How to install PICO-8 on GameShell

I have the same problem – zip file right off Lexaloffle into that directory… doesn’t show up. Where should it appear? At the home menu? I rebooted, tried LauncherGo instead… reloaded UI… all nothing…

Also, maybe dumb question, but do you have to unzip it, or will the GameShell handle a zip like a directory?

I’m also having issues where the app can’t load (always crashes, goes to main menu). I followed parts of this walkthrough, then realized the zip inside PICO-8 should work, and now I’m uncertain what elements could be causing this issue from either operations.

I’ve been going through the SSH command line and have edited some of the common files that are being brought up in this thread. Below are the contents.

Files within the ‘launcher/Menu/GameShell’ directory

~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/50_PICO-8/pico-8/ ls
config.txt log.txt sdl_controllers.txt

~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/50_PICO-8/pico-8/config.txt

// :: Video Settings
window_size = 320 240
screen_size = 320 240

~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/50_PICO-8/PICO-8.sh

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/cpi/games/PICO-8/pico-8
SDL_VIDEODRIVER=xll DISPLAY=:0 ./pico8_dyn =splore -draw-rect 32,0,256,240

Within the PICO-8 folder in ‘games’

~/games/PICO-8/ ls
15133.p8.png  pico-8  pico-8_0.1.11g_raspi.zip

~/games/PICO-8/pico-8/ ls
lexaloffle-pico8.png  license.txt  pico8  pico8.dat  pico8_dyn  pico8.txt

It would be helpful if the instructions could explain why we do certain operations rather than only what since it makes troubleshooting much harder. For instance, no tutorial mentions where exactly the pico-8 folder and contents are supposed to live.

EDIT: the user @hpcodecraft provided some information in another thread that resolved my issue:

I had the same issue and solved it like this:

The launcher script for pico-8 contains this line
cd /home/cpi/games/PICO-8/pico-8

From there it tries to launch the actual pico8 binary. So all I had to do was to unzip the pico-8 archive (again - I had it running before and have no idea why it vanished):

cd ~/games/PICO-8
unzip pico-8_0.1.11g_raspi.zip

This created the pico-8 folder the launcher wants and voila, it runs again.

Additional tip: If you link your carts folder to ~/games/PICO-8 , you can upload carts via WinSCP or the file browser. To do that, run this command: ln -s ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/carts/ ~/games/PICO-8/carts

Hope that helps!

Hi all, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I followed this guide all the way till this step, and when I click on the PICO-8 icon, It still tells me that I have purchase the PICO-8 although I already did, it’s driving me crazy…

Someone pls help me… =(

1 Like

Hi.

I’ve been trying to upload some carts onto my GameShell, and this directory doesn’t seem to exist in my device:

I was wondering if you would have any idea of what other directory I would have to upload my carts to.

Thanks!

Did you put the raspberry pi zip file in the games/PICO-8 folder?

The directory exists. It’s just not normally visible since its name starts with a period. SSH into the GameShell and enter the following:

cd ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/carts
ls

20190512_122003_HDR

You are trying to install the newest version of PICO8.
Try to update launcher and check If you have your versions of PICO8 inside this file https://github.com/clockworkpi/launcher/blob/fb156214f96811d8afb9be01cd6944ef5ef1612d/Menu/GameShell/50_PICO-8/compkginfo.json or just replace that file with versions from GitHub

Open compkginfo.json in any text editor and replace content with that:

{
"GameDir":"/home/cpi/games/PICO-8/",
"InstallDir":"pico-8",
"NotFoundMsg":["Please purchase the PICO-8 \n|None|varela16",
"and copy it to the \"~/games/PICO-8\"|None|varela16"],
"MD5":{"pico-8_0.1.11g_raspi.zip":"a3f2995cf117499f880bd964d6a0e1f2","pico-8_0.1.11g_amd64.zip":"6726141c784afd4a41be6b7414c1b932","pico-8_0.1.12_raspi.zip":"08eda95570e63089a2b9f5531503431e","pico-8_0.1.12c_raspi.zip":"1a62b0d7d4e4be65f89f23ec9757cb66","pico-8.zip":"whatever it takes"},
"Post-Up":"bash Post-Up.sh" 
}

The problem could be that your file doesn’t contain line with pico-8_0.1.12c_raspi.zip.

1 Like

Yes. I kinda figured it out by myself but thank you so much for replying.

Thank you for the walk through! I got PICO8 up and running, start and select are working, but ABXY are not. Rebooting the Gameshell doesn’t seem to fix anything. Any thoughts?

Hi,

Since I am totally new to this could you please explain this further in a detailed manner.
Maybe a video showing each step? I am unable to understand how to go about installing this.
I know how to SSH into the gameshell.
From there I copied and pasted

sudo pip install pyxhook

I received this message:

Requirement already satisfied: pyxhook in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
Requirement already satisfied: python-xlib in /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (from pyxhook)

How do I proceed from here?

Please help me as I find this code really useful when playing Pico8 games.

Thank you.

pico ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/config.txt

“Pico” is a simple text file editor available on most Linux systems, including GameShell. It has nothing to do with PICO-8, it’s just called “Pico” by coincidence.

Use the cursor keys to scroll down to the line that says fullscreen_method. Edit this value to 0:

fullscreen_method 0
Scroll down further to the line that says button_keys. Edit this value as follows:

button_keys 0 0 0 0 13 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Press Control-O to save the file. Press Control-X to exit Pico.

Made an overview on how the installation procdure currently works. Along with an obvious pitfall associated with the recent PICO-8 update:

1 Like

I have updated the original tutorial at the top of this thread to use the new built-in installer, including the file renaming workaround for Launcher v1.24. It’s much fewer steps now!

I also added links to krystman’s videos to the Resources section. Thanks Krystian!

I’m so excited that Launcher has this built in. Thank you ClockworkPi!

P.S. I believe the Launcher v1.24 “MD5 error” screen has the Continue and Cancel buttons swapped. I only tried it once but I believe I had to press B (right button) to Continue even though it says “A”.

2 Likes

Thanks for the issue

Has been fixed #214

I tried to update to the latest PICO-8, but now it won’t even open at all. Which files should I delete or restore in order to perform a clean install?
Can I clear out /launcher/Menu/GameShell/50_PICO-8?

~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/50_PICO-8/.done

2 Likes

perfect! Thanks, Now I can play a lot of the newer games.

I’ve been trying to get Pico-8 running all evening, but it always goes back to the launcher when I start it.
I’m on v0.3 with launcher version 1.24. I’ve installed Pico-8 with no problems (version pico-8_0.1.12c2_raspi), but still it won’t boot. I also made sure all the files had the correct permissions.

Do I maybe need an older version of Pico-8?