paladin-t / fantasy Goto Github PK

not sure if it fits here, I left it @paladin-t to decide :)

http://pelulamu.net/ibniz/

Currently pixel vision 8 links to www.pixelvision8.com while it should link to https://pixelvision8.github.io/Website/

https://js1k.com/2415
http://voidptr.io/blog/2016/02/07/Marmmodore-1K-Copy.html

Hi, I wish there was a way to sort by popularity / number of stars on GitHub (at least for the one where their sources are hosted on GitHub) to get a rough idea of projects maturity.

Also, what would you think about making your list an awesome list?

OK64 IDE and Turbo Rascal language:
https://lemonspawn.com/ok64/

https://procedural.itch.io/gamescript

A programming-first C-like fantasy console for Android, PC and Xbox One, available for free for any use, including commercial use.

YouTube playlist with various tutorials for it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvcobyidYcZ05J_4nf90rphKdJ6Wcvr71

Made by Constantine Tarasenkov (me 😄 )

LIMNstation is a wip fantasy computer i like that is meant to resemble 90s *nix machines. https://github.com/limnarch

Edit: It uses a custom assembly language and a forth-like language called dragonfruit, the price is free, the platform is Love2D, and the resolution is cutomizeable but defaults to 1024x768.

Okay, this is going to be a tricky one, but I'm going to put together my case. No hard feelings if it doesn't fit the spirit of the list.

ZZT was made in 1991 by Potomac Computer Systems (later Epic MegaGames, even later Epic Games) as an action/puzzle game, but its built-in game creation system with scripting functionality turned out to allow it to be a surprisingly versatile game creation tool. See: "About ZZT".

Bitsy and PuzzleScript are on the list. Now, ZZT has been shown to have similar or higher versatility than Bitsy (see, for example, one of Dr_Dos's modern recommendation lists) as well as attract a similar audience. While it was originally made as a game, I will admit, its quirky set of limitations (60x25 board size, stat limits, board size limits, unusual scripting language without proper arithmetic, etc.) effectively makes it comparable to a fantasy console in my eyes.

For the formal details:

• Name: ZZT
• Author: Tim Sweeney
• Year: 1991
• URL: https://museumofzzt.com/ (ZZT hasn't had an official website in almost two decades, this is your best bet)
• Language: ZZT-OOP (well... Instructions)
• Price & License: Free, MIT (via a decompilation project but done with the rightsholder's permission, see The Reconstruction of ZZT)
• Platform: This is where it gets a bit tricky.
  • ZZT itself targets DOS,
  • Zeta is a tiny emulator dedicated to ZZT which expands that to Windows, Linux, and browsers,
  • There are work-in-progress ports for more obscure platforms (consoles, phones),
  • It is highly recommended to use an external editor tool like KevEdit for greater functionality (Windows, Linux, Mac),
  • While I'm looking into making a native implementation that fixes all of this stuff and combines it into one thing now that the engine is MIT-licensed, the status quo is admittedly a bit tricky.
• Display: 60x25 character mode (plus 20x25 non-user-changeable sidebar on the back, I suppose).

Again, no hard feelings if it doesn't belong - I am curious, however, as I've always seen ZZT as a thing with very similar appeal to a fantasy console. (And, if yes, is its spiritual community-made successor MegaZeux, or is that too close to a general game engine? Hmm...)

Can be found here. Open source, 6502 assembly, limited specs.

Wanted to make a small change to Tic-80's information but cannot do so without forking the repository. Tic-80 does have language support for Python.

Looks like fantasy console with optional hardware, not sure if it fits here
https://makecode.com/blog/arcade/01-18-2019
https://arcade.makecode.com/#editor

It is still under development, but I already created a game using it.
I will add a JavaScript version to run games.
If you consider it valid, I'd like you to add it to the list.

https://github.com/Vulcalien/LuaG-Console

I think it's important to show that some of consoles can work online in browser too and they have their own online showroom.

Now I know only two of them who support webassembly: TIC-80 and PICO-8. But maybe there are alot of more who may work in browser too.

Hi, there is also Retro-40 missing:

https://github.com/raydeejay/retro-40

It uses Forth as its programming language.

