9 ms·

SmileBASIC 4 for Nintendo Switch

132 points by Fr0styMatt88 6y ago

blondin 6y ago
i waited forever for a release on the DS. it finally came but on the switch. also the developers told me that a switch lite wouldn't be the best experience (not TV output among a few things).
- niconii 6y ago
  Previous versions of SmileBASIC also exist on the DSi (under the name "Petit Computer") and 3DS (simply called "SmileBASIC").
jquast 6y ago
> In order to upload your works to the server or unlimited downloading of the published works, you need to purchase Server Tickets in the game. ok.. so it costs money, but if I want to share a game I write, or look at others, I'd have to buy some kind of ticket? $9 to upload a limited amount of code, https://ec.nintendo.com/AU/en/titles/70010000010544/consumables/cqjhtpfl6uprvlt0 https://ec.nintendo.com/AU/en/titles/70010000010544/consumab... What's next, some kind of "purchase another 100 lines of code" DLC package? You know, as a kid I learned BASIC from school friends, neighbors, and family members, and taught BASIC to many more, by trading the source code freely. Books like "BASIC Computer Games" were gotten at the library for free. My computer booted into BASIC for free. Now I realize how disadvantaged I was, this is the future -- teaching children about "platforms", that hold your code hostage, monetize on your creative works, and nickel and dime away your creative energy. To think, all that nasty PIRATING of BASIC code !! Without paying anyone?! Thousands of dollars on the table, finally somebody is monetizing this!
- niconii 6y ago
  Well, let me try explaining how it works, because they honestly do a pretty bad job of it. So SmileBASIC 4 itself costs 25 USD (40 AUD). A server ticket costs 5 USD (9 AUD). Despite the name, these tickets never expire or get used up. How these work is as follows: - If you have 0 tickets, you can only download once every 8 hours, and you can't upload anything. - If you have n tickets, where n > 0, then you have unlimited downloads, and can upload 10*n projects at once. (Note that you can take down old projects to make room for new ones.) Personally speaking, unless you really need to upload a lot of projects at once (and 10 slots goes further than you might think), you really only need one ticket. The reason this server ticket system exists is because SmileBoom is a pretty small company (their site lists 8.2 million yen in capital, about 76,000 USD or 120,000 AUD), and this helps offset server costs. In any case, if you still find this system distasteful, there's nothing stopping you from continuing to do it the old way, manually typing in programs by hand. That said, I don't think it's so unreasonable to ask for a few bucks for server access, especially as a one-time fee. (Note also that originally the plan was for SmileBASIC 4 to only be sold as a bundle with one ticket. The standalone version was added because there were issues with it showing up in the eShop properly otherwise.) EDIT: One more note: this is a project limit, but you can have multiple files in a project, and the maximum project upload size is 20 MB. As you probably know, text doesn't take up much space, so you can cram a LOT of small programs into one project if you need to.
  - growt 6y ago
    Do when I buy this ticket can I write my programs on a pc with a keyboard and transfer them to the console via server?
    - niconii 6y ago
      No, but SmileBASIC itself supports a USB keyboard and mouse.
      - aspenmayer 6y ago
        Sounds like a good use case for a USB rubber ducky. The original version https://shop.hak5.org/collections/physical-access/products/usb-rubber-ducky-deluxe https://shop.hak5.org/collections/physical-access/products/u... The current cheapest off the shelf version (out of stock ATM but even cheaper clones exist) http://digistump.com/products/1 http://digistump.com/products/1 https://github.com/mame82/duck2spark https://github.com/mame82/duck2spark Build your own with compatible USB flash drives https://github.com/brandonlw/Psychson https://github.com/brandonlw/Psychson
      - tialaramex 6y ago
        To be fair that's the Switch doing that. When connecting to my WiFi this was a huge blessing - because even the toy WiFi for the Switch has a decent password, and again when uploading SMM2 levels. It's a little bit painful to watch really great creators like Barb or PangeaPanga uses a pad to write names & descriptions. "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with", but the Youtube video has to cut there because Barb will proceed to take about a minute to painstakingly enter the text. It's not a big deal, but it jumps out because that's the only part I find easier. (I suck at Mario, but it's fun anyway).
  - shepherdjerred 6y ago
    Server costs? Is someone uploading gigabytes of code?
    - adito 6y ago
- badsectoracula 6y ago
  The entire console market is retarded like that: you have to sign onerous NDAs, pay incredibly high fees for the "privilege" of creating additional software for the console vendors and thus making their consoles more valuable and all you get is some shoddy SDK with awful licensing terms (what? You used some (L)GPL'd code as your engine's base? Sorry, no can do. - You wrote your engine in an open source language that has no official support and you ported the runtime? Haha, LOL, no buddy, you can't give this back to the mainline developers, this contains our secret sauce, sucks to be you but you'll need to maintain this forever). I have a PSVita and i really like its hardware, but honestly it was a waste of money since there isn't anything i can do with it. Switch also looks nice, but again it will soon be useless. The best you can hope for with these is for someone to find some security flaw after the vendor has stopped supporting the device, that will allow homebrew development in the future. But by that time you might as well buy a cheap Chinese android device (or even better something like GPD Win that is a full proper PC in handheld form - though that isn't very cheap) and chances are it'll be both faster and better.
