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====================================================================================================
PICO-8 User Manual
====================================================================================================
PICO-8 v0.2.5g
https://www.pico-8.com
(c) Copyright 2014-2023 Lexaloffle Games LLP
Author: Joseph White // hey@lexaloffle.com
PICO-8 is built with:
SDL2 http://www.libsdl.org
Lua 5.2 http://www.lua.org // see license.txt
ws281x by jgarff // see license.txt
GIFLIB http://giflib.sourceforge.net/
WiringPi http://wiringpi.com/
libb64 by Chris Venter
miniz by Rich Geldreich
z8lua by Sam Hocevar https://github.com/samhocevar/z8lua
Latest version of this manual (as html, txt) and other resources:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=resources
:: Welcome to PICO-8!
PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer
programs. When you turn it on, the machine greets you with a shell for typing in Lua programs
and provides simple built-in tools for creating sprites, maps and sound.
The harsh limitations of PICO-8 are carefully chosen to be fun to work with, encourage small
but expressive designs and hopefully to give PICO-8 cartridges their own particular look and
feel.
:: Specifications
Display: 128x128, fixed 16 colour palette
Input: 6-button controllers
Carts: 32k data encoded as png files
Sound: 4 channel, 64 definable chip blerps
Code: P8 Lua (max 8192 tokens of code)
CPU: 4M vm insts/sec
Sprites: Single bank of 128 8x8 sprites (+128 shared)
Map: 128 x 32 Tilemap (+ 128 x 32 shared)
====================================================================================================
Getting Started
====================================================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keys
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALT+ENTER: Toggle Fullscreen
ALT+F4: Fast Quit (Windows)
CTRL-Q: Fast Quit (Mac, Linux)
CTRL-R: Reload / Run / Restart cartridge
CTRL-S: Quick-Save working cartridge
CTRL-M: Mute / Unmute Sound
ENTER / P: Pause Menu (while running cart)
Player 1 default keys: Cursors + ZX / NM / CV
Player 2 default keys: SDFE + tab,Q / shift A
To change the default keys use the KEYCONFIG utility from inside PICO-8:
> KEYCONFIG
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello World
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After PICO-8 boots, try typing some of these commands followed by enter:
> PRINT("HELLO WORLD")
> RECTFILL(80,80,120,100,12)
> CIRCFILL(70,90,20,14)
> FOR I=1,4 DO PRINT(I) END
(Note: PICO-8 only displays upper-case characters -- just type normally without capslock!)
You can build up an interactive program by using commands like this in the code editing mode
along with two special callback functions @_UPDATE and @_DRAW. For example, the following
program allows you to move a circle around with the cursor keys. Press Esc to switch to the
code editor and type or copy & paste the following code:
X = 64 Y = 64
FUNCTION _UPDATE()
IF (BTN(0)) THEN X=X-1 END
IF (BTN(1)) THEN X=X+1 END
IF (BTN(2)) THEN Y=Y-1 END
IF (BTN(3)) THEN Y=Y+1 END
END
FUNCTION _DRAW()
CLS(5)
CIRCFILL(X,Y,7,14)
END
Now press Esc to return to the console and type RUN (or press CTRL-R) to see it in action.
Please refer to the demo cartridges for more complex programs (type INSTALL_DEMOS).
If you want to store your program for later, use the SAVE command:
> SAVE PINKCIRC
And to load it again:
> LOAD PINKCIRC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example Cartridges
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These cartridges are included with PICO-8 and can be installed by typing:
> INSTALL_DEMOS
> CD DEMOS
> LS
HELLO Greetings from PICO-8
API Demonstrates most PICO-8 functions
JELPI Platform game demo w/ 2p support
CAST 2.5D Raycaster demo
DRIPPY Draw a drippy squiggle
WANDER Simple walking simulator
COLLIDE Example wall and actor collisions
To run a cartridge, open PICO-8 and type:
> LOAD JELPI
> RUN
Press escape to stop the program, and once more to enter editing mode.
A small collection of BBS carts can also be installed to /GAMES with:
> INSTALL_GAMES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
File System
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These commands can be used to manage files and directories (folders):
LS list the current directory
CD BLAH change directory
CD .. go up a directory
CD / change back to top directory (on PICO-8's virtual drive)
MKDIR BLAH make a directory
FOLDER open the current directory in the host operating system's file browser
LOAD BLAH load a cart from the current directory SAVE BLAH save a cart to the current
directory
If you want to move files around, duplicate them or delete them, use the FOLDER command and do
it in the host operating system.
The default location for PICO-8's drive is:
Windows: C:/Users/Yourname/AppData/Roaming/pico-8/carts
OSX: /Users/Yourname/Library/Application Support/pico-8/carts
Linux: ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/carts
You can change this and other settings in pico-8/config.txt
Tip: The drive directory can be mapped to a cloud drive (provided by Dropbox, Google Drive or
similar) in order to create a single disk shared between PICO-8 machines spread across
different host machines.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loading and Saving
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When using LOAD and SAVE, the .P8 extension can be omitted and is added automatically.
> SAVE FOO
SAVED FOO.P8
Cartridge files can also be dragged and dropped into PICO-8's window to load them.
Using .p8.png filename extension will write the cartridge in a special image format that looks
like a cartridge. Using .p8.rom" writes in a raw 32k binary format.
Use a filename of "@clip" to load or save to the clipboard.
Use a filename of "@url" to save to clipboard as a pico-8-edu.com url if it can be encoded in
2040 characters (code and gfx only).
Once a cartridge has been loaded or saved, it can also be quick-saved with CTRL-S
:: Saving .p8.png carts with a text label and preview image
To generate a label image saved with the cart, run the program first and press CTRL-7 to
grab whatever is on the screen. The first two lines of the program starting with '--' are
also drawn to the cart's label.
-- OCEAN DIVER LEGENDS
-- BY LOOPY
:: Code size restrictions for .p8.png / .p8.rom formats
When saving in .png or .rom format, the compressed size of the code must be less than 15360
bytes so that the total data is <= 32k.
To find out the current size of your code, use the INFO command. The compressed size limit
is not enforced for saving in .p8 format.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using an External Text Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is possible to edit .p8 files directly with a separate text editor. Using CTRL-R to run a
cartridge will automatically re-load the file if:
1. There are no unsaved changes in the PICO-8 editors, AND<br> 2. The file differs in
content from the last loaded version.
If there are changes to both the cart on disk and in the editor, a notification is displayed:
DIDN'T RELOAD; UNSAVED CHANGES
Alternatively, .lua text files can be modified in a separate editor and then included into the
cartridge's code each time it is run using @{#INCLUDE} (in the desired code location):
#INCLUDE YOURFILE.LUA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Backups
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When quitting without saving changes, or overwriting an existing file, a backup of the
cartridge is saved to {appdata}/pico-8/backup. An extra copy of the current cartridge can also
be saved to the same folder by typing BACKUP.
To open the backups folder in the host operating system's file browser, use:
> FOLDER BACKUPS
It is then possible to drag and drop files into the PICO-8 window to load them.
From 0.2.4c, periodic backups are also saved every 20 minutes when not idle in the editor,
which means the backups folder will grow by about 1MB every 5 hours. This can be disabled or
adjusted in config.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configuration
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICO-8 reads configuration settings from config.txt at the start of each session, and saves
it on exit (so you should edit config.txt when PICO-8 is not running).
The location of the config.txt file depends on the host operating system:
Windows: C:/Users/Yourname/AppData/Roaming/pico-8/config.txt
OSX: /Users/Yourname/Library/Application Support/pico-8/config.txt
Linux: ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/config.txt
Use the -home switch (below) to use a different path to store config.txt and other data.
Some settings can be changed while running PICO-8 by typing CONFIG SETTING VALUE. (type
CONFIG by itself for a list)
:: Commandline parameters
// note: these override settings found in config.txt
pico8 [switches] [filename.p8]
-width n set the window width
-height n set the window height
-windowed n set windowed mode off (0) or on (1)
-volume n set audio volume 0..256
-joystick n joystick controls starts at player n (0..7)
-pixel_perfect n 1 for unfiltered screen stretching at integer scales (on by default)
-preblit_scale n scale the display by n before blitting to screen (useful with -pixel_perfect 0)
-draw_rect x,y,w,h absolute window coordinates and size to draw pico-8's screen
-run filename load and run a cartridge
-x filename execute a PICO-8 cart headless and then quit (experimental!)
-export param_str run EXPORT command in headless mode and exit (see notes under export)
-p param_str pass a parameter string to the specified cartridge
-splore boot in splore mode
-home path set the path to store config.txt and other user data files
-root_path path set the path to store cartridge files
-desktop path set a location for screenshots and gifs to be saved
-screenshot_scale n scale of screenshots. default: 3 (368x368 pixels)
-gif_scale n scale of gif captures. default: 2 (256x256 pixels)
-gif_len n set the maximum gif length in seconds (1..120)
-gui_theme n use 1 for a higher contrast editor colour scheme
-timeout n how many seconds to wait before downloads timeout (default: 30)
-software_blit n use software blitting mode off (0) or on (1)
-foreground_sleep_ms n how many milliseconds to sleep between frames.
-background_sleep_ms n how many milliseconds to sleep between frames when running in background
-accept_future n 1 to allow loading cartridges made with future versions of PICO-8
-global_api n 1 to leave api functions in global scope (useful for debugging)
:: Controller Setup
PICO-8 uses the SDL2 controller configuration scheme. It will detect common controllers on
startup and also looks for custom mappings in sdl_controllers.txt in the same directory as
config.txt. sdl_controllers.txt has one mapping per line.
To generate a custom mapping string for your controller, use either the controllermap program
that comes with SDL2, or try http://www.generalarcade.com/gamepadtool/
To find out the id of your controller as it is detected by SDL2, search for "joysticks" or
"Mapping" in log.txt after running PICO-8. This id may vary under different operating systems.
See: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=32130
To set up which keyboard keys trigger joystick buttons presses, use KEYCONFIG.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Screenshots and GIFS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While a cartridge is running use:
CTRL-6 Save a screenshot to desktop
CTRL-7 Capture cartridge label image
CTRL-8 Start recording a video
CTRL-9 Save GIF video to desktop (8 seconds by default)
You can save a video at any time (it is always recording); CTRL-8 simply resets the video
starting point. To record more than 8 seconds, use the CONFIG command (maximum: 120)
CONFIG GIF_LEN 60
If you would like the recording to reset every time (to create a non-overlapping sequence),
use:
CONFIG GIF_RESET_MODE 1
The gif format can not match 30fps exactly, so PICO-8 instead uses the closest match: 33.3fps.
If you have trouble saving to the desktop, try configuring an alternative desktop path in
config.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sharing Cartridges
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are three ways to share carts made in PICO-8:
1. Share the .p8 or .p8.png file directly with other PICO-8 users
Type FOLDER to open the current folder in your host operating system.
2. Post the cart on the Lexaloffe BBS to get a web-playable version
http://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=submit
3. Export the cartridge to a stand-alone html/js or native binary player (see the exporters
section for details)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPLORE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPLORE is a built-in utility for browsing and organising both local and bbs (online)
cartridges. Type SPLORE [enter] to launch it, or launch PICO-8 with -splore.
It is possible to control SPLORE entirely with a joystick:
LEFT and RIGHT to navigate lists of cartridges
UP AND DOWN to select items in each list
X,O or MENU to launch the cartridge
While inside a cart, press MENU to favourite a cartridge or exit to splore. If you're using a
keyboard, it's also possible to press F to favourite an item while it is selected in the
cartridge list view.
When viewing a list of BBS carts, use the top list item to re-download a list of cartridges. If
you are offline, the last downloaded list is displayed, and it is still possible to play any
cartridges you have downloaded.
If you have installed PICO-8 on a machine with no internet access, you can also use
INSTALL_GAMES to add a small selection of pre-installed BBS carts to /games
====================================================================================================
Editing Tools
====================================================================================================
Press ESC to toggle between console and editor.<br> Click editing mode tabs at top right to
switch or press ALT+LEFT/RIGHT.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Code Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hold shift to select (or click and drag with mouse)
CTRL-X, C, V to cut copy or paste selected
CTRL-Z, Y to undo, redo
CTRL-F to search for text in the current tab
CTRL-G to repeat the last search again
CTRL-L to jump to a line number
CTRL-UP, DOWN to jump to start or end
ALT-UP, DOWN to navigate to the previous, next function
CTRL-LEFT, RIGHT to jump by word
CTRL-W,E to jump to start or end of current line
CTRL-D to duplicate current line
TAB to indent a selection (shift to un-indent)
CTRL-B to comment / uncomment selected block
CTRL-U to get help on the keyword under the cursor
To enter special characters that represent buttons (and other glyphs), use SHIFT-L,R,U,D,O,X
There are 3 additional font entry modes that can be toggled:
CTRL_J Hiragana // type romaji equivalents (ka, ki, ku..)
CTRL-K Katakana // + shift-0..9 for extra symbols
CTRL-P Puny font // hold shift for the standard font
By default, puny font characters are encoded as unicode replacements when copying/pasting,
and both upper and lower case ASCII characters are pasted as regular PICO-8 characters. To
copy/paste puny characters as uppercase ASCII, make sure puny mode (CTRL-P) is on.
:: Code Tabs
Click the [+] button at the top to add a new tab. Navigate tabs by left-clicking, or with
CTRL-TAB, SHIFT-CTRL-TAB. To remove the last tab, delete any contents and then moving off
it (CTRL-A, DEL, CTRL-TAB)
When running a cart, a single program is generated by concatenating all tabs in order.
:: Code Limits
The number of code tokens is shown at the bottom right. One program can have a maximum of
8192 tokens. Each token is a word (e.g. variable name) or operator. Pairs of brackets, and
strings each count as 1 token. commas, periods, LOCALs, semi-colons, ENDs, and comments are
not counted.
Right click to toggle through other stats (character count, compressed size). If a limit is
reached, a warning light will flash. This can be disabled by right-clicking.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sprite Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sprite editor is designed to be used both for sprite-wise editing and for freeform
pixel-level editing. The sprite navigator at the bottom of the screen provides an 8x8
sprite-wise view into the sprite sheet, but it is possible to use freeform tools (pan, select)
when dealing with larger or oddly sized areas.
:: Draw Tool
Click and drag on the sprite to plot pixels, or use RMB to select the colour under the
cursor.
All operations apply only to the visible area, or the section if there is one.
Hold CTRL to search and replace a colour.
:: Stamp Tool
Click to stamp whatever is in the copy buffer. Hold CTRL to treat colour 0 (black) as
transparent.
:: Select Tool (shortcut: SHIFT or S)
Click and drag to create a rectangular selection. To remove the selection, press ENTER or
click anywhere.
If a pixel-wise selection is not present, many operations are instead applied to a
sprite-wise selection, or the visible view. To select sprites, shift-drag in the sprite
navigator. To select the sprite sheet press CTRL-A (repeat to toggle off the bottom half
shared with map data)
:: Pan Tool (shortcut: SPACE)
Click and drag to move around the sprite sheet.
:: Fill Tool
Fill with the current colour. This applies only to the current selection, or the visible
area if there is no selection.
:: Shape Tools
Click the tool button to cycle through: oval, rectangle, line options.
Hold CTRL to get a filled oval or rectangle.<br> Hold SHIFT to snap to circle, square, or
low-integer-ratio line.
:: Extra keys
CTRL-Z: Undo
CTRL-C/X: Copy/Cut selected area or selected sprites
CTRL-V: Paste to current sprite location
Q/A,W/Z: Switch to previous/next sprite
1,2: Switch to previous/next colour
TAB: Toggle fullscreen view
Mousewheel or < and > to zoom (centered in fullscreen)
CTRL-H to toggle hex view (shows sprite index in hexadecimal)
CTRL-G to toggle black grid lines when zoomed in
:: Operations on selected area or selected sprites
F: Flip sprite horizontally
V: Flip sprite vertically
R: Rotate (requires a square selection)
Cursor keys to shift (loops if sprite selection)
DEL/BACKSPACE to clear selected area
:: Sprite Flags
The 8 coloured circles are sprite flags for the current sprite. These have no particular
meaning, but can be accessed using the @FGET() / @FSET() functions. They are indexed from 0
starting from the left.
See @FSET() for more information.
:: Loading .png files into the sprite sheet
To load a png file of any size into the sprite sheet, first select the sprite that should
be the top-left corner destination, and then either type "IMPORT IMAGE_FILE.PNG" or drag
and drop the image file into the PICO-8 window. In both cases, the image is colour-fitted
to the current display palette.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Map Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PICO-8 map is a 128x32 (or 128x64 using shared space) block of 8-bit values. Each value is
shown in the editor as a reference to a sprite (0..255), but you can of course use the data to
represent whatever you like.
WARNING: The second half of the sprite sheet (banks 2 and 3), and the bottom half of the map
share the same cartridge space. It's up to you how you use the data, but be aware that drawing
on the second half of the sprite sheet could clobber data on the map and vice versa.
The tools are similar to the ones used in sprite editing mode. Select a sprite and click and
drag to paint values into the map.
To draw multiple sprites, select from sprite navigator with shift+drag To copy a block of
values, use the selection tool and then stamp tool to paste To pan around the map, use the pan
tool or hold space Q,W to switch to previous/next sprite Mousewheel or < and > to zoom
(centered in fullscreen) CTRL-H to toggle hex view (shows tile values and sprite index in
hexadecimal)
Moving sprites in the sprite sheet without breaking reference to them in the map is a little
tricky, but possible:
1. Press ENTER to clear any map selection
2. Select the sprites you would like to move (while still in map view), and press Ctrl-X
3. Select the area of the map you would like to alter (defaults to the top half of the map)
// press ctrl-A twice to select the full map including shared memory
4. Select the destination sprite (also while still in map view) and press Ctrl-V
// Note: this operation modifies the undo history for both the map and sprite editors, but
// PICO-8 will try to keep them in sync where possible. Otherwise, changes caused by moving
// map sprites can be reverted by also manually undoing in the sprite editor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SFX Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are 64 SFX ("sound effects") in a cartridge, used for both sound and music.
Each SFX has 32 notes, and each note has:
A frequency (C0..C5)
An instrument (0..7)
A volume (0..7)
An effect (0..7)
Each SFX also has these properties:
A play speed (SPD) : the number of 'ticks' to play each note for.
// This means that 1 is fastest, 3 is 3x as slow, etc.
Loop start and end : this is the note index to loop back and to
// Looping is turned off when the start index >= end index
When only the first of the 2 numbers is used (and the second one is 0), it is taken to mean
the number of notes to be played. This is normally not needed for sound effects (you can
just leave the remaining notes empty), but is useful for controlling music playback.
There are 2 modes for editing/viewing a SFX: Pitch mode (more suitable for sound effects) and
tracker mode (more suitable for music). The mode can be changed using the top-left buttons, or
toggled with TAB.
:: Pitch Mode
Click and drag on the pitch area to set the frequency for each note, using the currently
selected instrument (indicated by colour).
Hold shift to apply only the selected instrument.
Hold CTRL to snap entered notes to the C minor pentatonic scale.
Right click to grab the instrument of that note.
:: Tracker Mode
Each note shows: frequency octave instrument volume effect
To enter a note, use q2w3er5t6y7ui zsxdcvgbhnjm (piano-like layout)
Hold shift when entering a note to transpose -1 octave .. +1 octave
New notes are given the selected instrument/effect values
To delete a note, use backspace or set the volume to 0
Click and then shift-click to select a range that can be copied (CTRL-C) and pasted
(CTRL-V). Note that only the selected attributes are copied. Double-click to select all
attributes of a single note.
Navigation:
PAGEUP/DOWN or CTRL-UP/DOWN to skip up or down 4 notes
HOME/END to jump to the first or last note
CTRL-LEFT/RIGHT to jump across columns
:: Controls for both modes
- + to navigate the current SFX
SPACE to play/stop
SHIFT-SPACE to play from the current SFX quarter (group of 8 notes)
A to release a looping sample
Left click or right click to increase / decrease the SPD or LOOP values
// Hold shift when clicking to increase / decrease by 4
// Alternatively, click and drag left/right or up/down
Shift-click an instrument, effect, or volume to apply to all notes.
:: Effects
0 none
1 slide // Slide to the next note and volume
2 vibrato // Rapidly vary the pitch within one quarter-tone
3 drop // Rapidly drop the frequency to very low values
4 fade in // Ramp the volume up from 0
5 fade out // Ramp the volume down to 0
6 arpeggio fast // Iterate over groups of 4 notes at speed of 4
7 arpeggio slow // Iterate over groups of 4 notes at speed of 8
If the SFX speed is <= 8, arpeggio speeds are halved to 2, 4
:: Filters
Each SFX has 5 filter switches that can be accessed while in tracker mode:
NOIZ: Generate pure white noise (applies only to instrument 6)
BUZZ: Various alterations to the waveform to make it sound more buzzy
DETUNE-1: Detunes a second voice to create a flange-like effect
DETUNE-2: Various second voice tunings, mostly up or down an octave
REVERB: Apply an echo with a delay of 2 or 4 ticks
DAMPEN: Low pass filter at 2 different levels
When BUZZ is used with instrument 6, and NOIZ is off, pure brown noise is generated.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music in PICO-8 is controlled by a sequence of 'patterns'. Each pattern is a list of 4 numbers
indicating which SFX will be played on that channel.
:: Flow control
Playback flow can be controlled using the 3 buttons at the top right.
When a pattern has finished playing, the next pattern is played unless:
- there is no data left to play (music stops)
- a STOP command is set on that pattern (the third button)
- a LOOP BACK command is set (the 2nd button), in which case the music player searches
back for a pattern with the LOOP START command set (the first button) or returns to
pattern 0 if none is found.
When a pattern has SFXes with different speeds, the pattern finishes playing when the left-most
non-looping channel has finished playing. This can be used to set up double-time drum beats or
unusual polyrhythms.
