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Just noticed this:
https://github.com/RamiLego4Game/LIKO-12

Looks pretty cool. The built in functions and sprite sheet definition in the code is different so some work would be required for any existing PICO-8 games.

I started working on a port of a game to LIKO-12 but changed my mind and decided to port it directly to love2d.

5

It looks neat but this is just clearly a rip-off and I'm not sure how Zep thinks about this or how this is legally justifiable.

There is also TIC... seems not open source, but it is for free and looks pretty promising / nice UI

  • 240x136 pixels
  • custom 16 colors palette

https://nesbox.itch.io/tic

That LIKO-12 thing looks interesting. I want to give it a look since the wider display means it could utilize more of the pocketchip display.

I like how the music editor for TIC looks in those gifs too.

...

> why finish projects when you can split your time amongst even more dev environments? A hue hue hue

(Why do I do this??)
1

I think more fantasy consoles/computers would be good, especially if each would carve an interesting niche for itself. A new 80s micro war of sorts. Somehow LIKO-12 just rubs me wrong way. TIC looks promissing and there is also Pixel Vision 8 that aims to emulate the specs of various 80s & 90s consoles.

I honestly don't care for LIKO-12. While I admire that it strives to be open, I think it will lead it to loosing what makes systems like PICO-8 special after people will start adding features they think will improve LIKO, and it will turn into pixelated version of Love. For that we can just use Love or some other general use engine. And I can't look past that lowercase font, its illegible and simply ugly.

On the other hand, I like TIC (although I would prefer a more period accurate name, like TIC-60 or something). I think it is different enough to be like a C64 to Pico-8's ZX Spectrum and while still free, it is overseen by a dev, so it will hopefully keep its consistency. I think it has a potential, I even made a less eye strain friendly font for it. I really wish it had a limited color choices even limiting it to something like 16 from 128 colors (against 16 out of any modern color). I also hope it will embrace its "computer" name and add keyboard and mouse support in games. Anyway, here's to hoping... and I will probably bother the dev for those anyway ;)

All in all, I don't think I will abandon Pico-8, but I might use TIC or Pixel Vision in the future.

Pixel Vision 8 looks very nice, thanks for pointing that out! I may give it a go in the future.

One thing that's a deal breaker for me with most of these, at least for now, is the fact that they don't have HTML5 exporting. One thing I really like about PICO-8 and with developing games in JavaScript myself is that it really expands your reach and potential audience. How many people really want to download your exe if you don't have a name for yourself or it's not coming from a trusted source like Steam? How many people who normally WOULD download a game, would be too lazy to download and install an executable?

Nobody has a problem with playing HTML5 games, though - no trust issues, and doesn't require any effort to just go and play. I think the TIC is the only one that supports HTML5, but it doesn't look like it's probably a very practical system yet. I look at their games gallery and it's basically just a few little tech demos. I don't see anything there that has any kind of completeness, and it tells me there's probably a reason why. Also the first time I looked at the TIC website, which was like 2 months ago, it was the same list of like 8 demos, so nobody's made anything in it for at least 2 months. Maybe it just hasn't built up enough of a community yet, or maybe it just doesn't work well.

Pixel Vision 8 has a Unity player thing, but even if that supports the Unity Web Player, the Unity Web Player isn't even an attractive option for me because it requires a browser extension that most people don't have. As an aside, the Pixel Vision 8 looks awesome as all hell, FWIW.

Think I'll just stick with PICO-8 for now :) But I'm keeping an eye on the others to see how they develop.

From TIC site (nesbox.com/tic):

HMTL5 done
Windows done
Windows 10 UWP done
Linux 32/64bit done
Android done
MacOSX done

I did not test it though.

the palette stuff in TIC is nice, it is easily possible to change the palette at runtime... 

cs =	{
		{0x00,0x00,0xff},
		{0x00,0xff,0x00},
		{0xff,0x00,0x00},
		{0xff,0xff,0x00},

		{0x00,0xff,0xff},
		{0xff,0x00,0xff},
		{0xff,0x00,0x00},
		{0xff,0xff,0x00},

		{0x00,0x00,0xff},
		{0x00,0xff,0x00},
		{0xff,0x00,0x00},
		{0xff,0xff,0x00},

		{0x00,0x00,0xff},
		{0x00,0xff,0x00},
		{0xff,0x00,0x00},
		{0xff,0xff,0x00},
	}	

	for i = 0,15 do
		local index = i * 3
		poke(0x3FC0+index,   cs[i+1][1])
		poke(0x3FC0+1+index, cs[i+1][2])
		poke(0x3FC0+2+index, cs[i+1][3])
		rect(10+8*i,10,8,8,i)
	end

https://twitter.com/tic_computer/status/810063562131603456

If I remember correctly the Liko-12 project was started because the dude could not purchase Pico-8 due to some situation involving internet purchases in his country of Syria.

I remember reading/seeing this intro post over @ Love2D: https://love2d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=82913

Personally I feel those projects are way out of the "limitations" scope imposed by Pico-8. In any case, this quote comes to mind: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

LICO-12 looks interesting since it's going to be more fantasy computer than console. Also Open Source > proprietary



Hey I did change the 3x5 font to a 4x5 font that's more readable, is the small letters are still that bad ??

I did talk with ZEP, and he has no problems about LIKO-12.

It's not that direct "clone"... it's being more "inspired" than being a "clone", that thing will be more clearer when I release the next update (V0.6).

My direction in LIKO-12 is to make things closer to nowadays computers, at the same time of being a toy.
By giving a way to customize the specs it will allow for certain project to grow on, not being stopped by the tokens limits / sprite sheet size.

Also, HTML5 exporting will be possible (since PICO-8 can run Lua in HTML5, then LIKO-12 can so), but I'll work about that later.

It's not correct to mark things as a clone if it's using the same color palette (since PICO-8 palette is CC0 licensed), nor if it's using the same design (When working on a low res like 192x128 and 128x128 there isn't that much choices in designs).

Hey @RamiLego4Game, the lowercase font is still quite bad.

If you want me to, I can try working on it for you. I have made the TIC-80 font, which was 5x5, but I am sure there I can make a 4x5 font readable and not straining to the eye.

Drop me a DM on twitter and I am sure we can figure something out.

I've seen this as well, I hope it's not a problem to talk about it, it's an open source clone of pico-8, using the lol engine it seems:

https://github.com/samhocevar/zepto8

I've tried a few demos and games, it seems rather faithful except it's less smooth than pico-8, there are sometimes some glitches, there are sounds but no music.



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