This is the event I have been telling everyone about! For the last few months Luis Montes and I have put all of our spare time into a new tool you can use to play games on retro devices AND the web with the exact same JavaScript.

This is a paid event so you will need to grab a ticket from here:

https://ti.to/monteslu/retro-handheld-game-jam

$25 if you bring your own device and $85 if you want a compatible device to take home.

When:

10am - 4pm on Saturday March 1st (SOON!)

What you will need:

- A laptop! PC/Mac/Linux are all fine. Chromebook probably won't work.

- A game device! If you don't have an Ambernic XX series device, get the ticket that includes a device! Otherwise you can bring a controller that works on your particular machine (XBox, Playstation, Switch Pro Controller, 8BitDo, Stadia all work).

Lunch:

Probably pizza. But we'll get whatever flavor pizza you like as long as it's pepperoni or cheese :). But seriously, if you like a specific kind let me know and I'll order it. We factored in that we'd get a sponsor into the price of the ticket and still no sponsor so we gotta keep the food prices reasonable.

Experience:

- We think this is great for developers (or aspiring developers) of all levels. Many devs that work in the industry have never created a game and don't even know what a game loop is. That's okay! Like any event, you get what you put into it from beginner to expert. Several of us will be going around helping and answering questions.

Tickets:

We only have 10 devices and 20 total spots! Get yours fast!

More info:

Thanks to the power of Linux and inexpensive arm based processors we have an abundance of gaming devices that make playing "retro" games easy and affordable. If you adjust for inflation these devices cost $25 in 2008 money compared to the $99 a Game Boy Advance cost in 2008 (note, I mostly made that up but a device far more powerful than a GBA is about $50 in today's money).

Those games are great but what if you wanted to make your own game? Would you start by learning MOS 6507 assembly and figure out how to package that into a ROM for an Atari 2600? Maybe learn Lua and program for a fantasy console?

What if you already know a little JavasScript? And what if you wanted to make the ultimate cross platform solution that also worked on the web with no code changes? While we are dreaming, what if you wanted to use these devices for something besides gaming?

Meet JSGameLauncher (real name pending!)! At this event Luis Montes will walk you through a short tutorial (bye bye DOM and CSS) and then Sheldon will live code a game that's shouted out from the audience using an AI assistant (note he has a keen sense of hearing and might pick something that you yourself didn't hear). After that you are off to the races! We will have some sort of competition but with a short notice we don't have the criteria yet. Best game wins?? Maybe a prize? Hmmm.

Sheldon

P.S. You can use AI to make games but you don't have to. You do you. But the key is to hand it the sample utils.js and main.js provided by jsgames so it knows how to draw on a canvas and use the controller. While the code is the same you would use on the web it's still nice to give the AI framework some context so it won't do the DOM and CSS stuff. Gemini and Claude have been known to produce some awesome results!

P.P.S. Yes, this is probably duplicated on Meetup. Sorry! It's a long story.