Are you a fan of old school video games? What if I told you there’s an NES-style game devkit with the sound/sprite/code tools all built in? And that it can even be used to make polygonal 3D games like Star Fox, but has an intuitive and fun interface?

重新你的老同学视频游戏迷？ 如果我告诉您，有一个内置声音/图片/代码工具的NES风格游戏devkit，该怎么办？ 而且它甚至可以用于制作Star Fox等多边形3D游戏，但具有直观且有趣的界面吗？

Well, such a thing exists. And it’s beautiful to behold. Not only is it a game development platform, but there is a large library of existing games that you can play either with its built in user-sharing platform or as an HTML game you can find for free (or sold) on the internet.

好吧，这样的事情存在。 真是美丽。 它不仅是游戏开发平台，而且还有大量的现有游戏库，您可以使用其内置的用户共享平台来玩，也可以作为HTML游戏来玩，您可以在互联网上免费(或出售)该游戏。

First off, here’s a YouTube playlist of a few games that were designed in this platform, so you can get a feel for what to expect.

首先，这是此平台上设计的一些游戏的YouTube播放列表 ，因此您可以对期望的感受。

The Pico-8 is a fantasy console, which is to say it’s a program (like an emulator is) of a game console that never physically existed. It is a recent creation, and on top of being able to run the games made for it, you can create your own games in it.

Pico-8是一个幻想游戏机，也就是说，它是从未真正存在过的游戏机程序(就像模拟器一样)。 这是一个新创建的游戏，除了能够运行为此制作的游戏外，您还可以在其中创建自己的游戏。

A fantasy console is sort of like a virtual machine, which is a program that could, for example, run a Windows XP simulation inside of Windows 10. But this particular fantasy console has based its aesthetics and limitations off of retro game systems like the NES or Game Boy or Super Nintendo. It has a sprite editor, a 32KB information limit to replicate the limitations of developing for old game systems, and a music tracker. But don’t fret about the size limit. It’s pretty hard to reach.

幻想控制台有点像虚拟机，该程序可以在Windows 10内运行Windows XP仿真。但是，这种特殊的幻想控制台基于NES等复古游戏系统的美学和局限性或Game Boy或Super Nintendo。 它具有一个精灵编辑器，一个32KB的信息限制(可复制用于旧游戏系统的开发限制)以及一个音乐跟踪器。 但是不要担心大小限制。 很难达到。

Once you’ve made your game, you can share it on the in-app Splore system or export it as a product to sell on a games marketplace like itch.io.

制作游戏后，您可以在应用内Splore系统上共享它，也可以将其导出为产品，以在itch.io等游戏市场上出售 。

Pico-8 games are called “cartridges”, but they are really just computer files. Once a game is made in it, it can be saved as a PNG file (seriously) or exported to HTML. HTML is probably the best way to do it, as that is the primary way that web browser games are played now.

Pico-8游戏被称为“弹壳”，但实际上它们只是计算机文件。 制作完游戏后，可以将其保存为PNG文件(严重)或导出为HTML。 HTML可能是最好的方式，因为这是现在玩网络浏览器游戏的主要方式。

共享平台 (The sharing platform)

And there is a large and bustling community of game fans creating for this platform. Pico-8 is a .exe app on a desktop computer, like Steam is. When you open your Pico-8 application, you can input “s” right away to open the Splore section, where you can play hundreds of well-developed games.

为此平台创建了一个庞大而繁华的游戏迷社区。 Pico-8是台式机上的.exe应用程序，例如Steam。 当您打开Pico-8应用程序时，您可以立即输入“ s”以打开“ Splore”部分，在这里您可以玩数百种开发良好的游戏。

People have made some brilliant things. Some of the examples pictured are just demoscene, which is to say that they’re little title screen imitations of well-known games. But you can make robust games.

人们做了一些很棒的事情。 图中的一些示例只是场景的演示，也就是说，它们只是知名游戏的标题屏幕模仿。 但是您可以制作强大的游戏。

Have you heard of Celeste? It is a masterful indie game whose prototype was made with this program.

您听说过Celeste吗？ 这是一款出色的独立游戏，其原型是使用此程序制作的。

And if you know Superhot, a very cool demake of it was published to Pico for kicks that I think is worth checking out. This and the Celeste prototype are both free on the built-in Splore function, or can be played online here and here.

而且，如果您知道Superhot ，就将它的很酷的翻版发布给Pico，以获取我认为值得一试的脚踢。 此版本和Celeste原型都可以通过内置的Splore功能免费使用，也可以在此处和此处在线播放。

Pico-8和HTML游戏是新的Flash (Pico-8 and HTML games are the new Flash)

If someone uploaded their game to a website, you can play it on the website just like you would a Flash game. Here is a list of Pico-8 games you can play on the internet, and almost all of them are fantastic. You don’t have to have anything installed to play HTML-upload versions that you find on webpages.

如果有人将他们的游戏上传到网站，则可以像Flash游戏一样在网站上进行游戏。 这是您可以在互联网上玩的Pico-8游戏的列表，几乎所有这些都很棒。 您无需安装任何程序即可播放在网页上找到HTML上载版本。

Now, what’s great about Pico-8 is that when developing a game for it, it brings together all the pieces so that you don’t have to. You don’t have to get Photoshop or a music program like Ableton Live to create assets.

现在，Pico-8的优点在于，在为其开发游戏时，它会将所有部件整合在一起，因此您不必这样做。 您无需获取Photoshop或诸如Ableton Live之类的音乐程序即可创建资产。

Normally, creating video games is difficult. Game engines like Unreal Engine 4, Unity, or CryEngine have fairly steep learning curves. And my prayers are with you if you try to code a game engine from scratch out of something like C++. GameMaker Studio 2 or Godot are easier to learn and make 2D games out of, but still require coding knowledge for the most part.

通常，创建视频游戏很困难。 虚幻引擎4，Unity或CryEngine等游戏引擎的学习曲线相当陡峭。 如果您尝试使用C ++之类的代码从头开始编写游戏引擎，那么我的祈祷就在您的身边。 GameMaker Studio 2或Godot更易于学习和制作2D游戏，但在大多数情况下仍需要编码知识。

声音编辑器 (The sound editor)

And not only is the programming of game logic hard in most programs, but creating video games that faithfully simulate the sound and graphics and quirks of a console like the Sega Genesis is also very hard in any game engine.

在大多数程序中，不仅很难对游戏逻辑进行编程，而且要创建忠实地模拟诸如Sega Genesis之类的控制台的声音，图形和怪癖的视频游戏，在任何游戏引擎中也非常困难。

Something else that baffles me is making music that sounds authentically like those old consoles. Not only do you have to understand synthesizer stuff, but to do it the old-school way you have to find a tracker program like DefleMask. And even that isn’t totally faithful, because the best way to make music that sounds like the original console is to wire up the original console’s sound chip.

让我感到困惑的还有其他一些事情，那就是制作听起来像那些旧调音台的音乐。 您不仅需要了解合成器的内容，而且还必须以老式的方式来找到诸如DefleMask之类的跟踪器程序。 甚至那也不是完全忠实的，因为制作听起来像原始调音台的音乐的最佳方法是连接原始调音台的声音芯片。

But Pico-8 has a sound tracker built in, and you can create your own “pew” sounds with sound bites and loops, sequence together musical notes (like F# or B flat) into melodies and full songs, and use sound distortions on individual samples to get the perfect tone to your bleep noises.

但是Pico-8内置了一个声音跟踪器，您可以创建带有声音叮咬和循环的自己的“双脚”声音，将音符(如F＃或B平音)排序成旋律和整首歌曲，并对单个声音使用失真采样，以获得您的哔哔声的完美音调。

代码编辑器 (The code editor)

It should be noted that although this is a very all-in-one package, that there is still coding in this game engine. Similar to how GameMaker Studio 2 uses it’s C-like language to tell your sprite to move up or down or left or right, Pico-8 uses the Lua programming language to code what happens on every frame of every second that a game is running.

应该注意的是，尽管这是一个非常多合一的程序包，但是该游戏引擎中仍然存在代码。 与GameMaker Studio 2使用类似C的语言来告诉您的精灵向上或向下或向左或向右移动一样 ， Pico-8使用Lua编程语言来编码游戏运行的每一秒钟所发生的情况。

Lua is a scripting language that is often used for game development. The game engine LOVE2D also deals in Lua.

Lua是一种脚本语言，通常用于游戏开发。 游戏引擎LOVE2D也使用Lua交易。

您很快就会知道是否适合您…… (You’ll know if it’s for you pretty quickly…)

Overall, I think that if you have a remote interest in:

总体而言，我认为， 如果您对以下方面感兴趣：

1. Learning to code

   学习编码

2. Pixel art

   像素艺术

3. Video game design

   电子游戏设计

4. Music theory

   音乐理论

5. Actually playing video games

   实际玩电子游戏

… then you should check out the Pico-8. Or Voxatron. Voxatron is cool, too. It deals with voxels, which are cubic pixels laid out in 3D space. People make 3D games with it that similarly have a retro aesthetic, and, like Pico, it has a Splore function in it to easily find games within the app.

…那么您应该检查一下Pico-8。 或Voxatron。 Voxatron也很酷。 它处理体素，这是在3D空间中布置的立方像素。 人们使用它制作具有类似复古美感的3D游戏，并且与Pico一样，它具有Splore功能，可以在应用程序内轻松找到游戏。

The Pico-8 was created by Joseph White in Kichijoji, Japan, under his company Lexaloffle Games. He had been working on it unknowingly for years while doing contractual game development gigs that required sprite/sound design tools. In 2011 he released Voxatron, a voxel-editing fantasy console. While Voxatron was his 3D sprite/graphics editor, he also had a project called LEX500 for 2D sprites/graphics. In 2013 he renamed LEX500 to Pico-8, after the Pico Pico Cafe which serves as the studio of Lexaloffle Games in Japan.

Pico-8由约瑟夫·怀特(Joseph White)在他的公司Lexaloffle Games下在日本吉祥寺创建。 在从事需要精灵/声音设计工具的合同游戏开发演出时，他多年来一直在不知不觉中从事这项工作。 2011年，他发布了Voxatron，这是一种体素编辑幻想控制台。 当Voxatron是他的3D子图形/图形编辑器时，他还有一个名为LEX500的2D子图形/图形项目。 2013年，他以Pico Pico Cafe(日本Lexaloffle Games的工作室)命名，将LEX500重命名为Pico-8。

那么这一切值什么呢？ (So what’s it all worth?)

I should tell you that Pico-8 does cost money. It’s $15 USD.

我应该告诉你，Pico-8确实要花钱。 15美元。

But if you buy the Voxatron, which is $20 USD, you get the Pico-8 thrown in for free. I think that that‘s a pretty good deal for such robust game development platforms, and for all the games you can play within the Splore function of the both of them, so I bought it. I’m not even a marketer, I’m just a fan of retro games.

但是，如果您购买的Voxatron价格为20美元，您将免费获得Pico-8。 我认为，对于如此强大的游戏开发平台来说，这是一笔不错的交易，对于您可以在两个平台的Splore功能中玩的所有游戏，我都买了它。 我什至不是营销商，我只是复古游戏的粉丝。

Overall, I highly recommend this program for anyone looking for a fun way to learn coding or make games. Maybe you could sign up for a game jam contest and make something awesome that wins an award. Sites like itch.io are awesome for their game jams that anyone can enter.

总体而言，我强烈建议任何寻求有趣的方法来学习编码或制作游戏的人使用此程序。 也许您可以报名参加一场游戏大赛，并做出令人赞叹的奖项。 itch.io之类的网站真棒，任何人都可以进入。

Lastly, if you are interested, check out this YouTube video that explains in five minutes why the Pico-8 is awesome.

最后，如果您有兴趣，请观看此YouTube视频，该视频在五分钟内说明了Pico-8为何很棒。

Also, there are free “zines” that have been published for the platform, such as a game development handbook. Here is the general fanzine (PDF) and here is the game development guidebook (PDF). There is also an easy-to-use cheat sheet of the coding commands.

此外，已经为该平台发布了免费的“ zines”，例如游戏开发手册。 这是一般的杂志 (PDF)， 这是游戏开发指南 (PDF)。 编码命令还有一个易于使用的备忘单 。

Thanks for reading, and happy gaming! Remember that you can try the games that have been posted to the internet in HTML.

感谢您的阅读和游戏愉快！ 请记住，您可以尝试使用 HTML发布到互联网上的游戏 。