For time signatures like 3/4 where less than 32 rows should be played before jumping to the
next pattern, the length of a SFX can be set by adjusting only the first loop position and
leaving the second one as zero. This will show up in the sfx editor as "LEN" (for "Length")
instead of "LOOP".
:: Copying and Pasting Music
To select a range of patterns: click once on the first pattern in the pattern navigator, then
shift-click on the last pattern. Selected patterns can be copied and pasted with CTRL-C and
CTRL-V. When pasting into another cartridge, the SFX that each pattern points to will also be
pasted (possibly with a different index) if it does not already exist.
:: SFX Instruments
In addition to the 8 built-in instruments, custom instruments can be defined using the first 8
SFX. Use the toggle button to the right of the instruments to select an index, which will show
up in the instrument channel as green instead of pink.
When an SFX instrument note is played, it essentially triggers that SFX, but alters the note's
attributes:
Pitch is added relative to C2
Volume is multiplied
Effects are applied on top of the SFX instrument's effects
Any filters that are on in the SFX instrument are enabled for that note
For example, a simple tremolo effect could be implemented by defining an instrument in SFX 0
that rapidly alternates between volume 5 and 2. When using this instrument to play a note, the
volume can further be altered as usual (via the volume channel or using the fade in/out
effects). In this way, SFX instruments can be used to control combinations of detailed changes
in volume, pitch and texture.
SFX instruments are only retriggered when the pitch changes, or the previous note has zero
volume. This is useful for instruments that change more slowly over time. For example: a bell
that gradually fades out. To invert this behaviour, effect 3 (normally 'drop') can be used when
triggering the note. All other effect values have their usual meaning when triggering SFX
instruments.
====================================================================================================
Exporters / Importers
====================================================================================================
The EXPORT command can be used to generate png, wav files and stand-alone html and native binary
cartridge applications. The output format is inferred from the filename extension (e.g. .png).
You are free to distribute and use exported cartridges and data as you please, provided that you
have permission from the cartridge author and contributors.
:: Sprite Sheet / Label (.png)
> IMPORT BLAH.PNG -- EXPECTS 128X128 PNG AND COLOUR-FITS TO THE PICO-8 PALETTE
> EXPORT BLAH.PNG -- USE THE "FOLDER" COMMAND TO LOCATE THE EXPORTED PNG
When importing, -x and -y switches can be used to specify the target location in pixels: -s can
be used to shrink the image (3 means scale from 384x384 -> 128x128)
> IMPORT BLAH.PNG -X 16 -Y 16 -S 3
Use the -l switch with IMPORT and EXPORT to instead read and write from the cartridge's label:
> IMPORT -L BLAH.PNG
When importing spritesheets or labels, the palette is colour-fitted to the current draw state
palette.
:: SFX and Music (.wav)
To export music from the current pattern (when editor mode is MUSIC), or the current SFX:
> EXPORT FOO.WAV
To export all SFXs as foo0.wav, foo1.wav .. foo63.wav:
> EXPORT FOO%D.WAV
:: MAP and CODE
A cartridges map or source code can be exported as a single image named .map.png or .lua.png:
> EXPORT FOO.MAP.PNG
> EXPORT FOO.LUA.PNG
Map images are 1024x512 (128x32 8x8 sprites). Lua images are sized to fit, but each line is
fixed (and cropped) at 192 pixels wide.
:: Cartridges (.p8, .p8.png, .p8.rom)
Using EXPORT to save a cartridge is the same as using SAVE, but without changing the current
working cartridge. This can be useful for example, to save a copy in .p8.png format for
distribution without accidentally continuing to make changes to that file instead of the
original .p8 file.
EXPORT can also be used to perform cartridge file format conversions from commandline. For
example, from a Linux shell:
> pico8 foo.p8 -export foo.p8.png
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web Applications (.html)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To generate a stand-alone html player (mygame.html, mygame.js):
> EXPORT MYGAME.HTML
Or just the .js file:
> EXPORT MYGAME.JS
Use -f to write the files to a folder called mygame_html, using index.html instead of
mygame.html
> EXPORT -F MYGAME.HTML
Optionally provide a custom html template with the -p switch:
> EXPORT MYGAME.HTML -P ONE_BUTTON
This will use the file {application data}/pico-8/plates/one_button.html as the html shell,
replacing a special string "##js_file##" (without quotes), with the .js filename, and
optionally replacing the string "##label_file##" with the cart's label image as a data url.
Use -w to export as .wasm + .js:
> EXPORT -W MYGAME.HTML
When exported as .wasm, the page needs to be served by a webserver, rather than just opening it
directly from the local file system in a browser. For most purposes, the default .js export is
fine, but .wasm is slightly smaller and faster.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Binary Applications (.bin)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To generate stand-alone executables for Windows, Linux (64-bit), Mac and Raspberry Pi:
> EXPORT MYGAME.BIN
By default, the cartridge label is used as an icon with no transparency. To specify an icon
from the sprite sheet, use -i and optionally -s and/or -c to control the size and
transparency.
-I N Icon index N with a default transparent colour of 0 (black).
-S N Size NxN sprites. Size 3 would be produce a 24x24 icon.
-C N Treat colour N as transparent. Use 16 for no transparency.
For example, to use a 2x2 sprite starting at index 32 in the sprite sheet, using colour 12 as
transparent:
> EXPORT -I 32 -S 2 -C 12 MYGAME.BIN
To include an extra file in the output folders and archives, use the -E switch:
> EXPORT -E README.TXT MYGAME.BIN
Windows file systems do not support the file metadata needed to create a Linux or Mac
executable. PICO-8 works around this by exporting zip files in a way that preserves the file
attributes. It is therefore recommended that you distribute the outputted zip files as-is to
ensure users on other operating systems can run them. Otherwise, a Linux user who then
downloads the binaries may need to "chmod +x mygame" the file to run it, and Mac user would
need to "chmod +x mygame.app/Contents/MacOS/mygame"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uploading to itch.io
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like to upload your exported cartridge to itch.io as playable html:
1. From inside PICO-8: EXPORT -F MYGAME.HTML
2. Create a new project from your itch dashboard.
3. Zip up the folder and upload it (set "This file will be played in the browser")
4. Embed in page, with a size of 750px x 680px.
5. Set "Mobile Friendly" on (default orientation) and "Automatically start on page load" on.
// no need for the fullscreen button as the default PICO-8 template has its own.
6. Set the background (BG2) to something dark (e.g. #232323) and the text to something light (#cccccc)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exporting Multiple Cartridges
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Up to 16 cartridges can be bundled together by passing them to EXPORT, when generating
stand-alone html or native binary players.
> EXPORT MYGAME.HTML DAT1.P8 DAT2.P8 GAME2.P8
During runtime, the extra carts can be accessed as if they were local files:
RELOAD(0,0,0X2000, "DAT1.P8") -- LOAD SPRITESHEET FROM DAT1.P8
LOAD("GAME2.P8") -- LOAD AND RUN ANOTHER CART
Exported cartridges are unable to load and run BBS cartridges e.g. via LOAD("#FOO")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Running EXPORT from the host operating system
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use the -export switch when launching PICO-8 to run the exporter in headless mode. File paths
are relative to the current directory rather than the PICO-8 file system.
Parameters to the EXPORT command are passed along as a single (lowercase) string:
pico8 mygame.p8 -export "-i 32 -s 2 -c 12 mygame.bin dat0.p8 dat1.p8"
====================================================================================================
Lua Syntax Primer
====================================================================================================
PICO-8 programs are written using Lua syntax, but do not use the standard Lua library. The
following is a brief summary of essential Lua syntax.
For more details, or to find out about proper Lua, see www.lua.org.
:: Comments
-- USE TWO DASHES LIKE THIS TO WRITE A COMMENT
--[[ MULTI-LINE
COMMENTS ]]
:: Types and assignment
Types in Lua are numbers, strings, booleans and tables:
NUM = 12/100
S = "THIS IS A STRING"
B = FALSE
T = {1,2,3}
Numbers in PICO-8 are all 16:16 fixed point. They range from -32768.0 to 32767.99999
Hexadecimal notation with optional fractional parts can be used:
?0x11 -- 17
?0x11.4000 -- 17.25
Numbers written in decimal are rounded to the closest fixed point value. To see the 32-bit
hexadecimal representation, use PRINT(TOSTR(VAL,TRUE)):
?TOSTR(-32768,TRUE) -- 0x8000.0000
?TOSTR(32767.99999,TRUE) -- 0X7FFF.FFFF
Dividing by zero evaluates to 0x7fff.ffff if positive, or -0x7fff.ffff if negative.
:: Conditionals
IF NOT B THEN
PRINT("B IS FALSE")
ELSE
PRINT("B IS NOT FALSE")
END
-- with ELSEIF
IF X == 0 THEN
PRINT("X IS 0")
ELSEIF X < 0 THEN
PRINT("X IS NEGATIVE")
ELSE
PRINT("X IS POSITIVE")
END
IF (4 == 4) THEN PRINT("EQUAL") END
IF (4 ~= 3) THEN PRINT("NOT EQUAL") END
IF (4 <= 4) THEN PRINT("LESS THAN OR EQUAL") END
IF (4 > 3) THEN PRINT("MORE THAN") END
:: Loops
Loop ranges are inclusive:
FOR X=1,5 DO
PRINT(X)
END
-- PRINTS 1,2,3,4,5
X = 1
WHILE(X <= 5) DO
PRINT(X)
X = X + 1
END
FOR X=1,10,3 DO PRINT(X) END -- 1,4,7,10
FOR X=5,1,-2 DO PRINT(X) END -- 5,3,1
:: Functions and Local Variables
Variables declared as LOCAL are scoped to their containing block of code (for example, inside a
FUNCTION, a FOR loop, or IF THEN END statement).
Y=0
FUNCTION PLUSONE(X)
LOCAL Y = X+1
RETURN Y
END
PRINT(PLUSONE(2)) -- 3
PRINT(Y) -- 0
:: Tables
In Lua, tables are a collection of key-value pairs where the key and value types can both be
mixed. They can be used as arrays by indexing them with integers.
A={} -- CREATE AN EMPTY TABLE
A[1] = "BLAH"
A[2] = 42
A["FOO"] = {1,2,3}
Arrays use 1-based indexing by default:
> A = {11,12,13,14}
> PRINT(A[2]) -- 12
But if you prefer 0-based arrays, just write something the zeroth slot:
> A = {[0]=10,11,12,13,14}
Tables with 1-based integer indexes are special though. The length of such an array can be
found with the # operator, and PICO-8 uses such arrays to implement ADD, DEL, DELI, ALL and
FOREACH functions.
> PRINT(#A) -- 4
> ADD(A, 15)
> PRINT(#A) -- 5
Indexes that are strings can be written using dot notation
PLAYER = {}
PLAYER.X = 2 -- is equivalent to PLAYER["X"]
PLAYER.Y = 3
See the @{Table_Functions} section for more details.
:: PICO-8 Shorthand
PICO-8 also allows several non-standard, shorter ways to write common patterns.
1. IF THEN END statements, and WHILE THEN END can be written on a single line with:
IF (NOT B) I=1 J=2
Is equivalent to:
IF NOT B THEN I=1 J=2 END
Note that brackets around the short-hand condition are required.
2. Assignment operators
Shorthand assignment operators can also be used if the whole statement is on one line. They can
be constructed by appending a '=' to any binary operator, including arithmetic (+=, -= ..),
bitwise (&=, |= ..) or the string concatenation operator (..=)
A += 2 -- EQUIVALENT TO: A = A + 2
// note that the LHS appears twice, so for TBL[FN()]+=1, FN() will be called twice.
3. != operator
Not shorthand, but pico-8 also accepts != instead of ~= for "not equal to"
PRINT(1 != 2) -- TRUE
PRINT("FOO" == "FOO") -- TRUE (STRING ARE INTERNED)
====================================================================================================
PICO-8 Program Structure
====================================================================================================
When a PICO-8 programs runs, all of the code from tabs is concatenated (from left to right) and
executed. It is possible to provide your own main loop manually, but typically PICO-8 programs
use 3 special functions that, if defined by the author, are called during program execution:
_UPDATE() -- Called once per update at 30fps.
_DRAW() -- Called once per visible frame
_INIT() -- Called once on program startup.
A simple program that uses all three might look this:
FUNCTION _INIT()
-- ALWAYS START ON WHITE
COL = 7
END
FUNCTION _UPDATE()
-- PRESS X FOR A RANDOM COLOUR
IF (BTNP(5)) COL = 8 + RND(8)
END
FUNCTION _DRAW()
CLS(1)
CIRCFILL(64,64,32,COL)
END
_DRAW() is normally called at 30fps, but if it can not complete in time, PICO-8 will attempt to
run at 15fps and call _UPDATE() twice per visible frame to compensate.
:: Running PICO-8 at 60fps
_UPDATE60()
When _UPDATE60() Is defined instead of _UPDATE(), PICO-8 will run in 60fps mode:
- both _UPDATE60() and _DRAW() are called at 60fps<br> - half the PICO-8 CPU is available per
frame before dropping down to 30fps
Note that not all host machines are capable of running at 60fps. Older machines, and / or web
versions might also request PICO-8 to run at 30 fps (or 15 fps), even when the PICO-8 CPU is
not over capacity. In this case, multiple _UPDATE60 calls are made for every _DRAW call in the
same way.
:: #INCLUDE
Source code can be injected into a program at cartridge boot (but not during runtime), using
"#INCLUDE FILENAME", where FILENAME is either a plaintext file (containing Lua code), a tab
from another cartridge, or all tabs from another cartridge:
#INCLUDE SOMECODE.LUA
#INCLUDE ONETAB.P8:1
#INCLUDE ALLTABS.P8
When the cartridge is run, the contents of each included file is treated as if it had been
pasted into the editor in place of that line.
- Filenames are relative to the current cartridge (so, need to save first)<br> - Includes
are not performed recursively.<br> - Normal character count and token limits apply.
When a cartridge is saved as .P8.PNG, or exported to a binary, any included files are
flattened and saved with the cartridge so that there are no external dependencies.
#INCLUDE can be used for things like:
- Sharing code between cartridge (libraries or common multi-cart code)<br> - Using an
external code editor without needing to edit the .p8 file directly.<br> - Treating a
cartridge as a data file that loads a PICO-8 editing tool to modify it.<br> - Loading and
storing data generated by an external (non-PICO-8) tool.
:: Quirks of PICO-8
Common gotchas to watch out for:
- The bottom half of the sprite sheet and bottom half of the map occupy the same memory. //
Best use only one or the other if you're unsure how this works.
- PICO-8 numbers have limited accuracy and range; the minimum step between numbers is
approximately 0.00002 (0x0.0001), with a range of -32768 (-0x8000) to approximately 32767.99999
(0x7fff.ffff)<br> // If you add 1 to a counter each frame, it will overflow after around 18
minutes!
- Lua arrays are 1-based by default, not 0-based. FOREACH starts at TBL[1], not TBL[0].
- @COS() and @SIN() take 0..1 instead of 0..PI*2, and @SIN() is inverted.
- @SGN(0) returns 1.
:: CPU
Although PICO-8 does not have a clearly defined CPU, there is a virtual CPU speed of 8MHz,
where each lua vm instruction costs around 2 cycles. Built-in operations like drawing sprites
also have a CPU cost. This means that a PICO-8 cartridge made on a host machine with a powerful
CPU can still be guaranteed to run (reasonably) well on much slower machines, and to not drain
too much battery on phones / when running on the web.
To view the CPU load while a cartridge is running, press CTRL-P to toggle a CPU meter, or print
out @STAT(1) at the end of each frame.
====================================================================================================
API Reference
====================================================================================================
PICO-8 is built on the Lua programming language, but does not include the Lua standard library.
Instead, a small api is offered in keeping with PICO-8's minimal design and limited screen
space. For an example program that uses most of the api functions, see /DEMOS/API.P8
Functions are written here as:
FUNCTION_NAME(PARAMETER, [OPTIONAL_PARAMETER])
Note that PICO-8 does not have upper or lower case characters -- if you are editing a .p8 or
.lua file directly, function names should all be in lower case.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
System functions called from commandline can omit the usual brackets and string quotes. For
example, instead of LOAD("BLAH.P8"), it is possible to write:
>LOAD BLAH.P8
LOAD(FILENAME, [BREADCRUMB], [PARAM_STR])
SAVE(FILENAME)
Load or save a cartridge
When loading from a running cartridge, the loaded cartridge is immediately run with
parameter string PARAM_STR (accessible with STAT(6)), and a menu item is inserted and named
BREADCRUMB, that returns the user to the previous cartridge.
Filenames that start with '#' are taken to be a BBS cart id, that is immediately downloaded
and run:
> LOAD("#MYGAME_LEVEL2", "BACK TO MAP", "LIVES="..LIVES)
If the id is the cart's parent post, or a revision number is not specified, then the latest
version is fetched. BBS carts can be loaded from other BBS carts or local carts, but not
from exported carts.
FOLDER
Open the carts folder in the host operating system.
LS([DIRECTORY])
List .p8 and .p8.png files in given directory (folder), relative to the current directory.
Items that are directories end in a slash (e.g. "foo/").
When called from a running cartridge, LS can only be used locally and returns a table of
the results. When called from a BBS cart, LS returns nil.
Directories can only resolve inside of PICO-8's virtual drive; LS("..") from the root
directory will resolve to the root directory.
RUN([PARAM_STR])
Run from the start of the program.
RUN() Can be called from inside a running program to reset.
When PARAM_STR is supplied, it can be accessed during runtime with STAT(6)
STOP([MESSAGE])
Stop the cart and optionally print a message.
RESUME
Resume the program. Use R for short.
Use a single "." from the commandline to advance a single frame. This enters frame-by-frame
mode, that can be read with stat(110). While frame-by-frame mode is active, entering an
empty command (by pressing enter) advances one frames.
ASSERT(CONDITION, [MESSAGE])
If CONDITION is false, stop the program and print MESSAGE if it is given. This can be
useful for debugging cartridges, by ASSERT()'ing that things that you expect to be true are
indeed true.
ASSERT(ADDR >= 0 AND ADDR <= 0x7FFF, "OUT OF RANGE")
POKE(ADDR, 42) -- THE MEMORY ADDRESS IS OK, FOR SURE!
REBOOT
Reboot the machine Useful for starting a new project
RESET()
Reset the values in RAM from 0x5f00..0x5f7f to their default values. This includes the
palette, camera position, clipping and fill pattern. If you get lost at the command prompt
because the draw state makes viewing text impossible, try typing RESET! It can also be
called from a running program.
INFO()
Print out some information about the cartridge: Code size, tokens, compressed size
Also displayed:
UNSAVED CHANGES When the cartridge in memory differs to the one on disk
EXTERNAL CHANGES When the cartridge on disk has changed since it was loaded
(e.g. by editing the program using a separate text editor)
FLIP()
Flip the back buffer to screen and wait for next frame. This call is not needed when there
is a @_DRAW() or @_UPDATE() callback defined, as the flip is performed automatically. But
when using a custom main loop, a call to FLIP is normally needed:
::_::
CLS()
FOR I=1,100 DO
A=I/50 - T()
X=64+COS(A)*I
Y=64+SIN(A)*I
CIRCFILL(X,Y,1,8+(I/4)%8)
END
FLIP()GOTO _
If your program does not call FLIP before a frame is up, and a @_DRAW() callback is not in
progress, the current contents of the back buffer are copied to screen.
PRINTH(STR, [FILENAME], [OVERWRITE], [SAVE_TO_DESKTOP])
Print a string to the host operating system's console for debugging.
If filename is set, append the string to a file on the host operating system (in the
current directory by default -- use FOLDER to view).
Setting OVERWRITE to true causes that file to be overwritten rather than appended.
Setting SAVE_TO_DESKTOP to true saves to the desktop instead of the current path.
Use a filename of "@clip" to write to the host's clipboard.
Use stat(4) to read the clipboard, but the contents of the clipboard are only available
after pressing CTRL-V during runtime (for security).
TIME()
T()
Returns the number of seconds elapsed since the cartridge was run.
This is not the real-world time, but is calculated by counting the number of times
_UPDATE or @_UPDATE60 is called. Multiple calls of TIME() from the same frame return
the same result.
STAT(X)
Get system status where X is:
0 Memory usage (0..2048)
1 CPU used since last flip (1.0 == 100% CPU)
4 Clipboard contents (after user has pressed CTRL-V)
6 Parameter string
7 Current framerate
46..49 Index of currently playing SFX on channels 0..3
50..53 Note number (0..31) on channel 0..3
54 Currently playing pattern index
55 Total patterns played
56 Ticks played on current pattern
57 (Boolean) TRUE when music is playing
80..85 UTC time: year, month, day, hour, minute, second
90..95 Local time
100 Current breadcrumb label, or nil
110 Returns true when in frame-by-frame mode
Audio values 16..26 are the legacy version of audio state queries 46..56. They only report on
the current state of the audio mixer, which changes only ~20 times a second (depending on the
host sound driver and other factors). 46..56 instead stores a history of mixer state at each
tick to give a higher resolution estimate of the currently audible state.
EXTCMD(CMD_STR, [P1, P2])
Special system command, where CMD_STR is a string:
"pause" request the pause menu be opened
"reset" request a cart reset
"go_back" return to the previous cart if there is one
"label" set cart label
"screen" save a screenshot
"rec" set video start point
"rec_frames" set video start point in frames mode
"video" save a .gif to desktop
"audio_rec" start recording audio
"audio_end" save recorded audio to desktop (no supported from web)
"shutdown" quit cartridge (from exported binary)
"folder" open current working folder on the host operating system
"set_filename" set the filename for screenshots / gifs / audio recordings
"set_title" set the host window title
Some commands have optional number parameters:
"video" and "screen": P1: an integer scaling factor that overrides the system setting.