  - 0ld 6y ago
    > Switch also looks nice, but again it will soon be useless. > The best you can hope for with these is for someone to find some security flaw after the vendor has stopped supporting the device, that will allow homebrew development in the future. Earlier Switches all have an unfixable hardware flaw, and long since there are cfw's (several), homebrew and even a hb eshop. Even if the new ones are patched, you can easily buy a used prechacked (or not) one. The hackable serials number batches are easy to check, just google for it.
    - badsectoracula 6y ago
      Yes, i've looked into it some time ago and i have my PSVita in a firmware version that was hacked (even installed Quake on it :-P) and was also looking for similar stuff for my PS2. This is mainly because i already have those devices around (except the Switch, i was just curious about that one because of its popularity and really i bought the Vita because i was lured in by the free SDK for C# games... something Sony abandoned and -even worse- completely removed soon after i bought the device) and since i have them, might as well try to use them. But i shouldn't have to go through all these hoops to write and install software on a device i own. And even if issues are found in the future, you can't just rely on them and often the way to exploit them are too convoluted (take a look on how to install homebrew on PS2 for example - and note that this is the easy method that people figured out in recent years).
- Razengan 6y ago
  We need a modern “codable console” in the spirit of the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum etc. Something you can just unbox and start playing and programming on right away. The Raspberry Pi is not it, the iPad isn’t it, and neither is any Android. The remakes/revivals of the C64 etc. are not it either. Something like a laptop that boots into a friendly GUI/CLI hybrid within 1 second, and doesn’t require the internet or signing-up or any other bullshit. Just a big fat blinking cursor.
  - lifeformed 6y ago
    Pico-8: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
    - Razengan 6y ago
      Wow, while this is very cool (you can even play the games directly in the iPhone browser! [0]) it’s not a self-contained machine with built-in display and keyboard. Maybe someone can make (or has made?) standalone hardware based on it. [0] https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=42932#p https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=42932#p
      - gmurphy 6y ago
        The Pocket C.H.I.P. was built around PICO-8 https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/pocket-c-h-i-p-new https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/po...
        shakna 6y ago
        Word of warning from someone who has a Pocket CHIP. As nice as it was while it lasted, the company is a ghost, now. They up and vanished, with outstanding orders, and problems with the OS. Don't touch this. Flashing, and reflashing, is a pain, and the OS itself requires some binary blobs that have made it incompatible with any modern version of Debian. The people controlling the site are one of the third party resellers. > We are one of the original third party retailers for Next Thing Co.'s amazing products. While we never received much of the bulk of our product purchased for our store, we are now offering up the remainder of our stock to interested customers.
- Angostura 6y ago
  I presume your ZX-Spectrum didn't come with an online softwar distribution service. Mind certainly didn't. I typed it in from printouts like we all did.
- grawprog 6y ago
  Not only that, but you need to actually pay to download other people's games by the looks of it. >or unlimited downloading of the published works, Even if you don't intend to write any of your own code, a server ticket seems to be required to even download code.
- thought_alarm 6y ago
  > My computer booted into BASIC for free. Your computer wasn't free, and you still had to buy disks if you wanted to save your work or trade with friends.
- bitwize 6y ago
  I was gonna say, if they're going to paywall publishing your programs, we might just see the rise of "type-in" listings once again.
- znpy 6y ago
  > You know, as a kid I learned BASIC from school friends, neighbors, and family members, and taught BASIC to many more, by trading the source code freely. Well you can still do all fo that. Get your friends to send you their BASIC code and type that yourself into the console. Even as a kid, you weren't paying somebody to host your code.
  - jquast 6y ago