Forth is really worth a look, although not the easiest to wrap your head around.

What I dislike is the used font/-resolution aspect of Retro-40. I really wish it was better designed in that aspect.

Octo isn't a fantasy console itself, but rather a suite of development tools (a high-level language, IDE, and debugging utilities) for CHIP-8, which is a fantasy console, supposedly the first to be called so.

My suggestion is to replace the Octo link with CHIP-8, linking to its Wikipedia article or perhaps Awesome CHIP-8.

Hello

You already listed Octo wich is more an IDE than a fantasy console. The "actual" underlying fantasy console is CHIP-8, and a lot of resources can be found here: https://chip-8.github.io/ (Octo is pretty cool and should stay on the list).

There is also Zany80, which is based around the Z80 processor : https://pixelhero.dev/zany80/ ; it's rough and hasn't been updated in ages (though not more than other projects on the list), but I think it's interesting that it's based on actual hardware, both retro (used in many 80s computers) and current (still used in a lot of things).

• CToy: more of a framework, no limitations of display, ram etc.
• ESP LGE: targets real hardware (so, not really "fantasy")
• Nibble: same

They're still interesting projects that have the same goal (rapid prototyping of small simple projects), so I'm not sure they should be completely removed.

https://pixelvision8.github.io/PixelVision8Website/

The author declared it opensource since some months now.

CToy is an interactive and dynamic coding environment and is akin to Love2d rather than a fantasy console, or computer.

A table showing whether each program has a code editor, map editor, sprite editor, and music editor would be helpful

It´s a 3d mobile fantasy console that have a visual scripting system, from the creator of mekorama
http://www.fancade.com/

Since I noticed that Puzzlescript was listed as a fantasy console, I thought you should also add Bitsy to this list as well.

FC: Bitsy, Adam Ledoux
Language: custom scripting(?)
Price & License: Free, license-less but has a github repo
Platform: Browser
Display: 16x16 sprites which are 8x8 pixels

https://exoticorn.github.io/microw8/

Hi,

First of all, thank you for adding MEG-4 to your list! There's a slight problem though, some of the platforms are missing.
Could you please add "Browser" and "Bare metal" to the Platform coloumn?

Reasoning: MEG-4 has an emscripten port too (you can see it running on the website), and I've put a lot of effort in creating the other. I call this bare metal, because this port produces a disk image without any Operating System (no Windows, no GNU/Linux) that you can yet boot on a desktop PC or run it in a virtual machine like qemu or VirtualBox.

Thanks,
bzt

Hi,

Could you be please kind to add MEG-4 to your list?

FC: MEG-4 by bzt

Language: C, BASIC, Assembly, Lua

Price & License: Free and Open Source, GPLv3+

Platform (Editing; Playing): Windows, Linux, Android, browser, Raspberry Pi, Bare metal

Display: 320 x 200 (scrollable) or 640 x 400 (no scrolling), 256 colors of 32 bit RGBA

A few notes: what makes this fantasy console special is that you can just drag'n'drop files into its window and it Just Works. Supports lots of file formats (png, Amiga MOD, MIDI, Tiled TMX, X11 BDF, FontForge SFD, etc.), and even PICO-8 (both .p8 and .8.png) and TIC-80 (both .tic and .tic.png) cartridges. Both the editor and the player included in a single, dependency-free, portable executable, which is written for web (emscripten), lots of multi-platform libraries (SDL, GLFW, allegro, libretro etc.) as well as for bare metal (disk image creator included). For Raspberry Pi, you can choose between a RaspiOS application and a bare metal version (no OS needed).

Example floppy disks are available on the website, as well as the MEG-4 User's Manual.

Hope you like it! Let me know if you have any questions!
bzt

https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80/blob/master/LICENSE

Maybe we should add TIS-100 to the list? This is a game that consists of solving puzzles in assembly language for fantasy computer.

Looks like this game is quite popular and sometimes is used for implementing custom games like PONG. This is exactly the reason why it may be an interesting candidate for inclusion in the list.

It would be helpful to have a release date column -- helpful to know which is recent, and interesting to know which came first.

Here's a new one https://www.sixengine.com/

Seems like someone have spoofed the url. Maybe remove it from the list?

