Show HN: TinyCity – A tiny city SIM for MicroPython (Thumby micro console)

https://github.com/chrisdiana/TinyCity

142•inflam52•3w ago

Comments

tinfoilhatter•3w ago

Looks neat! Great job!

inflam52•3w ago

Thank you!

allanrbo•3w ago

SIM=subscriber identity module. sim=simulator. :-)

inflam52•3w ago

I originally had sim but HN autocorrected it. I tried to edit it back to what I had but can't seem to now.

oakwhiz•3w ago

HN's autocorrect seems to cause more trouble than it's worth.

inflam52•3w ago

definitely agree

hei-lima•3w ago

Really cool!

inflam52•3w ago

Thank you!

_joel•3w ago

I hope it "Reticulates Tiny Splines" (good work btw)

inflam52•3w ago

Haha thanks! Definitely adding that during map generation in next release.

Tiberium•3w ago

Small bug: the sim seems to double count residential population for taxes, industrial pop gets ignored. The duplicate logic seems to exist in UI but it's correct there.

Also I wonder if all the repetition could be reduced, or would it affect performance on MicroPython?

https://github.com/chrisdiana/TinyCity/blob/88d07cf98f13bb73...

inflam52•3w ago

Yeah great catch. So I mentioned this in the README but much of the mechanics were heavily inspired by jhhoward's MicroCity. This is the same way he calculated taxes and I figured to test it out to see how it worked in game. I really liked the flow of how his game played and seems like there are some pros/cons to that inbalance.

Pros: - Makes residential population more valuable for taxes, which helps early‑game cash flow. - Encourages zoning residential since it has outsized budget impact. - Offsets the fact that residential growth can be more constrained by pollution/unemployment.

Cons: - Skews the economy away from industrial/commercial impact. - Makes budget feel inconsistent with “total population.” - Can mask balance issues by injecting extra money, making difficulty tuning harder.

gaudystead•3w ago

I literally JUST bought a Thumby out of a vending machine this past weekend, so this post feels a bit serendipitous for me. Thanks for sharing, and I'll have to check this out!

inflam52•3w ago

Congrats! Unplayable by most means but absolutely incredible how tiny it is so I love it.

coldcity_again•3w ago

Looks super cool, nice job!

inflam52•3w ago

Thanks!

bowlcutWiz•3w ago

looks awesome! can't wait to try the online version :)

inflam52•3w ago

Thanks I'll post when it's available. Still waiting on the PR to merge in their Arcade repo.

JKCalhoun•3w ago

Is it using the 1.3-inch monochrome OLED display of the Arduboy or something smaller? (Guessing the 72 × 40 display of the Thumby?)

inflam52•3w ago

This is for 72×40 display right now but I was also working on an interface layer to abstract Thumby specific functionality in order to play on potentially other platforms running MicroPython/Python. Going to try and add that in the next iteration.

westurner•3w ago

There are a number of MakeCode-compatible devices with and without Microbit https://arcade.makecode.com/arcade-devices

bbcmicrobit/micropython: https://github.com/bbcmicrobit/micropython

But Pi Pico; RP2040, RP2350:

"Show HN: PicoVGA Library – VGA/TV Display on Raspberry Pi Pico" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35117847#35120403

"MaplePad – RP2040 Dreamcast controller, VMU, and Purupuru (rumble pack) emulator" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37522059 :

> PicoVision

pimoroni/picovision micropython: https://github.com/pimoroni/picovision :

> PicoVision enables you to create big, bold audio visual projects using MicroPython and an HDMI display of your choice.

> powerful digital video stick for bold audio visual adventures, with dual RP2040 chips and a conveniently HDMI-shaped output connector to boot!

> [...] dual RP2040 chips and a conveniently HDMI-shaped output connector to boot!

westurner•3w ago

TIL RP2350 support DVI video output with an HSTX: https://www.google.com/search?q=rp2350+dvi

And it's possible to convert from DVI to HDMI

westurner•2w ago

Wren6991/PicoDVI commit history: https://github.com/Wren6991/PicoDVI/commits/master/ :

> Add 720x480p 60Hz mode (270 MHz bit clock)

> RP2350 changes (including RISC-V)

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41260679 :

> The new HSTX interface on the RP2350 seems to be squarely targeted at this use case (video output) and doesn't require the use of PIO or consuming a ton of CPU cycles. There's a nice write up on the capability here:

inflam52•3w ago

This is cool thanks for sharing! I'm definitely be digging into these. It would be neat to support some of these devices too. I didn't know about MaplePad (+1 to Dreamcast VMU projects!)

inflam52•2w ago

Following up here, I just added a game interface abstraction to make it easier to support more devices. Planning on getting a few MakeCode-compatible devices to adapt for them.

mcsolid•3w ago

very cool!

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