Their DevTerm got middling reviews, if I recall correctly. This one has an all-metal body and maybe will fulfill the promises that the PocketCHIP couldn't keep? Pico-8 (and fantasy consoles in general) is explicitly noted as one of the use cases.
At any rate, I know there's a subsection of Pico-8 users looking for "the perfect portable device." I'll be curious to see reviews on this.
My only beef is that I wish it had more traditional D-pad buttons, arranged like a plus sign, instead of those triangles.
My main beef is that the action buttons look tiny and awkwardly laid-out. Thankfully they're using clicky buttons, at least.
Can you PROGRAM in Pico-8 on it, @ChristopherD ?
And does it have an option for purchase as pre-assembled ?
@dw817 Yes, you can program on it. From the web page linked (where it talks about the Pi core), "The RPI-CM4 is suitable for general purposes with longer usage time, such as coding, e-mails, making indie games, running most video game emulators, etc."
Assembly for Clockwork devices is a trivial minutes-long process, so having it pre-assembled saves you maybe 5 minutes of time.
Hi guys. I want to be certain I did not ask incorrectly.
This device can run Pico-8 v0.2.4c not just to run P8 carts but let you EDIT and create and work with NEW from scratch carts and load and save your P8 carts to the same device, yes ?
As for assembly, I am really bad with tools. Is there a Youtube video showing assembly ?
I am seeing the exploded view yet that looks too complex even for me to assemble correctly. Can they (or someone) assemble it themselves before shipping for an additional fee ?
This does look quite a bit better than the PocketCHIP !
Last question, is this device DESIGNED for Pico-8 ? Or was its inception for a different function and/or purpose ?
@dw817 It runs the Raspberry Pi full PICO-8, so if your eyes are much much better than mine and your fingers are much much smaller, you can definitely fire up P8 and write carts from scratch on this!
Ah, then @2bitchuck, perhaps a picture showing someone working on it then - to determine its scale ?
@dw817 Just guesstimating from the various components in the schematic, the unit as assembled would seem to be roughly 6-6.5 inches tall and 5-5.5 inches wide. For object reference, that's roughly as tall and twice as wide as a Google Pixel 6 smartphone.
@dw817 This product is not released yet, so nobody has one yet.
However, it can run a Rasberry Pi core, meaning it's a tiny Raspberry Pi computer. So if you can do it on a Raspberry Pi computer running Linux, you can do it on this. (And you can very much develop PICO-8 stuff on a Raspberry Pi. It's basically the same process as developing on Windows, just less processing power. I've run whole summer gamedev camps for kids on Raspberry Pi 400s.)
If you want an idea of what it's like to build a Clockwork device, here's a Clockwork DevTerm device being built: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyohFQGmIlU
Once you get to where he starts actually building it, it's about a 3-minute process (well, 2mins 55secs if you want to get technical). You could maybe give it to a young niece or nephew to build. They might have a fun time doing that! My GameShell didn't require any tools and it looks like the DevTerm doesn't require any either. I can only imagine this will be similar to that.
It is not designed for PICO-8. (Most notably it does not have a square screen.) Rather it's designed for fantasy consoles in general. I think if it had a square screen, it would not work well for other fantasy consoles like TIC-80 (which is shown running on the screen on the product site). If I recall, the PocketChip also did not have a square screen.
@dw817 All of your questions are answered by visiting their site. On their main home page is a picture of someone holding one so you can see the scale. Pico-8 is listed as a supported dev technology right there in the logos I posted in the original post and took from their site. You just run Pico-8 and do all of the Pico-8 things you’d expect, no different than your current computer. As they list other fantasy consoles and dev tools, it is clearly not exclusively a Pico-8 system any more than a normal computer is. They only list “kits” in their online store but the assembly process should be relatively simple, just look on YouTube for example assembly videos of their other products.
Hi @ChristopherD:
I could not find a picture of someone holding it from the link you listed, yet the ROOT directory does contain the photo in question, and yes, it is BACKLIT. Something quite nice indeed.
I am looking at the video. I guess want I want to say is I have never assembled hardware - ever. While I'm sure it looks like a snap, no pun intended, I am afraid I might get stuck trying to assemble it having never assembled anything like it before outside of LEGOs, and even then I'm not very good at LEGOs.
Guys,
I - have always been puzzled why these manufacturers don't just pre-assemble the device and send it to you this way. If it truly is less than a 5-minute project for those adept in hardware - why don't they ? I would pay 2x the amount if they did. They lose market forcing purchasers to assemble and offer no other no other format of production.
They would have the whole market if they assembled it themselves in the 5-minutes or so stated - and even better they could TEST to make sure it runs properly. You can't do that with parts alone.
Despite how nice the device looks and the video showing assembly, this is not enough for me to pre-order, not if they won't assemble it.
I will stick with the cellphone and external joystick I have for it currently, despite the problems I am still having with the arrow keys - and only in Pico-8. All other games and emulators use the standard arrow keys just fine on this controller.
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=46054
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=47506
Did anyone pick this up? I'm pretty interested in the device especially if Pico-8 runs well on it. The controls could be worked around with an external controller add-on (the kind that sandwiches a phone, etc between it) or a homemade solution for DIYers.
@cracker As far as I can tell, it still hasn't shipped (or at least the site is still showing it as a pre-order).
if you have the console and have installed pico-8, you probably need to make the pico8 (or pico8_dyn) file executable. if you don’t know what that means, or how to do it, or where files should go, then it would be easier to help you on discord!
My beef is that those buttons are super tactial, clickers style buttons. These old hands get very upset when they do too much of the clickings
[Please log in to post a comment]
