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TIC-80 - RetroBIOS

Type libretro
Source https://github.com/libretro/TIC-80
Version 0.80.0
Profiled 2026-03-18
Cores tic80
Systems tic80

No BIOS or firmware files required. This core is self-contained.

TIC-80 is a fantasy computer for making, playing and sharing tiny games. The libretro port wraps the nesbox/TIC-80 engine as a submodule.

The core loads .tic cartridge files (and .png for cart-as-image format) entirely through the libretro data buffer (need_fullpath = false, tic80_libretro.c:340). Content bytes are passed directly to tic80_load() at retro_load_game() (tic80_libretro.c:1152).

The core never calls RETRO_ENVIRONMENT_GET_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY. There is no code path that reads any file from the system directory. No BIOS, firmware, or boot ROM exists for this platform -- TIC-80 is a self-contained virtual machine with all system resources built into the engine binary.

The TIC-80 VM provides 80x45 tilemap, 240x136 screen, 256 8x8 sprites, 4 channels of sound, and supports Lua, Moonscript, JavaScript, Wren, Fennel, Squirrel, Ruby, Python, and Janet as scripting languages.

Generated on 2026-03-20T19:12:20Z