P2: when > 0, save to the current folder instead of to desktop
"audio_end" P1: when > 0, save to the current folder instead of to desktop
:: Recording GIFs
EXTCMD("REC"), EXTCMD("VIDEO") is the same as using ctrl-8, ctrl-9 and saves a gif to
the desktop using the current GIF_SCALE setting (use CONFIG GIF_SCALE to change).
The two additional parameters can be used to override these defaults:
EXTCMD("VIDEO", 4) -- SCALE *4 (512 X 512)
EXTCMD("VIDEO", 0, 1) -- DEFAULT SCALING, SAVE TO USER DATA FOLDER
The user data folder can be opened with EXTCMD("FOLDER") and defaults to the same path
as the cartridge, or {pico-8 appdata}/appdata/appname for exported binaries.
Due to the nature of the gif format, all gifs are recorded at 33.3fps, and frames
produced by PICO-8 are skipped or duplicated in the gif to match roughly what the user
is seeing. To record exactly one frame each time @FLIP() is called, regardless of the
runtime framerate or how long it took to generate the frame, use:
EXTCMD("REC_FRAMES")
The default filename for gifs (and screenshots, audio) is foo_%d, where foo is the name
of the cartridge, and %d is a number starting at 0 and automatically incremented until
a file of that name does not exist. Use EXTCMD("SET_FILENAME","FOO") to override that
default. If the custom filename includes "%d", then the auto- incrementing number
behaviour is used, but otherwise files are written even if there is an existing file
with the same name.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphics
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICO-8 has a fixed capacity of 128 8x8 sprites, plus another 128 that overlap with the bottom
half of the map data ("shared data"). These 256 sprites are collectively called the sprite
sheet, and can be thought of as a 128x128 pixel image.
All of PICO-8's drawing operations are subject to the current draw state. The draw state
includes a camera position (for adding an offset to all coordinates), palette mapping (for
recolouring sprites), clipping rectangle, a drawing colour, and a fill pattern.
The draw state is reset each time a program is run, or by calling @RESET().
Colour indexes:
0 black 1 dark_blue 2 dark_purple 3 dark_green
4 brown 5 dark_gray 6 light_gray 7 white
8 red 9 orange 10 yellow 11 green
12 blue 13 indigo 14 pink 15 peach
CLIP(X, Y, W, H, [CLIP_PREVIOUS])
Sets the clipping rectangle in pixels. All drawing operations will be clipped to the
rectangle at x, y with a width and height of w,h.
CLIP() to reset.
When CLIP_PREVIOUS is true, clip the new clipping region by the old one.
PSET(X, Y, [COL])
Sets the pixel at x, y to colour index COL (0..15).
When COL is not specified, the current draw colour is used.
FOR Y=0,127 DO
FOR X=0,127 DO
PSET(X, Y, X*Y/8)
END
END
PGET(X, Y)
Returns the colour of a pixel on the screen at (X, Y).
WHILE (TRUE) DO
X, Y = RND(128), RND(128)
DX, DY = RND(4)-2, RND(4)-2
PSET(X, Y, PGET(DX+X, DY+Y))
END
When X and Y are out of bounds, PGET returns 0. A custom return value can be specified
with:
POKE(0x5f36, 0x10)
POKE(0x5f5B, NEWVAL)
SGET(X, Y)
SSET(X, Y, [COL])
Get or set the colour (COL) of a sprite sheet pixel.
When X and Y are out of bounds, SGET returns 0. A custom value can be specified with:
POKE(0x5f36, 0x10)
POKE(0x5f59, NEWVAL)
FGET(N, [F])
FSET(N, [F], VAL)
Get or set the value (VAL) of sprite N's flag F.
F is the flag index 0..7.
VAL is TRUE or FALSE.
The initial state of flags 0..7 are settable in the sprite editor, so can be used to create
custom sprite attributes. It is also possible to draw only a subset of map tiles by
providing a mask in @MAP().
When F is omitted, all flags are retrieved/set as a single bitfield.
FSET(2, 1 | 2 | 8) -- SETS BITS 0,1 AND 3
FSET(2, 4, TRUE) -- SETS BIT 4
PRINT(FGET(2)) -- 27 (1 | 2 | 8 | 16)
PRINT(STR, X, Y, [COL])
PRINT(STR, [COL])
Print a string STR and optionally set the draw colour to COL.
Shortcut: written on a single line, ? can be used to call print without brackets:
?"HI"
When X, Y are not specified, a newline is automatically appended. This can be omitted by
ending the string with an explicit termination control character:
?"THE QUICK BROWN FOX\0"
Additionally, when X, Y are not specified, printing text below 122 causes the console to
scroll. This can be disabled during runtime with POKE(0x5f36,0x40).
PRINT returns the right-most x position that occurred while printing. This can be used to
find out the width of some text by printing it off-screen:
W = PRINT("HOGE", 0, -20) -- returns 16
See @{Appendix A} (P8SCII) for information about control codes and custom fonts.
CURSOR(X, Y, [COL])
Set the cursor position.
If COL is specified, also set the current colour.
COLOR([COL])
Set the current colour to be used by drawing functions.
If COL is not specified, the current colour is set to 6
CLS([COL])
Clear the screen and reset the clipping rectangle.
COL defaults to 0 (black)
CAMERA([X, Y])
Set a screen offset of -x, -y for all drawing operations
CAMERA() to reset
CIRC(X, Y, R, [COL])
CIRCFILL(X, Y, R, [COL])
Draw a circle or filled circle at x,y with radius r
If r is negative, the circle is not drawn
OVAL(X0, Y0, X1, Y1, [COL])
OVALFILL(X0, Y0, X1, Y1, [COL])
Draw an oval that is symmetrical in x and y (an ellipse), with the given bounding
rectangle.
LINE(X0, Y0, [X1, Y1, [COL]])
Draw a line from (X0, Y0) to (X1, Y1)
If (X1, Y1) are not given, the end of the last drawn line is used.
LINE() with no parameters means that the next call to LINE(X1, Y1) will only set the end
points without drawing.
CLS()
LINE()
FOR I=0,6 DO
LINE(64+COS(I/6)*20, 64+SIN(I/6)*20, 8+I)
END
RECT(X0, Y0, X1, Y1, [COL])
RECTFILL(X0, Y0, X1, Y1, [COL])
Draw a rectangle or filled rectangle with corners at (X0, Y0), (X1, Y1).
PAL(C0, C1, [P])
PAL() swaps colour c0 for c1 for one of three palette re-mappings (p defaults to 0):
0: Draw Palette
The draw palette re-maps colours when they are drawn. For example, an orange flower
sprite can be drawn as a red flower by setting the 9th palette value to 8:
PAL(9,8) -- draw subsequent orange (colour 9) pixels as red (colour 8)
SPR(1,70,60) -- any orange pixels in the sprite will be drawn with red instead
Changing the draw palette does not affect anything that was already drawn to the
screen.
1: Display Palette
The display palette re-maps the whole screen when it is displayed at the end of a
frame. For example, if you boot PICO-8 and then type PAL(6,14,1), you can see all of
the gray (colour 6) text immediate change to pink (colour 14) even though it has
already been drawn. This is useful for screen-wide effects such as fading in/out.
2: Secondary Palette
Used by @FILLP() for drawing sprites. This provides a mapping from a single 4-bit
colour index to two 4-bit colour indexes.
PAL() resets all palettes to system defaults (including transparency values)
PAL(P) resets a particular palette (0..2) to system defaults
PAL(TBL, [P])
When the first parameter of pal is a table, colours are assigned for each entry. For
example, to re-map colour 12 and 14 to red:
PAL({[12]=9, [14]=8})
Or to re-colour the whole screen shades of gray (including everything that is already
drawn):
PAL({1,1,5,5,5,6,7,13,6,7,7,6,13,6,7,1}, 1)
Because table indexes start at 1, colour 0 is given at the end in this case.
PALT(C, [T])
Set transparency for colour index to T (boolean) Transparency is observed by @SPR(),
@SSPR(), @MAP() AND @TLINE()
PALT(8, TRUE) -- RED PIXELS NOT DRAWN IN SUBSEQUENT SPRITE/TLINE DRAW CALLS
PALT() resets to default: all colours opaque except colour 0
When C is the only parameter, it is treated as a bitfield used to set all 16 values. For
example: to set colours 0 and 1 as transparent:
PALT(0B1100000000000000)
SPR(N, X, Y, [W, H], [FLIP_X], [FLIP_Y])
Draw sprite N (0..255) at position X,Y
W (width) and H (height) are 1, 1 by default and specify how many sprites wide to blit.
Colour 0 drawn as transparent by default (see @PALT())
When FLIP_X is TRUE, flip horizontally.
When FLIP_Y is TRUE, flip vertically.
SSPR(SX, SY, SW, SH, DX, DY, [DW, DH], [FLIP_X], [FLIP_Y]]
Stretch an rectangle of the sprite sheet (sx, sy, sw, sh) to a destination rectangle on the
screen (sx, sy, dw, dh). In both cases, the x and y values are coordinates (in pixels) of
the rectangle's top left corner, with a width of w, h.
Colour 0 drawn as transparent by default (see @PALT())
dw, dh defaults to sw, sh
When FLIP_X is TRUE, flip horizontally.
When FLIP_Y is TRUE, flip vertically.
FILLP(P)
The PICO-8 fill pattern is a 4x4 2-colour tiled pattern observed by: @CIRC() @CIRCFILL()
@RECT() @RECTFILL() @OVAL() @OVALFILL() @PSET() @LINE()
P is a bitfield in reading order starting from the highest bit. To calculate the value of P
for a desired pattern, add the bit values together:
.-----------------------.
|32768|16384| 8192| 4096|
|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 2048| 1024| 512 | 256 |
|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 |
|-----|-----|-----|-----|
| 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
'-----------------------'
For example, FILLP(4+8+64+128+ 256+512+4096+8192) would create a checkerboard pattern.
This can be more neatly expressed in binary: FILLP(0b0011001111001100).
The default fill pattern is 0, which means a single solid colour is drawn.
To specify a second colour for the pattern, use the high bits of any colour parameter:
FILLP(0b0011010101101000)
CIRCFILL(64,64,20, 0x4E) -- brown and pink
Additional settings are given in bits 0b0.111:
0b0.100 Transparency
When this bit is set, the second colour is not drawn
-- checkboard with transparent squares
FILLP(0b0011001111001100.1)
0b0.010 Apply to Sprites
When set, the fill pattern is applied to sprites (spr, sspr, map, tline), using a
colour mapping provided by the secondary palette.
Each pixel value in the sprite (after applying the draw palette as usual) is taken
to be an index into the secondary palette. Each entry in the secondary palette
contains the two colours used to render the fill pattern. For example, to draw a
white and red (7 and 8) checkerboard pattern for only blue pixels (colour 12) in a
sprite:
FOR I=0,15 DO PAL(I, I+I*16, 2) END -- all other colours map to themselves
PAL(12, 0x87, 2) -- remap colour 12 in the secondary palette
FILLP(0b0011001111001100.01) -- checkerboard palette, applied to sprites
SPR(1, 64,64) -- draw the sprite
0b0.001 Apply Secondary Palette Globally
When set, the secondary palette mapping is also applied by all draw functions that
respect fill patterns (circfill, line etc). This can be useful when used in
conjunction with sprite drawing functions, so that the colour index of each sprite
pixel means the same thing as the colour index supplied to the drawing functions.
FILLP(0b0011001111001100.001)
PAL(12, 0x87, 2)
CIRCFILL(64,64,20,12) -- red and white checkerboard circle
The secondary palette mapping is applied after the regular draw palette mapping. So
the following would also draw a red and white checkered circle:
PAL(3,12)
CIRCFILL(64,64,20,3)
The fill pattern can also be set by setting bits in any colour parameter (for example, the
parameter to @COLOR(), or the last parameter to @LINE(), @RECT() etc.
POKE(0x5F34, 1) -- sets integrated fillpattern + colour mode
CIRCFILL(64,64,20, 0x114E.ABCD) -- sets fill pattern to ABCD
When using the colour parameter to set the fill pattern, the following bits are used:
bit 0x1000.0000 means the non-colour bits should be observed
bit 0x0100.0000 transparency
bit 0x0200.0000 apply to sprites
bit 0x0400.0000 apply secondary palette
bits 0x00FF.0000 are the usual colour bits
bits 0x0000.FFFF are interpreted as the fill pattern
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table Functions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the exception of PAIRS(), the following functions and the # operator apply only to tables
that are indexed starting from 1 and do not have NIL entries. All other forms of tables can be
considered as hash maps or sets, rather than arrays that have a length.
ADD(TBL, VAL, [INDEX])
Add value VAL to the end of table TBL. Equivalent to:
TBL[#TBL + 1] = VAL
If index is given then the element is inserted at that position:
FOO={} -- CREATE EMPTY TABLE
ADD(FOO, 11)
ADD(FOO, 22)
PRINT(FOO[2]) -- 22
DEL(TBL, VAL)
Delete the first instance of value VAL in table TBL. The remaining entries are shifted left
one index to avoid holes.
Note that VAL is the value of the item to be deleted, not the index into the table. (To
remove an item at a particular index, use DELI instead). DEL returns the deleted item, or
returns no value when nothing was deleted.
A={1,10,2,11,3,12}
FOR ITEM IN ALL(A) DO
IF (ITEM < 10) THEN DEL(A, ITEM) END
END
FOREACH(A, PRINT) -- 10,11,12
PRINT(A[3]) -- 12
DELI(TBL, [I])
Like @DEL(), but remove the item from table TBL at index I When I is not given, the last
element of the table is removed and returned.
COUNT(TBL, [VAL])
Returns the length of table t (same as #TBL) When VAL is given, returns the number of
instances of VAL in that table.
ALL(TBL)
Used in FOR loops to iterate over all items in a table (that have a 1-based integer index),
in the order they were added.
T = {11,12,13}
ADD(T,14)
ADD(T,"HI")
FOR V IN ALL(T) DO PRINT(V) END -- 11 12 13 14 HI
PRINT(#T) -- 5
FOREACH(TBL, FUNC)
For each item in table TBL, call function FUNC with the item as a single parameter.
> FOREACH({1,2,3}, PRINT)
PAIRS(TBL)
Used in FOR loops to iterate over table TBL, providing both the key and value for each
item. Unlike @ALL(), PAIRS() iterates over every item regardless of indexing scheme. Order
is not guaranteed.
T = {["HELLO"]=3, [10]="BLAH"}
T.BLUE = 5;
FOR K,V IN PAIRS(T) DO
PRINT("K: "..K.." V:"..V)
END
Output:
K: 10 v:BLAH
K: HELLO v:3
K: BLUE v:5
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Input
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BTN([B], [PL])
Get button B state for player PL (default 0)
B: 0..5: left right up down button_o button_x<br> PL: player index 0..7
Instead of using a number for B, it is also possible to use a button glyph. (In the coded
editor, use Shift-L R U D O X)
If no parameters supplied, returns a bitfield of all 12 button states for player 0 & 1 //
P0: bits 0..5 P1: bits 8..13
Default keyboard mappings to player buttons:
player 0: [DPAD]: cursors, [O]: Z C N [X]: X V M
player 1: [DPAD]: SFED, [O]: LSHIFT [X]: TAB W Q A
Although PICO-8 accepts all button combinations, note that it is generally impossible to
press both LEFT and RIGHT at the same time on a physical game controller. On some
controllers, UP + LEFT/RIGHT is also awkward if [X] or [O] could be used instead of UP
(e.g. to jump / accelerate).
BTNP(B, [PL])
BTNP is short for "Button Pressed"; Instead of being true when a button is held down, BTNP
returns true when a button is down AND it was not down the last frame. It also repeats
after 15 frames, returning true every 4 frames after that (at 30fps -- double that at
60fps). This can be used for things like menu navigation or grid-wise player movement.
The state that BTNP reads is reset at the start of each call to @_UPDATE or @_UPDATE60, so
it is preferable to use BTNP from inside one of those functions.
Custom delays (in frames @ 30fps) can be set by poking the following memory addresses:
POKE(0X5F5C, DELAY) -- SET THE INITIAL DELAY BEFORE REPEATING. 255 MEANS NEVER REPEAT.
POKE(0X5F5D, DELAY) -- SET THE REPEATING DELAY.
In both cases, 0 can be used for the default behaviour (delays 15 and 4)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audio
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SFX(N, [CHANNEL], [OFFSET], [LENGTH])
Play sfx N (0..63) on CHANNEL (0..3) from note OFFSET (0..31 in notes) for LENGTH notes.
Using negative CHANNEL values have special meanings:
CHANNEL -1: (default) to automatically choose a channel that is not being used
CHANNEL -2: to stop the given sound from playing on any channel
N can be a command for the given CHANNEL (or all channels when CHANNEL < 0):
N -1: to stop sound on that channel
N -2: to release sound on that channel from looping
SFX(3) -- PLAY SFX 3
SFX(3,2) -- PLAY SFX 3 ON CHANNEL 2
SFX(3,-2) -- STOP SFX 3 FROM PLAYING ON ANY CHANNEL
SFX(-1,2) -- STOP WHATEVER IS PLAYING ON CHANNEL 2
SFX(-2,2) -- RELEASE LOOPING ON CHANNEL 2
SFX(-1) -- STOP ALL SOUNDS ON ALL CHANNELS
SFX(-2) -- RELEASE LOOPING ON ALL CHANNELS
MUSIC(N, [FADE_LEN], [CHANNEL_MASK])
Play music starting from pattern N (0..63)
N -1 to stop music
FADE_LEN is in ms (default: 0). So to fade pattern 0 in over 1 second:
MUSIC(0, 1000)
CHANNEL_MASK specifies which channels to reserve for music only. For example, to play only
on channels 0..2:
MUSIC(0, NIL, 7) -- 1 | 2 | 4
Reserved channels can still be used to play sound effects on, but only when that channel
index is explicitly requested by @SFX().
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Map
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The PICO-8 map is a 128x32 grid of 8-bit values, or 128x64 when using the shared memory. When
using the map editor, the meaning of each value is taken to be an index into the sprite sheet
(0..255). However, it can instead be used as a general block of data.
MGET(X, Y)
MSET(X, Y, VAL)
Get or set map value (VAL) at X,Y
When X and Y are out of bounds, MGET returns 0, or a custom return value that can be
specified with:
POKE(0x5f36, 0x10)
POKE(0x5f5a, NEWVAL)
MAP(TILE_X, TILE_Y, [SX, SY], [TILE_W, TILE_H], [LAYERS])
Draw section of map (starting from TILE_X, TILE_Y) at screen position SX, SY (pixels).
To draw a 4x2 blocks of tiles starting from 0,0 in the map, to the screen at 20,20:
MAP(0, 0, 20, 20, 4, 2)
TILE_W and TILE_H default to the entire map (including shared space when applicable).
MAP() is often used in conjunction with CAMERA(). To draw the map so that a player object
(at PL.X in PL.Y in pixels) is centered:
CAMERA(PL.X - 64, PL.Y - 64)
MAP()
LAYERS is a bitfield. When given, only sprites with matching sprite flags are drawn. For
example, when LAYERS is 0x5, only sprites with flag 0 and 2 are drawn.
Sprite 0 is taken to mean "empty" and is not drawn. To disable this behaviour, use:
POKE(0x5F36, 0x8)
TLINE(X0, Y0, X1, Y1, MX, MY, [MDX, MDY], [LAYERS])
Draw a textured line from (X0,Y0) to (X1,Y1), sampling colour values from the map. When
LAYERS is specified, only sprites with matching flags are drawn (similar to MAP())
MX, MY are map coordinates to sample from, given in tiles. Colour values are sampled from
the 8x8 sprite present at each map tile. For example:
2.0, 1.0 means the top left corner of the sprite at position 2,1 on the map
2.5, 1.5 means pixel (4,4) of the same sprite
MDX, MDY are deltas added to mx, my after each pixel is drawn. (Defaults to 0.125, 0)
The map coordinates (MX, MY) are masked by values calculated by subtracting 0x0.0001 from
the values at address 0x5F38 and 0x5F39. In simpler terms, this means you can loop a
section of the map by poking the width and height you want to loop within, as long as they
are powers of 2 (2,4,8,16..)
For example, to loop every 8 tiles horizontally, and every 4 tiles vertically:
POKE(0x5F38, 8)
POKE(0x5F39, 4)
TLINE(...)
The default values (0,0) gives a masks of 0xff.ffff, which means that the samples will loop
every 256 tiles.
An offset to sample from (also in tiles) can also be specified at addresses 0x5f3a, 0x5f3b:
POKE(0x5F3A, OFFSET_X)
POKE(0x5F3B, OFFSET_Y)
Sprite 0 is taken to mean "empty" and not drawn. To disable this behaviour, use:
POKE(0x5F36, 0x8)
:: Setting TLINE Precision
By default, tline coordinates (mx,my,mdx,mdy) are expressed in tiles. This means that 1
pixel is 0.125, and only 13 bits are used for the fractional part. If more precision is
needed, the coordinate space can be adjusted to allow more bits for the fractional part.
This can be useful for things like textured walls, where the accumulated error from mdx,mdy
rounding maybe become visible when viewed up close.
