4 ms·

My dream version is this exact form factor but capable of running games similar to pico-8 games. Something that has an MMU and can load binaries from external s

My dream version is this exact form factor but capable of running games similar to pico-8 games. Something that has an MMU and can load binaries from external sources but does not necessarily run a full OS.

hungryforcodes 5y ago
An ESP32 version anyone? :)
- roywiggins 5y ago
  This is what the Odroid Go was, but it's been discontinued. There's an Arduboy firmware for it. I think there are still some other slightly less polished ESP32 handhelds around, but the Odroid Go was a great (and cheap) little thing. https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/ https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=42463 https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=42463
  - vanderZwan 5y ago
    I mean, there's still the Odroid Go Advance and the Odroid Go Super: https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-advance-black-edition-clear-white/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-advance-black-edit... https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-super-clear-white/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-super-clear-white/
    - detaro 5y ago
      ... which are Linux(?) handhelds with Ghz+ multicore ARM chips. Quite different.
  - squarefoot 5y ago
    > This is what the Odroid Go was I have one and it's a really nice piece of hardware that runs lots of games at native speed. Thanks to being an open platform, I'll probably turn it into some sort of WiFi terminal or else. For sure it won't collect dust in a drawer like many closed devices do when they become old. The Arduboy seems a nice little device, however at that price it is less appealing than say the Odroid Go Advance which has much powerful hardware but costs only $5 more. I wonder if they could axe the costs even further by not making the entire device but only a board with buttons, display and battery charging circuitry, which could host one of those cheap ATmega32u4 boards.
city41 5y ago
Sounds like the Gamebuino. https://gamebuino.com/ https://gamebuino.com/
- no_time 5y ago
  Yep this is pretty close!
- 123pie123 5y ago
  thanks, looks good
emacsen 5y ago
Same, but tic-80 instead. :)
bateskecom 5y ago
You and me both. There is already a lot out there similar running linux. Odroid go and other things running open dingux. Pico-8 as it stands needs a lot of horsepower as it's all lua scripts. I've talked to Lex about making a dedicated pico-8 console he says it would be tough, you basically need fully PC hardware to be faithful to what the virtual console should be able to do. I'm certain a lot of carts could be cross compiled into binaries and run just fine though he wasn't excited about that approach.
- roywiggins 5y ago
  There's a couple of pico-8 emulators that run on Dingux, the problems they have seem mostly due to incompatibilities rather than computing power https://github.com/Jakz/retro8 https://github.com/Jakz/retro8 https://0xcafed00d.itch.io/tac08-rg350 https://0xcafed00d.itch.io/tac08-rg350
- WithinReason 5y ago
  I was wondering if Nim could be a good tool here by compiling to C, here is a PICO-8 inspired lib written in it: https://github.com/ftsf/nico https://github.com/ftsf/nico
qbasic_forever 5y ago
If you're up for some hacking and soldering iron use, the Nintendo game and watch systems can be modded pretty easily to load more games, or homebrew code of your own creation. I don't think there's a pico-8 port yet, but it is a tiny little ARM Cortex-M4 board with a nice color screen, dpad, and buttons that you can load any bare metal code and go wild. There's a lot of good info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GameAndWatchMods/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GameAndWatchMods/
- duskwuff 5y ago
  Cortex-M7, actually! The STM32H7B0 is a surprisingly capable processor. The main limitation of the Game and Watch platform is the lack of any standard external interface -- while the system has a USB port, it's only used for charging. I've seen a couple of creative solutions to the problem, but they all require some pretty significant soldering skills.

hungryforcodes 5y ago

An ESP32 version anyone? :)

roywiggins 5y ago
This is what the Odroid Go was, but it's been discontinued. There's an Arduboy firmware for it. I think there are still some other slightly less polished ESP32 handhelds around, but the Odroid Go was a great (and cheap) little thing. https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go/ https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=42463 https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=42463
- vanderZwan 5y ago
  I mean, there's still the Odroid Go Advance and the Odroid Go Super: https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-advance-black-edition-clear-white/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-advance-black-edit... https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-super-clear-white/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-go-super-clear-white/
  - detaro 5y ago
    ... which are Linux(?) handhelds with Ghz+ multicore ARM chips. Quite different.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  > This is what the Odroid Go was I have one and it's a really nice piece of hardware that runs lots of games at native speed. Thanks to being an open platform, I'll probably turn it into some sort of WiFi terminal or else. For sure it won't collect dust in a drawer like many closed devices do when they become old. The Arduboy seems a nice little device, however at that price it is less appealing than say the Odroid Go Advance which has much powerful hardware but costs only $5 more. I wonder if they could axe the costs even further by not making the entire device but only a board with buttons, display and battery charging circuitry, which could host one of those cheap ATmega32u4 boards.

city41 5y ago

Sounds like the Gamebuino. https://gamebuino.com/ https://gamebuino.com/

no_time 5y ago
Yep this is pretty close!
123pie123 5y ago
thanks, looks good

emacsen 5y ago

Same, but tic-80 instead. :)

bateskecom 5y ago

You and me both. There is already a lot out there similar running linux. Odroid go and other things running open dingux. Pico-8 as it stands needs a lot of horsepower as it's all lua scripts. I've talked to Lex about making a dedicated pico-8 console he says it would be tough, you basically need fully PC hardware to be faithful to what the virtual console should be able to do. I'm certain a lot of carts could be cross compiled into binaries and run just fine though he wasn't excited about that approach.

roywiggins 5y ago
There's a couple of pico-8 emulators that run on Dingux, the problems they have seem mostly due to incompatibilities rather than computing power https://github.com/Jakz/retro8 https://github.com/Jakz/retro8 https://0xcafed00d.itch.io/tac08-rg350 https://0xcafed00d.itch.io/tac08-rg350
WithinReason 5y ago
I was wondering if Nim could be a good tool here by compiling to C, here is a PICO-8 inspired lib written in it: https://github.com/ftsf/nico https://github.com/ftsf/nico

qbasic_forever 5y ago

If you're up for some hacking and soldering iron use, the Nintendo game and watch systems can be modded pretty easily to load more games, or homebrew code of your own creation. I don't think there's a pico-8 port yet, but it is a tiny little ARM Cortex-M4 board with a nice color screen, dpad, and buttons that you can load any bare metal code and go wild. There's a lot of good info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GameAndWatchMods/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GameAndWatchMods/

duskwuff 5y ago
Cortex-M7, actually! The STM32H7B0 is a surprisingly capable processor. The main limitation of the Game and Watch platform is the lack of any standard external interface -- while the system has a USB port, it's only used for charging. I've seen a couple of creative solutions to the problem, but they all require some pretty significant soldering skills.