Fantasy Console

   Fantasy console, also fantasy computer, is a software platform intended
   mainly for creating and playing simple [1]games, which imitates
   parameters, simplicity and [2]look and feel of classic retro consoles such
   as [3]GameBoy. These consoles are called fantasy because they are not
   [4]emulators of already existing hardware consoles but rather "dreamed up"
   platforms, [5]virtual machines made purely in software with artificially
   added restrictions that a real hardware console might have. These
   restrictions limit for example the resolution and color depth of the
   display, number of buttons and sometimes also computational resources.

   The motivation behind creating fantasy consoles is normally twofold:
   firstly the enjoyment of [6]retro games and retro programming, and
   secondly the immense advantages of [7]simplicity. It is much faster and
   easier to create a simple game than a full fledged PC game, this attracts
   many programmers, simple programming is also more enjoyable (fewer bugs
   and headaches) and simple games have many nice properties such as small
   size (playability over [8]web), easy embedding or enabling emulator-like
   features.

   Fantasy consoles usually include some kind of simple [9]IDE; a typical
   mainstream fantasy console both runs and is programmed in a [10]web
   browser so as to be accessible to normies. They also use some kind of easy
   scripting language for game programming, e.g. [11]Lua. Even though the
   games are simple, the code of such a mainstream console is normally
   [12]bloat, i.e. we are talking about [13]pseudominimalism. Nevertheless
   some consoles, such as [14]SAF, are truly [15]suckless, free and highly
   portable (it's not a coincidence that SAF is an official [16]LRS project).

   Some fantasy consoles may blend with [17]open consoles, e.g. by starting
   as a virtual console that's later implemented in real hardware.

Notable Fantasy Consoles

   The following are a few notable fantasy consoles.

   name         year license       game lang.   specs.     comment            
   [18]CToy     2016 [19]zlib      [20]C        128x128    [21]suckless       
                                                256x256    for demos, by      
   [22]IBNIZ    2011 [23]zlib      own          32b, 4M    [24]Viznut         
                                                RAM        
   [25]LIKO-12  2016 [26]MIT       [27]Lua      192x128    
                                                320x200    
   [28]MEG4     2023 [29]GPL       C, Lua, ...  8b, 576K   
                                                RAM        
                                                320x240    
   [30]microw8  2021 [31]unlicense webassembly  8b, 256K   
                                                RAM        
   [32]PICO-8   2015 [33]propr.    [34]Lua      128x128 4b likely most famous 
   PixelVision8 2020 [35]MS-PL     [36]Lua      256x240    written in C#      
                     (FOSS)        
   Pyxel        2018 [37]MIT       [38]Python   256x256 4b 
   [39]SAF      2021 [40]CC0       [41]C        64x64 8b   [42]LRS, suckless  
   [43]TIC-80   2016 [44]MIT       Lua, JS, ... 240x136 4b paid "pro" version 
                                                640x360,   aims to be         
   [45]Vircon32      ???           C, assembly  16M RAM    implementable in   
                                                           HW                 
   [46]uxn      2021 [47]MIT       [48]Tal                 very minimal       

   Apart from these there are many more (MicroW8, PX8, WASM-4, ZZT, ...), you
   can find lists such as https://paladin-t.github.io/fantasy/index. There
   even exists a [49]Brainfuck fantasy console, called BrainFuckConsole74.

See Also

     * [50]open console
     * [51]handheld
     * [52]virtual machine
     * [53]IBNIZ
     * [54]ISA
     * [55]SAF
     * [56]DOS

Links:
1. game.md
2. look_and_feel.md
3. gameboy.md
4. emulator.md
5. vm.md
6. retro.md
7. minimalism.md
8. web.md
9. ide.md
10. browser.md
11. lua.md
12. bloat.md
13. pseudominimalism.md
14. saf.md
15. suckless.md
16. lrs.md
17. open_console.md
18. ctoy.md
19. zlib.md
20. c.md
21. suckless.md
22. ibniz.md
23. zlib.md
24. viznut.md
25. liko12.md
26. mit.md
27. lua.md
28. meg4.md
29. gpl.md
30. microw8.md
31. unlicense.md
32. pico8.md
33. proprietary.md
34. lua.md
35. ms_pl.md
36. lua.md
37. mit.md
38. python.md
39. saf.md
40. cc0.md
41. c.md
42. lrs.md
43. tic80.md
44. mit.md
45. vircon32.md
46. uxn.md
47. mit.md
48. tal.md
49. brainfuck.md
50. open_console.md
51. handheld.md
52. vm.md
53. ibniz.md
54. isa.md
55. saf.md
56. dos.md