The number of bits used for the fractional part of each pixel is stored in a special
register that can be adjusted by calling TLINE once with a single argument:
TLINE(16) -- MX,MY,MDX,MDY expressed in pixels
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICO-8 has 3 types of memory:
1. Base RAM (64k): see layout below. Access with PEEK() POKE() MEMCPY() MEMSET()
2. Cart ROM (32k): same layout as base ram until 0x4300
3. Lua RAM (2MB): compiled program + variables
Technical note: While using the editor, the data being modified is in cart rom, but api
functions such as @SPR() and @SFX() only operate on base ram. PICO-8 automatically copies
cart rom to base ram (i.e. calls @RELOAD()) in 3 cases:<br> 1. When a cartridge is
loaded<br> 2. When a cartridge is run<br> 3. When exiting any of the editor modes // can
turn off with: poke(0x5f37,1)<br>
:: Base RAM Memory Layout
0X0 GFX
0X1000 GFX2/MAP2 (SHARED)
0X2000 MAP
0X3000 GFX FLAGS
0X3100 SONG
0X3200 SFX
0X4300 USER DATA
0X5600 CUSTOM FONT (IF ONE IS DEFINED)
0X5E00 PERSISTENT CART DATA (256 BYTES)
0X5F00 DRAW STATE
0X5F40 HARDWARE STATE
0X5F80 GPIO PINS (128 BYTES)
0X6000 SCREEN (8K)
0x8000 USER DATA
User data has no particular meaning and can be used for anything via @MEMCPY(), @PEEK() &
@POKE(). Persistent cart data is mapped to 0x5e00..0x5eff but only stored if @CARTDATA()
has been called. Colour format (gfx/screen) is 2 pixels per byte: low bits encode the left
pixel of each pair. Map format is one byte per tile, where each byte normally encodes a
sprite index.
:: Remapping Graphics and Map Data
The GFX, MAP and SCREEN memory areas can be reassigned by setting values at the following
addresses:
0X5F54 GFX: can be 0x00 (default) or 0x60 (use the screen memory as the spritesheet)
0X5F55 SCREEN: can be 0x60 (default) or 0x00 (use the spritesheet as screen memory)
0X5F56 MAP: can be 0x20 (default) or 0x10..0x2f, or 0x80 and above.
0X5F57 MAP SIZE: map width. 0 means 256. Defaults to 128.
Addresses can be expressed in 256 byte increments. So 0x20 means 0x2000, 0x21 means 0x2100
etc. Map addresses 0x30..0x3f are taken to mean 0x10..0x1f (shared memory area). Map data
can only be contained inside the memory regions 0x1000..0x2fff, 0x8000..0xffff, and the
map height is determined to be the largest possible size that fits in the given region.
GFX and SCREEN memory mapping happens at a low level which also affects memory access
functions (peek, poke, memcpy). The 8k memory blocks starting at 0x0 and 0x6000 can be
thought of as pointers to a separate video ram, and settings the values at 0X5F54 and
0X5F56 alters those pointers.
PEEK(ADDR, [N])
Read a byte from an address in base ram. If N is specified, PEEK() returns that number of
results (max: 8192). For example, to read the first 2 bytes of video memory:
A, B = PEEK(0x6000, 2)
POKE(ADDR, VAL1, VAL2, ...)
Write one or more bytes to an address in base ram. If more than one parameter is provided,
they are written sequentially (max: 8192).
PEEK2(ADDR)
POKE2(ADDR, VAL)
PEEK4(ADDR)
POKE4(ADDR, VAL)
16-bit and 32-bit versions of PEEK and POKE. Read and write one number (VAL) in
little-endian format:
16 bit: 0xffff.0000
32 bit: 0xffff.ffff
ADDR does not need to be aligned to 2 or 4-byte boundaries.
Alternatively, the following operators can be used to peek (but not poke), and are slightly
faster:
@ADDR -- PEEK(ADDR)
%ADDR -- PEEK2(ADDR)
$ADDR -- PEEK4(ADDR)
MEMCPY(DEST_ADDR, SOURCE_ADDR, LEN)
Copy LEN bytes of base ram from source to dest. Sections can be overlapping
RELOAD(DEST_ADDR, SOURCE_ADDR LEN, [FILENAME])
Same as MEMCPY, but copies from cart rom.
The code section ( >= 0x4300) is protected and can not be read.
If filename specified, load data from a separate cartridge. In this case, the cartridge
must be local (BBS carts can not be read in this way).
CSTORE(DEST_ADDR, SOURCE_ADDR, LEN, [FILENAME])
Same as memcpy, but copies from base ram to cart rom.
CSTORE() is equivalent to CSTORE(0, 0, 0x4300)
The code section ( >= 0x4300) is protected and can not be written to.
If FILENAME is specified, the data is written directly to that cartridge on disk. Up to 64
cartridges can be written in one session. See @{Cartridge Data} for more information.
MEMSET(DEST_ADDR, VAL, LEN)
Write the 8-bit value VAL into memory starting at DEST_ADDR, for LEN bytes.
For example, to fill half of video memory with 0xC8:
> MEMSET(0x6000, 0xC8, 0x1000)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Math
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAX(X, Y)
MIN(X, Y)
MID(X, Y, Z)
Returns the maximum, minimum, or middle value of parameters
> ?MID(7,5,10) -- 7
FLR(X)
> ?FLR ( 4.1) --> 4
> ?FLR (-2.3) --> -3
CEIL(X)
Returns the closest integer that is equal to or below x
> ?CEIL( 4.1) --> 5
> ?CEIL(-2.3) --> -2
COS(X)
SIN(X)
Returns the cosine or sine of x, where 1.0 means a full turn. For example, to animate a
dial that turns once every second:
FUNCTION _DRAW()
CLS()
CIRC(64, 64, 20, 7)
X = 64 + COS(T()) * 20
Y = 64 + SIN(T()) * 20
LINE(64, 64, X, Y)
END
PICO-8's SIN() returns an inverted result to suit screenspace (where Y means "DOWN", as
opposed to mathematical diagrams where Y typically means "UP").
> SIN(0.25) -- RETURNS -1
To get conventional radian-based trig functions without the y inversion, paste the
following snippet near the start of your program:
P8COS = COS FUNCTION COS(ANGLE) RETURN P8COS(ANGLE/(3.1415*2)) END
P8SIN = SIN FUNCTION SIN(ANGLE) RETURN -P8SIN(ANGLE/(3.1415*2)) END
ATAN2(DX, DY)
Converts DX, DY into an angle from 0..1
As with cos/sin, angle is taken to run anticlockwise in screenspace. For example:
> ?ATAN(0, -1) -- RETURNS 0.25
ATAN2 can be used to find the direction between two points:
X=20 Y=30
FUNCTION _UPDATE()
IF (BTN(0)) X-=2
IF (BTN(1)) X+=2
IF (BTN(2)) Y-=2
IF (BTN(3)) Y+=2
END
FUNCTION _DRAW()
CLS()
CIRCFILL(X,Y,2,14)
CIRCFILL(64,64,2,7)
A=ATAN2(X-64, Y-64)
PRINT("ANGLE: "..A)
LINE(64,64,
64+COS(A)*10,
64+SIN(A)*10,7)
END
SQRT(X)
Return the square root of x
ABS(X)
Returns the absolute (positive) value of x
RND(X)
Returns a random number n, where 0 <= n < x
If you want an integer, use flr(rnd(x)). If x is an array-style table, return a random
element between table[1] and table[#table].
SRAND(X)
Sets the random number seed. The seed is automatically randomized on cart startup.
FUNCTION _DRAW()
CLS()
SRAND(33)
FOR I=1,100 DO
PSET(RND(128),RND(128),7)
END
END
:: Bitwise Operations
Bitwise operations are similar to logical expressions, except that they work at the bit
level.
Say you have two numbers (written here in binary using the "0b" prefix):
X = 0b1010
Y = 0b0110
A bitwise AND will give you bits set when the corresponding bits in X /and/ Y are both set
> PRINT(BAND(X,Y)) -- RESULT:0B0010 (2 IN DECIMAL)
There are 9 bitwise functions available in PICO-8:
BAND(X, Y) -- BOTH BITS ARE SET
BOR(X, Y) -- EITHER BIT IS SET
BXOR(X, Y) -- EITHER BIT IS SET, BUT NOT BOTH OF THEM
BNOT(X) -- EACH BIT IS NOT SET
SHL(X, N) -- SHIFT LEFT N BITS (ZEROS COME IN FROM THE RIGHT)
SHR(X, N) -- ARITHMETIC RIGHT SHIFT (THE LEFT-MOST BIT STATE IS DUPLICATED)
LSHR(X, N) -- LOGICAL RIGHT SHIFT (ZEROS COMES IN FROM THE LEFT)
ROTL(X, N) -- ROTATE ALL BITS IN X LEFT BY N PLACES
ROTR(X, N) -- ROTATE ALL BITS IN X RIGHT BY N PLACES
Operator versions are also available: & | ^^ ~ << >> >>> <<> >><
For example: PRINT(67 & 63) -- result:3 equivalent to BAND(67,63)
Operators are slightly faster than their corresponding functions. They behave exactly the
same, except that if any operands are not numbers the result is a runtime error (the
function versions instead default to a value of 0).
:: Integer Division
Integer division can be performed with a \
> PRINT(9\2) -- RESULT:4 EQUIVALENT TO FLR(9/2)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Custom Menu Items
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MENUITEM(INDEX, [LABEL], [CALLBACK])
Add an extra item to the pause menu
Index should be 1..5 and determines the order each menu item is displayed label should be a
string up to 16 characters long callback is a function called when the item is selected by
the users
When no label or function is supplied, the menu item is removed
MENUITEM(1, "RESTART PUZZLE",
FUNCTION() RESET_PUZZLE() SFX(10) END
)
If the callback returns true, the pause menu remains open. The callback takes a single
parameter that is a bitfield of L,R,X button presses
MENUITEM(1, "FOO",
FUNCTION(B) IF (B&1 > 0) THEN PRINTH("LEFT WAS PRESSED") END END
)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strings and Type Conversion
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strings in Lua are written either in single or double quotes or with matching [[ ]] brackets:
S = "THE QUICK"
S = 'BROWN FOX';
S = [[
JUMPS OVER
MULTIPLE LINES
]]
The length of a string (number of characters) can be retrieved using the # operator:
>PRINT(#S)
Strings can be joined using the .. operator. Joining numbers converts them to strings.
>PRINT("THREE "..4) --> "THREE 4"
When used as part of an arithmetic expression, string values are converted to numbers:
>PRINT(2+"3") --> 5
TOSTR(VAL, [FORMAT_FLAGS])
Convert VAL to a string.
FORMAT_FLAGS is a bitfield:
0x1: Write the raw hexadecimal value of numbers, functions or tables.
0x2: Write VAL as a signed 32-bit integer by shifting it left by 16 bits.
TOSTR(NIL) returns "[nil]"
TOSTR() returns ""
TOSTR(17) -- "17"
TOSTR(17,0x1) -- "0x0011.0000"
TOSTR(17,0x3) -- "0x00110000"
TOSTR(17,0x2) -- "1114112"
TONUM(VAL, [FORMAT_FLAGS])
Converts VAL to a number.
TONUM("17.5") -- 17.5
TONUM(17.5) -- 17.5
TONUM("HOGE") -- NO RETURN VALUE
FORMAT_FLAGS is a bitfield:
0x1: Read the string as written in (unsigned, integer) hexadecimal without the "0x" prefix
Non-hexadecimal characters are taken to be '0'.
0x2: Read the string as a signed 32-bit integer, and shift right 16 bits.
0x4: When VAL can not be converted to a number, return 0
TONUM("FF", 0x1) -- 255
TONUM("1114112", 0x2) -- 17
TONUM("1234abcd", 0x3) -- 0x1234.abcd
CHR(VAL0, VAL1, ...)
Convert one or more ordinal character codes to a string.
When
CHR(64) -- "@"
CHR(104,101,108,108,111) -- "hello"
ORD(STR, [INDEX], [NUM_RESULTS])
Convert one or more characters from string STR to their ordinal (0..255) character codes.
Use the INDEX parameter to specify which character in the string to use. When INDEX is out
of range or str is not a string, ORD returns nil.
When NUM_RESULTS is given, ORD returns multiple values starting from INDEX.
ORD("@") -- 64
ORD("123",2) -- 50 (THE SECOND CHARACTER: "2")
ORD("123",2,3) -- 50,51,52
SUB(STR, POS0, [POS1])
Grab a substring from string str, from pos0 up to and including pos1. When POS1 is not
specified, the remainder of the string is returned. When POS1 is specified, but not a
number, a single character at POS0 is returned.
S = "THE QUICK BROWN FOX"
PRINT(SUB(S,5,9)) --> "QUICK"
PRINT(SUB(S,5)) --> "QUICK BROWN FOX"
PRINT(SUB(S,5,_)) --> "Q"
SPLIT(STR, [SEPARATOR], [CONVERT_NUMBERS])
Split a string into a table of elements delimited by the given separator (defaults to ",").
When separator is a number n, the string is split into n-character groups. When
convert_numbers is true, numerical tokens are stored as numbers (defaults to true). Empty
elements are stored as empty strings.
SPLIT("1,2,3") -- {1,2,3}
SPLIT("ONE:TWO:3",":",FALSE) -- {"ONE","TWO","3"}
SPLIT("1,,2,") -- {1,"",2,""}
TYPE(VAL)
Returns the type of val as a string.
> PRINT(TYPE(3))
NUMBER
> PRINT(TYPE("3"))
STRING
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cartridge Data
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using @CARTDATA(), @DSET(), AND @DGET(), 64 numbers (256 bytes) of persistent data can be
stored on the user's PICO-8 that persists after the cart is unloaded or PICO-8 is shutdown.
This can be used as a lightweight way to store things like high scores or to save player
progress. It can also be used to share data across cartridges / cartridge versions.
If more than 256 bytes is needed, it is also possible to write directly to the cartridge using
@CSTORE(). The disadvantage is that the data is tied to that particular version of the
cartridge. e.g. if a game is updated, players will lose their savegames. Also, some space in
the data sections of the cartridge need to be left available to use as storage.
Another alternative is to write directly to a second cartridge by specifying a fourth parameter
to @CSTORE(). This requires a cart swap (which in reality only means the user needs to watch a
spinny cart animation for 1 second).
CSTORE(0,0,0X2000, "SPRITE SHEET.P8")
-- LATER, RESTORE THE SAVED DATA:
RELOAD(0,0,0X2000, "SPRITE SHEET.P8")
CARTDATA(ID)
Opens a permanent data storage slot indexed by ID that can be used to store and retrieve up
to 256 bytes (64 numbers) worth of data using @DSET() and @DGET().
CARTDATA("ZEP_DARK_FOREST")
DSET(0, SCORE)
ID is a string up to 64 characters long, and should be unusual enough that other
cartridges do not accidentally use the same id. Legal characters are a..z, 0..9 and
underscore (_)
Returns true if data was loaded, otherwise false.
CARTDATA can be called once per cartridge execution, and so only a single data slot can be
used.
Once a cartdata ID has been set, the area of memory 0X5E00..0X5EFF is mapped to permanent
storage, and can either be accessed directly or via @DGET()/@DSET().
There is no need to flush written data -- it is automatically saved to permanent storage
even if modified by directly @POKE()'ing 0X5E00..0X5EFF.
DGET(INDEX)
Get the number stored at INDEX (0..63)
Use this only after you have called @CARTDATA()
DSET(INDEX, VALUE)
Set the number stored at index (0..63)
Use this only after you have called @CARTDATA()
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GPIO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GPIO stands for "General Purpose Input Output", and allows machines to communicate with each
other. PICO-8 maps bytes in the range 0x5f80..0x5fff to gpio pins that can be
POKE()ed (to output a value -- e.g. to make an LED light up) or @PEEK()ed (e.g. to read
the state of a switch).
GPIO means different things for different host platforms:
CHIP: 0x5f80..0x5f87 mapped to xio-p0..xio-p7
Pocket CHIP: 0x5f82..0x5f87 mapped to GPIO1..GPIO6
// xio-p0 & p1 are exposed inside the prototyping area inside the case.
Raspberry Pi: 0x5f80..0x5f9f mapped to wiringPi pins 0..31
// see http://wiringpi.com/pins/ for mappings on different models.
// also: watch out for BCM vs. WiringPi GPIO indexing!
CHIP and Raspberry Pi values are all digital: 0 (LOW) and 255 (HIGH)
A program to blink any LEDs attached on and off:
T = 0
FUNCTION _DRAW()
CLS(5)
FOR I=0,7 DO
VAL = 0
IF (T % 2 < 1) VAL = 255
POKE(0X5F80 + I, VAL)
CIRCFILL(20+I*12,64,4,VAL/11)
END
T += 0.1
END
:: Serial
For more precise timing, the @SERIAL() command can be used. GPIO writes are buffered and
dispatched at the end of each frame, allowing clock cycling at higher and/or more regular
speeds than is possible by manually bit-banging using @POKE() calls.
SERIAL(CHANNEL, ADDRESS, LENGTH)
CHANNEL:
0x000..0x0fe corresponds to gpio pin numbers; send 0x00 for LOW or 0xFF for HIGH
0x0ff delay; length is taken to mean "duration" in microseconds (excl. overhead)
0x400..0x401 ws281x LED string (experimental)
ADDRESS: The PICO-8 memory location to read from / write to.
LENGTH: Number of bytes to send. 1/8ths are allowed to send partial bit strings.
For example, to send a byte one bit at a time to a typical APA102 LED string:
VAL = 42 -- VALUE TO SEND
DAT = 16 CLK = 15 -- DATA AND CLOCK PINS DEPEND ON DEVICE
POKE(0X4300,0) -- DATA TO SEND (SINGLE BYTES: 0 OR 0XFF)
POKE(0X4301,0XFF)
FOR B=0,7 DO
-- SEND THE BIT (HIGH FIRST)
SERIAL(DAT, BAND(VAL, SHL(1,7-B))>0 AND 0X4301 OR 0X4300, 1)
-- CYCLE THE CLOCK
SERIAL(CLK, 0X4301)
SERIAL(0XFF, 5) -- DELAY 5
SERIAL(CLK, 0X4300)
SERIAL(0XFF, 5) -- DELAY 5
END
Additional channels are available for bytestreams to and from the host operating system.
These are intended to be most useful for UNIX-like environments while developing
toolchains, and are not available while running a BBS or exported cart [1]. Maximum
transfer rate in all cases is 64k/sec (blocks cpu).
0x800 dropped file // stat(120) returns TRUE when data is available
0x802 dropped image // stat(121) returns TRUE when data is available
0x804 stdin
0x805 stdout
0x806 file specified with: pico8 -i filename
0x807 file specified with: pico8 -o filename
Image files dropped into PICO-8 show up on channel 0x802 as a bytestream with a special
format: The first 4 bytes are the image's width and height (2 bytes each little-endian,
like PEEK2), followed by the image in reading order, one byte per pixel, colour-fitted to
the display palette at the time the file was dropped.
[1] Channels 0x800 and 0x802 are available from exported binaries, but with a maximum file
size of 256k, or 128x128 for images.
:: HTML
Cartridges exported as HTML / .js use a global array of integers (pico8_gpio) to represent
gpio pins. The shell HTML should define the array:
var pico8_gpio = Array(128);
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mouse and Keyboard Input
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// EXPERIMENTAL -- but mostly working on all platforms
Mouse and keyboard input can be achieved by enabling devkit input mode:
POKE(0x5F2D, flags) -- where flags are:
0x1 Enable
0x2 Mouse buttons trigger btn(4)..btn(6)
0x4 Pointer lock (use stat 38..39 to read movements)
Note that not every PICO-8 will have a keyboard or mouse attached to it, so when posting carts
to the Lexaloffle BBS, it is encouraged to make keyboard and/or mouse control optional and off
by default, if possible. When devkit input mode is enabled, a message is displayed to BBS users
warning them that the program may be expecting input beyond the standard 6-button controllers.
The state of the mouse and keyboard can be found in stat(x):
STAT(30) -- (Boolean) True when a keypress is available
STAT(31) -- (String) character returned by keyboard
STAT(32) -- Mouse X
STAT(33) -- Mouse Y
STAT(34) -- Mouse buttons (bitfield)
STAT(36) -- Mouse wheel event
STAT(38) -- Relative x movement (in host desktop pixels) -- requires flag 0x4
STAT(39) -- Relative y movement (in host desktop pixels) -- requires flag 0x4
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Lua Features
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICO-8 also exposes 2 features of Lua for advanced users: Metatables and Coroutines.
For more information, please refer to the Lua 5.2 manual.
:: Metatables
Metatables can be used to define the behaviour of objects under particular operations. For
example, to use tables to represent 2D vectors that can be added together, the '+' operator is
redefined by defining an "__add" function for the metatable:
VEC2D={
__ADD=FUNCTION(A,B)
RETURN {X=(A.X+B.X), Y=(A.Y+B.Y)}
END
}
V1={X=2,Y=9} SETMETATABLE(V1, VEC2D)
V2={X=1,Y=5} SETMETATABLE(V2, VEC2D)
V3 = V1+V2
PRINT(V3.X..","..V3.Y) -- 3,14
SETMETATABLE(TBL, M)
Set table TBL metatable to M
GETMETATABLE(TBL)
return the current metatable for table t, or nil if none is set
RAWSET(TBL, KEY, VALUE)
RAWGET(TBL, KEY)
RAWEQUAL(TBL1,TBL2
RAWLEN(TBL)
Raw access to the table, as if no metamethods were defined.
:: Function Arguments
The list of function arguments can be specifed with ...
FUNCTION PREPRINT(PRE, S, ...)
LOCAL S2 = PRE..TOSTR(S)
PRINT(S2, ...) -- PASS THE REMAINING ARGUMENTS ON TO PRINT()
END
To accept a variable number of arguments, use them to define a table and/or use Lua's select()
function. select(index, ...) returns all of the arguments after index.
FUNCTION FOO(...)
