====== PICO-8 Tips ======

When beginning with PICO-8, there are a few things to do in order to familiarize yourself with the console and get a feel for how it works:

  * read the ''pico-8.txt'' file that comes with PICO-8 (seriously, it has a ton of info!)
  * check out the [[https://sectordub.itch.io/pico-8-fanzine-1|PICO-8 Zine]], by sectordub
  * ...and the [[https://pico-8.fandom.com|Fandom wiki]]
  * ...and [[https://mboffin.itch.io/gamedev-with-pico-8-issue1|Game Development with PICO-8]], by MBoffin
  * (there's [[https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php?page=resources|a bunch more]] on the Lexaloffle website)

While those resources are great, it's a lot of content to trawl through to find an answer. Even the [[https://lexaloffle.com/bbs|Lexaloffle BBS]] can be daunting to find answers in, so this page will cover little parts of PICO-8 that might be easy to miss when you're eyes deep in Lua and just want a quick answer.

===== Publishing Cartridges =====

==== Text Label ====

The text label is the first two lines of comments in the code section. Many people put these as the first two lines of their carts, so they never forget. It will be displayed in the PNG image that represents your cartridge. Try to put the cart's title, its version, and the primary author:

<code lua>
-- blasterz r us v0.1
-- by genericman
</code>

**Both lines support a maximum of 31 characters**. If any special PICO-8 glyphs are used, each one takes up two character widths instead of one.

==== Image Label ====

Press ''F7'' in-game to save the current screen as the cartridge label. **Make sure you've saved your cartridge to a file or it won't work.**

==== Pasting to the BBS ====

The BBS will accept any carts saved as ''.p8.png'' files, but also has a form where you can paste the contents. To do this easily, do ''save @clip'' in the command line once your cartridge is loaded. Then you can paste it into the form and publish to the BBS!

~~DISCUSSION~~