I first off wanted to let you know that I was just experimenting recording some .GIFs in PICO when I noted that the last .GIF I made was 6.49mb in size.
I loaded this up in VirtualDUB to check each frame in it, to make sure it looked alright, and then tried saving it back as an EXPORT .GIF to compare filesizes.
The filesize THEN was only 209k ! A 97% reduction !
I compared both. None miss frames, none have any distortion. They are the same EXCEPT that VirtualDUB has some massive compression going on there !
So ... Zep, someone, anyone ? the .GIF saver in current PICO-8 can definitely be optimized. No doubt about it. VirtualDUB was written 19-years ago - so it's not something new.
I can't upload the 6.49mb GIF in comparison here, says the filesize is too big.
Here is the 209k GIF though so you can see it's not missing anything. There's definitely good compression going on there !
Sybil's Tail is a tiny, 15-30 minute long platformer made for PICO-8. Run, jump, slide, grab, and toss your way through 6 bite-sized areas as you search for a mysterious meteorite that fell nearby!
hi there!! after 4 months of working on it, I've finally finished my first PICO-8 game, Sybil's Tail! this project was a lot of fun to work on, and getting everything to fit into the 32k of cart space required a lot of tricks to make things work right. a large reason it took so long was all the rewriting and compressing it took to get in all in there. but! the result is exactly the game I set out to make! I hope y'all enjoy exploring this little 8-bit world I've made.
it's also on itch here, which includes native exports, and the soundtrack. speaking of, I would like to extend special thanks to @kitorchid, who made the incredible cover art for the soundtrack, and @osmoru, whose adorable artwork formed the basis of the cartridge label design. In addition to those commissions, I also received wonderful artwork of Sybil from @MarziManed and @_pexl, who are both very cool artists that you should check out as well! And of course, I would like to thank all testers and of course my friends, without them none of this would have been possible.
Hi, my name is Chase, but you can call me Cheez...or even Scorch for that matter.
I am a musician who hopes to learn how to develop for the Pico-8. I've been making music since 2014, but didn't really take off until 2016. It's been great.
I also suffer from anxiety and I tend to get nervous and stuff. So, yeah.
I hope to have fun with you all though.
Sincerely,
Cheez
Hi everyone. During the 3rd GameShell Game Jam, I and my friends made a tiny puzzle game named SHIFT, and it is also the theme of the game jam. We spent about four to five days in all making the mechanism, levels, and the music.
The game combined the Sokoban mechanism with "shift", which you can move into the wall area when your shift ability is enabled. Your goal is to move onto the tile which looks like a teleporter or something. The current version features 16 levels. None of us are experienced game dev, so this game may feel a little bit weird, but I hope you could enjoy playing it.
Control:
O to toggle the shift ability.
X to undo.
You could restart the level in the pause menu.
I don't think anyone will seriously read this, I'm a nobody and I never blog here.
However, it's a tad frustrating that there seems to be an overabundance of Celeste mods within the normal places to release carts which makes me wonder if maybe Pico8 BBS needs a section just for game mods?
I think it would help fix a little of the clutter. I look at what appears to be a new game then after I get into the thread, I find out it's a mod of a game I already played.
It's just something I was thinking about and there's no place on the forum to speak to this so I figured I'd just mention it into the air for it to disappear forever. :)
I ported Shenzhen Solitaire to PICO-8. I made this a while ago but have only just now gotten around to posting it. It should handle all cases correctly, but please let me know if you run into any bugs.
I am not musically inclined at all, so if someone would like to help by translating the music to PICO-8 that'd be awesome.
Controls:
Z: select/move card(s), press dragon buttons
X: swap between free cells and table
Left/Right: move cursor (wraps around screen)
Up/Down: grab multiple cards (if able)
Rules can be found here: https://shenzhen-io.fandom.com/wiki/Shenzhen_Solitaire
Years ago computers had very little memory. I am reminded of the Apple ][ computer which although having 2-HIRES graphic pages each 8192-bytes in size with a resolution of 280x192 B&W pixels, you only had about 16k of RAM space if you used both of them for your program.