LOCAL ARGS={...} -- BECOMES A TABLE OF ARGUMENTS
FOREACH(ARGS, PRINT)
?SELECT("#",...) -- ALTERNATIVE WAY TO COUNT THE NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS
FOO2(SELECT(3,...)) -- PASS ARGUMENTS FROM 3 ONWARDS TO FOO2()
END
:: Coroutines
Coroutines offer a way to run different parts of a program in a somewhat concurrent way,
similar to threads. A function can be called as a coroutine, suspended with
YIELD() any number of times, and then resumed again at the same points.
FUNCTION HEY()
PRINT("DOING SOMETHING")
YIELD()
PRINT("DOING THE NEXT THING")
YIELD()
PRINT("FINISHED")
END
C = COCREATE(HEY)
FOR I=1,3 DO CORESUME(C) END
COCREATE(F)
Create a coroutine for function f.
CORESUME(C, [P0, P1 ..])
Run or continue the coroutine c. Parameters p0, p1.. are passed to the coroutine's
function.
Returns true if the coroutine completes without any errors Returns false, error_message if
there is an error.
** Runtime errors that occur inside coroutines do not cause the program to stop running. It
is a good idea to wrap CORESUME() inside an @ASSERT(). If the assert fails, it will print
the error message generated by coresume.
ASSERT(CORESUME(C))
COSTATUS(C)
Return the status of coroutine C as a string:
"running"
"suspended"
"dead"
YIELD
Suspend execution and return to the caller.
====================================================================================================
Appendix
====================================================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix A: P8SCII Control Codes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When printed with @PRINT(), some characters have a special meaning that can be used to alter
things like the cursor position and text rendering style. Control characters in PICO-8 are
CHR(0)..CHR(15) and can be written as an escaped sequence ("\n" for newline etc.)
Some of the control codes below take parameters which are written using a scheme that is a
superset of hexadecimal format. That is, '0'..'f' also mean 0..15. But characters after 'f' are
also accepted: 'g' means 16 and so on. Such parameters are written below as P0, P1.
For example, to print with a blue background ("\#c") and dark gray foreground ("\f5"):
PRINT("\#C\F5 BLUE ")
The only side-effects on the draw state are changes in cursor position and foreground color;
all other attributes are reset each time @PRINT() is called.
:: Control Codes
0 "\0" terminate printing
1 "\*" repeat next character P0 times. ?"\*3a" --> aaa
2 "\#" draw solid background with colour P0
3 "\-" shift cursor horizontally by P0-16 pixels
4 "\|" shift cursor vertically by P0-16 pixels
5 "\+" shift cursor by P0-16, P1-16 pixels
6 "\^" special command (see below)
7 "\a" audio (see below)
8 "\b" backspace
9 "\t" tab
a "\n" newline
b "\v" decorate previous character (see below)
c "\f" set foreground colour
d "\r" carriage return
e "\014" switch to font defined at 0x5600
f "\015" switch to default font
:: Special Commands
These commands all start with "\^" and take up to 2 parameters (P0, P1) For example, to
clear screen to dark blue: print("\^c1")
1..9 skip 1,2,4,8,16,32..256 frames
c cls to colour P0, set cursor to 0,0
d set delay to P0 frames for every character printed
g set cursor position to home
h set home to cursor position
j jump to absolute P0*4, P1*4 (in screen pixels)
r set rhs character wrap boundary to P0*4
s set tab stop width to P0 pixels (used by "\t")
x set character width (default: 4)
y set character height (default: 6)
:: Rendering mode options
// prefix these with "-" to disable: e.g. ?"\^i on \^-i off "
w wide mode: scales by 2x1
t tall mode: scales by 1x2
= stripey mode: when wide or tall, draw only even pixels
p pinball mode: equivalent to setting wide, tall and stripey
i invert
b border: toggle 1px padding on left and top // on by default
# solid background // off by default, but enabled automatically by \#
:: Raw memory writes
The following two commands take 4-character hex parameters:
@addrnnnn[binstr] poke nnnn bytes to address addr
!addr[binstr] poke all remaining characters to address addr
For example, to write 4 bytes to video memory halfway down the screen:
>?"\^@70000004xxxxhello"
:: One-off characters
Character data can be specified and printed in-line using \^. followed by 8 bytes of
raw binary data, or \^: followed by 8 2-digit hexadecimal values. The data format is
the same as custom fonts; each byte specifies a row of 1-bit pixel values, with the
low bit on the left.
\^.[8 chars of raw binary data]
\^:[16 chars of hexadecimal]
To print a cat:
> ?"\^:447cb67c3e7f0106"
:: Audio
? ?"\A" -- SINGLE BEEP ?"\A12" -- PLAY EXISTING DATA AT SFX 12
If an sfx index is not specified, a non-active sfx between 60..63 is selected
automatically. To fill the SFX with data before playback, the following commands can then
be appended.
1. (optional) SFX attributes must appear once at the start as they apply to the whole
sound:
s P0 set the sfx speed
l P0 P1 set the sfx loop start and end points
2. Note data:
Note are written as a..g, optionally followed by a sharp # or flat -, and octave
number.
PRINT "\ACE-G" -- MINOR TRIAD
Empty notes Can be written with a dot:
PRINT "\AC..E-..G" -- STACCATO MINOR TRIAD
Note attribute commands apply to following notes:
i P0 set the instrument (default: 5)
v P0 set the volume (default: 5)
x P0 set the effect (default: 0)
For example, to play a fast (speed 4), staccato (effect 5) arpeggio starting at C1:
PRINT "\AS4X5C1EGC2EGC3EGC4"
:: Decoration Characters
The control character \v can be used to decorate the last printed character with another
character at a given offset, without needing to otherwise manage the cursor position. After
the decorating character is printed, the previous cursor position is restored.
The format is \v P0 char, where P0 is a number giving the desired offset, and char is any
character to print at that offset (relative to the previous printed character).
The offset has x packed into the lowest 2 bits, and starts (-2,-8) in reading order. So 3
means (+1, -8), 4 means (-2, -7) and so on.
For example, to write "café!", using a comma to draw the acute accent:
PRINT"\NCAFE\VB,!"
In this case P0 is 'b', which is read as the number 11. So the comma is drawn at:
x = (11%4)-2 = 1
y = (11\4)-8 = -6
:: Custom Font
A custom font can be defined at 0x5600, consisting of 8 bytes per character * 256
characters = 2048 bytes. Each character is an 8x8 bitfield (1 bit/pixel), where starting
from the top, each row is a single byte starting with 0x1 on the left.
The first 128 bytes (characters 0~15 are never drawn) describe attributes of the font:
0x5600 character width in pixels (can be more than 8, but only 8 pixels are drawn)
0x5601 character width for character 128 and above
0x5602 character height in pixels
0x5603 draw offset x
0x5604 draw offset y
0x5605 flags: 0x1 apply_size_adjustments 0x2: apply tabs relative to cursor home
0x5606 tab width in pixels (used only when alt font is drawn)
0x5607 unused
The remaining 120 bytes are used to adjust the width and vertical offset of characters
16..255. Each nibble (low nibbles first) describes the adjustments for one characters:
bits 0x7: adjust character width by 0,1,2,3,-4,-3,-2,-1
bit 0x8: when set, draw the character one pixel higher (useful for latin accents)
:: Default Attributes
Although attributes are reset every time @PRINT() is called, it is possible to set their
default values by writing to memory addresses 0x5f58..0x5f5b.
0x5f58 // bitfield
0x1 when set to 0x1, bits 1..7 are observed:
0x2 padding
0x4 wide
0x8 tall
0x10 solid background
0x20 invert
0x40 stripey (when wide or tall)
0x80 use custom font
// e.g. poke(0x5f58, 0x1 | 0x2 | 0x4 | 0x8 | 0x20 | 0x40) -- pinball everywhere
0x5f59 char_w (low nibble), char_h (high)
0x5f5a char_w2 (low nibble), tab_w (high)
0x5f5b offset_x (low nibble), offset_y (high)
// any nibbles equal to 0 are ignored
// tab_w (global tab width) values are mapped to 4..60
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PICO-8 VERSION HISTORY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
v0.2.5g
Fixed: tonum("123abc") returns 123 (should return nothing) // also breaks split(). regression in 0.2.5f
Fixed: draw_tabs not listed by CONFIG command
v0.2.5f
Added: CONFIG DRAW_TABS 1 to show tab characters in code editor (previously required editing config.txt)
Changed: tokenizer recognises long comments / string using [=*[ ]=*] e.g. [==[ long string ]==]
Changed: Nested long comments and strings no longer allowed
Changed: x % 0 gives 0 (was x)
Optimised: software blitter now faster when using PocketCHIP, windowed raspi or blit_method 1
Fixed: infinite tokens exploit introduced in 0.2.5d (due to pre-processor changes)
Fixed: >>>= operator is a NOP (bug introduced in 0.2.5d)
Fixed: (raspi 32-bit) window not visible under Gameforce Chi / EmuELEC -- bug introduced in 0.2.5e
Fixed: fixed: s="x".."=" counts as 4 tokens instead of 5
Fixed: Running a cartridge containing _meta_ data prints a memory allocation warning to stdout
Fixed: Code compressing to >= 32k reports size as (compressed_size & 0x7fff) resulting in corruped exports
Fixed: stat(54) loops when left-most channel is looping (should return total played ticks on current pattern)
Fixed: extcmd("audio_rec") maximum length is 2 minutes (meant to be 8 -- and now only applies to web)
Fixed: Frog Home crashes because of (now unsupported) "local x+=.." form. // INSTALL_GAMES for fixed version
Fixed: Starting P8SCII font height affects total line height even when no characters are printed in that font
v0.2.5e
Fixed: Uppercase characters not loaded as punycode (causing _ENV to fail)
v0.2.5d
Added: tline(bits) to set number of bits used for fractional part of mx,my,mdx,mdy (13 by default)
Added: ctrl+mousewheel to scroll code horizontally
Added: current bbs cartridge id shown in window title (config.txt show_cart_id_in_title to disable)
Added: poke(0x5f36, (@0x5f36)|0x80) to enable character wrap by default when printing
Added: blit_method in config.txt // Can use a software blitter by default (slower but more reliable)
Added: reminder when re-locating sprites that only the top half of map is altered by default
Added: draw boot sound as note glyphs on startup when sound is off
Changed: print() returns both max(cur_x), max(cur_y) and includes non-printed characters (e.g. tabs)
Changed: extcmd("folder") and extcmd("set_title", "foo") can now be used from bbs carts
Changed: Indexing a string out of range returns nil (was "")
Changed: Replaced most of pre-processor with Lua parser modifications based on z8lua (fixes various edge cases)
Changed: "a[foo()] += 1" only evaluates foo() once
Changed: out-of-bound tile values can be drawn using map(), tline()
Changed: extcmd("audio_rec") can record a maximum of 8 minutes (was no limit previously)
Changed: Rate limits are now per-minute: 10MB of log wries, 64 different files, 10 extcmd("folder")'s)
Fixed: Infinite tokens hack (was caused by now-replaced pre-processor)
Fixed: Only 4 controllers mapped to 0x5f00+76
Fixed: h toggles hexadecimal mode in gfx editor (should be ctrl-h -- h is to flip sprite horizontally)
Fixed: out-of-bounds value doesn't respect custom map size
Fixed: cutting or clearing a selection of sprites does not also clear the sprite flags
Fixed: P8SCII repeat-character command fails on zero repetions; ?"a\*0bc" should print "ac", not "abc"
Fixed: pxa code compression inefficient when >= 32k matching triplets (typically "000")
Fixed: print() return value max(cur_x) returns 0 when max(cur_x < 0)
Fixed: holding menu button to force pause menu to open broken in binary exports
Fixed: copying / pasting in commandline doesn't respect punyfont character encoding
Fixed: (Manual) Steps 1 & 2 on how to move sprites in the map are in the wrong order
Fixed: Unhelpful / no error messages when the wrong format for HELP is used
v0.2.5c
Added: set out of range return value for sget, mget, pget: poke (0x5f36,0x10) and set at 0x5f59..0x5f5b
Changed: rnd(str) no longer returns a random char from strings (breaks existing carts using e.g. rnd"5")
Changed: html exports default to 75% volume instead of 100%
Fixed: extcmd("audio_rec"), extcmd("audio_end") not working in html exports
Fixed: drag & drop (via serial 0x802) not responding to dropped file in html exports
Fixed: (again) can enter an illegal note (e-5) in sfx editor
Fixed: dir() missing during runtime (alias for ls)
Fixed: some mistakes in help text (outdated sub() description, yield misspelling)
v0.2.5b (Linux)
Fixed: failing to drop down to wget when libcurl can not be loaded
v0.2.5
Added: Help topics. Use help command, or ctrl-u in code editor to get help on whatever is at the cursor.
Added: (html exports / bbs) downloadable .wav export using extcmd("audio_rec"), extcmd("audio_end")
Added: inext (to match next). -> can do: for i,v in inext,tbl do ... end
Added: floating selection layer in map editor (solves various bugs and undo / selection issues)
Added: ~ can be used as xor instead of ^^ (same as Lua 5.3/5.4)
Added: When running a program locally, ls() can now take a directory name; use stat(124) to get pwd
Added: Variable width P8SCII fonts
Added: ctrl-click on compressed capcity (bottom right) to get realtime updates of compressed size in bytes
Added: export -t @clip to get a hexdump of compressed code section copied to clipboard
Added: pico8 -scancodes and map_scancodes (config.txt) for manually mapping keys to alternative scancodes
Added: sub(str,pos,pos) can be written as str[pos]
Changed: host_framerate_control 1 (config.txt) now means "let PICO-8 decide"; is disabled for Mac/Win/Linux
Changed: in map editor, pan with cursor keys when nothing is selected
Changed: use scancodes for sfx navigation (US:-=_+) and spd change (US:,.<>) to avoid azerty collisions
Changed: gfx_grid_lines in config.txt is taken to be a colour for the grid lines (16 for black)
Changed: can ctrl-h in gfx editor to toggle hex mode (sprite index shown in hex; map vals shown)
Changed: '-' allowed in filenames when not first character
Changed: linux builds use libcurl.so for bbs requests, or drops down to wget on failure to dlopen
Changed: increased maximum gif len for web exports to 30 seconds
Changed: peek/poke can now read/write up to 32767 values (was 8192)
Changed: web player default gif len is 16 seconds (was 8)
Changed: sub(str, pos, nil) returns whole string (pre-0.2.4 behaviour). For single chars, can now use str[pos].
Fixed: Windows reserved filenames (lpt1, com1 etc) are accepted
Fixed: Nested coroutines unexpectedly end when interrupted by reaching end of frame
Fixed: print() colour is remapped twice when set in parameter // pal(6,7) pal(7,8) print("white",6)
Fixed: circ() breaks on 32-bit builds, with radius > 1024
Fixed: ctrl-c to copy commandline error message does not encode glyphs as unicode
Fixed: LS command not resolving relative paths
Fixed: twitter char count for chr(127) ○ should be 2 (was 1) and chr(149) ˇ should be 1 (was 2)
Fixed: colour parameter not converted from string in rect, rectfill, pset (regression from 0.2.2)
Fixed: ord("foo", 1, 0) returns "too many ord results" -- should return nothing
Fixed: save @url includes ?g= when no gfx data (is redundant)
Fixed: (web export) html pause button does not show up as btnp(6) / btn(6)
Fixed: (web export) codo_textarea triggering Mac accent character selector even when cart doesn't use clipboard
Fixed: save @url failing when encoded length is > 2000 chars long instead of > 2040 charss
Fixed: can enter an illegal note (e-5) in sfx editor
v0.2.4c
Added: save @url -- stores code + gfx as a URL if it can be encoded in 2040 characters
Added: html exports store volume/mute and other settings
Added: ctrl-g in sprite editor to toggle grid lines when zoomed in
Added: IMPORT -L FOO.PNG to import a 128x128 png to the cartridge label
Added: EXPORT -L FOO.PNG to export a 128x128 png of the cartridge label
Added: EXPORT -T FOO.P8.ROM to export only code section (t for tiny)
Added: ctrl-click on character count (bottom right) to see the twitter count (glyphs count as 2)
Added: __meta:*__ section to .p8 format -- can be used by external tools to store custom data
Added: extcmd("audio_rec") works from exported binaries, and with custom exported filenames
Added: read_controllers_in_background in config.txt (0 by default)
Added: periodic backups
Changed: .p8.rom files that are 0x3d00 bytes or less are loaded into code section
Changed: saved filenames can not include gylphs, or any of !"#$%&'()*+,-:;<=>?[\]^`{|}~
Fixed: can't drag and drop png into sprite editor
Fixed: binary exports: ctrl-r causes crash when there is no whitespace at end of source code
Fixed: Using -run switch to launch a cart that fails to run -> get stuck in boot screen.
Fixed: selection after ctrl-a reports length chars+1
Fixed: draw palette is not observed after changing colours using p8scii control characters
Fixed: music playback does not follow cursor after first pattern change (regression in 0.2.4b)
Fixed: transform_screen (config.txt) not observed by pause menus and other overlayed elements
Fixed: Double-clicking sfx thumbnail (in sfx overview screen) only works after playing music
Fixed: Pressing [a] to release looping sfx in sfx editor is broken
Fixed: sfx(46)..sfx(56) return -1 immediately after playing music but before host OS has called audio mixer
Fixed: Tokens counted as 2 instead of 1: ..= ^= >><= <<>=
Fixed: Negative number counted as 2 tokens instead of one when preceeded by: \ & | ^^ << >> >>> >>< <<>
Fixed: tostr(tbl) / print(tbl) acts like tostr(tbl, 1) when tbl has a metatable
Fixed: ?"\tx" does not advance to next tab stop
Fixed: ?"a\*5\nb" does not repeat newline 5 times
Fixed: exported label alpha is 0 for colour 0
v0.2.4b
Added: l in sprite sheet navigator to set loop start / end points (then q,w or a,z to navigate)
Added: ctrl-b in gfx editor to paste 2x2 original size ("paste big")
Added: DEL / backspace to clear selected region in gfx / map editors, and ctrl-x to cut
Added: aggressive_backups option in config.txt (off by default)
Added: transform_screen in config.txt to globally rotate / flip the video output
Added: stat(57) (boolean) true when music triggered by music() is playing or about to start
Changed: memset() faster than using peek4/poke4; now 2 cycles per byte at 8MHz (was 4)
Changed: "running at < 30fps" warning on boot now only for raspi builds, and w/ higher tolerance
Changed: Controller inputs are accepted even when PICO-8 is not the foreground application
Changed: Map can be located at 0x1000 .. 0x2f00 using poke(0x5f56, 0x11) .. poke(0x5f56,0x2f)
Changed: Dotty text mode is now "\^=" ("Stripey") instead of "\^." // #gunayawuho #klax #impossible
Fixed: (not confirmed) crash causing 0-byte .p8 when audio mixer is called during save / run
Fixed: preprocessor not counting comments as white space; should allow: ".. end--[[]]if .."
Fixed: pal(nil) behaving the same way as pal(0); should be same as pal() // broke #rtype-2
Fixed: note entry in sfx tracker is silent after running cartridge until pressing space to playback
Fixed: sub("abc", 4, 4) returns "c" (regression in 0.2.4)
Fixed: SPLORE cart update prompt does not appear when server replies too quickly (race condition)
Fixed: SPLORE cart update prompt only checks version once per session (can't refresh until it shows up)
Fixed: EXPORT command does not flatten includes when exporting to .p8.png / .p8.rom format
Fixed: EXPORT command discards source code changes since last run or load
Fixed: printing a one-off glyph using "\^." terminates the whole string when last byte is a zero
Fixed: Crash when loading a cart with fewer tabs, then creating a new tab and pasting.
Fixed: . command runs at 30fps even for a 60fps cart (-> _update60 is called twice, _draw once)
Fixed: Custom menu items become broken after suspending a cart, entering a lua command, and then resuming
Fixed: memset() with a non-zero value in shared memory region (0x1000..0x1fff) causes garbage corresponding mget() values
Fixed: web player/exports: ctrl-r causes erroneous "external changes reloaded" message and code corruption
v0.2.4
Added: Video and spritesheet memory addresses can be mapped to each other
Added: Map memory address can be mapped to 0x8000 // POKE(0x5f56, 0x80)
Added: stat(46)..stat(56): higher resolution and more accurate reporting of audio state
Added: Print one-off characters with ?"\^:447cb67c3e7f0106 hey" (or "\^." for binary data)
Added: chr() can take multiple arguments to construct an arbitrarily long string
Added: sub(str, pos, _) to get a single character at position pos
Added: Warning on boot when PICO-8 is running below 30fps
Added: Automatic scrolling caused by print() (with no x,y given) can be disabled with POKE(0x5f36,0x40)
Added: .p8.rom format can be used by cstore(), reload() and in multicarts
Added: EXPORT accepts .p8 .p8.png .p8.rom formats (can be used to save a copy, or convert from commandline)
Added: 64-bit RaspberryPi OS Builds and Exporters
Added: ASCII .txt version of manual included in archives & on website (synced with new html version)
Added: Auto-hide mouse cursor when typing (adjustable in config.txt)
Changed: .p8.rom file format can be less than 32k -- is padded with zeros to 32k on load
Changed: sub() costs some cpu based on the length of the string
Changed: Shorthand if/while no longer needs to be preceeded by a whitespace character or number
Changed: load("#") throws a runtime error when cartridge id contains illegal characters
Changed: 64k of Base RAM is standard (no need to set the hardware extension bit)
Changed: By default, draw colour resets to 6 when program is suspended
Changed: map() can take nil parameters for source_w, source_h to indicate default values
Changed: pal(n) (a single integer) to reset a single palette 1..3 (draw, display, secondary)
Changed: Can turn P8SCII wrap on/off with "\^$", "\^-$"
Changed: config.txt is not saved on exit when changes are made to it while PICO-8 is open
Changed: added code editor undo points when changing between identifier and non-identifier characters
Changed: sfx(-1, -2) now behaves the same as sfx(-1). sfx(-2) stops looping on all channels.
