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Petit Computer (BASIC Programming Software) Coming to the DSi/3DS eShop in NA

iphys said:
I don't think Nintendo would want to allow a 3DS version. They already know people can do DS homebrew anyway, so they'd probably rather have people doing it this way where it's somewhat limited and they at least get a cut of the money, but there is no 3DS homebrew, and I'm sure they'd rather keep it that way.
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I can't see NCL allowing this for DSiWare in 2012 and not allowing a 3DS version.
 
iphys said:
I don't think Nintendo would want to allow a 3DS version. They already know people can do DS homebrew anyway, so they'd probably rather have people doing it this way where it's somewhat limited and they at least get a cut of the money, but there is no 3DS homebrew, and I'm sure they'd rather keep it that way.
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There are various reports saying Nintendo no longer does content approval for their online stores starting with the 3DS. I don't think they have any problems with game-making apps, as long as they are reasonably limited. Heck, Nintendo themselves have their own game-making "game": Made in Wario.
 
Lol, the most complicated game I saw anyone do on DIY was Donkey Kong Jr, and that Block Factory game on the eShop is such a joke for how few options they give you. This they actually have to worry about people cloning games with or making games that are potentially good enough that people will want to play them instead of buying games.
 
iphys said:
Lol, the most complicated game I saw anyone do on DIY was Donkey Kong Jr, and that Block Factory game on the eShop is such a joke for how few options they give you. This they actually have to worry about people cloning games with or making games that are potentially good enough that people will want to play them instead of buying games.
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If NCL were worried about that, they wouldn't have approved the DSiWare update (with QR support), nor the western release.

I really don't see a reason for conspiracy theories regarding NCL and a potential 3DS version...
 
Well, apart from people being able to make their own 3D games, which is the most unique thing Nintendo has going for it, what if people found an exploit to crack the security on the 3DS? I also don't think they'd allow StreetPass for fear of people unwittingly ending up with things that are family unfriendly or clones that infringe rights: at least with the QR codes it's our own fault if we scan in something we shouldn't.
 
Busy converting classic BASIC games to Petit Computer -- doo dah, doo dah.

Edit: In case anyone was wondering, there is essentially no way to enter programs into your 3DS/DSi other than QR codes. You can fully edit/type them up in the PTCUtility program and export to QR, though!
 
Wiggler said:
Some links to QR codes that I compiled (and confirmed working):
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We should really either set up a list/wiki/database of all programs. The sooner someone does an English one, the more complete it will be.

I'd just like to get the Japanese and English programs linked somewhere, so that folks on both sides of the Pacific can do translations.
 
Can I somehow get help for a specific command? The general help isn't helping much.

Edit: How do I read input from the touch screen?
 
blu said:
Damn. First raytracer is already out. Not fair, Japan, not fair.
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Crazy. D:

Also if I can get my DSi to connect to wifi I'm hoping to grab this tonight!

Jucksalbe said:
Can I somehow get help for a specific command? The general help isn't helping much.

Edit: How do I read input from the touch screen?
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I would guess some sort of general Petit BASIC language reference is out there somewhere, but maybe it hasn't been translated yet.
 
DavidDayton said:
We should really either set up a list/wiki/database of all programs. The sooner someone does an English one, the more complete it will be.

I'd just like to get the Japanese and English programs linked somewhere, so that folks on both sides of the Pacific can do translations.
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Yeah, I already feel kind of in over my head with trying to list off everything I've come across. Care to get one started? :P
 
blu said:
Damn. First raytracer is already out. Not fair, Japan, not fair.
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Some of those comments are crazy. One comment says that there's a limit of 256 colors on screen. I would guess that the color table would then be managed either by the hardware or by the Petit Computer application.

I'm somewhat relieved to see that they don't particularly love BASIC, lol. (I kinda hope a Petit Computer sequel uses a more modern language.)
 
Smashing Drive said:
probably best thing to do is find some already written basic programs and port them
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Well that's the first thing to do, but the best thing to do is take advantage of the DS format, use the touchscreen, use the advanced sprite/BG commands to do stuff that's normally much harder to do with classic BASIC.
 
Bah. I'm finding quirky, esoteric differences whilst porting things.

I have the classic HUNT THE WUMPUS running, finally, but it seems to be having some strange problem with movements...

Edit: This is odd -- INPUT A$ won't take a blank line as input. Tapping ENTER results in a "Redo from Start"... weird.

