works precisely, as I don't own it.
  - dcw303 10y ago
    Thanks for this! Strangely, I had tried fx 6/7, but I was putting them over the existing chords, which was as ugly as it sounds! Guess I should RTFM :D

andrewclunn 10y ago

When they standardized what the Pico8's specs would be, I thought it was too underpowered for a whole slew of ideas, but since then I've been consistently proven wrong. Really impressive.

tluyben2 10y ago
That is the funny thing about providing people with a lot of limitations for a longer time. What they get out of the 80s home computers well after the 80s was considered impossible by even the makers of those systems. People will find ways if they can shoot at the same (virtual) hardware for a long time.
- corysama 10y ago
  For example https://www.google.com/amp/s/scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/8088-mph-how-it-came-about/amp/?client=safari https://www.google.com/amp/s/scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/1...
  - eriknstr 10y ago
    Link to blog instead of Google: https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/8088-mph-how-it-came-about/ https://scalibq.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/8088-mph-how-it-cam...

hitekker 10y ago

Pico looks promising. Pocketchip is one of the few products I couldn't see myself buying, but would love to receive as a gift.

AlexeyBrin 10y ago
You can buy Pico-8 separately if you want, it works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi and of course Pocketchip.

tekromancr 10y ago

This is incredible. These types of posts are some of my favorite ones that appear on HN.

malkia 10y ago

FYI: Picochip (well Chip itself) got upgrade where 3D acceleration is now possible (thought this not affect Pico-8). My picochip also got from 4GB -> 8GB storage with that recent upgrade.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
eriknstr 10y ago
>Picochip Did you mean PocketCHIP? https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip https://getchip.com/pages/pocketchip
- malkia 10y ago
  Yes :) At least I ddin't write it out as Nanochip
- eriknstr 10y ago
  They also have a console kit version for $29 apparently. https://getchip.com/pages/chip https://getchip.com/pages/chip