Changed: chip build no longer requires libcurl (calls out to wget)
Fixed: (Mac, Linux) load("#`echo ohno`") is executed // + server-side mitigation for splore
Fixed: stat(31) returns 2 parameters (bug introduced in 0.2.3)
Fixed: split() and sub() fail on strings containing "\0"
Fixed: ctrl-x on song pattern appears to work, but music() plays sfx 1..4
Fixed: Text getting cut off after console scrolling when using print with draw_y_offset (0x5f5b)
Fixed: camera(0,128) cursor(0,128) print("\n") causes unnecessary console scrolling
Fixed: last music pattern not saved when only channel 3 is used and other channels are defaults
Fixed: ?"\a12 sup yall" overwrites sfx 12 with a default beep (should just play and continue printing)
Fixed: cursed console cpu refund exploit // https://carlc27843.itch.io/cursed-console
Fixed: ctrl-r from commandline resets parameter string (stat(6)) -- should be same as the last run
Fixed: ord() corrupting Lua stack and crashing when returning more than ~80 results
Fixed: large camera() parameters can cause line() clipping to fail and crash
Fixed: Crash when saving long gifs (> 90 seconds)
Fixed: Unmapped joysticks not responding
Fixed: Plugging in > 2 controllers causes other controller to disconnect
v0.2.3
Added: Lucky draw list in splore -- gives a random selection of carts
Added: load/save carts in .p8.rom format (raw binary 32k block)
Added: tostr(), tonum() take format_flags parameter to convert to and from 32-bit signed ints
Added: ord(str, pos, num) returns num results starting from character at pos (similar to peek)
Added: FOLDER takes an optional parameter to open other host directories: BACKUPS | DESKTOP | CONFIG | BBS
Added: Live character / token count of selected text shown at bottom right of code editor
Changed: Removed collaboration list from splore (can still search for sub:collab)
Changed: 0x808 audio has a slight lpf filter on it by default // turn off by setting bit 0x20 at 0x5f36
Changed: tonum(boolean_value) returns 1 or 0 instead of nil
Changed: cursor CR x position set only by print(str,x,y) or cursor(), but not by print(str) (0x5f24)
Changed: character wrap is on by default when using print(str)
Changed: force-pause-menu hold duration is 500ms instead of 300ms to prevent accidentally triggering it
Changed: default gif length for new install is 16 seconds
Changed: ? shorthand can be used anywhere on a line e.g. if (true) ?"yes"
Changed: allow while/if shorthand with no statement, using colon separator: WHILE(BTN()==0);
Changed: added warning to fullscreen_method 2 in config.txt (gives erratic behaviour under some drivers)
Changed: cheaper OP_MOVE, OP_UNM lua vm instructions so that e.g. "local a=0-b" is not faster than "local a=-b"
Fixed: peek*() / poke*() do not charge extra cpu when reading or writing multiple values
Fixed: fget(n) returns junk when n is out of range (0..255); should return 0 in that case
Fixed: dropped .PNG files not detected as images when filename uses uppercase extension
Fixed: line()/tline() illegal writes caused by faulty clipping when (x1-x0) or (y1-y0) >= 0x8000
Fixed: -accept_future 1 only worked with .p8.png files; now also applies to .p8
Fixed: ?"\a7f" does not play f (happens only when f is the first note)
Fixed: abs(0x8000) return 0x0.0001 (should be 0x7fff.ffff)
Fixed: parameter string (stat(6)) is dropped when passed via RUN command
Fixed: preprocessing of form: "x += x<0 and -1 or 1" broken for operators <, >
Fixed: tab not accepted as whitespace for some preprocessor operations
Fixed: stat(1) wraps around when cpu is >= 2.0 (regression in 0.2.2)
Fixed: pressing SHIFT+ENTER on "local function foo()" or after "if (..) else" doesn't insert "end"
Fixed: pal() does not reset secondary palette to system default
Fixed: 0x808 audio does not respect pausing / volume / is not recorded with extcmd("audio_rec")
Fixed: 'h' pressed in sprite editor toggles hex mode in map editor
Fixed: After pressing shift-tab to toggle 128x128 map view, active draw area is still only 128x112
Fixed: Attempt to navigate to non-existant tab after running: function _update60() _update60=nil end
Fixed: stat(101) not returning cart id when running from BBS web player
Fixed: print() wrapping + scrolling; e.g. from commandline: while(true) print(chr(254+rnd(2)).."\0")
Fixed: integer divide assignment operator (\=) costs 2 tokens instead of 1
v0.2.2c
Fixed: ?"\ac0" starts from d#0 instead of c0 (again -- 0.2.2b was still broken)
Fixed: splore local directory navigation fails when using a relative home path set with -home
Fixed: export .lua.png only shows the first 2730 lines
v0.2.2b
Added: export foo.lua.png to get an image of the cartridge's source code
Added: Pause menu can be forced to appear by holding down pause for 300ms (even if program blocks it)
Added: extcmd("set_filename","foo") -- set the filename of the next screenshot or gif (can include %d)
Added: extcmd("set_title","foo") -- set window title (useful for exported binaries)
Added: Can toggle punyfont mode at command prompt w/ ctrl+p (useful for inspecting puny variable names!)
Changed: Default filename is /untitled.p8 instead of no filename (auto-increments to untitled_1.p8 etc.)
Changed: circ/oval that are not visible cost almost nothing, including circles that contain clipping region
Changed: filled circles/ovals that contain clipping region cost the same as the equivalent rectfill
Changed: shift+enter in code editor only auto-completes block for DO, THEN, REPEAT or FUNCTION
Fixed: ?"\ac0" starts from d#0 instead of c0
Fixed: preprocessor regression when using string at end of ..= statement: if (true) then a..="b" end
Fixed: pressing L / R in paused menu is registered by running program after closing menu
Fixed: printing text in tall mode (?"\^ttall") via commandline can chop off bottom line before scrolling
Fixed: drag-select text with cursor at bottom or top of screen scrolls too fast
Fixed: spurious stat(0) results when using yield() to exit frame instead of flip()
Fixed: line()/tline() sometimes draws pixels on opposite side of screen (0.2.2 regression)
Fixed: line()/tline() fails to draw lines that have x or y coordinates > 32767 pixels apart
Fixed: can peek() more than 8192 values in single call
Fixed: large fill circles (> radius 900) render incorrectly close to vertical center (32-bit builds, web)
Fixed: even-widthed filled ovals with midpoint < 0 is drawn off by 1
Fixed: black pixels in gif / map export not completely black
Fixed: map and spritesheet exporters do not respect current display palette and 0x5F36:0x8 (draw spr 0)
Fixed: code editor: cursor position off by one when selecting character after glyph (0.2.2 regression)
Fixed: code editor: tab names don't show up when 100% punyfont
Fixed: import spritesheet.png failing under MacOS (0.2.2 regression)
Fixed: export single sfx to .wav crashes when contains sfx instrument references
v0.2.2
Added: SFX filters: noiz (white noise for inst 6), buzz, detune (flange/overtone), reverb, dampen (lpf)
Added: SFX length (leave the second loop value at 0 to use). Can be >= 32.
Added: P8SCII control characters when using print() -- can adjust colour and cursor position etc.
Added: User-defined font at 0x5600, accessible via control character \014
Added: poke(addr, val0, val1, val2 .. valn) -- same for poke2, poke4
Added: can peek multiple values: a,b,c = peek(addr, 3) -- same for peek2, peek4
Added: Locked mouse pointer // poke(0x5f2d, 0x5) and then stat(38),stat(39) to read
Added: right click in sfx pitch mode to grab the instrument of that note
Added: IMPORT command can specify target location in pixels: IMPORT FOO.PNG -X 16 -Y 32
Added: IMPORT -S to shrink the imported image (e.g. -S 3 means shrink from 384x384 -> 128x128)
Added: ctrl-c at empty command prompt to copy the most recent error message
Added: extcmd("screen",0,1) / extcmd("video",0,1) saves files in same path as cart / exported executable or app.
Added: set bit POKE(0x5F36, 0x8) to treat sprite 0 as opaque when drawn by map(), tline()
Added: shift-tab in gfx/map editor for full-fullscreen mode (with no red menu bars)
Added: extcmd("rec_frames") to record each gif frame only when flip() is called regardless of rendering speed
Added: extcmd("folder") to open the folder on the host operating system (where printf, extcmd saves files to)
Added: custom menu callbacks can optionally leave the pause menu open, and can read LEFT and RIGHT button presses
Added: ctrl-h hex mode in map / gfx views (displays current sprite in hex, and shows map tile values)
Added: export map as a single image with export foo.map.png
Added: @weeble's gamepad improvements to the default html shell (dpad layout detection, better mapping / hotplugging)
Added: stack trace on bad memory access e.g. poke(-1,0)
Added: fillp can now be applied to sprite drawing (spr / sspr / map / tline), using colours from the secondary palette
Improved: General optimisation pass; heavy carts use 20~30% less host cpu
Changed: Most api functions are local by default for performance. use "pico8 -global_api 1" if needed for debugging.
Changed: unpack() now has a non-zero cost but still fairly fast
Changed: .. operator has a small cost based on number of characters concatenated
Changed: LOADK vm instruction costs 1 cycles (was 2) // otherwise "c=0" costs more than "c=a+b"!
Changed: removed function cpu refunds; speed-critical calls to bitwise function should use operator counterparts instead.
Changed: Incremental garbage collection each frame for improved performance.
Changed: stat(0) performs garbage collection in order to obtain a meaningful result; use stat(99) for raw value
Changed: options menu always available from pause menu (used to only be available in web exports)
Changed: tostr() returns "" instead of nil
Changed: exporting gif/png from web version now creates a pop-up div that can be dismissed
Changed: print() from commandline automatically wraps long strings
Changed: print() returns the x position of the next character to be printed (can be used to calculate text width)
Changed: glyph constants set only when running cartridge, not when running a command from prompt
Changed: Using printh from exported carts outputs files in the same folder as the .exe / .app
Changed: type() returns nothing instead of causing a runtime error
Changed: fill pattern is cleared when program is suspended by default. Use poke(0x5f2e,0x20) to preserve.
Changed: reset() resets everything from 0x5f00..0x5f7f, same as when program is initialised (including new random seed)
Changed: font tweaks for hiragana, katagana, ampersand characters
Changed: (raspi) separate binaries that support gpio to remove wiringPi dependency and gpio poking-related crashes
Fixed: Diagonal lines in editor contain an incorrect step when snapping to -1:1, 1:-1
Fixed: rnd(tbl) is not random enough when table has 2 elements /bbs/?pid=81092#p
Fixed: add(tbl) causes runtime error. should have no effect and return nothing
Fixed: cursor position in code editor incorrect when changing lines contaning glyphs/tabs
Fixed: CONFIG TAB_WIDTH does not take effect until restarting PICO-8
Fixed: Selecting sprites from bottom right -> top left and then pasting only pastes a single sprite
Fixed: Moving map selection around with cursor keys beyond original selection leaves streaks
Fixed: stdout/stdin serial() streams should be binary, not text mode (causes \r chars under Windows)
Fixed: printh("hello.txt",fn,true,true) fails to save to desktop when fn has an extention
Fixed: IMPORT FOO.PNG using the current sprite location as target instead of 0,0
Fixed: tonum behaving differently to parser for string numbers out of range. e.g. tonum("-0x9000") should be 0x7000
Fixed: Exporting the same zip file multiple times creates duplicate file entries
Fixed: tline / line clipping // sometimes off by 1px, sometimes incorrectly discarded altogether
Fixed: poking values with bit 0x80 to 0x5f28,0x5f30,0x5f3c,0x5f3e clobbers following address
Fixed: deli(tbl,nil) behaves the same as deli(tbl) -- should have no effect
Fixed: stat(13),stat(15) reporting y coordinates of menu with 0 items
Fixed: memory leak when saving gifs (causes web export to crash after a few records)
Fixed: print() linefeeds clobber multi-line text printed at bottom of screen
Fixed: preprocessor can not handle form: "::_::a+=1" (regression in 0.2.1)
Fixed: When split() by group size (e.g. split("ab12",2,false)), last parameter ignored
Fixed: partial cstore (len < 0x4300) from splore/export clobbering data outside that range on subsequent reload
Fixed: joystick stops responding after unplug and plug back in twice (also happens when some devices sleep / wake up)
Fixed: mkdir(nil) crashes
Fixed: possible to edit an SFX without the cursor visible (confusing)
Fixed: menuitem() callbacks broken when there is no _draw() or _update() defined
Fixed: should only be able to call from commandline: cd mkdir install_games keyconfig info
Fixed: controller menu (pause->options->controls) does not show custom key settings
Fixed: -export failing to find files relative from current path
Fixed: -export failing to locate html template path
Fixed: binary export storing multicart cart names with path (should be named "dat1.p8", not "dat/dat1.p8")
Fixed: pause menu broken when cartridge is launched from splore and run() is called inside first frame
Fixed: text printing does not respect draw palette (was broken in 0.2) // ref: /bbs/?tid=41428
Fixed: for backwards compatibility, non-numbery colour parameters should be taken to mean zero
Fixed: preprocessor: self assignment with quoted function calls on RHS a+=1+cos"0"
Fixed: ctrl-r during pause menu only takes effect after closing menu
Fixed: (bug in RC1) pack(...).n is zero
Fixed: (bug in RC1) using filters noiz:1, dampen:2, lpf is not applied to melodic instruments (but should be)
v0.2.1b
Added: split(str,"") splits by single characters
Updated: Tower of Archeos 1.1 via INSTALL GAMES
Fixed: print(num,x,y) always prints numbers num in hexidecimal
Fixed: .p8.png decoder can enter an infinite loop (caused exports to freeze on boot)
Fixed: Can't save screenshot/gif when running a BBS cart with illegal characters in title.
Fixed: INSTALL_GAMES is broken
Fixed: Mouse is broken in HTML exports
v0.2.1
Added: oval() ovalfill() split()
Added: circle drawing tool is now an oval tool (hold shift for circle)
Added: hold shift with line tool to snap to 22.5 degree angles from origin (0:1, 1:1, 2:1 gradients)
Added: serial() channels for stdin,stdout
Added: raw binary and image files dropped in to PICO-8 also become byte streams readable w/ serial()
Added: add(tbl, val, index) -- insert val into table at index
Added: deli(tbl, index) -- delete element from table by index (index defaults to last element)
Added: show progress while exporting binaries (can be slow now that generating zip files)
Added: -e to add an extra file to exported binaries zip files // export -e manual.txt foo.bin
Added: RESET command to reset the runtime / draw state
Added: drag and drop cartridges into PICO-8 window to load them
Added: hash stored in .p8.png so that cartridges corrupted by image quantization can show a specific error
Added: raw data blocks in compressed code format (useful for storing long binary strings efficiently)
Added: clip(x,y,w,h,true): 5th parameter indicates that the clipping region should be clipped by the old one
Added: -export switch can be used to convert .p8 files to .p8.png from commandline. // pico8 foo.p8 -export foo.p8.png
Added: extcmd("screen",scale) and extcmd("video",scale) to override the default scale (e.g. scale 2 means 256x256)
Added: printh(str, filename, overwrite, save_to_desktop) -- 4th parameter to save output file to desktop
Changed: add(), del() no longer implemented with Lua snippet; lower cpu cost.
Changed: line(),rect() cost the same as rectfill() when drawing equivalent shapes
Changed: all drawing operations in sprite editor now observe fill pattern state
Changed: numbers can be immediately followed by identifiers (a=1b=2) // lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=38038
Changed: Sprite editor shows only active area after shift-selecting sprites
Changed: copy/paste in the code editor treats uppercase ascii characters as puny font only when puny mode (ctrl+p) enabled
Changed: C0 Controls characters (except for 0x0,0x9,0xa,0xd) encoded in .p8 / clipboard with unicode replacements
Changed: stat(4) converts characters to PICO-8 format (P -> puny p, hiragana unicode -> single character etc.)
Changed: serial() returns number of bytes processed (1/8ths included for partial bytes)
Changed: IMPORT SPRITESHEET.PNG now uses the current sprite as the destination coordinate instead of 0,0.
Changed: Standardized name of the display palette to "display palette" (was sometimes referred to as "screen palette").
Changed: tostr() returns nil (used to return "[nil]")
Changed: don't need to set bit 0x40 at address 0x5f2c to use secondary palette.
Improved: exported binary's data.pod file 90% smaller (~870k -> ~85k)
Fixed: pack(...).n is shifted right 16 bits
Fixed: ctrl-r doesn't reload external changes for carts which are over compressed code capacity
Fixed: false positives when detecting external changes for some older cart versions
Fixed: .p8.png carts saved with dense code (compressed size > raw size, including very small carts) stores junk
Fixed: error message duplication when loading future version of .p8.png carts
Fixed: Illegal colours can enter spritesheet via serach-replace after setting with color()
Fixed: Preprocessor: "foo():a().x+=1" "a=b[1]c+=1"
Fixed: hex numbers written with punyfont characters breaks syntax high-lighting
Fixed: shift+- in sprite editor jumps too far vertically when zoomed in
Fixed: clicking a note in sfx editor creates a selection (-> backspace clears without moving rows)
Fixed: print()/printh()/stop() doesn't respect __tostring metatable method (regression)
Fixed: time() and btnp() speed changes after stopping program, typing a command and then resuming.
Fixed: phantom drag & drop events sent to unused music channels causing them to occasionally unmute themselves
Fixed: undo after moving sprites in map mode only undoes the changes to the map and not the spritesheet.
Fixed: inconsistent token counting for negative or bnot'ed numbers https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=38344
Fixed: Crash when INSTALL_GAMES / INSTALL_DEMOS without a writeable disk
Fixed: stat(4) (clipboard contents) does not convert unicode to corresponding glyphs
Fixed: (MacOS) Using discrete GPU ~ drains battery. Now using integrated GPU when available.
Fixed: screensaver is blocked while PICO-8 is running (needed to set SDL_HINT_VIDEO_ALLOW_SCREENSAVER: "1")
Fixed: screen glitches after running for 25 days
Fixed: (HTML Exports) touch controls not registering when running under iOS from an iframe (e.g. on an itch.io page)
Fixed: (HTML Exports) tap and hold brings up the select menu under iOS
Fixed: (HTML Exports) button blocked by canvas when overlapping on small screens
v0.2.0i
Added: pack(), unpack()
Changed: bitplane read/write mask only reset after finished running program
Fixed: tline() doesn't draw anything when the layers argument is not given
v0.2.0h
Added: tline() takes an optional layers parameter, similar to map()
Added: high bits of 0x5f5e taken as colour read mask, low taken to be colour write mask
Added: Double-click in the sfx tracker to select all attributes of a single note.
Fixed: assignment shorthand RHS scope wrong when contains certain operators. e.g. a+=1&127
Fixed: while/if shorthands fail when "do" or "then" appears on the same line as part of an identifier
Fixed: ctrl-c copies the wrong sfx after clicking pencil button (next to pattern #) in organiser view
Fixed: spinning cart icon present in video memory when cart boots from splore
v0.2.0g
Added: Window title shows current cartridge filename while editing
Changed: ~ preceeding a numerical constant (e.g. ~1) counts as a single token
Fixed: >>> operator behaviour does not match lshr(a,b) when b >= 32 (again)
Fixed: PICO-8 freezes when shift by -0x8000
Fixed: .p8 format does not store extpal label colours
Fixed: Can not save screenshot when filename contains ":"
v0.2.0f
Changed: @@ operator (peek2) to %
Fixed: Exported wasm crashes on boot when code contains a numerical constant out of range.
Fixed: HTML Shell treats controller shoulder buttons as MENU; easy to accidentally bump.
Fixed: shift operators behaviour undefined for negative values of n (now: x << n means x >> -(n\1))
Fixed: >>> operator behaviour does not match lshr(a,b) when b >= 32
Fixed: INFO crashes when code is close to 64k of random characters
Fixed: Code editor undo step not stored when starting to edit a new line (hard to see what happened)
v0.2.0e
Added: zip file creation (with preserved file attributes) when exporting binaries
Added: cpu working animation when cpu usage > 120 skipped frames
Improved: stop() / resume now works at the instruction level
Fixed: tline clipping broken (from 0.2.0d)
Fixed: cpu counting is wrong inside coroutines
Fixed: coroutines interrupted by garbage collection
Fixed: code compression suddenly much worse for carts > 32k chars
Fixed: code compression ratio can be less than 1 in extreme cases
Fixed: pasting a string ending in '1' into the command prompt opens the editor
Fixed: html export can run out of pre-allocated heap when doing heavy string operations
Fixed: hex memory addresses displayed in puny font on windows
Fixed: devkit mouse message shown once per cart -- should be once per chain of carts
Fixed: can't paste sfx notes after moving to another sfx via keyboard
Fixed: copying note select vs. sfx vs. pattern range is ambiguous
Fixed: crash after redefining type()
v0.2.0d
Added: rnd(x) when x is an array-style table, returns a random item from that table
Added: gif_reset_mode (in config.txt / CONFIG command). Defaults to 0.1.12c behaviour
Added: print(str, col) form behaves the same as: color(col) print(str)
Added: Operators: <<> >>< <<>= >><=
Changed: tline now also observes an offset (0x5f3a, 0x5f3b)
Changed: tline rounds down to integer screen coordinates (same as line)
Changed: Final cpu adjustments (see release post)
Changed: Removed experimental "!"->"this" shorthand
Changed: clip() returns previous state as 4 return values
Fixed: Included files remain locked (and can not be edited by external editors)
Fixed: Carts loaded as plaintext .lua fail to handle BOM / DOS characters
Fixed: palt() returns previous state of bitfield as a boolean instead of a number
Fixed: CPU speed on widget doesn't exactly match stat(1)
Fixed: stat(1) occasionally reports garbage values when above 1.0
Fixed: Custom btnp repeat rates (0x5f5c, 0x5f5d) speed up when skipping frames
Fixed: gif_scale setting not read from config.txt
Fixed: tline: texture references are incorrect when sy1 < sy0
Fixed: tline: single pixel spans are drawn as two pixels
Fixed: binary exports' controls menu always shows 0 joyticks connected
Fixed: Pressing DEL on first row of tracker doesn't do anything
Fixed: host framerate regulation is slow (~1/sec) when PICO-8 frame takes < 1ms to execute
Fixed: fillp() return value (previous state) does not include transparency bit
Fixed: clip"" setting all clip values to 0 (should be ignored)
Fixed: Raspberry Pi static build / static export requires GLIBC 2.0.29 (now .16)
Fixed: stop(nil) crashes
Fixed: print(), printh(), stop() prints "nil" with no arguments (should have no output)
Fixed: trace() can not be used with coroutines
v0.2.0c
Changed: Compressed size limit now 0x3d00 bytes (reclaimed an unused 0x100 byte block)
Fixed: >>>= operator (was doing a >>= replacement instead)
Fixed: #including large .lua files causes crashes, weird behaviour
Fixed: Sandboxed CSTORE: writing partial data to another embedded cart clobbers the remaining data.
