PICO-8 is a

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

and

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

created by Lexaloffle Games. It is a

fantasy video game console A fantasy video game console (or simply fantasy console) is an emulator for a fictitious video game console. It aims to create the experience of retro gaming without the need to emulate a real console, allowing the developer to freely decide what s ...

that mimics the limited graphical and sound capabilities of the old 8-bit systems of the 1980s to encourage creativity and ingenuity in producing games without being overwhelmed with the many possibilities of modern tools and machines. Such limitations also give PICO-8 games a particular look and feel. Coding on the PICO-8 is accomplished through a Lua-based environment, in which users can create music, sound effects, sprites, maps, and games. Users are able to export their games as

HTML5 HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) is a markup language used for structuring and presenting hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. It was the fifth and final major HTML version that is now a retired World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommend ...

web games or upload their creations to Lexaloffle's official BBS where other users are able to play the games in a

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

, and view the source code. PICO-8 games can also be exported as executable programs, which will run on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, or

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. Notable games released for the system include the original version of '' Celeste'', which was created in four days as part of a

game jam A game jam is an event where participants try to make a video game from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. The event duration usually ranges from 24 to 72 hours. Participants are generally program ...

Capabilities

The PICO-8 program integrates a Lua code editor, sprite and map creation tools, and an audio sound effect and music editor. The program can load games saved locally on a computer, in the form of text or as specially encoded .png images. The interface also supports a ''splore'' mode, where games uploaded to the BBS can be previewed and then played in the PICO-8 program. PICO-8 games, as well as the program's interface itself, are limited to a 128 × 128

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

, 16-color display, and a 4-channel audio output. As of v0.1.11, users may export Pico-8 cartridges as stand-alone executables for Windows, Linux (64 bit), Mac, and Raspberry Pi.

Color palette

The PICO-8 palette contains 16 colors. Colors in the palette can be replaced with a different set of colors by indexing a palette update with a color ID larger than 128. These colors are not officially recognized by the creators; however, they are embraced by the community and given unofficial names.

Development

Joseph White, who is better known with his

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

''Zep'', has started working on a

BBC BASIC BBC BASIC is an interpreted version of the BASIC programming language. It was developed by Acorn Computers Ltd when they were selected by the BBC to supply the computer for their BBC Literacy Project in 1981. It was originally supplied on ...

styled

BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

interpreter dubbed ''LEX500''. Joseph later returned to LEX500 while working on another

called Voxatron. During development, Joseph switched from BASIC to Lua 2

syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

as the latter is easier to use and more capable as a programming language. He added built-in tools to it such as a music tracker and a map editor, and decided to rename it ''PICO-8''. Joseph got inspiration from older system while setting limitations to PICO-8. The 16-color palette was inspired by

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

, 4-channel trackers from

Amiga 500 The Amiga 500, also known as the A500, was the first popular version of the Amiga home computer, "redefining the home computer market and making so-called luxury features such as multitasking and colour a standard long before Microsoft or Apple ...

, and overall aesthetics from other 80s hardware such as

Apple IIe The Apple IIe (styled as Apple //e) is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer. It was released in January 1983 as the successor to the Apple II Plus. The ''e'' in the name stands for ...

and

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

. He coined the term fantasy console to describe systems like PICO-8 that have deliberate limitations to fit a hypothetical hardware. ''PICO-BASIC v0.0.'' got revealed at Pico Pico Cafe on May 9, 2014 by Lexaloffle Games. PICO-8 was released in 2015, respectively, the copyright year still says "2014" starting in the copyright year saying "2014-15" or "2014-2015". In 2024 for the 10 years of the development of the virtual machine and game engine, the Alpha release of Picotron was launched on March 14, 2024, following the launch of the PICO-8 software version 0.2.6 on February 28, 2024.

Hardware

As a fantasy console, PICO-8 doesn't have an official hardware that it is based on and all of its limitations are purely emulated. Homebrew computer and hardware hobbyists in general try to fit PICO-8 in low-end devices. PICO-8 has an official image for

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi ( ) is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in collaboration with Broadcom Inc., Broadcom. To commercialize the product and support its growing demand, the ...

and

CHIP Chip may refer to: Food * Chip (snack), thinly sliced and deep-fried gastro item ** Potato chips (US) or crisp (UK) * Chips (fried potato strips) (UK) or french fries (US) (common as a takeout side) * Game chips, thin chip/French fries * Choco ...