The original method was to plot an image on one page while viewing the other, then swap the two so you were always plotting on one while viewing the other. Yet this technique cost two HIRES pages of memory.
So a new method was adopted to handle plotting sprites and graphics over existing static images, and that method was called XOR.
On the Apple for instance you could plot a shape with XOR dots, that is for every pre-existing black dot you plotted on, it would appear white. Likewise if you plotted on a previously existing white dot, the plotting color for your dot would be black.
I am trying to do a simple game of pong for class and am having trouble. I have got the ball and the paddle. Now I am having trouble making the 2 collide. I am trying to get the ball to turn a different color when collided with the paddle.
I am also having trouble coding to get my paddle to stop when it hits the end of the screen so it does not disappear. Any advice would be much appreciated. I have attached my code so far that I have been working on. Thank you
ball_x = 3
x_speed = 1
ball_y = 15
y_speed = 1
ball_round = 3
col = 7
x=1
x1=5
y=127
y1=1
speed=5
function _init()
cls()
end
function _update()
buttpress = false
if btn(0) then speed =-5 end
if btn(1) then speed+=5 end
if not (buttpress) then
speed = speed/1.7
end
x+=speed
ball_y = ball_y+y_speed
ball_x = ball_x+x_speed
if ball_x > 127
then x_speed = -2
end
if ball_x < 0
then x_speed = 2
end
if ball_y > 127
then y_speed = -2
end
if ball_y < 0
then y_speed = 2
end
end
function _draw()
cls()
circfill(ball_x,ball_y,ball_round,col)
rect( x, y, x+8, y+1, 8)
end
You are the god of this planet, unfortunately your powers are limited to the control of gravity in this patch of the galaxy. Do everything in your might to keep the planet at temperatures that can sustain organic life. To guide you, the habitable zone of each system is shown in green on the playing field.
Remark: the solar systems are auto-generated from the seed given at the start of the game. I tried to make it so all generated solar systems have a good starting position, but if you encounter a particularly bad system just restart with a different seed.
Also: After hitting start in the menu, the game may take a while to actually start. The calculation of the habitable zone is not very optimized and takes a while, so just be patient, there's nothing wrong with your browser. ;)
Credit to MBoffin who inspired me to write this, mostly so I myself could prove that I understood seldom used Pico-8 command set of COROUTINES such as COCREATE(), CORESUME(), and YIELD().
If you just want the source without the sound effects, that can be found HERE:
-- dw817's very simple -- cocreate() program function main() ------------->> cls() init=0 repeat -- if press (x) or this is the -- first time to run, -- prepare for being able to -- call function "act" as a -- co-creation if btnp(5) or init==0 then init=1 -- make a pointer for the -- cocreation function "act" go=cocreate(act) sfx(0) -- low pitch end -- if press (o) then call -- routine here to plot three -- circles, one at a time, and -- one for each press if btnp(4) then coresume(go) end -- update screen flip() until forever end --<<----------------------- -- three circles, click (o) -- three times to see all three function act() circfill(10,10,10,5) sfx(1) -- high pitch -- each time yield is used, -- the position of where the -- program is in the function -- is recorded and the function -- exits yield() -- the second time you press -- (o) the function will start -- here, not at the beginning circfill(20,10,10,6) sfx(1) -- high pitch yield() -- as above, this function -- starts here on a 3rd press circfill(30,10,10,7) sfx(1) -- high pitch yield() -- there is nothing more here -- so pressing (o) a 4th or -- more does nothing. -- you must call cocreate() -- again in order to reset -- this function to start -- running the 3-circles again end main() |
Wandering carelessly through space you get swallowed by b'Ah, the semi-sentient semi-cybernetic semi-grumpy semi-planetoid! Now fight your way to its other end (there's one)!
Still in need of some polish here and there but (hope)fully playable, so here it is!
(edit) moved from w.i.p. to cartridges after all. some update still coming up later on...