[HN Gopher] TIC-80 tiny computer
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       TIC-80 tiny computer
        
       Author : atan2
       Score  : 253 points
       Date   : 2022-11-20 06:15 UTC (16 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tic80.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tic80.com)
        
       | smyhill wrote:
        
         | 2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote:
         | What an ignorant and unnecessarily dismissive comment. While
         | Pico8 did kick off the popularity of "fantasy consoles", there
         | are a number of them now, Pixel Vision 8 [1] would be another
         | example.
         | 
         | TIC-80's specs [2] are different as well.
         | 
         | [1]:https://pixelvision8.github.io/Website/
         | 
         | [2]: https://tic80.com/learn
        
         | Shared404 wrote:
         | Alternately, an equivalent with the goal of providing an open
         | source alternative.
         | 
         | The two can coexist. In addition, those who are interested in
         | these will likely enjoy Uxn: https://100r.co/site/uxn.html
        
         | hypertele-Xii wrote:
         | It is. But with less artificial restrictions. You can actually
         | make decent-size games in it (without resorting to obscene
         | amounts of hacking).
        
         | xmonkee wrote:
         | i spent a very happy month last year making a game with tic80.
         | Honestly its better than pico8 for me: better aspect ratio,
         | standard lua lib instead of a knock-off, and very stable etc
        
         | subtra3t wrote:
         | I'd advise you to get a deeper and better look at it before
         | passing such comments.
        
       | newswasboring wrote:
       | Best thing about TIC-80 for me is it's Android app. I can use it
       | on my tablet with a keyboard to have a whole game dev
       | environment. I don't think there is any other equivalent of this
       | on mobile devices. I don't know if it's a usecase for anyone
       | else, but I love it.
        
         | Rabidgremlin wrote:
         | I did the same thing on a road trip when I was bored... Worked
         | really well.. created a video on the experience
         | https://youtu.be/FxQpRoZI3kM
        
       | xmonkee wrote:
       | I made this game last year after my first year as a parent. Its
       | also my first ever game and the most fun bits for me were
       | learning how to make the music and sprites. I had no prior
       | experience with either but with tic80 you just kinda open the tab
       | and do it.
       | 
       | https://tic80.com/play?cart=2586
       | 
       | If you're like me, you probably love spending the holidays doing
       | advent of code or something. Maybe write a game this year :)
        
         | ddyevf635372 wrote:
         | This is really cool. Well done! Congratulations! You should
         | make more games and programs. :)
        
         | adenozine wrote:
         | The clock doesn't stop upon a game over state.
         | 
         | Love the idea, very cute.
        
       | CarnunMP wrote:
       | Worth noting (for parenthesis-lovers!) the Fennel support added
       | by Phil Hagelberg, as demoed e.g. in one of his Lisp Game Jam
       | writeups here: https://technomancy.us/193
        
       | aquova wrote:
       | I've played around a bit with TIC-80, but I always find myself
       | going back to Pico-8. The larger resolution is nice, but I find
       | in a weird way I'm able to do more with the stricter limitation
       | of Pico-8 than the more lenient TIC-80. Take the sprites for
       | example, Pico-8 you're locked into the same 16 colors all the
       | time (there's actually another secret palette, but it's a bit of
       | a hassle to use), where as TIC-80 you also have a 16-color
       | palette, but you can change those colors to be anything you wish.
       | I find that additional freedom to be almost paralyzing, and many
       | aspects of the system are like that for me.
        
       | tmountain wrote:
       | TICO-80 rocks! The TIC-80 support for multiple programming
       | languages inspired me to write a TypeScript -> Lua transpiler for
       | PICO-8.
       | 
       | https://github.com/tmountain/pico-8-typescript
        
       | ck2 wrote:
       | For a moment I daydreamed this was a reference to the 1980 PC-1
       | computer from Radio Shack
       | 
       | http://oldcomputers.net/trs80pc1.html
       | 
       | Three years before the well known PC100 laptop sized popular with
       | journalists, etc.
       | 
       | Had one, thought it was the amazing future, I guess smartphones
       | are the great-great-great-grandchilden.
        
       | askvictor wrote:
       | I love how F6 simulates a CRT screen, to give the full 80's
       | experience
        
       | userbinator wrote:
       | The name is a little too reminiscent of a graphing calculator.
        
         | quickthrower2 wrote:
         | And Tandy TRS-80
        
           | indigochill wrote:
           | And TIS-100
        
         | drewbitt wrote:
         | I created many games for the TI-84 and TI-92 so this is in-
         | theme for me.
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | It occurred to me recently that, arguably, the first "fantasy
       | console" was CHIP-8.
       | 
       | So projects like this keep alive a very old microcomputing
       | tradition.
        
       | incanus77 wrote:
       | Has a Raspberry Pi bare metal variant, too. As in, boots to the
       | console with no OS underneath.
       | 
       | https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80/tree/main/build/baremetalpi
        
         | Applejinx wrote:
         | Oh, that's interesting. That makes the whole thing a LOT more
         | like an 'actual computer'. Way more interesting to my mind if
         | you include 'and it can run as a replacement OS on this very
         | commonly available hardware, which you're used to seeing with a
         | whole UNIX inside'.
         | 
         | That means anything TIC-80 can do, can also incorporate teeny
         | hardware to host it.
        
       | alamortsubite wrote:
       | Thanks, ROAD TXTR made my day.
       | 
       | https://tic80.com/play?cart=3043
        
         | Antrikshy wrote:
         | Yup! Very clever game.
        
       | mlindner wrote:
       | I find it interesting they limit the music capabilities to
       | something approximating an NES/gameboy rather than going with a
       | sample/tracker-based system like on the Amiga. That was what
       | really good games of that early era used. (There's an incessant
       | mind bug that these retro computer things need to either use bips
       | and boops or support full .wav playback with no inbetween.)
        
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       (page generated 2022-11-20 23:01 UTC)