    Not that it matters, but I traded lots of BASIC code on local bbs’s for free, and on floppies and cassettes for free. I didn’t really mind pedaling my bicycle to share my next release of “Pong” or whatever I was up to, kids love sneakernets, but I don’t think this program supports any form of sneakernet, that’s a real shame for kids who don’t have credit cards and most certainly won’t be given permission for “in game purchase”, few parents will understand or approve such a thing. That’s fine, nobody said this is for kids, or for education, it is what it is, I respect the effort and design to some degree, but won’t fund it. it goes against the very spirit of BASIC as an easy, educational, and naturally open source language. my other beef is why should content creators, who add value to the platform, pay more money? I really enjoy publishing FOSS, I maintain half a dozen of pypi’s top 100 packages, I feel joy and pride when I see my packages fly by on screens of colleagues. but if pypi starts charging me “server tickets” to publish these packages, strange EULA’s that sign my rights over, and to have to delete the less popular packages to make room to publish new ones, etc. I’d feel really damn sore about it. I’d publish it as PDF images and instruct users Like you to print it out and type it in, or dish out $9. This would be my rebellion for not getting a single penny for the thousands of volunteer hours that other people are now paying to receive a copy of. It just rolls my brain around and around to think about both players and creators paying money.
    - legostormtroopr 6y ago
      Perhaps if FOSS infrastructure (like PyPI) charged for use they wouldn't need to ask for donations to keep their services up.
jchw 6y ago
I’m currently mindblown at one of the programs publicly available for download in the software, which is a NEC PC-8801 emulator... I peeked at the BASIC code and it does indeed appear to be emulating a Z80 and it even includes support for loading real BIOS dumps and floppy images seemingly. I can’t find much information about the software online but I think it was developed for one of the competitions and I’d highly recommend checking it out if you decide to purchase SmileBASIC 4.
- qilo 6y ago
  Can you share a link? Do you think would it be possible to play with the code from the (free) book "Machine code for beginners" [0] with that emulator? I'd like to get some familiarity with machine code, and thought maybe it's a simplest way to start with. Or maybe you can give other suggestions for the emulator? From the book (page 3): > The book is specially written for computers with a Z80 or 6502 microprocessor. [0] https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-coding-books#__mcenew https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-codin...
tabs_masterrace 6y ago
Very cool. This will probably get some kids onto the path of a future programming career. I remember my first PC running MS DOS, being young and curios I just had to try everything, eventually stumbling upon Pascal, and that would basically shape my adult life. Sometimes I worry about the new generation though, despite the prevalence of technology and information, most grow up on locked down mobile systems, which are made for consumption and don't promote creating very well. They are also very opaque to what's actually happening under the hood. Mobile UI is an godsend for user experience, but it's also one heck of an abstraction layer. Maybe that's why so many people are trying their luck with becoming influencers, streamers or youtubers, because that's seems like the kind of content creation these devices promote. Anyway, on the same vein, I was positively surprised when Overwatch added some kind of visual coding environment for custom games a year or so ago. Seemed a bit silly, but give kids the tools, and they'll create. I'm sure that alone will have a real positive impact for many young adults.
- thedevelopnik 6y ago
  I’ve gotten my kid very into Nintendo Labo. You build toys from cardboard that hold the controllers and so you can drive a car in the game with a cardboard wheel, for example. But the whole thing is a veneer on learning how the toys work through additional activities, and then a drag and drop programming interface is available so you can make your own interactive tools using the Switch. He’s not quite old enough to grasp the programming interface, but the discovery section demystifies the abstraction layer of the controller. Its not just a box. Its a box you open up and change.
  - mobiledev2014 6y ago
    If you haven't bought the VR kit, they added a full 3D editor on top of the engine from the first few releases, which allows you to create VR or non-VR games. It's absolutely incredible and was sadly overlooked. I've been hoping for them to update it with proper sharing and do a new marketing push but doubtful such a thing is coming. There are 2 VR sets available- the full kit is more impressive but the software is the same on both if you care more about the diy games than what Nintendo provides.
strategarius 6y ago
That's not the first solution, when gaming console gave access to hardware through simple programming language for the purpose of entertainment and education. There was Sega Saturn Game Basic [0], published in 1998 and giving access to almost all console hardware capabilities. However, 2020 is not 1998, and I personally consider Basic a bit outdated even for education purposes. Don't get me wrong, it's a great tool to introduce world of programming to kids, but Python would have been much more practical and extremely simple to learn. [0] https://youtu.be/O_QU8eaMymo https://youtu.be/O_QU8eaMymo
kennydude 6y ago
I wonder how tihs compares to FUZE https://www.fuze.co.uk/nintendo-switch.html https://www.fuze.co.uk/nintendo-switch.html
- gabrielsroka 6y ago
  It looks like FUZE is on sale for $20: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fuze4-nintendo-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fuze4-nintendo-switch/
- dukoid 6y ago
  No public API docs for either platform it seems?
  - niconii 6y ago
    https://sup4.smilebasic.com/en/doku.php?id=reference:top https://sup4.smilebasic.com/en/doku.php?id=reference:top https://fuzearena.com/help https://fuzearena.com/help
- fuzzball_b 6y ago
  Me as well. I believe Fuze doesn’t have a server for sharing your work, but they do have a moderated forum where you can share your Nintendo friend code, and this way you can share your project.

