14 ms·

I don't know if it's generational, maybe it is. But try as I could I can't buy a modern computer today that matches what Spectrums could do: 1) switch on machi

I don't know if it's generational, maybe it is. But try as I could I can't buy a modern computer today that matches what Spectrums could do: 1) switch on machine 2) wait half a second 3) start typing BASIC code. Maybe if the PICO-8 guy would turn that into a hardware product. :-) Further it's possible to completely know the machine and its software layers, and reaching down to assembler is accessible from a pretty young age.

klelatti 6y ago
I know exactly what you mean. The Colour Maximite 2 [1] is the closest I've found to the concept in modern hardware. An ARM Cortex M7 at 400 MHz so two orders of magnitude faster than 8 bit. I don't own one yet but very tempted! [1] https://geoffg.net/maximite.html https://geoffg.net/maximite.html
- the_af 6y ago
  Have you seen the project championed by the 8BitGuy? I think it's called Commander X16 or something like that. Oldschool, C64 compatible, and designed for the days one programmer could understand everything about his/her computer.
  - klelatti 6y ago
    Thanks - looks very interesting.
aidenn0 6y ago
Many Arm SBCs that support linux boot very quickly[1]; if you set "init" to be a python interpreter, you'd be pretty close to that. 1: I mean they handoff to linux quickly; actually running a full set of init for linux can be painfully slow, but if you just want a REPL then that should be fast.
the_af 6y ago
I kinda like that PICO-8 is software only. I get anxious about not owning the hardware otherwise (and no, I cannot buy everything that strikes my fancy). This makes all software-only PICO'ers first class citizens.