Welcome to the beginning of my new blog. My plan is to write about everything to do with fantasy consoles. This includes game reviews, coding tips and tricks, deep dives into techniques, and tech demos. I want to keep this blog light and I will be following the same philosophy as Fabien Sanglard. No comments sections, no analytics, no trackers, no ads. If you would like to contact me, email mlbb@sharpthinking.ca.
A fantasy console is a piece of software that implements specific “hardware” limitations that mimics older platforms (e.g. Commodore 64). Generally, a fantasy console will limit RAM, execution time, palette, and screen size. These faux limitations force a developer to focus on polishing a much smaller set of features and to think outside of the box to squeeze as much performance out of the platform. I’ve listed some example fantasy consoles below:
| Name | Website | Price |
|---|---|---|
| PICO-8 | https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php | $15 |
| TIC-80 | https://tic.computer/ | Free / $5 |
| LIKO-12 | https://ramilego4game.itch.io/liko12 | Pay what you want |
| BASIC8 | https://paladin-t.github.io/b8/ | $14.99 |
I will mainly be focusing on PICO-8 and TIC-80 as these are the two consoles I have the most experience. I hope to see you back here once I’ve released some more content!