Show HN: TinyCity – A tiny city SIM for MicroPython (Thumby micro console)
142 points by inflam52 5 days ago | 26 comments
  • tinfoilhatter 5 days ago |
    Looks neat! Great job!
    • inflam52 5 days ago |
      Thank you!
  • allanrbo 5 days ago |
    SIM=subscriber identity module. sim=simulator. :-)
    • inflam52 5 days 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 4 days ago |
        HN's autocorrect seems to cause more trouble than it's worth.
        • inflam52 4 days ago |
          definitely agree
  • hei-lima 5 days ago |
    Really cool!
    • inflam52 5 days ago |
      Thank you!
  • _joel 5 days ago |
    I hope it "Reticulates Tiny Splines" (good work btw)
    • inflam52 5 days ago |
      Haha thanks! Definitely adding that during map generation in next release.
  • Tiberium 5 days 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 5 days 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 5 days 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 5 days ago |
      Congrats! Unplayable by most means but absolutely incredible how tiny it is so I love it.
  • coldcity_again 5 days ago |
    Looks super cool, nice job!
    • inflam52 5 days ago |
      Thanks!
  • bowlcutWiz 5 days ago |
    looks awesome! can't wait to try the online version :)
    • inflam52 5 days ago |
      Thanks I'll post when it's available. Still waiting on the PR to merge in their Arcade repo.
  • JKCalhoun 5 days 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 5 days 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 5 days 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 5 days 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

        • inflam52 5 days 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 3 days 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 5 days ago |
    very cool!