132 points by Fr0styMatt88 6y ago

i waited forever for a release on the DS. it finally came but on the switch. also the developers told me that a switch lite wouldn't be the best experience (not TV output among a few things).

niconii 6y ago
Previous versions of SmileBASIC also exist on the DSi (under the name "Petit Computer") and 3DS (simply called "SmileBASIC").

jquast 6y ago

> In order to upload your works to the server or unlimited downloading of the published works, you need to purchase Server Tickets in the game. ok.. so it costs money, but if I want to share a game I write, or look at others, I'd have to buy some kind of ticket? $9 to upload a limited amount of code, https://ec.nintendo.com/AU/en/titles/70010000010544/consumables/cqjhtpfl6uprvlt0 https://ec.nintendo.com/AU/en/titles/70010000010544/consumab... What's next, some kind of "purchase another 100 lines of code" DLC package? You know, as a kid I learned BASIC from school friends, neighbors, and family members, and taught BASIC to many more, by trading the source code freely. Books like "BASIC Computer Games" were gotten at the library for free. My computer booted into BASIC for free. Now I realize how disadvantaged I was, this is the future -- teaching children about "platforms", that hold your code hostage, monetize on your creative works, and nickel and dime away your creative energy. To think, all that nasty PIRATING of BASIC code !! Without paying anyone?! Thousands of dollars on the table, finally somebody is monetizing this!

