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PICO-8 to ship on a new game console called PocketCHIP?

Started by Dream of Omnimaga, May 04, 2016, 05:09:08 AM

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Dream of Omnimaga

PICO-8 games are designed for keyboards. Some game developers choose to use Z, X, Space and arrows for shooting and jumping, while others might use different keys. Others might even use WASD for movement. So a full keyboard is needed for complete compatibility with games.
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

aetios

@DJ Omnimaga don't you dare dislike pink. That thing looks   a e s t h e t i c s   as c.
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Dream of Omnimaga

I don't know. I like it better with different colors than white personally. Black+pink, dark blue+pink, yellow+pink or teal+pink would have been very cool.
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

Snektron

Maybe in the future different colors will be available, if it does well.
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+
Legends say if you spam more than DJ Omnimaga, you will become a walrus...


Dream of Omnimaga

Yeah that's what I think, unless it increases the price too much.  If it's very popular then I'm sure they already got the suggestion anyway.
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

garvalf

I think it is very good they made a full keyboard, for various reasons, and also because we are supposed to be able to modify pico-8 codes. It's a better design than for example the spectrum vega which removed all keys except for the directions and fire button...

And yes, it would have been better (and more confortable) if they made a d-pad instead of the direction keys (for the same size factor), but probably it was more difficult to make it fit in the case. On the other hand, if the buttons are round enough, maybe it will be quite confortable to use after all (on contrary this kind of false d-pad are just horrible to use: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51IsNtFhdYL.jpg )
  • Calculators owned: TI-83+ fr, TI-82
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: c64, zx spectrum, atari st, sega megadrive, sega master system, nintendo NES, gameboy...

Ivoah

Quote from: garvalf on May 09, 2016, 07:46:29 AM
I think it is very good they made a full keyboard, for various reasons, and also because we are supposed to be able to modify pico-8 codes. It's a better design than for example the spectrum vega which removed all keys except for the directions and fire button...
Well, running PICO-8 isn't actually the primary goal of the PocketCHIP. It's originally just a small pocket computer, hence a full keyboard being mandatory.
  • Calculators owned: TI-86 (now broken), TI SR-56, TI-Nspire CX CAS, TI-84+ SE, TI-84+ SE, TI-85, TI-73 Explorer VS, ViewScreen, TI-84+ CSE, TI-83+ SE

Dream of Omnimaga

Oh darn I hate the PSP-style gamepads. They feel weird. I hate its joystick even more, though.
Quote from: Ivoah on May 09, 2016, 02:36:01 PM
Quote from: garvalf on May 09, 2016, 07:46:29 AM
I think it is very good they made a full keyboard, for various reasons, and also because we are supposed to be able to modify pico-8 codes. It's a better design than for example the spectrum vega which removed all keys except for the directions and fire button...
Well, running PICO-8 isn't actually the primary goal of the PocketCHIP. It's originally just a small pocket computer, hence a full keyboard being mandatory.
I thought it was? I guess I was misled into thinking that with all the hype claiming it's a PICO-8 console.
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

Ivoah

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on May 09, 2016, 06:08:40 PM
Oh darn I hate the PSP-style gamepads. They feel weird. I hate its joystick even more, though.
Quote from: Ivoah on May 09, 2016, 02:36:01 PM
Quote from: garvalf on May 09, 2016, 07:46:29 AM
I think it is very good they made a full keyboard, for various reasons, and also because we are supposed to be able to modify pico-8 codes. It's a better design than for example the spectrum vega which removed all keys except for the directions and fire button...
Well, running PICO-8 isn't actually the primary goal of the PocketCHIP. It's originally just a small pocket computer, hence a full keyboard being mandatory.
I thought it was? I guess I was misled into thinking that with all the hype claiming it's a PICO-8 console.
Nah, the PICO-8 announcement didn't come until much after the Kickstarter. Idk when they figured they could put PICO-8 on it, but it def wasn't the primary goal.
  • Calculators owned: TI-86 (now broken), TI SR-56, TI-Nspire CX CAS, TI-84+ SE, TI-84+ SE, TI-85, TI-73 Explorer VS, ViewScreen, TI-84+ CSE, TI-83+ SE

Dream of Omnimaga

Ah ok. I actually saw the console a few weeks ago on social networks like Twitter. I learned about it from the guy who posted a custom PICO-8 physical cartridge.
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

garvalf

I've got my PocketCHIP recently. It's nice, but the keyboard is quite horrible: noisy, hard to type, much worse than my first android phone with physical keyboard. It's impossible to type fast with it, and difficult to actually play. You can't really type the two buttons for diagonals, and the clac clac noise is annoying as hell. I also don't really see anything I can't do instead with my android phone (with a bigger screen resolution and a chroot linux distribution).

Yet, I like this pocketCHIP: it is hacker friendly, it has wifi and bluetooth (you can use another keyboard, but I didn't manage to make another joypad work with it, but I think it's possible), it has GPIO, it's more like a raspberry with screen in fact. The object itself is cool and good looking (even if cheap). And it was affordable. It's also quite conveniant to use if for making music with Sunvox (with a nintendo ds pen). I've already installed syncthing on it for sharing data between my other computers.

I only regret I haven't bought an extra CHIP with it, because you can't just remove the CHIP from the pocketCHIP and use it on your TV (you have to reflash it to an other OS), but they're working on this, for having only one OS in the future.
  • Calculators owned: TI-83+ fr, TI-82
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: c64, zx spectrum, atari st, sega megadrive, sega master system, nintendo NES, gameboy...

Dream of Omnimaga

Thanks for the review. I didn't buy it yet but my main worry was definitively the keyboard. From pictures, I was worried that it would not feel like a gaming handheld at all. Are any game playable on it?
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

garvalf

you can play exploration games, one button games (like my "rabbit, fox, hunter" ;) ), or ones involving simple movements. For platformers like Celeste I think it's almost impossible. Maybe a new challenge?

Otherwise the CHIP community and developpers are nice, so it worths getting one in my opinion.
  • Calculators owned: TI-83+ fr, TI-82
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: c64, zx spectrum, atari st, sega megadrive, sega master system, nintendo NES, gameboy...

Dream of Omnimaga

Maybe if it's popular enough and there's enough demand they could make a version that is more gaming-friendly? It doesn't absolutely need joysticks but maybe better buttons for attack, cancel, directional, etc?
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

garvalf

I doubt they'll ever do this, but it seems there are some solutions: http://blog.nextthing.co/modify-pocketc-h-i-p-with-these-4-hardware-hacks/
A friend of mine has a 3D printer, I'll ask him to print the first one!
  • Calculators owned: TI-83+ fr, TI-82
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: c64, zx spectrum, atari st, sega megadrive, sega master system, nintendo NES, gameboy...

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