Want to get started with PICO-8? Let’s go!
Begin by running the PICO-8 app. You should see a little command line screen.
Hit the ESC key to get into the source code editor.
Inside the code editor, type the following code:
cls()
print('hello world')
Hit CMD + R or CTRL + R to run the program. It should clear the screen and output the phrase hello world to the screen.
NOTE: PICO-8’s font displays in ALL CAPS, even though you type in lowercase. If you try to capitalize your code you will get emoji’s and special characters.
Okay, now change the text of the hello world string in the above example to something else. Maybe hello <name> where you put in your name after the word hello.
Hit ESC to get back to the source code editor and update your code.
In my case it might look like this:
cls()
print('hello brian')
Once again hit CMD + R or CTRL + R to run the program.
Your output should be hello <name> with <name> replaced by your name. In the above example, my output is hello brian.
And that is the most basic way to say hello world in PICO-8.
© Brian Knapp 2024