niconii 6y ago
Well, let me try explaining how it works, because they honestly do a pretty bad job of it. So SmileBASIC 4 itself costs 25 USD (40 AUD). A server ticket costs 5 USD (9 AUD). Despite the name, these tickets never expire or get used up. How these work is as follows: - If you have 0 tickets, you can only download once every 8 hours, and you can't upload anything. - If you have n tickets, where n > 0, then you have unlimited downloads, and can upload 10*n projects at once. (Note that you can take down old projects to make room for new ones.) Personally speaking, unless you really need to upload a lot of projects at once (and 10 slots goes further than you might think), you really only need one ticket. The reason this server ticket system exists is because SmileBoom is a pretty small company (their site lists 8.2 million yen in capital, about 76,000 USD or 120,000 AUD), and this helps offset server costs. In any case, if you still find this system distasteful, there's nothing stopping you from continuing to do it the old way, manually typing in programs by hand. That said, I don't think it's so unreasonable to ask for a few bucks for server access, especially as a one-time fee. (Note also that originally the plan was for SmileBASIC 4 to only be sold as a bundle with one ticket. The standalone version was added because there were issues with it showing up in the eShop properly otherwise.) EDIT: One more note: this is a project limit, but you can have multiple files in a project, and the maximum project upload size is 20 MB. As you probably know, text doesn't take up much space, so you can cram a LOT of small programs into one project if you need to.
- growt 6y ago
  Do when I buy this ticket can I write my programs on a pc with a keyboard and transfer them to the console via server?
  - niconii 6y ago
    No, but SmileBASIC itself supports a USB keyboard and mouse.
    - aspenmayer 6y ago
      Sounds like a good use case for a USB rubber ducky. The original version https://shop.hak5.org/collections/physical-access/products/usb-rubber-ducky-deluxe https://shop.hak5.org/collections/physical-access/products/u... The current cheapest off the shelf version (out of stock ATM but even cheaper clones exist) http://digistump.com/products/1 http://digistump.com/products/1 https://github.com/mame82/duck2spark https://github.com/mame82/duck2spark Build your own with compatible USB flash drives https://github.com/brandonlw/Psychson https://github.com/brandonlw/Psychson
    - tialaramex 6y ago
      To be fair that's the Switch doing that. When connecting to my WiFi this was a huge blessing - because even the toy WiFi for the Switch has a decent password, and again when uploading SMM2 levels. It's a little bit painful to watch really great creators like Barb or PangeaPanga uses a pad to write names & descriptions. "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with", but the Youtube video has to cut there because Barb will proceed to take about a minute to painstakingly enter the text. It's not a big deal, but it jumps out because that's the only part I find easier. (I suck at Mario, but it's fun anyway).
- shepherdjerred 6y ago
  Server costs? Is someone uploading gigabytes of code?
  - adito 6y ago
badsectoracula 6y ago
The entire console market is retarded like that: you have to sign onerous NDAs, pay incredibly high fees for the "privilege" of creating additional software for the console vendors and thus making their consoles more valuable and all you get is some shoddy SDK with awful licensing terms (what? You used some (L)GPL'd code as your engine's base? Sorry, no can do. - You wrote your engine in an open source language that has no official support and you ported the runtime? Haha, LOL, no buddy, you can't give this back to the mainline developers, this contains our secret sauce, sucks to be you but you'll need to maintain this forever). I have a PSVita and i really like its hardware, but honestly it was a waste of money since there isn't anything i can do with it. Switch also looks nice, but again it will soon be useless. The best you can hope for with these is for someone to find some security flaw after the vendor has stopped supporting the device, that will allow homebrew development in the future. But by that time you might as well buy a cheap Chinese android device (or even better something like GPD Win that is a full proper PC in handheld form - though that isn't very cheap) and chances are it'll be both faster and better.
- 0ld 6y ago
  > Switch also looks nice, but again it will soon be useless. > The best you can hope for with these is for someone to find some security flaw after the vendor has stopped supporting the device, that will allow homebrew development in the future. Earlier Switches all have an unfixable hardware flaw, and long since there are cfw's (several), homebrew and even a hb eshop. Even if the new ones are patched, you can easily buy a used prechacked (or not) one. The hackable serials number batches are easy to check, just google for it.
  - badsectoracula 6y ago
