PocketChip Game Making Handy Fun Computer — C.H.I.P. is a computer. It’s tiny and easy to use. It does computer things. Work in LibreOffice and save your documents to C.H.I.P.’s onboard storage. Surf the web and check your email over wifi. Play games with a bluetooth controller. With dozens of applications and tools preinstalled, C.H.I.P. is ready to do computer things the moment you power it on.
C.H.I.P. is a computer for students, teachers, grandparents, children, artists, makers, hackers, and inventors. Everyone really. It is a great way to add a computer to your life and the perfect way to power your computer based projects.
You can use the CHIP by connecting a display, keyboard, and mouse. But the company also promised that it would release accessories like the PocketCHIP to turn the little PC into a full-fledged portable computer/gaming device.
Overview of PocketChip:
A year after launch, this month the first PocketCHIP units should begin shipping to backers of the original crowdfunding campaign. You can also pre-order a PocketCHIP for $49, but new orders aren’t expected to ship until June.
PocketCHIP includes a a 420 x 272 pixel display, a battery that should last for up to 5 hours, and a QWERTY keyboard for typing with your thumbs. There’s also a pencil-sized hole in the bottom that lets you insert a pen or pencil which serves as a kickstand.
The folks behind CHIP also came up with another kind of goofy use for PocketCHIP: a virtual reality system called PockulusCHIP. Initially conceived as an April Fool’s joke, the developers eventually realized that you actually could make a Google Cardboard-style headset that turns the $49 handheld computer into a sort of VR system.
Unlike the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, which lacks storage, built-in wifi or low-power Bluetooth, the $9 CHIP comes is ready to be plugged into an older monitor using the included composite video cable out of the box (an HDMI adapter is sold separately.) It’s got a 1GHz Allwinner R* Cortek A8 processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in storage with a Linux-based operating system installed.
PocketCHIP was the included gaming program, PICO-8. Created by Lexaloffle Games, PICO-8 is a “fantasy console.” It presents a set of programming restrictions as if they were tied to a game console, challenging Lua programmers to create games to run within those restrictions. Here’s what creators have to work with:
| Display | 128×128 16 colours |
| Cartridge Size | 32k |
| Sound | 4 channel chip blerps |
| Code | Lua |
| Sprites | 128 8×8 sprites |
| Map | 128×32 cels |
| Controls | 2 6-button joysticks |
The joy of PICO-8 running on the PocketCHIP is that, at any time during gameplay, I can escape out and start editing the code. I couldn’t make the first long jump in the game, so instead of trying again and again until I got it right, I went into the code and tweaked gravity.
It’s not only an entertaining way to play tiny indie games, it lays down the basic fundamentals of coding in an easy-to-understand manner as well. Players are encourage to tweak these games and make them their own.
