What is PICO-8?
Basically, it’s a fantasy console with a big community and each “ROM” is actually just a PNG file that has the art and game code!
Where to buy?
To be able to properly emulate PICO-8, you need the files and you have to legally purchase those files.
Head over to the official website – https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php.
Click the big Download button, and proceed with purchasing PICO-8 for $14.99 USD.
Getting the files
You’ll end up at a screen through Humble Bundle where you can download your files.
Go ahead and choose the Linux tab and then the raspi option to download the zip we need.
Copy or download that zip onto your Android device. Anywhere is fine.
Installing PICO-8 on Android
Head to https://github.com/Macs75/pico8-android/releases and download the latest version, whichever it is.
Just download the APK file under Assets.
Go ahead and open that file to install it as an application.
Setting up PICO-8 on Android
Open the PICO-8 app and grant access for file access.
Next up, we now need to select that raspi zip file that we purchased and downloaded earlier, so go ahead and select that zip file.
Once all that’s done, you’ll be in Splore!
Navigating Splore
You’ll be in Favorites by default, but if you move over right or left you can get to other menus.
Click the Update option in the other menus to update the list of games available, like under New or Featured or Work in Progress and so on.
If you push Start on a game, it will get you a few options to do with that game.
Go ahead and start a game.
In-Game
If you push Start while in a game, you’ll get the in-game menu with some options and things you can do, as well as exiting the game.
If you push Select while in a game, you can shutdown PICO-8.
Swipe in from the left with your finger to get another menu with integer scaling options, rumble and so on.
Enjoy!
Where are your files?
The PICO-8 app has it’s files on your Internal Storage > Documents > pico-8 > data folder.
The structure here is the same as other PICO-8 devices and instances, so you can copy your carts, favorites and so on to this folder.
Syncthing
PICO-8 can easily be sync’d across all operating systems.