    Yes, i've looked into it some time ago and i have my PSVita in a firmware version that was hacked (even installed Quake on it :-P) and was also looking for similar stuff for my PS2. This is mainly because i already have those devices around (except the Switch, i was just curious about that one because of its popularity and really i bought the Vita because i was lured in by the free SDK for C# games... something Sony abandoned and -even worse- completely removed soon after i bought the device) and since i have them, might as well try to use them. But i shouldn't have to go through all these hoops to write and install software on a device i own. And even if issues are found in the future, you can't just rely on them and often the way to exploit them are too convoluted (take a look on how to install homebrew on PS2 for example - and note that this is the easy method that people figured out in recent years).
Razengan 6y ago
We need a modern “codable console” in the spirit of the Commodore 64 and Sinclair Spectrum etc. Something you can just unbox and start playing and programming on right away. The Raspberry Pi is not it, the iPad isn’t it, and neither is any Android. The remakes/revivals of the C64 etc. are not it either. Something like a laptop that boots into a friendly GUI/CLI hybrid within 1 second, and doesn’t require the internet or signing-up or any other bullshit. Just a big fat blinking cursor.
- lifeformed 6y ago
  Pico-8: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
  - Razengan 6y ago
    Wow, while this is very cool (you can even play the games directly in the iPhone browser! [0]) it’s not a self-contained machine with built-in display and keyboard. Maybe someone can make (or has made?) standalone hardware based on it. [0] https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=42932#p https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=42932#p
    - gmurphy 6y ago
      The Pocket C.H.I.P. was built around PICO-8 https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/pocket-c-h-i-p-new https://shop.pocketchip.co/collections/frontpage/products/po...
      - shakna 6y ago
        Word of warning from someone who has a Pocket CHIP. As nice as it was while it lasted, the company is a ghost, now. They up and vanished, with outstanding orders, and problems with the OS. Don't touch this. Flashing, and reflashing, is a pain, and the OS itself requires some binary blobs that have made it incompatible with any modern version of Debian. The people controlling the site are one of the third party resellers. > We are one of the original third party retailers for Next Thing Co.'s amazing products. While we never received much of the bulk of our product purchased for our store, we are now offering up the remainder of our stock to interested customers.
Angostura 6y ago
I presume your ZX-Spectrum didn't come with an online softwar distribution service. Mind certainly didn't. I typed it in from printouts like we all did.
grawprog 6y ago
Not only that, but you need to actually pay to download other people's games by the looks of it. >or unlimited downloading of the published works, Even if you don't intend to write any of your own code, a server ticket seems to be required to even download code.
thought_alarm 6y ago
> My computer booted into BASIC for free. Your computer wasn't free, and you still had to buy disks if you wanted to save your work or trade with friends.
bitwize 6y ago
I was gonna say, if they're going to paywall publishing your programs, we might just see the rise of "type-in" listings once again.
znpy 6y ago
> You know, as a kid I learned BASIC from school friends, neighbors, and family members, and taught BASIC to many more, by trading the source code freely. Well you can still do all fo that. Get your friends to send you their BASIC code and type that yourself into the console. Even as a kid, you weren't paying somebody to host your code.
- jquast 6y ago
  Not that it matters, but I traded lots of BASIC code on local bbs’s for free, and on floppies and cassettes for free. I didn’t really mind pedaling my bicycle to share my next release of “Pong” or whatever I was up to, kids love sneakernets, but I don’t think this program supports any form of sneakernet, that’s a real shame for kids who don’t have credit cards and most certainly won’t be given permission for “in game purchase”, few parents will understand or approve such a thing. That’s fine, nobody said this is for kids, or for education, it is what it is, I respect the effort and design to some degree, but won’t fund it. it goes against the very spirit of BASIC as an easy, educational, and naturally open source language. my other beef is why should content creators, who add value to the platform, pay more money? I really enjoy publishing FOSS, I maintain half a dozen of pypi’s top 100 packages, I feel joy and pride when I see my packages fly by on screens of colleagues. but if pypi starts charging me “server tickets” to publish these packages, strange EULA’s that sign my rights over, and to have to delete the less popular packages to make room to publish new ones, etc. I’d feel really damn sore about it. I’d publish it as PDF images and instruct users Like you to print it out and type it in, or dish out $9. This would be my rebellion for not getting a single penny for the thousands of volunteer hours that other people are now paying to receive a copy of. It just rolls my brain around and around to think about both players and creators paying money.
  - legostormtroopr 6y ago
    Perhaps if FOSS infrastructure (like PyPI) charged for use they wouldn't need to ask for donations to keep their services up.

