[LIKO-12 V1.0.0] An open-source fantasy computer made in LÖVE

[breadbeard]

(Sorry, I tend to write really long posts. I never expect long responses though)

Yeah, the price of RPI has dropped too. Arduino is still fun, but RPI and Android are much more power for the same price. Now, Android phones are almost the best robot controller option, since they include a screen and battery for around $100.

Somtimes, it feels almost as if computer hardware is becoming free to the world. Well, free for wealthy countries, affordable for the other 4/5ths of the world. For the price of a nice meal in restaurant, now anyone can purchase a computer instead. The price of my first computer, a Compaq 386mhz, was $2200 back in 1996. With inflation, that would be around $5000 today, just for the most basic, entry level, desktop computer! Now the price is around $150, meaning it has gone to 3% of what computers used to cost.

Hopefully the millions people that could never afford a computer will now be able to pursue a career in computer programming. You are making that switch more fun and innovative, inspiring people. IMO Lua is like Java was in the 1990s; it makes programming more accessible to a wide demographic. You should be very proud of the kind of work you are doing. Not just because it helps other programmers and game devs, but also because it helps the entire world transition into the digital age!

Technological advancements suggest robots and automation will replace many industries, for example: agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries. Computer programming should be fun and accessible for all to pursue, otherwise in 20 years, the world's economy will not have any workers with skills that fit the job market. I know for people like us, this is just a fun thing to do, but it really could have a positive impact on the future of the world too. Many early computer programmers, learned using Commodore 64, or ZX Spectrum computers that had this open source, learn by experimenting, style that your project has.

[Popolon]

well, in 80's European microcomputers (like zx spectrum/oric/amstrad/To7/Mo5), and probably American vic20/C64 that was less than 200~300€ for the most advanced (in today $vs€ values that's most expansive, but that was probably less than $150/$200 at this time. PC computers only was successful at the time Taïwan chineses made clones, dividing the price by tens. Today, there are dozens of <$50 computer using ARM chips too that are powerful enough for most of Android games or any löve games, like odroid, cubieboard, orange-pi ($20) etc...

In poorest countries (probably majority of countries on earth) as far I know, they need a cell phone for working/exchange, but computer/television is mostly useless. So most people use phone for gaming, coding, and so... and mostly casual games.

Workers in poorest countries are still cheaper than robots. And ... repair a bot is expansive, replace a sick worker is so cheap. Look at the number of growing people under poverty line and without house in richest countries like European/US ones. But I agree with you in an ideal world where everything is shared.

[RamiLego4Game]

In this version LIKO-12 will go from a "PICO-8 Clone" to a "Fantasy Computer".
The goal from this update is to build an internal engine:

Well yeah, LIKO-12 V0.0.5 is mostly like an api, editor and a runtime, the api is basically some function bindings to the official love2d api, and some helping functions, and the editor is programmed with some exposed love2d functions and some hacks, making it hard to be modified by users the come outside from the love2d community.
The engine will be consisted of:

1: a peripherals system (HDD, GPU, Keyboard, etc...) : Here adding new abilities will take a turn. Every peripheral will use the events library to connect to the love2d callbacks (update, draw, keypress, etc...), then use the coroutine registry to provide their api to the "Operating System" of LIKO-12, having access to the global environment (love api, all lua libraries, no sandboxing at all). Acting as a new hardware device mounted to the LIKO-12 system.

2: the events library: peripherals will use this library for hooking their functions to love2d callbacks (update,graphic_active,keypress,keyrelease,mousepress, etc) it will contain some hooks to hack in love.run.

3: coroutine registry: The LIKO-12 "Operating System" will now run in a lua coroutine, making it easier for sandboxing and controlling by the engine. and to access the api (provided by peripherals) the OS will use ```lua coroutine.yield("peripheral:functions",arg1,arg2,...) ``` so the coroutine pauses and the coroutine registry will do it's job: pass the function call to the corresponding peripheral ! after peripheral doing it's job, coroutine registry will resume the os.