Fixed: Multicart code storing regression introduced in 0.2.0 (code from head cart stored in other carts)
Fixed: Can not edit spritesheet after panning
Fixed: Junk error messages when syntax error contains one of the new operators
Fixed: Crash with: 0x8000 / 1
v0.2.0b
Changed: #include directive can be preceeded by whitespace
Changed: Activity logger records nothing after idle for 30 seconds
Fixed: Mouse cursor movement in editor is not smooth
Fixed: Display palette doesn't reset after exiting splore
Fixed: PALT() returns 0 instead of previous state as bitfield
Fixed: Rectangle and line tools broken when used in map editor
Fixed: INSTALL_GAMES under Windows produces broken cart files
Fixed: Stored multicart sometimes has code section truncated (fails to load())
v0.2.0
Added: 8-bit character set with kana, alt font
Added: ord(), chr()
Added: SFX / Pattern organiser view
Added: SFX edit buttons on pattern channels
Added: tline // textured line drawing
Added: SPLORE automatically updates BBS carts when online
Added: Search for similar (shared tags) cartridges, or by thread
Added: predefined fillp() pattern values assigned to glyphs
Added: btnp() custom delays (poke 0x5f5c, 0x5f5d)
Added: "." shorthand command for advancing a single frame (calls _update, _draw if they exist)
Added: Current editor/cart view is recorded every 3 seconds to [app_data]/activity_log.txt
Added: Cutting (ctrl-x) and pasting selected sprites while in map view to also adjust map references to those sprites
Added: Clipboard is supported in the html exports (with some limitations) // load #wobblepaint for an example.
Added: Can load .lua files as cartridges
Added: Operators: ..= ^= \ \= & | ^^ << >> >>> ~ &= |= ^^= <<= >>= >>>= @ @@(update: @@ replaced with %) $
Added: New demo carts: waves.p8 dots3d.p8 automata.p8 wander.p8 cast.p8 jelpi.p8 (use INSTALL_DEMOS)
Added: Extra pre-installed games: Embrace, 8 Legs to Love (use INSTALL_GAMES)
Added: Splore cart labels for .p8 files
Added: Now 16 code tabs (click on the rightmost ones to scroll)
Added: ipairs()
Added: SAVE from commandline to quick-save current cartridge (same as ctrl-s)
Added: BACKUP from commandline to save a backup of current cartridge
Added: CPU usage widget (ctrl-p while running cartridge)
Added: Button / dpad states exposed in memory at 0x5f4c (8 bytes)
Added: Random number generator state exposed at 0x5f44 (8 bytes)
Added: pico8_dyn version is included when exporting to Raspberry Pi
Added: allow_function_keys option in config.txt (CTRL 6..9 are now preferred -- will phase out F6..F9 if practical)
Added: Visible tab characters (draw_tabs in config.txt)
Added: pal({1,2,3..}) means: use the value for each key 0..15 in a table
Added: palt(bitfield) means: set the colour transparency for all 16 colours, starting with the highest bit
Added: Options menu for binary exports (sound / fullscreen / controls)
Added: Shape drawing tools in sprite and map editor
Improved: Miscellaneous HTML shell / player optimisations and adjustments
Improved: Lower cpu usage for small foreground_sleep_ms values (changed host event loop & fps switching strategy)
Changed: This update is called 0.2.0, not 0.1.12d! (grew into plans for 0.2.0, and bumped cart version number)
ChangeD: Reverted cheaper 0.1.12* costs on bitwise operators & peek (recommend replacing with operators if need)
Changed: negative numbers expressed with a '-' count as a single token
Changed: glitchy reset effect does not leave residue in base RAM (but maybe on screen when using sprites / tiles)
Changed: sset() with 2 parameters uses the draw state colour as default
Changed: line() or line(col) can be used to skip drawing and set the (line_x1, line_y1) state on the next call to line(x1,y1)
Changed: vital system functions (load, reboot etc.) can only be overwritten during cartridge execution
Changed: sqrt(x) is now more accurate, and a little faster than x^.5
Changed: sqrt(x) returns 0 for negative values of x
Changed: btnp() delay and repeats now work independently per-button
Changed: pairs(nil) returns an empty function
Changed: Default screenshot scale (now 4x), gif scale (now 3x)
Changed: gif_len now means the length when no start point is specified (used to be the maximum recordable length)
Changed: (Multicarts) When loading data from many different carts, the swap delay maxes out at ~2 seconds
Changed: (Raspberry Pi) removed support for (and dependency on) libsndio
Changed: camera(), cursor(), color(), pal(), palt(), fillp(), clip() return their previous state
Changed: Can not call folder() from a BBS cart running under splore
Changed: F9 resets the video, so that multiple presses results in a sequence of clips that can be joined to together
Changed: color() defaults to 6 (was 0)
Changed: Backed up filenames are prefixed with a timestamp.
Changed: Automatically start on the (host's) current path if it is inside PICO-8's root path
Changed: tostr(x,true) can also be used to view the hex value of functions and tables (uses Lua's tostring)
Changed: Can hold control when clicking number fields (spd, pattern index etc.) to increment/decrement by 4 (was shift)
Fixed: HTML exports running at 60fps sometimes appear to repeatedly speed up and slow down
Fixed: HTML export layout: sometimes broken -- option buttons overlapping in the same place
Fixed: __tostring metatable methods not observed by tostr() / print() / printh()
Fixed: Mac OSX keyboard permissions (fixed in SDL2 0.2.12)
Fixed: Audio mixer: SFX with loop_end > 32 would sometimes fail to loop back
Fixed: btn() firing a frame late, and not on the same frame as stat(30)
Fixed: #include can not handle files saved by some Windows text editors in default format (w/ BOM / CRLF)
Fixed: Exports do not flatten #include'd files
Fixed: Default window size has too much black border (now reverted to previous default)
Fixed: Functions yielded inbetween frames occasionally push an extra return value (type:function) to the stack
Fixed: can't load png-encoded carts with code that starts with a :
Fixed: .gif output unnecessarily large
Fixed: .gif recording skipping frames when running at 15fps
Fixed: printh does not convert to unicode when writing to console or to a file
Fixed: cart data sometimes not flushed when loading another cart during runtime
Fixed: Can not navigate patterns with -,+ during music playback
Fixed: Mouse cursor not a hand over some buttons
Fixed: Laggy mouseover messages (e.g. showing current colour index, or map coordinates)
Fixed: Can't paste glyphs into search field
Fixed: Tab spacing always jumps config.tab_spaces instead of snapping to next column
Fixed: -p switch name is wrong (was only accepting "-param" in 0.12.*
Fixed: Code editor highlighting goes out of sync after some operations
Fixed: Multicart communication problem (affecting PICOWARE)
Fixed: time() speeds up after using the RESUME command
Fixed: Audio state is clobbered when using the RESUME command
Fixed: Audio glitch when fading out music containing slide effect (1)
Fixed: Toggling sound from splore cart->options menu has no effect
Fixed: Devkit keyboard works when paused
Fixed: "-32768 % y" gives wrong results
Fixed: Replacing all text in code editor breaks undo history
Fixed: Double click to select last word in code does not include the last character
Fixed: Weird block comment behavior in code editor
Fixed: HTML export: cart names can not contain quotes
Fixed: HTML export: menu button layout under chromium
Fixed: HTML export: Adding content above cartridge breaks mobile layout
Fixed: HTML export: Can touch-drag PICO-8 screen around (breaks simulated mouse input)
Fixed: LOAD("#ABC") does not always immediately yield
Fixed: Infinite RUN() loop crashes PICO-8
Fixed: Mouse cursor is not a finger on top of most "pressable" button-style elements
Fixed: CD command fails when root_path is relative (e.g. "pico8 -root_path .")
Fixed: poke in fill pattern addresses (0x5f31..0x5f33) discards some bits
Fixed: After using ctrl-click in map editor, can not modify map outside that region
Fixed: Shift-selecting sprites from bottom right to top left selects wrong region
Fixed: Changing GIF_LEN from PICO-8 commandline sometimes breaks gif saving
Fixed: pget() sometimes returns values with high bits set
Fixed: Preprocessor: unary operator lhs is not separated in some cases (e.g. x=1y+=1)
Fixed: Preprocessor: ? shorthand prevents other preprocess replacements on same line
Fixed: Preprocessor: fails when multiple shorthand expressions + strings containing brackets appear on the same line
Fixed: Loading a .p8 file with too many tabs discards the excess code.
Fixed: Map editor's stamp tool wraps around when stamping overlapping the right edge.
Fixed: Very quick/light tap events sometimes do not register
Fixed: SFX tracker mode: can't copy notes with shift-cursors before clicking (whole sfx is copied instead)
Fixed: "..." breaks syntax highlighting
Fixed: Click on text, press up/down -> cursor reverts to previous horizontal position
Fixed: CTRL-[a..z] combinations processed twice under some linux window managers
Fixed: ctrl-up/down to jump to functions in the code editor breaks when "function" is followed by a tab
Fixed: map & gfx drawing selection is not applied consistently between tools
Fixed: Using right mouse button to pick up a colour / tile value sometimes also applies current tool
v0.1.12c
Fixed: CPU usage reported by stat(1) is higher than actual value
Fixed: Fail to load .p8 cartridges w/ BOM marker / CRLF endlines
Fixed: Syntax errors / crash caused by #including files containing BOM / CRLFs
Fixed: Can not save .p8 when contains unresolved #includes
Fixed: Can't open pico-8.txt in Notepad.exe (added CRLFs)
Fixed: Can delete null terminator at end of code (revealing previously deleted code)
v0.1.12b
Added: config command (e.g. CONFIG THEME CLASSIC)
Fixed: Windows sound resampling artifacts (moved to SDL2 2.0.9 audio:directsound)
Fixed: Glyphs stored as unicode can not load when #include'd
Fixed: Code highlighting is wrong after select and delete a line
Fixed: Last line endpoint not present in draw state memory
Fixed: Ubuntu 16.04 can not run because requires glibc 2.27 (reduced dependency to 2.14)
Fixed: stat(102) returns nil when run from binary instead of 0 (now 0)
Fixed: Loading cartridge from commandline fails when path contains "../"
Fixed: (OSX) Crash when reloading external changes with CTRL-R
Fixed: (Windows) Crash when running cart with included code
Fixed: Can not export or include extra cartridges outside of current directory
Fixed: Off by 1 when search for line 1 (affected ctrl-b, ctrl-l)
Fixed: html template -- mouse cursor showing over canvas (now hidden by default)
v0.1.12
Added: #include a text file, or a tab from another cartridge
Added: Unlimited undo for gfx,map,sfx
Added: [sfx] snippets: copy and paste sound & music between PICO-8 instances and BBS posts
Added: (BBS) sfx snippet player
Added: CTRL-G in code editor to repeat search across all tabs
Added: Splore search text entry with cursor key button presses
Added: Custom tab widths (tab_width in config.txt)
Added: Web exporter template: joystick & touch support, preview image, menu buttons, adaptive size, controls screen
Added: .wasm exporter (use -w)
Added: Raspberry Pi binary exporter
Added: -export // run the EXPORT command from host commandline
Added: Toggle flags on multiple sprites at once by selecting them first
Added: Confirmations when loading/saving with unsaved changes
Added: Windowed mode support for Raspberry Pi
Added: serial() interface for Raspberry Pi // serial() -- spi, ws281x, direct bit banging // 0.2.1 update: dropped spi
Added: api: peek2 poke2 rawset rawget rawlen rawequal next
Added: Comment/uncomment selected block with CTRL-B
Added: Can save screenshots and gifs from exported binaries via EXTCMD
Added: Can exit exported binaries after runtime error / stop(), and also via EXTCMD("SHUTDOWN")
Added: SHUTDOWN menu item added to pause menu when running via "-run cartfile"
Added: -kiosk to run in kiosk mode: boot into splore, favourites menu only, no cart menu
Added: -root_path to set root cartridges folder from commandline
Added: shift+space in song view to play from the current quarter of the selected channel
Added: CTRL-W, CTRL-E in code editor to jump to start / end of line
Added: -accept_future to load cartides made with future versions of PICO-8
Added: -preblit_scale (default: auto) for less blurry scaling with -pixel_perfect 0
Added: -pixel_perfect -1 (auto) only uses pixel perfect scaling when < 10% of the containing screen axis is wasted
Added: highlight all occurances when searching for text in code editor
Added: tab completion across directories
Added: In map editor, non-zero cels that are drawn all black are marked with a single blue dot
Changed: all(), foreach() cpu cost is now much cheaper (but still a little more than using a for loop)
Changed: cursor() can also set the current color with a third parameter
Changed: stat 24..26 return -1 when no music is playing
Changed: 3x4 font characters (uppercase in ascii) allowed in code editor (but not pasteable/editable)
Changed: time() / t() always means seconds since run (but still updated once per _update() / _update60)
Changed: line(x1,y1) can be used to draw from the end of the last line
Changed: del() returns the item deleted on success
Changed: single setting for audio volume (-volume switch, "volume" in config.txt)
Changed: allow '-' in cartdat() names
Changed: 8 and - only map to buttons 4 and 5 by default for CHIP build
Changed: Raspberry Pi pico8_dyn build does not support gpio/serial (and so does not require wiringPi)
Changed: Default theme is 1 (blue background in code editor)
Changed: When loading a cart from commandline, automatically set the current path if inside PICO-8's filesystem
Fixed: Code editor uses too much cpu / battery power
Fixed: cstore() with an external cart name broken when run from exported cart or as bbs cart
Fixed: Undoing changes to SFX after using pitch drawing tool clears SFX data
Fixed: Running headless scripts under Windows / Mac OSX crashes
Fixed: Running headless scripts with no video driver fails
Fixed: Can not load BBS carts in headless script mode (without auto-running)
Fixed: (Web exporter) mouse cursor doesn't work in fullscreen
Fixed: (Web exporter) mouse button 2 brings up context menu
Fixed: (Web exporter) Clusters of FS.syncfs calls causing error messages (and inefficient?)
Fixed: (Windows) PICO-8 behaves as if it is not the foreground application
Fixed: divide and abs sign flipping for 0x8000.0000
Fixed: sqrt(0x0000.0001) freezes
Fixed: "-1"+0 evaluates to 0xffff.0001
Fixed: shift-tabbing to unindent alters selection range
Fixed: background_sleep_ms reverts to default value
Fixed: "open in thread" option appears for local carts
Fixed: (code editor) undo markers in unexpected places
Fixed: root_path, desktop_path in config.txt doesn't work without trailing slash
Fixed: Audio sampling rate is wrong when device/driver doesn't support 22050MHz
Fixed: Loading cart with less than 5 pixel rows of gfx does not clear default white cross sprite
Fixed: cpu cycle exploit using peek4 with no parameters
Fixed: SFX keyboard editing operations (e.g. SPD +/-) sometimes applied to the wrong SFX
Fixed: Cursor behaviour when moving between song and sfx view, and when playing music
Fixed: Selecting SFX notes with shift + home/end/pgup/pgdown
Fixed: Vibrato (2) and drop (3) effects in SFX instruments not observed
Fixed: Can not place note at C-0 in pitch mode
Fixed: CTRL-F search in code skips matches that are close together
Fixed: (Mac) warning about unoptimized program (built with SDL 2.0.9, + now 64-bit)
Fixed: (Raspberry Pi) Keypresses leaking to desktop
Fixed: (Raspberry Pi) Keyboard layout fixed to US
Fixed: printh(nil) prints [false] instead of [nil]
Fixed: toggling audio mute twice returns to maximum volume
Fixed: alt+cursors moves cursor in code editor
Fixed: del does not work on first character of code or commandline
Fixed: preprocessor breaks on double slash in string s="\\"
Fixed: sometimes code executing a little after point of runtime error
Fixed: Token count reported in editor is more than 0 after rebooting
Fixed: "Removed empty tabs" message displayed when loading cart with fewer tabs
Fixed: Member variables highlighted when same as API function names (e.g. actor.spr)
Fixed: Hot-plugged joysticks not recognized
v0.1.11g
Added: CTRL-C to copy contents of commandline
Added: stat(100..102) for current breadcrumb label, bbs cart id, and hostname (web)
Added: content_filter in config.txt
Added: Cartverse cart id support (not live server-side yet though)
Fixed: Tab preview does not show on mouseover
Fixed: Can't paste uppercase characters into commandline
Fixed: Preprocessor can't handle glyphs in form: "♥.x += 1"
Fixed: Unsaved changes sometimes reported when filename is not set
Fixed: Pause menu doesn't open inside infinite loop inside _draw
Fixed: load() crashes when "parameter string" parameter is not a string
Fixed: cstore(),reload() crash when external cart filename is not a string
Fixed: printh(str, "@clip") fails for glyph characters in str
v0.1.11f
Fixed: Pause menu doesn't open inside an infinite loop
Fixed: Binary and hex string digits outside of 0xffff.ffff alter result
v0.1.11e
Added: stat(30..31) for devkit keyboard input
Added: extcmd("pause") extcmd("reset") extcmd("breadcrumb")
Added: lshr(), ceil(), rotl(), rotr(), peek4(), poke4()
Added: stat(12..15) to grab the position of the pause menu (x0,y0,y1,y1)
Added: DPAD game controller buttons mapped to LRUD
Added: CTRL-click on song navigator to scroll by 4 patterns
Added: Can type and paste glyphs in commandline
Added: Notification when CTRL-R fails to reload because of unsaved changes
Added: Notification when code automatically converted to lower-case
Added: INFO() checks for "external changes" (e.g. when using a separate text editor)
Added: .p8.png format can be used with cstore() and carts bundled in multicarts
Added: Can optionally set fill pattern using colour parameter
Changed: Glyphs can be used as variable names
Changed: Glyphs stored in clipboard and .p8 format as roughly corresponding unicode
Changed: .p8 format skips storing tailing rows of data that match default state
Changed/Fixed: shr(x,n) is now equivalent to calling shr(x,1) n times when n >= 32
Fixed: Error message and stack trace line numbers 0 or slightly out
Fixed: Unclosed block error navigates cursor to <eof> rather than start of block
Fixed: Exported binaries can load carts outside of bundle
Fixed: BBS cart loaded from a local cart loses data cstore()ed during previous run
Fixed: btn() returns same as btnp()
Fixed: btnp(6) always returns false
Fixed: Missing mask pixels in cart download animation frame
Fixed: Crash when try to load a directory as a cart
Fixed: Sometimes cursor position set by keyboard mouse emulation in code editor
v0.1.11d
Added: t() aliased to time()
Fixed: time() always returns 0 when there is no _update function
Fixed: (raspi) Keyboard stops responding after pressing CTRL-F, CTRL-Z
Fixed: (raspi) Double keypresses in sound editor when entering notes
Fixed: stat(6) pads parameter string with spaces
v0.1.11c
Added: Local and UT time queries using stat()
Added: host_framerate_control (config.txt) to improve performance on slower machines and web
Added: Control over cpu usage when running in background (-background_sleep_ms / config.txt)
Added: Windows icon in exported exe
Added: F11 to toggle fullscreen
Added: export -c switch to indicate transparent icon colour
Added: show_backup_messages (config.txt) to turn off backup notifications
Added: SFX instruments documentation in pico8.txt
Added: Error message when trying to export carts with code size over the compressed limit
Changed: If config.txt is not found, the same directory as the executable is searched
Changed: If sdl_controllers.txt exists in the same directory as the executeable, it is processed first
Changed: Shorthand if () statements must be written on a single line
Fixed: reload() from bundled, non-primary cart in exported html multicart reads only original data
Fixed: Exported binaries wrongly observe F7 (capture label)
Fixed: Loading carts from earlier versions alters SFX data not intended for audio
Fixed: Old version of fill patterns documentation near end of pico8.txt
Fixed: 'backed up unsaved changes' message displayed during runtime for cstored() carts
Fixed: PICO-8 runs too slowly when in background (new default background_sleep_ms: 20)
Fixed: Saving screenshots and videos from exported binaries are named 0_*
Fixed: Compressed size limit warning on save doesn't mention exported carts
Fixed: btn(), btnp() don't work in infinite loops
Fixed: btnp() timing inconsistent between 30fps / 60fps / during frame-skipping / with no _update
Fixed: Can't move between channels while music is playing in song mode
v0.1.11b
Fixed: Preprocessor bug regressions: "if (..) or", "a.b -= c - d"
Fixed: Crash when pressing menu button on an empty favourites list
v0.1.11
Added: Binary exporters (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX)
Added: Code tabs
Added: Splore cart menu
Added: Fill patterns
Added: Custom sfx instruments
Added: load("#1234") to load [and run] a BBS cart
Added: -x switch // execute a cart headless, for making commandline toolchains
Added: Compressed size display and limit warning lights in code editor
Added: CTRL-L to jump to a line number in code editor
Added: numbers can be written in binary: 0b10100010
Added: tostr(), tonum()
Added: extcmd(): audio_rec, audio_end to record all audio output.