jchw 6y ago

I’m currently mindblown at one of the programs publicly available for download in the software, which is a NEC PC-8801 emulator... I peeked at the BASIC code and it does indeed appear to be emulating a Z80 and it even includes support for loading real BIOS dumps and floppy images seemingly. I can’t find much information about the software online but I think it was developed for one of the competitions and I’d highly recommend checking it out if you decide to purchase SmileBASIC 4.

qilo 6y ago
Can you share a link? Do you think would it be possible to play with the code from the (free) book "Machine code for beginners" [0] with that emulator? I'd like to get some familiarity with machine code, and thought maybe it's a simplest way to start with. Or maybe you can give other suggestions for the emulator? From the book (page 3): > The book is specially written for computers with a Z80 or 6502 microprocessor. [0] https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-coding-books#__mcenew https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-codin...

tabs_masterrace 6y ago

Very cool. This will probably get some kids onto the path of a future programming career. I remember my first PC running MS DOS, being young and curios I just had to try everything, eventually stumbling upon Pascal, and that would basically shape my adult life. Sometimes I worry about the new generation though, despite the prevalence of technology and information, most grow up on locked down mobile systems, which are made for consumption and don't promote creating very well. They are also very opaque to what's actually happening under the hood. Mobile UI is an godsend for user experience, but it's also one heck of an abstraction layer. Maybe that's why so many people are trying their luck with becoming influencers, streamers or youtubers, because that's seems like the kind of content creation these devices promote. Anyway, on the same vein, I was positively surprised when Overwatch added some kind of visual coding environment for custom games a year or so ago. Seemed a bit silly, but give kids the tools, and they'll create. I'm sure that alone will have a real positive impact for many young adults.

thedevelopnik 6y ago
I’ve gotten my kid very into Nintendo Labo. You build toys from cardboard that hold the controllers and so you can drive a car in the game with a cardboard wheel, for example. But the whole thing is a veneer on learning how the toys work through additional activities, and then a drag and drop programming interface is available so you can make your own interactive tools using the Switch. He’s not quite old enough to grasp the programming interface, but the discovery section demystifies the abstraction layer of the controller. Its not just a box. Its a box you open up and change.
- mobiledev2014 6y ago
  If you haven't bought the VR kit, they added a full 3D editor on top of the engine from the first few releases, which allows you to create VR or non-VR games. It's absolutely incredible and was sadly overlooked. I've been hoping for them to update it with proper sharing and do a new marketing push but doubtful such a thing is coming. There are 2 VR sets available- the full kit is more impressive but the software is the same on both if you care more about the diy games than what Nintendo provides.

strategarius 6y ago

That's not the first solution, when gaming console gave access to hardware through simple programming language for the purpose of entertainment and education. There was Sega Saturn Game Basic [0], published in 1998 and giving access to almost all console hardware capabilities. However, 2020 is not 1998, and I personally consider Basic a bit outdated even for education purposes. Don't get me wrong, it's a great tool to introduce world of programming to kids, but Python would have been much more practical and extremely simple to learn. [0] https://youtu.be/O_QU8eaMymo https://youtu.be/O_QU8eaMymo

kennydude 6y ago

I wonder how tihs compares to FUZE https://www.fuze.co.uk/nintendo-switch.html https://www.fuze.co.uk/nintendo-switch.html

gabrielsroka 6y ago
It looks like FUZE is on sale for $20: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fuze4-nintendo-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fuze4-nintendo-switch/
dukoid 6y ago
No public API docs for either platform it seems?
- niconii 6y ago
  https://sup4.smilebasic.com/en/doku.php?id=reference:top https://sup4.smilebasic.com/en/doku.php?id=reference:top https://fuzearena.com/help https://fuzearena.com/help
fuzzball_b 6y ago
Me as well. I believe Fuze doesn’t have a server for sharing your work, but they do have a moderated forum where you can share your Nintendo friend code, and this way you can share your project.