Edit 2: Now PTCUtilities keeps crashing whenever I paste in code. GRrr
 
Mondriaan said:
Some of those comments are crazy. One comment says that there's a limit of 256 colors on screen. I would guess that the color table would then be managed either by the hardware or by the Petit Computer application.
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It appears the <plot> ops (GPSET, etc) take paletted input. Other than that, it's not clear if all graphics are limited to 256 colors.

What is more interesting that can be inferred from those comments, though, is that scalars appear to have 20 bits of integer part, which supposedly leaves 12 bits for fractional (IIRC the ds(i) does not have an fpu).
 
Against my better judgement, I'll probably end up buying this and wasting hundreds of hours writing inferior versions of programs Japanese users have already made.
 
so now that the game is out, how big can the games be? and how many apps can you make/store? are games saved to the sd card?
 
Moodkip said:
so now that the game is out, how big can the games be? and how many apps can you make/store? are games saved to the sd card?
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* There is no real way to say "how big" -- you appear to have about a MB of memory to play with, and each BASIC program can be 1000 lines x 100 characters per line, but you CAN load/append/execute other BASIC programs from within your own.

* I can't tell what the limitation is for storage. There doesn't appear to be an indicator, but the DSiWare application file doesn't appear to be changing in size, so there must be a limit.

* You can export programs to SD, but there are no other ways to access SD files.
It's POSSIBLE that user-created programs are actually being stored on the SD card, but nothing indicates that at the moment.
 
I think they said 9999 lines, 100 characters per line, 500,000 characters total for a program. I have 62 programs and haven't hit the limit yet, and I'm pretty sure they said the programs are stored within the DSiWare game save, but most of them are really small like a couple KB so they don't add up to much. The application has 117 blocks, which is like 29 MB I think, but who knows how much of that is for storing the programs.
 
DavidDayton said:
Well, we COULD jump into the Japanese Wiki

http://wiki.hosiken.jp/petc/?Toukou

That's a list of Japanese submitted programs. We could start up an English program list page and start submissions there...
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Oh nice, that's rather comprehensive. Never started or contributed to a wiki page myself before, so I'd say whomever is willing and feeling more qualified should go ahead and start one up. Or just wait until someone actually releases something before bothering. Whatever's clever.

Has anyone (not from Japan) ported or created anything yet?
 
Finally found how to load the samples' source code and made an ugly text-based music player to get the hang of things.
 
Bomber Bob said:
You have to write actual code so It's not really like game maker nor rpg maker
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Well I'm not sure about RPG maker but in Game Maker you still need to code if you want to get anything mildly complex done. The icons are only really there for noobs. But that's not my point anyway.

What I was trying to get at is that, like Game Maker, Petit Computer is a fully integrated but highly simplified development suite specifically designed for to allow complete amateurs to jump straight into programming game logic and editing graphics. The game engine, image and audio editors are all conveniently integrated into the package so you don't have to think about them at all but at the expense of flexibility.

PS Mobile is something else entirely. It's a more standard IDE and a entire platform in it's own rights. It's designed for "pros" and programming for it requires you to dig down into a much deeper level to get anything up and running on the screen. There's no built in engine. You either need to program one yourself or you need to "licence" one and then figure out how it actually works.
 
I also agree that Petit Computer is a "game making game" while PS Suite is an actual SDK for development and redistribution.

It's easily the most complex console game maker I've ever seen, however. All other "games" like this I know of lock you into a specific game genre (RPG, shmup, adventure, etc).
 
@puchicom_ENG

I'll probably get around to making a proper site if/when a PAL release is announced, but in the meantime I figured a Twitter for non-Japanese users might be useful, so here it is! Add me, link me to stuff, spread it around, etc and I'll keep it updated on a regular basis.
 
So I messed around tonight and figured out how to make a character move along the x-axis. I'm gonna leave the y-axis for tomorrow. This is a lot of fun though.
 
Ugh, I'm trying to connect to the store, but I've wasted like 15 minutes trying to get my DSi to connect to my router at all. Once I changed the channel and got the internet connection test to work, but then the DSi store refused to connect and gave me the error about not being able to obtain an IP address.

*edit* Using a static IP address seems to be working for now, yay.
 
Is there a way to view the source code of the sample programs? I could only get them to run and then jump back to the program listing. And is there any option to clone an existing program? (presumably using a PC-to-petit converter is ideal but I haven't messed with that yet)
 
Blizzard said:
Is there a way to view the source code of the sample programs? I could only get them to run and then jump back to the program listing. And is there any option to clone an existing program? (presumably using a PC-to-petit converter is ideal but I haven't messed with that yet)
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Choose "Write Program" from the main menu, then load the program you want using the LOAD command.
 
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