Fantasy pixelated desktop
Once, almost at the very beginning of this website’s existence, I shared a link to the Pico8 project, an “imaginary game console” characterized by pixelated graphics combined with modern programming methods, attracting talented creators who write incredibly “cute” and eye-candy games and toys.
Recently, the 0.1 version of a similar project has seen the light of day, this time being a full workstation – still a fantasy workstation. Here we have a tiny toy operating system that can be run as an application on Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, operating – similar to Pico8 – on virtual cartridges with a capacity of 256 KiB.
Lexaloffle LLC’s project can be seen as a flexible programming environment designed for game developers and multimedia projects, just more… awesome.
Picotron provides advanced programming tools in the form of code editors, graphics, and sound – all written in Lua and customizable by the user. This allows creators to tailor the environment to their own needs and ideas.
An interesting addition we can find in the Picotron FAQ is the specially designed PFX6416 synthesizer, allowing for creating advanced sound effects. It provides advanced sound design capabilities while maintaining low resource consumption.
Picotron is available to play with for free in the web browser and serves as a comprehensive, flexible tool for enthusiasts of game development and digital art. I believe digital expression is a true form of art that minimalistic platforms revive just as much as the 8-bit home computers brought it to masses the first time.
The project can be found at: https://www.lexaloffle.com/picotron.php
And the aforementioned Pico8 post was:
