Pico-8 on a GBZ

Raspberry Pi OS/Software discussion (beyond RetroPie-specific issues)
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Dukana
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Pico-8 on a GBZ

Post by Dukana » Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:33 am

I got interested in running Pico-8 on a Gameboy Zero, and discovered a few issues. So I'm going to detail the steps to get it installed.

First, you'll need to get the software. You can purchase a liscense for the low cost of $14.99 at https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php#getpico8 They'll email you a key, then you can download the file on the site.

Once you've got the key, click on the floppy disk with the version number to get to the download page. Grab the Raspberry Pi zip file.
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pico 8 download page.jpg
pico 8 download page.jpg (328.57 KiB) Viewed 11859 times
Now you'll need to transfer the zip file to your GBZ. I use WinSCP.
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transfer the file to the gbz.jpg
transfer the file to the gbz.jpg (399.8 KiB) Viewed 11859 times
Once the file in there, log in to your GBZ via SSH. You'll need to unzip the file.
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unzip pico8.jpg
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Okay, let's check it out!
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pico8error.jpg
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"error while loading shared libraries: libwiringPi.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

Uh-oh.... looks like it wants us to install WiringPi. Easy enough. Head to http://wiringpi.com/download-and-install/ and scroll down to "Plan B". You might give the regular installation method a shot, but I couldn't! Plan B worked perfectly, however.

-BTW, Kite mentioned on discord that this step might be simplified with:

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sudo apt-get install wiringpi
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install wiringpi.jpg
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check the wiringpi installation.jpg
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Okay! Now that that's installed, just need to head back to the pico-8 directory and try running it again.
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lets try that again.jpg
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Success! Pico-8 is running on a GBZ!
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success.jpg
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Coming soon... installing Pico-8 in emulationstation and setting up the controls. It works now with a keyboard, but I want to use the D-pad and buttons!
If you'd like to check that out, see https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=3935 and skip down to "Launching PICO-8 from Emulation Station"
Last edited by Dukana on Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

Dukana
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Re: Pico-8 on a GBZ

Post by Dukana » Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:33 am

Got the GBZ controls to work. When I installed Pico-8 on my Gameboy Zero, it didn't install the hidden folder with the config file, or the controller setup file. Whoops! I ended up installing the Linux version and copying that folder. After setting up the controller file and tweaking config.txt, it works like a dream.

You can get the file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/xx6o0n5sw ... orSAIO.zip

Simply unzip it in /home/pi/

When you run pico8, the controls should work. Now, the setup is specifically for a build using Kites Super All-In-One board, but the file sdl_controllers.txt can be modified for other builds. To make a custom controller config, check this out: https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/guide-to-wri ... tchip/8757

Emulationstation is... complicated. I can get it to launch, but it won't allow me to modify the screen resolution, so it's pretty small. And there's no way to exit from the Pico-8 software back to Emulationstation without a keyboard. Also, for some reason it wasn't letting me connect to the BBS to get a list of games. I did some digging and it turned out I needed to update wget

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install wget
Once that was up to date, I could connect to the BBS and download games.

The best way to play is to launch from the command line, using

Code: Select all

./pico8 -height 256 -width 256 -pixel_perfect 0 -splore

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Billy Blaze
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Re: Pico-8 on a GBZ

Post by Billy Blaze » Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:18 pm

hey Dukana,

thanks for the excellent guide. I tried to gather all information I can get on how to PICO-8 + GBZ and updated Kites wiki: https://github.com/kiteretro/Circuit-Sw ... for-PICO-8
over here you can also find a solution to launch PICO-8 without a keyboard (no terminal/command line needed).

please let me know if there is any further news you came across so far . I'll update things immediately.

thanks again!
your step by step guide helped me a lot to get my setup up and running.

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Re: Pico-8 on a GBZ

Post by ltpitt » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:43 am

Hi all!

I wrote a couple of Pyton hacks to quit PICO-8 from SuperAIO and RaspiBoy.

I will setup github repos with more details about installation / usage / tweaking.

For the moment they do their job decently, here's the scripts:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=51275#p51275

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Billy Blaze
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Re: Pico-8 on a GBZ

Post by Billy Blaze » Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:45 pm

ltpitt wrote:
Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:43 am
previous postShow
Hi all!

I wrote a couple of Pyton hacks to quit PICO-8 from SuperAIO and RaspiBoy.

I will setup github repos with more details about installation / usage / tweaking.

For the moment they do their job decently, here's the scripts:
https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?pid=51275#p51275
neat! and thanks for sharing.
I'm looking forward to the tutorial on how to setup everything. when tested I'll upload all news to Kite's wiki as well.

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Billy Blaze
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Re: Pico-8 on a GBZ

Post by Billy Blaze » Thu Jun 28, 2018 1:28 am

good news everybody:

I've spoken to Joseph White the developer of Pico-8 and he told me that in the next update we will have a SHUTDOWN option for the in-game menu. this should make thinks much easier.

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