You may remember the fun I had waiting for a delivery the other week. It eventually came, and in it was a great little device called a Pocket CHIP – a Raspberry Pi-like tiny computer, in a shell that contains a keyboard and touch screen.
One of the selling points of the Pocket CHIP is that is comes with a copy of the Pico-8 virtual console development kit. The Pico-8 is a low resolution console that doesn’t actually exist, but there’s a set of specs and a programming language for it, and people have been making some great little games for it. One of which, is Hug Arena.
And since you can play Pico-8 games in a web browser, I can point you to where you can have a go too!
The aim is to hug all the baddies, without the other baddies getting you while you’re hugging. Once they’ve all been hugged, you move on to the next level. It’s surprisingly addictive.
What do you think of the PocketCHIP? I’ve been considering getting one too 🙂
The keyboard / joystick setup looks a bit odd, for example. Is it decently usable?
The keyboard is OK, much like a ZX81 though. The d-pad is just about usable for some games, but apparently a 3D printed plastic d-pad over the top is a big improvement.