4: bootloader: here sandboxing will take turn. the "Boot Loader" is responsible of loading the peripherals, and creating the coroutine, sandboxing it, booting the OS, or entering the BIOS. This "Boot Loader" will get some technical way for unlocking it !, providing a special peripheral for editing LIKO-12's engine by LIKO-12 itself (Intended to be used by developers and hackers).

5: BIOS: We all know what's a BIOS, the "BIOS" in LIKO-12 will have permission to mount/unmount installed peripherals, formatting LIKO-12's HDD, installing some OSes that come with LIKO-12.

6: Operating Systems: Here the fun starts, people will be able to program their own operating system, providing their own design, tools, game packaging, an internal api for their code.

That's it, but here's also some planning for the official OSes of LIKO-12:
CartOS:
The current state of LIKO-12 (v0.0.5) will be ported to be CartOS, this os will include tools, editors, game distribution something like PICO-8.

LuaOS:
This OS will be more advanced OS, for bigger projects, including a wider set of tools, the abilities to write and execute lua scripts.

There will be more info about them later, but that's enough for now !

[Sheepolution]

Sounds really cool, and I love that this project is becoming more than a "pico-8 clone". It has already become that actually.

[breadbeard]

Very smart goals! I wonder what frame rate we would get with 512mb of ram? Or if it would run on the RPI zero?
I have some interesting news: the Particle.io cloud will now support, and be free for, Raspberry Pi! Particle.io uses a web IDE that simplifies programming the pi. But the most interesting piece of this, is that a web IDE's cloud can be "hijacked" or ported to be used through Lua OS I think. Meaning IoT devices and robots could be controlled through the cloud using LuaOS!
https://community.particle.io/t/raspber ... beta/26992

[RamiLego4Game]

Very smart goals! No sandbox would be amazing! I wonder what frame rate we would get with 512mb of ram? Or if it would run on the RPI zero?
I have some interesting news: the Particle.io cloud will now support, and be free for, Raspberry Pi! Particle.io uses a web IDE that simplifies programming the pi. But the most interesting piece of this, is that a web IDE's cloud can be "hijacked" or ported to be used through Lua OS I think. Meaning IoT devices and robots could be controlled through the cloud using LuaOS!

https://twitter.com/ramilego4game/statu ... 2562452480

Liko12 Terminal & The snake game runs with 60 fps, while the fire demo runs at 12 fps with some glitches..

I enabled the opengl drivers on my pi, and compiled love 0.10.2, the no game screen ran smooth

The GPU code (in liko12) needs some optimization, so for this, I will start working on liko12 using the pi only

Even if the rpi zero can't run liko12 gpu, I will work on a lua driver for the tft screen, so that removes the need of love.graphics, maybe, I could make liko12 run out from love.

No sandboxing ?? there will be a stronger sandbox !

[breadbeard]

"No sandboxing ?? there will be a stronger sandbox !"
Yeah, I guess I didn't know what sandboxing is really for! Stronger sandboxing is much better than no sandboxing! Oops
Sounds like 1gb ram is the way to go, 512mb is not a huge savings price wise, and Android hates less than 1gb. RiskOS is pretty happy with it though! But that is because RiskOS is like being stuck in the early 1990s

[RamiLego4Game]

I didn't know what sandboxing is really for!

LoL, sandboxing is for blocking the code ran in LIKO-12 from calling dangerous functions (os.command) that can delete files in your system, upload some private data, and also take pics from a webcam !

[blurymind]

I have a 10 inch galaxy tab tablet.
IS it possible to develop games that have a 720 hd resolution- where possible?
How do you run this on android? I did not see any apk files. So I assume you load the love file with android's version of love2d

I saw as a big disadvantage pico-8s resolution cap and other limitations. With love2d one does not have to have these limits, considering that not everyone is using a tiny screen and a weak processor

[breadbeard]

I haven't tried running it with Android love2d app. I think u need to get love2d for desktop, then build Liko12 for Android. There should be auto-scaling, so it will fit your screen perfectly, after selecting Fullscreen mode. Oh, wait... Maybe I am missing something. Is there a true fullscreen mode yet? I tried the usual shortcuts in Windows and had no luck.