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Sort of a related tangent: Some of the best gaming time in my life has been on handheld consoles, even when the games were available on PC or TV. I wish there

Sort of a related tangent: Some of the best gaming time in my life has been on handheld consoles, even when the games were available on PC or TV. I wish there was a modern platform (not just a hobbyist Raspberry Pi kit or something) in the Switch or DS form factor, that boots straight into a coding environment like the legendary Commodore 64 and other "computer-consoles" of that era, with a central app store for indie devs to publish to for free. Add in dedicated support from a game engine like Godot, and I think something like that could spark a renaissance of solo devs/buddy teams experimenting with new game ideas and stuff.

aspenmayer 1y ago
> I wish there was a modern platform (not just a hobbyist Raspberry Pi kit or something) in the Switch or DS form factor, that boots straight into a coding environment like the legendary Commodore 64 and other "computer-consoles" of that era, with a central app store for indie devs to publish to for free. I’m not sure if this will do what you want, but it is Linux on a DS! No active developers at the moment. They have instructions to build your own images as well as some software built for it. https://www.dslinux.org/ https://www.dslinux.org/
bananaboy 1y ago
There is the commander x16 from the 8-bit guy https://www.commanderx16.com/ https://www.commanderx16.com/ although it’s not in a handheld form factor.
dontlaugh 1y ago
Probably the closest thing is a Steam Deck with a custom Linux distro.
aspenmayer 1y ago
Sorry to double reply, but I wanted to make sure you also saw this: Linux (edit: and Android!) on a Switch. https://switchroot.org/ https://switchroot.org/
speps 1y ago
Some SBC handhelds do support Pico-8 platform apparently, worth a try:https://youtu.be/R5jZRV2D-rM https://youtu.be/R5jZRV2D-rM
cout 1y ago
Even if you had the machine, it is not enough. What was magical about that coding environment is that you could go to the store and pick up a computing magazine and type in a game. Then you could play it and tweak it as you wanted. I have no idea what the equivalent would be today; the cost analogue I can think of is watching Mario maker or Minecraft videos and then implementing what you learn in your own world or level.
crims0n 1y ago
I think the golden years for this were around the PSP/DS homebrew scene circa 2006. I have some really fond memories of following the latest developments in the community, experimenting with toolchains, and general learning about programming and hardware.I was kinda playing around with C before this, but the scene really sparked a lifelong interest.

aspenmayer 1y ago

> I wish there was a modern platform (not just a hobbyist Raspberry Pi kit or something) in the Switch or DS form factor, that boots straight into a coding environment like the legendary Commodore 64 and other "computer-consoles" of that era, with a central app store for indie devs to publish to for free. I’m not sure if this will do what you want, but it is Linux on a DS! No active developers at the moment. They have instructions to build your own images as well as some software built for it. https://www.dslinux.org/ https://www.dslinux.org/

bananaboy 1y ago

There is the commander x16 from the 8-bit guy https://www.commanderx16.com/ https://www.commanderx16.com/ although it’s not in a handheld form factor.

dontlaugh 1y ago

Probably the closest thing is a Steam Deck with a custom Linux distro.

aspenmayer 1y ago

Sorry to double reply, but I wanted to make sure you also saw this: Linux (edit: and Android!) on a Switch. https://switchroot.org/ https://switchroot.org/

speps 1y ago

Some SBC handhelds do support Pico-8 platform apparently, worth a try:https://youtu.be/R5jZRV2D-rM https://youtu.be/R5jZRV2D-rM

cout 1y ago

Even if you had the machine, it is not enough. What was magical about that coding environment is that you could go to the store and pick up a computing magazine and type in a game. Then you could play it and tweak it as you wanted. I have no idea what the equivalent would be today; the cost analogue I can think of is watching Mario maker or Minecraft videos and then implementing what you learn in your own world or level.

crims0n 1y ago

I think the golden years for this were around the PSP/DS homebrew scene circa 2006. I have some really fond memories of following the latest developments in the community, experimenting with toolchains, and general learning about programming and hardware.I was kinda playing around with C before this, but the scene really sparked a lifelong interest.