[0xcde4c3db]

I'm not trying to suggest that there's something deficient in the approach, just that it makes it harder to answer the sorts of questions I have. I mostly want to know:

1) What does it mean for PX8 (or any other program) to be "PICO-8 compatible" in this context?

2) Does PICO-8 resemble CHIP-8 only in general concept and name, or also in structure?

[zokier]

> 1) What does it mean for PX8 (or any other program) to be "PICO-8 compatible" in this context?

My understanding is that it PX8 implements the same Lua APIs that PICO-8 has.

[vertex-four]

To be PICO-8 compatible is to run PICO-8 programs, which are written in a slightly extended version of Lua against the PICO-8 API. There isn't a bytecode that these programs compile to - they're shipped as Lua. The format they're shipped in also embeds sprites, sounds, maps, and music patterns.

[jhbadger]

The only connection that CHIP-8 has with PICO-8 is that they are systems for making retro games (although when CHIP-8 was new in the 1970s the games weren't retro, of course). CHIP-8 is very low-level, while PICO-8 uses Lua, a scripting language similar to Python or Ruby.

[bootload]

good Qs @0xcde4c3db, dunno.

[vvillena]

2) CHIP-8 is a tiny computer with a case, a keyboard, a screen, and PICO-8 preloaded.

[0xcde4c3db]

I'm talking about this:

> CHIP-8 is an interpreted programming language, developed by Joseph Weisbecker. It was initially used on the COSMAC VIP and Telmac 1800 8-bit microcomputers in the mid-1970s. CHIP-8 programs are run on a CHIP-8 virtual machine. It was made to allow video games to be more easily programmed for said computers.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIP-8