Added: ls() returns a list of local files if called while running
Added: getmetatable()
Added: coroutine error reporting // wrap coresume() in assert()
Added: sfx() can take a 4th parameter: number of notes to play
Added: Live sfx and music editing + better navigation controls
Added: Transpose selected sfx notes relative to C by entering a note w/ SHIFT held
Added: Insert and delete sfx rows with enter and backspace
Added: Hidden note data is shown in sfx editor when relevant (slide, arps)
Added: Warning displayed when unsaved changes backed up
Added: Separate animation for downloading vs. loading a cart
Added: export -p switch to supply a customized html template
Added: Mousewheel when devkit mouse enabled: stat(36) // not supported in web
Added: < > to change zoom level in gfx and map editors
Changed: Rebalanced / fixed api cpu costs
Changed: Screenshot and gif filenames based on current cart if available
Changed: add() returns the added object
Changed: removed global hpf on audio
Changed: (sfx) can slide to volume 0
Changed: removed master low pass filter
Changed: assert() can take an optional error_message parameter
Changed: ? (shorthand for print()) can be prefixed by whitespace
Changed: shl(), shr() return 0 if second parameter >= 32
Changed: Automatically drop down to software blitting mode if opengl fails
Changed: Lua memory limit set to 2MB (was 1MB)
Changed: Some options (-width, -show_fps) apply only to the session; not saved to config.txt
Updated: Internal game controller mappings from SDL_GameControllerDB
Fixed: Pops & clicks in audio when switching between playing SFX
Fixed: Crash in audio mixer because of bad locking
Fixed: Crash when loading .p8 files with more than 64k of code
Fixed: Indexing of sparse tables fails after removing n/2 elements
Fixed: Calling stat() inside an infinite loop crashes
Fixed: Resetting cartridge corrupts cartridge data in range 0x5e00..0x5eff
Fixed: Can not recover from a cart error caused by glitchy data on resetting
Fixed: String->negative number conversion off by 0x0.0001 (-1 --> 0xffff0001)
Fixed: Crash when running cart closed to 64k char limit
Fixed: Cursor can't move to the right of last character in code editor
Fixed: Missing highlighted keywords: in, add, del, menuitem
Fixed: Preprocessor bugs: "a+=1+2\n*3", "a+=(1)ba=42", "a[(1)]+=1"
Fixed: Preprocessor performs replacements inside a string printed with ?
Fixed: Display freezes when terminating a program running at >100% cpu
Fixed: Quick-running (CTRL-R) clobbers some editor state (e.g. current sprite page)
Fixed: Loading a .p8 file with a future version reports a generic failure
Fixed: alt-enter to toggle fullscreen also triggers pause menu
Fixed: Splore scrolling jumps around when list gets too long
v0.1.10c
Fixed: atan flips sign for very negative values of x close to zero
v0.1.10b
Fixed: HTML exporter carts don't run
Fixed: HTML export 60fps support broken
Fixed: HTML export when path has a space in it (common for OSX)
Fixed: atan2 ignores sign of y
Fixed: (Raspberry Pi) Crash when access gpio not as root
v0.1.10
Added: Multi-cart export in html
Added: Cart reset glitch
Added: Demo carts: bounce, sort
Added: .p8 format can now store cart labels
Added: Splore navigation keys: pageup/down, home, end
Added: Splore usage hint shown on empty favourites list
Added: Warning on boot when data folder is read-only or can't be created
Added: Pressing tab with code selected indents those lines (shift-tab to un-indent)
Added: Double click word to select it
Added: Trigger screenshot/video/label capture from inside program: extcmd()
Changed: CTRL+left/right in code editor skips to end of word or span of non-whitespace
Changed: When a cart terminates from splore, button press is required to continue
Changed: load("@clip") can only be called from commandline (security)
Fixed: Can over-allocate host memory if exceed it within one frame
Fixed: atan2(-1, -32768) crash, and error for small values of dy
Fixed: (Web) using cstore() on self causes unloadable cart (bug introduced in 0.1.8?)
Fixed: (web) Pressing ctrl-v crashes the player (should do nothing)
Fixed: (Raspberry Pi) WiringPi library required in static build
Fixed: (Raspberry Pi) Crash on exit when launching via desktop icon
Fixed: (Raspberry Pi) keyboard input broken (observed on raspi2s)
v0.1.9b
Added: Alternative function key mapping: ctrl-6..9 for F6..F9
Added: Alternative glyph entry method: (ctrl-k) to toggle glyph mode
Changed: Enter glyphs with shift a..z, but can be disabled in config.txt
Changed: Increased emscripten ram to 128MB (some carts at risk of running out)
Fixed: Crash when window size is tiny or minified
Fixed: Crash on toggling fullscreen mode
Fixed: printh can write files outside filetree (security issue)
Fixed: show_fps (can also now be toggled with ctrl-1)
Fixed: Shorthand if/then syntax error when using the form: (functionname)(param)
Fixed: log.txt not saved in path specified by -home switch
Fixed: Default application data folder created even when -home specified
Fixed: Missing dynamic builds (pico8_dyn) from linux archives
Fixed: Removed unneeded RPATH from linux binaries
Fixed: export foo%d.wav fails to write multiple files
v0.1.9
Added: Copy and paste sprites and whole cartridges directly to BBS posts
Added: JAM category in splore
Added: GPIO support for Raspberry Pi
Added: Read clipboard using stat(4) after user presses CTRL-V
Added: printh() can optionally write to a file or the host clipboard
Added: Editor tool information and tips shown on mouseover
Added: Set desktop path with -desktop (screenshots and gifs are saved here)
Added: Warning on saving .p8 when compressed code size exceeds .p8.png limit
Added: Alternative editor colours // config.txt: gui_theme 1
Added: Dotted line every 8 rows in song view
Added: -screenshot_scale (default: 3) and -gif_scale (default: 2)
Added: Can use ctrl-up, ctrl-down to jump to start and end of code
Added: CTRL-M to mute/unmute sound
Added: HTML5-exported carts support 60fps
Added: Timeout switch for splore downloads: -timeout
Changed: Glyph characters typed with alt + a..z
Changed: stat(0) does not include allocations waiting to be garbage collected
Changed: Unfiltered screen stretching at integer scales by default
Changed: Removed -aspect and -scale settings (use draw_rect instead)
Fixed: -home has no effect under Windows
Fixed: Sometimes frame skipping starts before CPU usage has reached 100%
Fixed: Double-speed BTNP() timing in 60fps mode
Fixed: Exported HTML fails when _update60 is used instead of _update
Fixed: Can't copy and paste button glyphs
Fixed: Lines containing glyphs do not scroll far enough horizontally
Fixed: Loading .p8 renamed as .p8.png from splore freezes
Fixed: Bucketfill in map doesn't sync to shared memory
Fixed: fset fails when de-setting flags
Fixed: Syntax error when beginning with the form: IF (..) [OR|AND]\n
Fixed: cls() costs twice as much cpu as it should
Fixed: wav file exporter missing some data / writing truncated buffers
Fixed: Entering new notes in song view doesn't observe current volume, instrument
Fixed: alt-tab sometimes generates alt character text entry event
Fixed: Resuming a cancelled download in splore causes crash
Fixed: Controller attributes in log.txt always shown as -1
v0.1.8
Added: 60fps support
Added: Music exporter
Added: Custom GIF length (maximum 120 seconds)
Added: -,+ to navigate sprite tabs, sfx, music patterns
Added: sfx editor: navigate with home, end, pageup/down, mousewheel
Added: <, > to modify sfx speed, or click and drag
Added: Middle mouse button to pan around spritesheet / map
Added: Shortcut command for splore: S
Added: Pre-installed selection of BBS cart (use INSTALL_GAMES)
Added: Warning when saving .p8.png with no label
Added: (OSX) logging to ~/Library/Logs (viewable with Console.app)
Added: -pixel_perfect switch (on by default)
Added: -draw_rect switch
Changed: Can not CTRL-S save over a loaded bbs cart
Changed: Only .p8 files listed by dir() and by splore
Changed: Command history increased to 256
Changed: exit() / shutdown() have no effect while running cart
Fixed: Memory usage (stat(0)) inconsistent across host platforms
Fixed: Spinny disks shows when reloading current cart with load()
Fixed: GIF saver does not respect 64x64 / mirrored modes
Fixed: Miscellaneous multi-line comments / strings issues
Fixed: Empty map cels cost cpu in mapdraw()
Fixed: mapdraw() slowdown when drawing bottom half of map
Fixed: preprocess changes semantics when += and : operators on same line
Fixed: Identifiers starting with underscore counted as extra token
Fixed: Saving .png exceeding compressed code limit fails silently
Fixed: Right-clicking a sprite does not set the currently edited sprite
Fixed: (Windows) extra space added to pasted lines
Fixed: spr() expensive when drawn with low negative coordinates
Fixed: pipe character identical to colon character
Fixed: (Raspberry Pi) shift key appends a character when entering text
Fixed: Editor mode buttons are still clickable during cart runtime
Fixed: When loading a .p8.png file, label is reset and needs to be re-captured
Fixed: export() does not report failure
Fixed: mset()'d changes in shared memory not readable via peek() / sget()
Fixed: cstore() saving edited code
Fixed: audio pop between patterns during music playback
v0.1.7
Added: menuitem()
Added: button glyphs in code (shift-L, R, U, D, X, O)
Added: Customisable data directory (e.g. pico8 -home mydata)
Added: Web gpio pins: read and write pico8_gpio[] in javscript
Fixed: SPLORE search doesn't reset
Fixed: Splore skipping 33rd cart listing after loading more items
Fixed: Crash when selecting a local binary file in splore
Fixed: Semicolon can't be used as a list or statement separator
Fixed: Exported html can not cstore self
v0.1.6
Added: SPLORE local & bbs cartridge explorer
Added: setmetatable(), cocreate(), coresume(), costatus(), yield()
Added: Spinning cart icon to show when a cart is swapped / written to
Added: Permanent storage when carts played in a browser
Added: Adjustable aspect ratio (-aspect 420 for 1:1)
Changed: Lua memory limit: 1024k (was 512k)
Changed: Music channel now resumes after being clobbered by an sfx
Changed: Arpeggios double speed when SFX speed <= 8
Changed: Exceeding compressed code limit does not block saving in .p8 format
Changed: spr() half as expensive, to be consistent with map()
Changed: Fractional hex number notation: 0x0.3 == 0x0.3000, (was 0x0.0003)
Changed: : operator doesn't count as an extra token (same as .)
Changed: cstore() writes directly to disk
Changed: cstore(), reload() return number of bytes read / written
Changed: save() while running does nothing. (use cstore() instead)
Changed: load() while running loads and runs the specified cartridge
Fixed: Small pops in audio mixer caused by sound wave discontinuities
Fixed: HTML5-exported sound clicks badly under Chrome
Fixed: Display palette is not oberserved when exporting GIFs
Fixed: Rapid keypresses causes duplicate readings in tracker & text editor
Fixed: += inside comments breaks preprocessor
Fixed: sspr() cpu cost the same when clipped
Fixed: cartdata() with bad parameters crashes
Fixed: EXPORT from commandline can not be used without brackets and quotes
v0.1.5
Added: Raspberry Pi Build
Added: Keyboard configuration for player buttons (KEYCONFIG)
Added: Music tracker select / copy / paste
Added: Single-level undo in audio tools
Added: Live preview of frequencies in sound editor
Fixed: Command history extends past last reboot
Fixed: Sfx exporter broken
Fixed: Slashes at end of path resolve to double slashes
Fixed: Load cart from commandline under Windows
v0.1.4d
v0.1.4c
Fixed: International character entry inserting extra characters
Fixed: Lines with tabs have broken cursor placement and display boundary
v0.1.4b
Fixed: OSX command-key combinations broken
v0.1.4
Added: spritesheet importing and exporting with import("blah.png"), export("blah.png")
Added: sfx exporting with export("blah%d.wav")
Added: External cartridge parameter for reload() and cstore()
Added: Persistent cartridge data mapped to 0x5e00
Added: Click token limit to toggle token & char limit display
Added: assert(), type()
Added: P to pause
Changed: code char limit: 64k (was 32k)
Changed: local declarations and semicolons not counted as tokens
Changed: Pairs of brackets and block delimitations count as one token
Changed: Only _update() or _draw() need to exist to enter main loop
Changed: Allow forward-slash in code editor
Changed: info() reports current (last loaded or saved) filename
Changed: html5 version compiled with NO_DYNAMIC_EXECUTION
Changed: can only cstore up to 64 different files in one session
Changed: load() automatically copies data section of cart to base ram
Fixed: Shift-drag-copy sprites -> paste only pastes 1x1
Fixed: ".." should count as one token
Fixed: Tracker displaying D instead of .
Fixed: Multi-line comments
Fixed: Crash on run when code close to char limit
Fixed: When over token limit, can not run any command
Fixed: Unused high bits in SFX section not saved in .p8 format
Fixed: Camera position memory mapping out of sync
Fixed: pico8.txt link broken in windows installer
Fixed: print() crashes when parameter is not a string or numbers
Fixed: Multi-line strings & escape chars mess up tokenizer and print()
Fixed: Joystick not responding when left stick is up to the left
Fixed: Alt-F4 saves screenshot before quitting
Fixed: Sprite editor mode button doesn't show fullscreen mode
Fixed: -sound parameter not working in html5 version
v0.1.3
Added: paste into commandline
Fixed: lua standard libraries accessible
Fixed: command-line loading doesn't work
Fixed: music pattern finished too early when all tracks set to looping
Fixed: peek()ing odd bytes in sfx address space masks bit 7
Fixed: cstore and reload from code space should have no effect
v0.1.2
Added: html5 cartridge exporter
Added: Cartridge save data (64 fixed point numbers)
Added: 8-player input
Added: Demo carts: COLLIDE and BUTTERFLY
Added: Command-line parameters // load cart, -run, settings
Added: Alternative function keys (F6..F9 aliased as F1..F4)
Added: pairs()
Added: printh() for debugging
Added: Tab completion for filenames in console
Added: stack trace on runtime error
Changed: music pattern length taken to be first non-looping channel's length
Changed: noise instrument (6) has low frequency white noise scaled by volume
Changed: screenshot captures whole window contents at display resolution
Changed: del() moves remaining items up one index to maintain a packed table
Changed: add(),del(),count(),all() no longer store extra fields
Changed: removed count() from docs -- now just a legacy function. Use # operator instead.
Changed: cursor only blinks while window is active
Changed: peek(), poke() and bitwise operations (band()..) have no function call overhead
Changed: yellow slightly warmer
Changed: No camera snapping after pan in map mode
Fixed: sqrt() crashing for 0 or >= 32761
Fixed: Semi-colon characters in text editor
Fixed: Long lines split when saving in .p8 format
Fixed: pget() does not respect camera position
Fixed: Error message when peeking or poking outside of legal address space
Fixed: Search replace colour fills one pixel outside of selected region
Fixed: Playing an empty music pattern breaks subsequent music playback
Fixed: Invalid sfx editing state on startup
Fixed: Painting instruments values in frequency view also sets volumes
Fixed: Inconsistent gif recording speeds
Fixed: Unmapped joystick support
Fixed: Compressed code size sometimes larger than uncompressed
Fixed: mid() fails when first argument is not smallest
Fixed: Scroll wheel changes sprite/map zoom while in code editor
Fixed: CTRL-R (quick-run) drawing over current line in command mode
Fixed: Label capture (F7) does not respect display palette state
Fixed: Syntax highlighting of api functions and hex numbers
Fixed: Looping to 0 with negative step finishes at 1
Fixed: nil values printed as false instead of nil
Fixed: Hexadecimal fractional parts
Fixed: btnp() unresponsive when skipping frames
Fixed: Editing mode is lost when using ctrl-r to run
Fixed: Tracker note entry keys mapped, messing up piano-like layout
Fixed: Shared gfx/map memory out of sync after some editor operations
Fixed: Alt-gr character entry
Fixed: Can map display palette to entries >= 16 using poke()
Fixed: Using shift to select in code editor has wrong selection range
Fixed: Dragging above top of text causes selection to flip to end
Fixed: Duplicate at end of file listing
v0.1.1
Added: Token-based code limiting (8192 tokens, 32k ascii text)
Added: Freeform move, pan and selection in sprite and map editors
Added: Flood-fill tool (sprite and map)
Added: .GIF saver
Added: CTRL-Stamp to stamp with transparency
Added: Single-step undo for map and sprites
Added: 2x2 brush
Added: sqrt(), atan2()
Added: CTRL-S to quick-save
Added: CTRL-R reloads .p8 file and runs (useful for external text editing)
Added: Automatic backups on overwriting or quitting without saving
Added: Scroll wheel zooms in sprite editor
Added: Customisable resolution // e.g. pico8 -width 580
Added: Strings highlighted as green
Added: ALT-click can optionally simulate right click (see config.txt)
Added: palt() to control transparency for spr(), sspr()
Added: info()
Changed: load() tries adding .p8.png, .png if file doesn't exist
Changed: Draw operations apply only to selection when active
Changed: Move operations (cursors) apply to selection if present
Changed: Removed time()
Changed: Random seed is random on cart startup
Changed: api functions never read directly from cart rom
Changed: sspr() can take negative values for dw, dh
Fixed: Sparse table indexing with integers fails
Fixed: Assignment operators and shortform if-then-else failing
Fixed: sspr() failed when w0 == 128
Fixed: Circle drawing broken when camera not (0,0)
Fixed: CPU hogging
Fixed: Noise instrument clobbers rnd() sequence
Fixed: Audio system not resetting on program reset
Fixed: % operator sometimes wrong for negative values
Fixed: Length operator (#)
Fixed: Power operator (^)
Fixed: Line clipping bug on right and bottom edges
Fixed: print() precision for whole numbers
Fixed: print() broken for negative y values
Fixed: tokenization and keyword highlighting
Fixed: sprite properties not copied/pasted
Fixed: Only sfx 0..32 could be used as music patterns
Fixed: Saving and loading a .p8 file adds newline to end of code
Fixed: Drag selection to left margin in code editor -> selects all
v0.1.0
Added: demo cart: hello.p8 (use install_demos)
Added: CTRL-R from anywhere to run cart or restart cart
Added: use a,s to select colour in gfx editor
Added: consistent operation cpu costs
Added: btn(), btnp() with no arguments returns bitfield
Added: fget(id) returns bitfield of that sprite's flags
Changed: renamed mapdraw() to map() for consistency
Changed: default sleep time is 5ms (better cpu consumption for laptops)
Fixed: memory limiter
Fixed: wonky line and circle drawing
Fixed: shift-click volume in sfx editor to set all
Fixed: number formatting is now never in scientific notation
Fixed: clipped error messages in console
Fixed: text undo stores rollback points when chaning line number
Fixed: print(str) carriage returns to previous x
v0.0.5
Added: help()
Added: Ctrl+F / Ctrl+G to search for text, repeat search
Added: del key in code editor
Added: Short-hand single-line IF statements
Added: Unary operators += -= /= *= %=
Added: srand(), time(), added rnd() to docs
Added: Ctrl+D to duplicate line
Added: interactive ls() for multi-page file listings
Added: band() bor() bxor() bnot() shl() shr()
Added: runtime error line number
Added: dir() (aliased to ls())
Changed: print() only autoscrolls when called with no parameters
Changed: alt+up/down to skip between function definitions (was ctrl)
Changed: sspr() dw, dh defaults to sw, sh
Fixed: Load crashes on files that are not .p8 format or directories
Fixed: Misc editor cursor position glitches
Fixed: Crash when syntax error occurs before viewing code
Fixed: Broken newlines after rebooting
Fixed: mkdir() called with no parameters creating "(null)" directory
Fixed: scrolling past top of code with scrollwheel
Fixed: alt-f4 to fastquit
v0.0.4
Added: Jelpi demo cart
Added: Internal carts // use install_demos()
Added: Joystick support
Added: Undo/redo in code editor
Added: Scroll wheel in code editor
Added: LCTRL + UP/DOWN to navigate functions in code editor
Added: LALT + LEFT/RIGHT to switch editing modes
Added: btnp()
Added: Release looping sample (a in editor , sfx(-2, channel) in code)
Changed: Music stops when pausing program execution
Changed: Allow 8 settable sprite flags
Changed: Made noise instrument more bassy
Fixed: Home, end keys
Fixed: Sprite flags 4,5 not saved
Fixed: mset() discarding 4 high bits
Fixed: Crash when highlighting long strings
v0.0.3
Added: Palette mapping type 1 (on display)
Added: Collections can be initialized with c={1,2,..}
Added: holdframe() // used automatically by _draw(), update()
Added: Sprite selections and operations across selections
Added: Map selection and stamp tool
Added: Immediate mode screen buffer preserved while switching views
Added: Channel mask for music playback
Added: Memory mapping for live sound data
Added: .png cart format
Added: Sprite navigation by keyboard (-, +)
Fixed: Strict 4-channel sound
Fixed: Automatic sfx channel selection (channel index: -1)
v0.0.2
Added: Command history
Added: P2 keys
Added: Boot sequence
Added: Windows, 64-bit linux builds
Added: CPU cost of internal api functions
Added: Separate song channel index and mute status
Added: Memory mapping
Added: Search/replace colour in sprite editor
Added: Copy/paste sprites and map regions
Improved: Immediate mode command editing
Improved: Editor cursor behaviour
Fixed: Automatic audio channel selection
v0.0.1
First Alpha
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