As many people today I miss the simplicity of earlier times.
True, many things are easier today, more accessible and more powerful. On the other hand, in some areas the price to pay is complexity. Or one could say: too many choices.
The computing experience is no exception.
In contrast to today's computers, computers in the 80's were refreshingly simple. You turned it on, and you were in the middle of a BASIC prompt, in which you could type in some program. Graphics were simpler. Games were simpler. Everything was simpler, but no less intriguing and "magical".
(image from https://www.blendernation.com/2020/12/11/behind-the-scenes-commodore-64-nostalgia/)
The experience seemed more approachable and direct. The computer felt really "personal". It really felt like a "dialogue", an interaction, between two parts. Transparent. Without distractions.
We should not fool ourselves however. While at that time it felt "magical" to print some strings (even colored ones) on the screen or, if I was lucky, be able to plot some lines or circles on the screen, the BASIC interpreters of that era were not particularly "powerful". There was a limit, both in terms of performance and capabilities, of what you could do in BASIC.
Since I was too young and too unaware, I never got into assembly language in the 8-bit computers I had access to (Commodore 16, 64 and an MSX machine). I did not attempt making any serious program for a while until much later in Quick Basic. I remember coding a UFO-shooting game (you would shoot an invading flying saucer which would drop bombs on you) and a painting program. Fond memories.
Time went by and I tried learning some "serious" languages, like C and C++. Later came HTML, PHP and Java. And later other languages like Ruby, Scala and Python. From DOS I moved (as most of us) to advanced versions of Windows (later to Mac OS and Linux). The world of computing and programming was becoming more powerful, but at the same time more complex, more distracting, and less direct and creative.
Today it is of course possible make very simple games and animations using PyGame, any JavaScript game library, even game engines like Unity or Godot, or simply in Java (Swing, let's say, or any suitable library). There are a lot of choices, good choices, powerful choices. Too many to list here.
Still, the directness and simplicity of earlier days is completely gone.
It seemed to me that you are either stuck in the powerful but complex languages and environments of today or go the nostalgic "retro" route of coding for retro-platforms. Which give you either the simple but underpowered BASIC interpreters of past decades, or the slightly more powerful but very complex and nuanced world of direct hardware access via assembly (which again is less direct because no sane person would code assembly directly on the host machine).
If only there was an environment that:
- Rescued the simplicity and directness of the past
- Offered powerful APIs and capabilities at your fingertips
I must not have been the only one feeling this way, and recognizing and unmet need. These environments somehow started emerging. They come in the form of "fantasy computers" or "fantasy consoles".
After some searching I found the one I felt in love with: the Mini Micro.
Which, I want to state publicly, I consider both a work of love and a work of art.
Mini Micro for me really rescues the directness and simplicity of earlier (8-bit-era) computers. You interact with it either by typing in commands at a prompt, even trying things out in its REPL) or writing your program in the built-in editor (one one program, one file at a time - I mention this as a nice feature and part of the "distraction free" philosophy).
On the other hand it gives you "power" I could not have dreamt of in my young days having an 8-bit computer:
A simple yet modern a powerful language. Not BASIC but MiniScript. MiniScript is in an of itself a work of both art and love. It is what I call "a language that fits in your head". Yet powerful enough to write just about anything you can think of. It deserves its own articles, or series.
Built-in editor with the usual features: copy-paste, find/replace, automatic indenting, syntax-highlighting.
Sprites. Unlimited in amount and size. Rotation, color-tinting and even pseudo-3D transformations.
Access to drawing primitives. Basic shapes, thickness, colors.
A "tile" display like in 8-bit computers but more powerful (no limitations in size or amount of different tiles, for example)
Up to 8 different display "layers", which you can set-up as you want. Display-types can be: sprite, pixel, tile, text and solid-color.
Modern sound capabilities. Playing of sampled and FM sounds.
Ability to share with others (major platforms and web).
I could go on and on. But you get the picture: simplicity, directness, lack-of-distraction experience of the past with modern capabilities.
I spent many hours coding different things in Mini Micro and I could not be happier.
Some of my Mini Micro creations
For me it is the perfect distraction-free environment for exploring ideas, do "serious" or "casual" coding and, most important: having fun.
Thanks for reading this far. If you feel like me and want to revive the simplicity of the past without sacrificing "power" I invite you to give Mini Micro a try.
Plus, the community is very welcoming and its creator is a great guy always willing to help.
Cheers!
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Also see: goto10retro.com/p/mini-micro-and-m...