When I was a teenager in the early 1980’s I learned computer programming on the home computers of the day (primarily a Commodore VIC-20). This was the golden age of arcade games, so naturally most of what I wrote was games, albeit extremely simple and limited ones given that the computer had just 3.5k of usable memory. Yes – K as in Kilobytes.
I’ve always loved games and gaming but haven’t written a game in decades, until I recently discovered Pico-8, a “fantasy game console”. It emulates what an old computer might have been. I won’t go into a lot of details here, you can find them all on the Pico-8 website.
So after all these years, I’ve written a new game – Rockhound. It’s very much a love letter to those early arcade games, in that it’s simple to learn but impossible to master.
Click here to play “Rockhound”
It’s free and works right here in your browser. No downloads, no cookies, no subscriptions, no phishing, no credit card required. Just press start and play! If you do play it, please leave me a comment below. Feedback welcome, or just share your high score!
On mobile: use the on-screen controls.
On desktop: use the arrow keys to move, and X for the shield.
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