“Happy New Year”, by John King. PICO-8.

In December 2016, I was looking for a new hobby. Music, in the age of Spotify and Pandora was becoming a less and less “active” affair. New frontiers in computer science were opening up, but I was reluctant to crack open a linear algebra textbook when I was already freaking out over Calculus and Statistics finals.

It was quite a welcome thing then, to see the Twitter chatter over the PICO-8 “fantasy console.” The PICO-8, first released in 2014 by Voxatron developer and creator Joseph “zep” White, is for “for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.”

First and last step of “A Pico-8 Spaceshooter in 16 GIFs”

Fantasy consoles can be thought of as being made up of three things:

An all-in-one software development kit for video games, typically distributed as a single binary containing a text editor, sprite editor, map editor & sound editor. A standard set of artificially imposed development constraints, such as restricted graphical resolutions, color palettes, RAM usage, or storage space. The games, apps, toys and demos developed from these constraints, and the aesthetics shared betweem them.

“T here was something about plotting large colourful pixels and punching in programs on a large clunky keyboard that resonated with my 8-year-old brain[…] it was meant to be just you, the program, and the inky black canvas.” — zep, PICO-8 ZINE #1

Eyeboss by Blue Candle Games, playable in browser. PICO-8.

Fantasy consoles are exciting.

The PICO-8 seeks to emulate the aesthetics and community of 1980s home computing for a modern audience. Folks who grew up with these early home computers, such as the BBC Micro, Commodore 64 & ZX Spectrum, often programmed software for them via a built-in BASIC interpreter, creating games and apps that were shared through cassette tapes and floppy disks.

“ACTION”, a ZX Spectrum demo by VAV / Megacode.

To this end, the PICO-8 offers a self-contained development environment containing everything you need to make a game for it — a Lua interpreter, a sprite editor, a map editor, and a SFX & Music editor. Each tool is designed and limited in a way that makes it simple and straightforward to get started making your own games and toys. Not quite an artist? The PICO-8’s limited resolution and fixed 16-color palette lets you crank out basic sprites and tiles without shame. Not a natural musician? All you need is bleeps and bloops. And if you’re looking to collaborate with others, the active and sizable PICO-8 BBS has got you covered.

Cartridge for “Super Fash Bash” by corkreef, playable in browser. PICO-8. This image actually contains the entirety of the game.

This design philosophy has resulted in the creation of around 1000 (and climbing) publicly available software files, or “cartridges” for the PICO-8, comprising games, toys, demos and music collections, all of them free and open source. PICO-8 developers tend to be a friendly, welcoming and helpful bunch, which is always a welcome sight in software and technology communities. The community is also supported by its social media presence (Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr) and a digital/print fanzine that serves as an invaluable resource for game development beginners.

“Ad Astra”, a PICO-8 demo by Ate Bit

With the success and excitement surrounding the PICO-8 and the fantasy console concept, it might come as no surprise that within the past year at least three new fantasy consoles have been released, all in varying stages of development. These are:

The TIC-80, by Nesbox, a free PICO-8 inspired console with a higher resolution and much less stringent limitations

The LIKO-12, by RamiLego4Game, another PICO-8 inspired console built atop LÖVE2D that’s free and open source(!)

And the Pixel Vision 8 by Jesse Freeman, a fantasy console with modes that emulate various actual retro consoles, such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy & Sega Master System.

Below, I’ll talk a bit about the ins, the outs, and the current states of each console.