Petit Computer

[davidbrit2]

Now this looks awesome.

Petit Computer (http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/_YpH-64pY4G4_tAy1wrKVecHp4pmWSzw)

It's a trumped up, game-oriented Basic for DSi/3DS, with an emphasis on being able to share programs. $8, available today, apparently. I could see this ending up with quite a cult following.

[Damaniel]

I'm definitely buying this. I haven't programmed anything in BASIC in well over 20 years, but I have to give them credit for bringing as niche a product as a BASIC interpreter to the 3DS. The ability to share programs alone ensures a cult following.

I'm curious about the limitations though. How much RAM do you have access to? What is the set of supported commands? Does it support QBasic-like structured programming, or does it use line numbering? Most importantly, how fast is it?

EDIT: One of the screenshots on their official website shows that the interpreter has 1MB free RAM with no program loaded. However, I don't know if that's the actual amount that the final version makes available.

[Clownzilla]

Do you have to enter code with the touch screen?!

[davidbrit2]

Holy shit, search for プチコン on YouTube to see some examples of what it's capable of. Some guy ported Hydlide.

[markusman64ds]

Do you have to enter code with the touch screen?!

You can, but this...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuZa-361hPo&feature=related

[Damaniel]

Holy shit, search for プチコン on YouTube to see some examples of what it's capable of. Some guy ported Hydlide.

I also like the little Outrun clone that somebody did. Performance seems to be pretty good, considering it's a BASIC interpreter running on a handheld. Unfortunately I don't think that it will be quite as popular here, but I hope to be proven wrong.

[davidbrit2]

I also like the little Outrun clone that somebody did. Performance seems to be pretty good, considering it's a BASIC interpreter running on a handheld. Unfortunately I don't think that it will be quite as popular here, but I hope to be proven wrong.

Reading through the built-in manual, it's got a lot of very high-level commands geared toward game programming, so you won't have to write a lot of boilerplate code to display sprites and backgrounds, play audio, etc. It looks like there's pretty sophisticated collision detection with custom hit-boxes, though I don't know all the specifics yet.

[davidbrit2]

I've got a pretty good start on a Breakout-type engine. The basic ball physics are working, and you can deflect the ball at different angles depending on where you hit it with the paddle (which is more like Arkanoid than Breakout).

I just need to sort out the brick collision detection, and I'm set. I've got 168 bricks (28 x 6 rows), but there's a limit of 100 sprites. I might have to test the ball position manually against the wall region on the screen (unless there's a way to do them as background tiles and test which type of tile a sprite is "touching").