PICO-8 - Revision history

Superogue at 15:12, 26 May 2025

2025-05-26T15:12:32Z

2024-09-04T09:26:53Z

2023-01-23T10:54:09Z

‎Tiny ROM Export

2023-01-15T19:12:42Z

Fix another link formatting issue

2023-01-15T19:11:58Z

Add PXAVIZ link

2023-01-15T19:07:11Z

Add information about peek operators and number format.

2023-01-15T18:59:55Z

Fix link display

2023-01-15T18:58:27Z

Add a few more PICO-8 final optimization tips: P8SCII, setting the palette, strange constants.

2023-01-15T18:46:23Z

Add note on single-line IF/ELSE and WHILE

2023-01-15T18:45:03Z

Remove obsolete note on available PICO-8 code size

@@ Line 135: / Line 135: @@
 * Performance on PICO-8 is more limited. Every declaration, operator, and function call costs a certain number of cycles, charged against a limit of approximately 8 million (2^23) cycles/second. See https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/CPU for more details.
 * Code-editor = Escape (prepare to have your desktop filled with screenshots by accidentally pressing F1 ;-)
 * All alphabetic letters can be tugged against numeric chars (0..9) on PICO-8
@@ Line 209: / Line 210: @@
 * PICO-8 API Reference https://neko250.github.io/pico8-api/
 * PICO-8 guide https://nerdyteachers.com/PICO-8/Guide/
-* PICO-8 List of sizecoded Fantasy Console intros (PICO-8/TIC-80) https://www.pouet.net/lists.php?which=199
+* PICO-8 List of PICO-8 Demos and Intros on Demozoo https://demozoo.org/productions/?platform=81

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:26, 4 September 2024
Line 197:		Line 197:

	Alternatively, you can use you RAW lua code and save/rename it to a P8.ROM file without header.		Alternatively, you can use you RAW lua code and save/rename it to a P8.ROM file without header.
		+
		+	=== P8.ROM Packing ===
		+	You can use the shrinko8 tool at https://thisismypassport.github.io/shrinko8/ to help you minify and compress your code, which usually gives you a slightly better result than using
		+	the built-in rom export.

	=== Additional Resources ===		=== Additional Resources ===

@@ Line 194: / Line 194: @@
 </syntaxhighlight>
-This results in a P8.ROM file that roughly matches the number of characters used in the LUA code, giving you slightly more space to work with.
+This results in a compressed P8.ROM file with 8 byte header that roughly matches the number of characters used in the LUA code, giving you slightly more space to work with.
 === Additional Resources ===

@@ Line 163: / Line 163: @@
 * Did you know that the T() shorthand version of the TIME() function is also available?
 * Remember that ?"text",x,y is a shorthand for PRINT("text",x,y), however it does require its own newline (2x enter) to work
-* You can use [P8SCII control codes](https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/P8SCII_Control_Codes) in PRINT (or ?) statements to do all kinds of things: clear the screen, invoke FLIP(), poke values into memory, etc.
+* You can use [https://pico-8.fandom.com/wiki/P8SCII_Control_Codes P8SCII control codes] in PRINT (or ?) statements to do all kinds of things: clear the screen, invoke FLIP(), poke values into memory, etc.
 * A particularly useful P8SCII control code formula is ?"⁶1⁶c", which is essentially equivalent to FLIP() CLS(0).
 * 2darray's [https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=35462 Palette Maker cart] can help generate strings to set your desired palette. Just be sure you invoke tweetcart mode to get a shorthand print statement with ? instead of a PAL call, and consider replacing \^ with ⁶.

@@ Line 167: / Line 167: @@
 * 2darray's [https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=35462 Palette Maker cart] can help generate strings to set your desired palette. Just be sure you invoke tweetcart mode to get a shorthand print statement with ? instead of a PAL call, and consider replacing \^ with ⁶.
 * Many extended P8SCII characters have numeric values when referenced as variables. For example, █ is .5, and the expression ⌂-🐱 produces 0x6000, which is the base address of screen memory. Pancelor's [https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=44801 Constant Companion cart] can help identify shorthand ways to produce constants of interest.
 Before the introduction of the P8.ROM file format, the most common way to create tiny intros for Pico-8 was to use the raw .P8 format which contained the raw LUA code + a minimum header of 27 bytes:

@@ Line 142: / Line 142: @@
 * The PICO-8 Lua variant supports x+=value / x-=value
 * The PICO-8 Lua variant supports shorthand single-line IF/ELSE and WHILE statements, where the condition is wrapped in parens and the block continues to the end of the line.
 * The XOR operator is ^^ instead of ~
 * FUNCTION _DRAW() = FUNCTION TIC()