Is it an actual VM with its own bytecode and so on? As far as I've looked it's more like the idea of a VM built as a set of Lua APIs and memory constraints. However, the creator seems to be doing a Java-like push where the language, runtime, standard library, and development tools are all marketed as one "technology", so it's not especially clear to me.
"a VM built as a set of Lua APIs and memory constraints. However, the creator seems to be doing a Java-like push where the language, runtime, standard library, and development tools are all marketed as one "technology", so it's not especially clear to me"
Look beyond the technology and you see a tool that allows you to; play games other people make; let you tinker with; or build your own.
I'm not trying to suggest that there's something deficient in the approach, just that it makes it harder to answer the sorts of questions I have. I mostly want to know:
1) What does it mean for PX8 (or any other program) to be "PICO-8 compatible" in this context?
2) Does PICO-8 resemble CHIP-8 only in general concept and name, or also in structure?
To be PICO-8 compatible is to run PICO-8 programs, which are written in a slightly extended version of Lua against the PICO-8 API. There isn't a bytecode that these programs compile to - they're shipped as Lua. The format they're shipped in also embeds sprites, sounds, maps, and music patterns.
The only connection that CHIP-8 has with PICO-8 is that they are systems for making retro games (although when CHIP-8 was new in the 1970s the games weren't retro, of course). CHIP-8 is very low-level, while PICO-8 uses Lua, a scripting language similar to Python or Ruby.
> CHIP-8 is an interpreted programming language, developed by Joseph Weisbecker. It was initially used on the COSMAC VIP and Telmac 1800 8-bit microcomputers in the mid-1970s. CHIP-8 programs are run on a CHIP-8 virtual machine. It was made to allow video games to be more easily programmed for said computers.
