A downloadable fantasy computer for Windows

Latest version: 0.2 beta (July, 2023)

Please follow the project on GitHub if you like it!
https://github.com/FernandoAiresCastello/PTM

About

PTM (Programmable Tile Machine) is a "pseudo-8-bit fantasy computer" that you can program using a built-in programming language called PTML. The system aims to be similar in look-and-feel to some early 8-bit computer systems such as the MSX, ZX Spectrum and Atari 800. Also inspired by the modern game engines Bitsy and PICO-8.

PTML is an interpreted, imperative, semi-structured, loosely typed, low-level programming language, with only two data types: strings and integers (with support for dynamic arrays of those types). All you need for programming in it is a plain-text editor like Notepad. The syntax looks like some early dialects of BASIC and some common Assembly languages for 8-bit computers. Familiarity with any of those will probably make it easier to work with PTML, but the language itself is fairly straightforward.

Instructions

Please check out the README.txt file included in the download for detailed instructions. Also, the GitHub page usually contains more up-to-date information about past, current and upcoming releases.

Besides the interpreter, the latest release also includes two optional new tools: PTM Studio (a sort of IDE) and PTM Tile Editor (a very small and simple graphical editor).

How to write programs for the PTM

To write programs in PTML you don't need any special tool. All you need is any plain-text editor, like Notepad, and knowledge about PTML. A PTML command reference can be found in the documentation included in the download.

How to run programs

The file "PTM.exe" is the machine executable itself. If you simply double-click this file, it specifically looks for a file called "main.ptm" in the same directory. This file must contain PTML source code in plain text which will be interpreted at runtime. Alternatively, you can pass the name of a PTML program file as an argument to this executable via the command prompt and it will load then run the specified program. Another way to load and run programs is to drag-and-drop the program file onto PTM.exe. The README.txt file included in the download goes into more detail.

System Requirements