Would like to suggest my own fantasy console for this list, which I just released the very first alpha build of: DreamBox.
It's NYOP on itch.io, heavily inspired by the 2nd-gen consoles of the 2000s (completely fixed-function 3D pipeline, no multi-texturing, no hardware T&L, displays at 640x480, PCM sample playback support, MIDI playback support), and runs WASM games! :)

https://dreambox3d.dev/
https://crit-chance-studios.itch.io/dreambox

There have been a few "dev jam" focusing on fantasy consoles so there are a lot of "one-shot" toy projects in the list.

Maybe there could be two lists? One "active" and one "inactive" projects, so that a person interested in actually using them can focus on the most useable ones?

• 1-bit wonder: an author's comment suggests it was just a toy
• 4BOD: same
• Chroma60: the author has been inactive for several years
• Click4: last updated in 2018
• Drak0: last updated in 2017
• DX8: last updated in 2018
• ECoS: "status: on hold"
• Fazic: last updated march 2020, multiple unanswered issues despite the author being active on other projects
• G-Eon: "no longer in development" (from the project page)
• Homegirl: [project halted][https://poeticandroid.itch.io/homegirl/devlog/142518/happy-birthday-homegirl-and-goodbye)
• Ibniz: the Github is active but the pelulamu.net links are down
• Lowres Coder: replaced by Lowres NX
• Marmmodore-1K: was just a toy for a code jam entry in 2016
• Nano Jammer: last updated in 2018
• Neko8: "this project is long dead"
• Phosphor: last updated in 2018
• Pix64: last updated in 2018
• PX8: last updated in 2017
• Riko4: probably inactive: last updated july 2020, author inactive
• Vectorboy: last version in 2017, last blog post in 2018 saying they'll get back to it, then nothing
• VVPet: last updated in 2019
• YukiJS: "alpha project" last updated in 2019

Here's a link to their site: https://100r.co/site/uxn.html

Hacker News discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27185950

I'm not sure if it qualifies; you have to progress in the game to be able to program them.
Game: https://www.gog.com/game/else_heartbreak
Link to the language: https://github.com/eriksvedang/Sprak

The link to PQ93 no longer works; the URL is now https://transmutrix.itch.io/pq93

https://gamercade.io/

A fantasy console with big emphasis on online multiplayer w/ rollback netcode.
Haven't tried it myself (as I'm still considering various choices around here) but seems good to me.

Instead of having to decide when to retire fantasy consoles that aren't actively developed, we could just add a column with the year of the last update. That way, working consoles could stay listed while also giving readers a bit of a clue which ones are actively developed/supported.

What do you all think? I started working on this but realized I should probably ask before I go to the trouble of looking them all up. I've been going by Github activity (for open source projects) or release notes/history (for closed source projects).

What counts as "ASM" for the list versus "Instructions"? Click4 has you manually drawing in instructions and their arguments, yet is considered "ASM", while YETI-16 has an assembler but is called "Instructions". Furthermore, there are some differences, like how 4BoD basically runs the equivalent of .s files (no assembler step required) yet is "ASM".

Petit Computer is a nintendo-approved (probably the only of its kind) software development application for every nintendo handheld since the DSi. It comes equipped with its own programming language (SmileBASIC), and its own slew of development tools, including a code and graphics editor, a sequencer, and more.
While running on an actual console, this application doesn't tap into its full potential, and comes with its own set of restrictions in order to simplify things so making games on it is fun, more than anything.
This might not specifically aim to be a fantasy console but I think given its featureset and restrictions imposed by the environment, I believe it comes dangerously close.

Could you change PV8 to its main site at https://www.pixelvision8.com/

Also, there are a few pricing options:

Free (Limited tools), $9.99 (all tools) or $1/month (all versions plus extras)

Thanks!

https://www.malgil.com/mmix/graphics/

It's a fantasy computer in everything but name. It's programmed in Knuth's MMIX Assembly and is available for Unix platforms.

There's quite a lot of systems in the list, and a lot of them are abandonned, or even barely started.

It'd be nice to have a badge to have an idea of the activity, if hosted on Github : https://shields.io/category/activity

Either last-modified, last-update, commit-activity, last-commit, etc.