Memory Lane

So I got an email saying that some posts I made for Petit Computer (SmileBasic 2 I guess?) on the old Fandom site were edited. Haven’t done anything with it in a long time and haven’t bought SmileBasic 4 on Switch. However, it was an important game for me to start thinking about the behind-the-scenes of games in a different way. I originally became invested in the series as a replacement for RPG Maker, and loved that I could make stuff with a portable console. Of course, that was until RPG Maker FES came along and I mostly haven’t been back since. What have I missed out on? What’s anyone (who still plays this and visits this site) up to? Since the 3ds online is dying are there issues with playing old Petite Computer/SmileBasic games?

Other than downloading Petit Computer itself, that one will continue to function at least, because the entire program is in the QR codes. As for SmileBASIC, I've heard that it's just the eShop and not all 3ds servers shutting down, but I could be wrong. I haven't heard a ruckus about SB3 about to become unusable.

As far as I know, online servers shutting is separate, but it’s a big deal for the FES community since NIS announced they would also shut down their servers for the game at the same time. How are things with SB4? Better than I probably remember maybe?

Ah you'll have to wait for someone else to chime in, I'm not sure. I've been out of the loop.

Oh no, I might've just spammed a ton of people's emails, sorry about that... I was going through and essentially trying to find what pages were missing downloads and which weren't, that way I could go back later and try to add/find downloads for the missing ones. But I guess that notified people...

What have I missed out on?

SmileBASIC 3 was a pretty major upgrade from PTC, and SmileBASIC 4 was less of an upgrade in terms of the language, but the UI and various nice features were added. Only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the touch keyboard in that version, but on the other hand SB4 lets you plug in a USB keyboard, which is definitely better. Also, there's definitely a lot of cool games in SB3 and SB4, many of which you can see on this site.

Since the 3ds online is dying are there issues with playing old Petite Computer/SmileBasic games?

That's partially why I'm trying to collect all of the PTC programs and make sure they're still playable. PTC has been missing from the eShop for a while now, and the soon-to-be further closure made me realize I really should do something about it. I know there's a large archive of SB3 games that someone collected (and it's not impossible to get SB3... yet) but PTC stuff is kind of a mess, with the Japanese wiki being down and a lot of random smaller sites hosting programs still being up but somewhat obscure. SB4 will be fine for several more years probably; it's on the Switch and that's not slowing down too soon...

How are things with SB4? Better than I probably remember maybe?

If you’re equally into playing games- SB4 has tons of games but not a lot of new ones are in English. I like browsing the published programs in SB4 itself, but very rarely do I find I game I can understand and even then the quality is meh. SBS has a good catalog though.

Well it’s cool to see people still active here. I played a little bit of SB3 and remember it being a pretty big upgrade. I should have something called Rise uploaded here from SB3 as a failed attempt at participating in a competition, but that was a long time ago. And also no worries about the emails. I have enjoyed reminiscing about this.

Personally I'm a fan of KUNISAN's SB4 games. Simple arcadey stuff but you don't have to read anything! https://kunisan.jp/petitcom4/ And of course Bearland 2, Versus Buffalo etc. Also if anybody just wants to hang out and has Discord, the Discord link on the front page is now the chat. idk just wanted to specify that (we could use the activity a little bit)