One cool thing WASM-4 has over TIC-80 is built-in networked multiplayer with rollback: https://wasm4.org/docs/guides/multiplayer

TIC-80 is indeed a generally more capable console.

The main reasons I'd personally pick WASM-4 over TIC-80 would be touchscreen controller support, more complete documentation, and better performance on resource constrained devices. (WASM-4 can run on the ESP32 and Nintendo DS, while TIC-80 struggles on the significantly more powerful 3DS.)

Can TIC-80 for Retroarch run WASM "ROMs" directly or do they have to be precompiled?

PS3 graphics aren't that different from modern day graphics, just lower fidelity and the hardware was a bit quirky but other than that they didn't have any particular aesthetic; I don't think the PS2 had either. The PS1 did though, the weird texture shimmering that was reproduced in for example the Bloodborne demake [0] and subsequent Bloodborne Kart, which had to be rebranded to Nightmare Kart for copyright reasons. But that one's made in Unreal Engine 4, with a forum thread [1] saying the effect can be reproduced across multiple engines like UE4, Unity and Godot, using a shader.

[0] https://b0tster.itch.io/bbpsx

[1] https://itch.io/t/1999076/what-game-engine-did-you-use

The web is already a game runtime that works on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS* with decent graphics. I've ported a couple of games. Here's Quake 3 including multiplayer https://thelongestyard.link/ and Cave Story https://thelongestyard.link/cave-story/. There are full-fledged web-native games too such as https://gooberdash.winterpixel.io/ (2D Fall Guys) and https://krunker.io/ or https://venge.io/ (multiplayer FPS). And of course one of the most popular recent games has a web version: https://poncle.itch.io/vampire-survivors

* Even more platforms: Chrome OS, Meta Quest, Tesla cars, Xbox, smart fridges, etc. The web is unmatched in platform support and more importantly allows you to completely bypass the software distribution monopolies on all of them. Ship freely without anyone's permission!

> PS3-level graphics

> retro aesthetics

You are really making me feel old.

That said PS1/PS2 style is pretty popular and a fantasy console in that area would be indeed great.

I just hope you mistyped because PS3 is mostly modern graphics for me. Most of the games still look good if you upscale the textures a bit.

I'm making a wasm runtime called Taca that has approximately low-end modern capabilities that can run in either web or a separate native player. https://github.com/contextfreeinfo/taca (I also made the intro video for WASM-4.)

Maybe like what the Game Boy would have been if it had had a framebuffer. It's a little bit sad, actually, that WASM-4, like the Pico-8, is a framebuffer console - there's less cool tricks you can do with raster interrupts and the like.

It's a little bit more complicated than that. The system is limited to displaying 4 colors at once, but the palette can change at any time. Check out what Phantom Shift does with a dynamic two color palette.

https://wasm4.org/play/phantom-shift/

The idea of the 4 colors and 160x160 screen is, from my pov, to focus on the gameplay more than the graphics. A lot of people get stopped from attempting to make games because their art skills suck, this removes that element from being an issue.

4 colors is still 4x as much as the Playdate or games like Return of the Obra Dinn has (or twice if you consider 'off' a color).