PICO-8 (or ピコ-8 in Japanese) is a virtual machine and game engine created by Lexaloffle Games. It is a “fantasy video game console” that mimics the limited graphical and sound capabilities of 8-bit systems of the 1980s. The goal of this is to spur one’s creativity and ingenuity in producing games, and avoid being overwhelmed with the many possibilities of modern tools and machines. Such a design also allows PICO-8 games to have a familiar look and feel.
Notable games released for the system include the original version of Celeste
- Paid: to create or play games in pico-8 app
- Free: to play games in browser
Specifications
| Display | 128x128 16 colours | |
|---|---|---|
| Cartridge Size | 32k | |
| Sound | 4 channel chip blerps | |
| Code | Lua | |
| Sprites | 256 8x8 sprites | |
| Map | 128x32 cels | |
The harsh limitations of PICO-8 are carefully chosen to be fun to work with, to encourage small but expressive designs, and to give cartridges made with PICO-8 their own particular look and feel.
Creative Tools
PICO-8 has tools for editing code , music , sound , sprites , maps built right into the console. Create a whole game or program in one sitting without needing to leave the cosy development environment!
Shareable Cartridges
PICO-8 cartridges can be saved in a special .png format and sent directly to other users, shared with anyone via a web cart player, or exported to stand-alone HTML5, Windows, Mac and Linux apps.
Any cartridge can be opened again in PICO-8, letting you peek inside to modify or study the code, graphics and sound.
Explore the Cartverse
PICO-8 comes with a built-in cartridge browser called SPLORE, for searching and favouriting carts from the online collection.
Community Resources
PICO-8 has a friendly community of users collaborating, sharing knowledge and creating tools, snippets and tutorials. Check out what people are up to on the forums, twitter, and other places.
Just Add Hardware
PICO-8 is tiny to download, easy to install, and will run on almost anything! To use PICO-8, you’ll need either Windows, a Mac, Linux (i386 / amd64), or a Raspbery Pi (pictured) with ~700MHz CPU. Turn your old unused netbooks or microcomputers into PICO-8s!
