From PICO8 site:
PICO8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs. When you turn it on, the machine greets you with a shell for typing in Lua commands and provides simple built-in tools for creating your own cartridges.
This is amazing, and I am torn because I really want to develop on this, even though the audience is so small.
We need a handheld PICO8!!
Normally I would buy the PocketCHIP in a second, but it wouldn’t be for PICO8. That project has some funky stuff going on with it, such as requiring “cartridges” to be uploaded to their server, and being non-free software. Which sucks, because I would buy copies of it for everyone I know, if it were licensed appropriately.
I don’t care if games are open, because they are expression and I have thoughts on that, but I insist that engines be open for me to buy in.
I know, I saw that too!
It’s my understanding you save the png cartridges then you can do anything you want with them. The website is merely a place that accepts them for hosting.
I do second your insistence that game engines be open source.
What really appeals to me about a fantasy console is the encapsulation. Developing for the web, or for an OS, changing specs over time will affect your game, or make it unplayable. However, a fantasy console (or real console) is a flag planted on a certain set of specs that will remain the same forever, open to emulation, etc. I really like that.
An open-source fantasy console could be amazing.