(shipped pre-installed in Pocket CHIP), and the PICO-8 community managed to directly run the official software or the games via PICO-8 emulators available in

RetroArch RetroArch is a free and open-source, cross-platform frontend for emulators, game engines, video games, media players and other applications. It is the reference implementation of the libretro API, designed to be fast, lightweight, portable and w ...

on other single board computers. While it is not possible to run PICO-8 itself on devices that are not at least

i386 The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in the x86 archite ...

amd64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set. It was announced in 1999 and first available in the AMD Opteron family in 2003. It introduces two new operating modes: 64-bit mode an ...

or ARM-64 due to several

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

, people managed to emulate p8 games on various low-cost handheld consoles via open source emulators such as ''Fake-08'' and ''tac08'', which can function even on devices based on 32-bit

microcontrollers A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...

(most notably

ESP32 ESP32 is a family of low-cost, energy-efficient microcontrollers that integrate both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. These chips feature a variety of processing options, including the Tensilica Xtensa LX6 microprocessor available in both dual-c ...

Adoption

The release of PICO-8 attracted the attention of programmers and video game developers who enjoyed the challenge of developing under these limitations, and spurred the development of similar game engines with intentional retro-style limitations. These engines are now commonly dubbed "fantasy consoles", based on a definition of the term on PICO-8's website, and roughly simulate the strict limitations of old game consoles and computers. Among these are

TIC-80 TIC-80 is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source fantasy video game console for making, playing, and sharing games on a limited platform that mimics the 8-bit systems of the 1980s. It has built-in code, sprite, map, music, and sou ...

, which styles itself as a "fantasy computer", and Pixel Vision 8, which allows the user to specify the simulated hardware limitations they wish to develop under. The development of fantasy consoles, as well as the development of games for them, has evolved into its own, almost exclusively hobbyist, sub-community of game development and programming. PICO-8 gained additional attention in 2018 with the release of '' Celeste''. Originally created as a PICO-8 game for a

, ''Celeste Classic'' became one of the most popular games on the PICO-8 BBS, prompting the developers to expand the concept into a more expansive, fully realized game. The original PICO-8 version of ''Celeste'' is fully playable as an

easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The ...

in the full version of the game. A

low poly Low poly is a polygon mesh in 3D computer graphics that has a relatively small number of polygons. Low poly meshes occur in real-time applications (e.g. games) as contrast with high poly meshes in animated movies and special effects of the s ...

cad Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

software named picoCAD is based on PICO-8 and can be used to make models for use both inside and outside of PICO-8, able to export models OBJ/MTL as well as

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

as a rotating model animation. Since its release, picoCAD has been used in many 3D PICO-8 games for the creation of models. The software got popularized in the general pixel art and retro game development community due to its unique retro aesthetic. Several

remakes A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

and demakes of well-known retro and modern games alike are made on PICO-8. Most notable ones include ''Terra'' (''

Terraria ''Terraria'' ( ) is a 2011 action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic and published by 505 Games. The game features exploration, combat, crafting, building, and mining inside a procedurally generated 2D computer graphics, 2D world. ...

''), ''Poom'' (''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...

''), ''Fuz'' ''( Fez''), ''Low Mem Sky'' (''

No Man's Sky ''No Man's Sky'' is an Action-adventure game, action-adventure survival game developed and published by Hello Games. It was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in August 2016, for Xbox One in July 2018, for the PlayStation 5 an ...

''), and ''unDUNE II'' (''

Dune II ''Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty'' (titled ''Dune II: Battle for Arrakis'' in Europe and ''Dune: The Battle for Arrakis'' in North America for the Mega Drive/Genesis port, respectively) is a 1992 real-time strategy game developed by Westwoo ...

''). PICO-8 has also seen interest among the

demoscene The demoscene () is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off computer programmi ...

, due to its harsh restrictions attracting programmers and musicians who wish to make retro-style demos for the console. In March 2024, several PICO-8 games were added as cabinets to Arcade Legend, a VR game where players can play retro arcade games.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
PICO-8 and the Search for Cosy Design Spaces
a talk by Joseph White, PICO-8's creator
Top games tagged PICO-8 on itch.io
Video game engines Fantasy video game consoles Game engines for Linux Lua (programming language)-scriptable game engines Virtual machines