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Tic-80 Tiny Computer

tic.computer

43 pointsbshanks3 comments

Tic-80 is one of the most successful pico-8 inspired fantasy consoles (I don't think it's fair to call it a "clone" since it has diverged quite a bit at this stage). Perhaps more relevant it just released the beta for v0.80 with some sweet new features[0]. That also highlights that it's open source, which had lead to some nice community additions like the recent 3DS port[1]

[0] https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80/tree/master/build/n3ds

[1] https://github.com/nesbox/TIC-80/releases/tag/v0.80-beta

I don't know, it's pretty hard to argue it's not a clone. The APIs are so similar, the interfaces are so similar some of the demo carts are literally remakes of pico carts from the pico-8 BBS. It has a lot of different features, like the different scripting language options, and fewer restrictions, but to say it's only "inspired"? Tic-80, Pq93, Pixelvision 8, Liko-12, PX8, etc all look, feel, operate almost exactly like Pico-8. How many other ways could they have chosen to layout the editors, or different APIs or different set of core features (code/sprite/map/sfx/music editors), all with similar resolutions and similar limits on pallets and spritesheet sizes even if they're not based on Pico's restrictions. Clearly they're slightly different, with different goals etc, but it doesn't take that discerning of an eye to spot a clone. IMO only.

While I get your reasoning, I would argue that that is simply a new "genre" of software applications called "fantasy consoles".

The other reason I wouldn't call it a clone is because historically speaking (as I understand it at least) "clones" in the context of computers and consoles are referring to hardware that is compatible with the platform that they are cloning. A Mac clone could run Mac software, and IBM PC clone could run IBM PC software, etc.

Since that is not true here (all these fantasy consoles are incompatible), they wouldn't fit that part of the (historical) definition of clones in a computer context - which I would consider the most appropriate one for something that is supposed to be an impressionist idea of a console platform.

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