SCRIPT-8: An 8 Bit Fantasy Computer Programmed with Javascript

Hello everybody, author here. I hope you enjoy my tiny project.<p>Regarding language, I chose Javascript for three reasons:<p>- the (ab)use of `eval` lets you do all sorts of sorcery, like instant evaluation<p>- the JS Redux library makes it easy to work with state, and I couldn&#x27;t have implemented SCRIPT-8&#x27;s time-traveling debugger without it<p>- I dream in Javascript<p>I love Lua&#x27;s small footprint, and very early on I considered writing SCRIPT-8 in MoonScript, which compiles to Lua and has gorgeous syntax. Maybe some day.<p>And yes, my fantasy computer is definitely not the only open source project, there&#x27;s several out there, and probably all of them are more stable than mine. Go check them out.

I find kind of disingenuous that the page does not mention PICO-8 at all, which is the obvious inspiration for this project, starting from the name. Many people who are in the scene, as it were, do know PICO-8 and know to draw the parallels, but it&#x27;d still be nice to link back to <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lexaloffle.com&#x2F;pico-8.php" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lexaloffle.com&#x2F;pico-8.php</a> somewhere...

I&#x27;m an avid Pico-8&#x2F;fantasy computer fan, and this is a really nice project. There have been quite a number of fantasy consoles coming out within the past few years, so it&#x27;s nice to see one that offers features that the others don&#x27;t, rather than simply &quot;Pico-8, but with a twist&quot;. The live coding window and sliders in particular are simple things that increase QoL.<p>Others have noted that the use of JS is somewhat of a turn off, but even as a big Lua fan myself, it doesn&#x27;t really bother me, I already have one (probably more than one) Lua fantasy console that covers my wishes. However, the author&#x27;s comment here did mention adding MoonScript support, which would be something I would be very interested in.

This looks incredible ! Real time editing, time travel ... and integrated sprite, map, and music editors are a real plus. Only thing is the default color palette that is great but I wonder if we can change it ?<p>For people complaining about JS vs Lua : go have a look at Amulet. This is not a fantasy console but also has an online editor and is perfectly suited for retro games. Just have a look at &quot;Defender of the Weeping Quasar&quot; in the example section : <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amulet.xyz&#x2F;editor.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amulet.xyz&#x2F;editor.html</a>

Interesting how different people arrive at similar ideas. Many years ago I created a retro-like &quot;virtual computer&quot; in Java, called simpleJ, to let teenagers learn how to program by creating simple arcade games. It also had an IDE like environment, with a step by step debugger that could draw a diagram of run time data-structures (arrays, linked lists, trees, etc.), a tile editor, a sprite editor, and a even a book teaching you how to program a video game. You can take a look at it at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;simplej.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;simplej.com&#x2F;</a> (in Spanish).

This is exceptional - an online IDE with tutorials, sprite and tune editor, interesting code examples and little games to hack on, even an upload to share feature.<p>It only looks a bit ~dusty due to the sepia pallet, should be good to have other choices like a neon hue, and even free custom selection. But hats off here, this is a great resource !

For those wondering, the biggest differentiator of this from PICO-8 is that this is open-source and PICO-8 is not.

My main minus to this is not that it&#x27;s JS(I&#x27;m building a JS fantasy computer too) but that it&#x27;s a node&#x2F;react piece, which inspires zero confidence that it will have anything resembling foundational stability in the future.

I&#x27;m super jazzed about this. Wonder if there&#x27;s anything gained by compiling to web assembly? Thanks for making this.

Unlike most, I don&#x27;t see a problem with it being Lua or JavaScript. I&#x27;m just curious why people pick such high-level languages in the first place. I&#x27;m planning to make a fantasy computer myself (basing it off the z80), and would never think to make it scriptable in something other than machine code.

It&#x27;s nice but why does it seem to have lower resolution and fewer colors than actual 8 bit computers?

Is there a sample game to view?

Nice project! It would be great to have on-screen gamepad on mobile!

Congrats, excellent work, I&#x27;ll be exploring...

The time-traveling and live editing features make this incredible.<p>When I get the time I’d love to replicate this in Go (since I’m trying to learn Go at the moment). Nice work!

I love absolutely everything about this except the language choice.

&quot;8-bit&quot;<p>You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.<p>Javascript has no 8-bit types, nor does it have memory limits that 8-bit machines had. Pixelated graphics are cool and all, but it does not place you in the same league with people who made games fit in 128 bytes of ram and 2K of ROM, sorry!