I've recently set up a proper PICO-8 handheld for myself, and I've run into a bit of an issue with games purchased from Itch.io and etc. A lot don't supply a Raspi build, and for those that do, it'd be a little bit of a hassle getting them to work when you've got a closed setup without a desktop. Sure, most of those carts are also on the BBS, but there's a fair few that aren't. Plus, either way, it feels slightly nicer to use the version you paid for.

It'd be nice to be able to run these carts in regular P8, with the editor and save commands locked off, or having to load the .pod via the command line in the first place so the editor isn't even loaded. It would also have the added benefit of making multicart games a single file, which could be really convenient for a lot of setups. It'd also have the benefit of making any exported carts playable on other platforms down the line, say if P8 gets a native mobile version.

People seem to most often not supply a p8.png as security, in a way. Not wanting others to see / mess with your code, or otherwise play your game for free if it's paid only. Which I personally fully respect, but I'm sure some may disagree. Thus why I feel locking them to read-only is necessary.

@zep

This is going to be a hotbed topic, @Spaz48.

Coding in blitzMAX even today I jealously guard my code and release only EXEs. Pico-8 though is different.

I think a great deal of its wonderful magic would be lost if there was any way to fully lock up code so others couldn't see it.

I mean I know you can compile to EXE already and other computer platforms.

I think it was a few months back I had a suggest similar, a demo version of Pico-8.

That someone could indeed bring up SPLORE and run the games, however the only key that worked would be P or ENTER for Menu. No way to view/edit source, sprites, maps, sfx, or music.

And any time you do pause a running game from the demo EXE, one of the options would be to go to Lexaloffle so a purchase could be made and join the community.

I just don't know if that's something @zep would be comfortable with. There is so much magic in being able to not only run a game but add cheats.

For instance I totally suck at action games. If I really like them I'll modify the code so it has 99 ships or what have you, save it back with a "+" on the end telling me that I can now explore the game properly.

I purchased Pico-8, I'm a programmer, other people are programmers, and we can share and learn from our code; from each other.

Loading a game from lexaloffle that was somehow protected from the source/sprites from being seen - I think that would really break the magic and camaraderie it has now.

@dw817 Well, the thing is, at the moment you can already lock it up via compiling to EXE/etc. All I'm suggesting is letting you run the files from those binary exports in regular, standalone P8. I totally agree that the freely editable carts are part of the appeal, but there are going to be some people who don't want that. And there have already been those kind of people, and what they choose to do is only distribute exported binaries.

I'm just suggesting, opening those exported binaries up to be more easily played. At the moment it's annoying that I can't play a cart I purchased on a device that runs P8 perfectly. I'm not suggesting adding .pods as a new proper format for P8. I don't want them to be as easy to save or open as a .p8 file, not by any means. Nor have .pods distributed on their own. I just want to be able to play them.

Thus why I suggested the command line. Having to always start them by typing something along the lines of "pico8 --pod data.pod" that effectively makes your installed P8 run just like an export would, I feel would stop them from becoming a common format.

If I understand correctly, you want to run games you already have the .pod for, but natively on RasPi?

I haven't tried this, but can't you take any P8 RasPi export and then just copy in the .pod you want to play?

The .pod seems to be identical whether it's bundled with the Windows / Mac / Linux / RasPi binary.

Hm, yeah that does seem to work, on windows, at least.

Issue is, I've got an odd ELEC distro set up. I don't know how I'd go about easily getting those working with everything else. They don't seem to accept being given a .pod via the command line. So the file would have to be swapped out, or every single cart would have to have its own executable, and I'd have to replace all of them one by one if I wanted to run the carts in a newer version of P8. This is assuming I can even get this all to play nice with my setup, but as is I don't think I'd be able to get the p8.pngs to be in the same list as .pods in my frontend.

I might be able to get this to work, but It'd be a lot simpler if Pico had some simple native support, and I don't think it'd take a lot of work on zep's end. I don't know.