
MakeCode Arcade: Retro Gaming, Modern Programming - fred256
https://makecode.com/blog/arcade/01-18-2019
======
chrisweekly
> "You can also save screenshots of your games while playing. We call these
> cartridges, since they contain the sources of the game, hidden
> steganographically in magical pixels. Once saved, anyone can drag these
> cartridges to the editor to load them. You can use it for emailing of
> projects, or sharing them on forums."

You had me at hello.

~~~
sehugg
Interesting -- I wonder how this would work for sharing on social networks,
given that they often recompress images. You could also hide the data in a
proprietary PNG metadata chunk, but this also might not survive recompression.

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Lerc
It's an interesting direction to go in. I like the proliferation of toy
machines that the Pico-8 has spawned.

I'm making one going in almost the polar opposite direction to this. I 8-bit
avr based with asm (and C,pascal and anything else the avr ecosystem supports)

It's slow going (current work in progress in-broswer emulator+assembler at
[http://fingswotidun.com/avr/AvrAsm/Testbed/](http://fingswotidun.com/avr/AvrAsm/Testbed/)
) Still have to make a website for sharing cartridge images.

Also this caught my eye in the linked article.

"TypeScript is compiled directly to machine code - there is no interpreter or
JIT-compiler involved." There's a Typescript to native compiler about? Where?

~~~
pjmlp
Yes, there is one, it is part of the MakeCode project.

[https://makecode.com/language](https://makecode.com/language)

"Microsoft MakeCode: from C++ to TypeScript and Blockly (and Back)"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGhhV2kfJ-w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGhhV2kfJ-w)

~~~
xfer
This is the github repo:
[https://github.com/Microsoft/pxt/tree/master/pxtcompiler](https://github.com/Microsoft/pxt/tree/master/pxtcompiler)

~~~
homarp
PXT's underlying programming language is a subset of TypeScript (leaving out
JavaScript dynamic features).

The main features of PXT are: [...] an ARM Thumb machine code emitter

~~~
mmoskal
In fact there is more dynamic features in now, including accessing arbitrary
fields through 'any' type and typeof expression. What's missing is mostly eval
and prototype inheritance (instead we use classes). There's also a precise GC
now.

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aquova
I've been using Pico-8 for about a year now, and I really enjoy what these
"fantasy consoles" have to offer. For making a quick game or visual effect, it
does an amazing job.

There are now a number of projects of a similar vein to Pico-8 out there,
including this one, but I think this can fill its own niche. To my
recollection, this is the first one that I've seen using blocks.

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japanoise
This looks really cool. It reminds me of writing gamemaker games back in the
day, which is how I first learned how to program. I'll have to give it a try

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cweiss
Is it me, or does their blog not support RSS/Atom? Trying to add it to feedly
and it's not recognizing any feeds.

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leowoo91
Also see: [https://scratch.mit.edu](https://scratch.mit.edu)

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vidget
You can deploy games created to actual handheld game console.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lp7W9_jtJ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lp7W9_jtJ8)

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vidget
You can deploy games created to a handheld console, awesome!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lp7W9_jtJ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lp7W9_jtJ8)

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ArtWomb
Those microcontroller mini consoles are so cool! Having an in editor sprite
animation creator that instantly inlines to js array is nice. Quality tooling
even for the more advanced student ;)

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Domark
Why the downgraded graphics obsession?

As an artist, I want my games to be 1080p with unlimited colors and animation.
These old systems don’t work.

Pixel art looks like stitching. When will everyone grow up?

~~~
coldtea
> _As an artist, I want my games to be 1080p with unlimited colors and
> animation._

For an artist you don't seem to understand artistic intent, statement, the
power of limitations, and stylization.

> _Pixel art looks like stitching. When will everyone grow up?_

Again, this is not an "artistic" judgement, and it would be laughed off in any
actual artistic school. Artists choose their tools and impose all kinds of
stylizations and restrictions on themselves.

There's nowhere in aesthetics that says "more X = better art".

That would be like talking down on people playing americana music because we
now have Techno and EDM and modern tools...

