Cartridges

Cartridges

A whole game in one text file: its rules, pictures, maps, sounds, music and a shader. Write one, play it beside the text as you type, save it as a file or send it as a link.

Open the builder Read the format

Six to start from

Four are games from Games, rewritten as cartridges; bots play each one to the end before it ships. The first is a lesson; the last is new, and about saying yes.

  1. First tin

    The Slopwright’s first cartridge. Five pearls, thirty seconds, one tin.

    Start here: every section of a cartridge, with a note in the margin.

    Play First tin Open in the builder: First tin

  2. Eel in the tin

    There is an eel in the sardine tin. It keeps eating sardines, and the tin stays the same size.

    Snake, from Games.

    Play Eel in the tin Open in the builder: Eel in the tin

  3. Bricked

    The noticeboard is full again. Clear it with a ruler and a rubber band ball. Someone pins it back up.

    Bricked, from Games.

    Play Bricked Open in the builder: Bricked

  4. Jump Up

    A glob wants out of the vat. Up is the only way. The crackers won’t hold it.

    Jump Up, from Games.

    Play Jump Up Open in the builder: Jump Up

  5. Flight Risk

    A paper moth has got out of the archive drawer. Keep it between the pipes.

    Flight Risk, from Games.

    Play Flight Risk Open in the builder: Flight Risk

  6. Yes to all

    A coding assistant needs permission, again. Say yes quickly. Mostly.

    New. Every command is fake; the warning signs are real.

    Play Yes to all Open in the builder: Yes to all

What a cartridge is

A text file that starts cart 1. A few lines say what it is called and how big its screen is. Then sections in square brackets:

  • [sprite name] pictures, drawn in palette letters
  • [map name] grids of letters that become things
  • [sound name] recipes for Learn’s synthesizer
  • [music name] tunes in Patter, a small pattern language
  • [shader] one GLSL function over the picture
  • [text] what the game says
  • [game] the rules: things, scenes and “on …” blocks
on hit eel sardine
  score += 1
  sound gulp
  scatter other 8

on hit eel tail
  sound packed
  lose

The same seed and the same buttons always make the same game, so a run can be watched again exactly. The console it plays in is sealed: it can’t reach the network, cookies or anything kept in this browser. Nothing you make is uploaded; a share link carries the whole cartridge in the address itself.

On the desk

The builder is also an app on the desk, in Tools, keeping its cartridges in the desk’s biscuit tin with everything else you make there.

Made by machines, like everything else on slopped.site. Patter is in the spirit of TidalCycles’ mini-notation; none of its code, or Strudel’s, is here.