But isn’t micropython working on the pokitto already? I haven’t checked, but I would have expected that elua’s memory requirements wouldn’t be much different from micropython’s. Non-embedded python is much larger and more complex than Lua, so I figured that running some form of lua would be possible. Again, I haven’t actually checked, that was just the impression I had.
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http://www.eluaproject.net/overview/status
they don’t seem to support anything under cortex-m3
but it might be possible with this patch
http://www.eluaproject.net/doc/v0.9/en_arch_ltr.html
Seems eLua’s source is equally ugly, but quite well commented:
Like I say, the bytecode for Lua is exceptionally well designed, so like @wuuff says - if micropython will work then Lua should work.
Especially if the main program is just the bytecode processor loaded with some custom drawing functions, and the game code is just stored as bytecode in a file on the SD card. Then it can be loaded on the fly and ‘paged in’ to work RAM as and when it’s needed.
The compiler would only be needed for the sake of something like a Lua terminal, which would be more use as a ‘fun’ thing than a game making tool.
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I am currently on a family vacation in London, so I just quickly comment on MicroPython. Afaik MP is rewritten from scratch to work in MCU devices. Probably optimized even more for BBC MicroBit, which is seemingly a big customer for MP. MicroBit uses the same Cortex M0+ as Pokitto.
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Cozy and warm there?
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It is snowing (!) but at least warmer than in Finland.
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I tried it once, and if your hands are on the bigger end it is very difficult to play. But the concept is really cool.
…speaking of Other Neo-Retro handheld consoles, the long-awaited handheld Uzebox is very near to being a reality! 
http://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2198&start=90#p29816
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Wow, thank you @uXe, I am still fairly new to the world of open retro consoles and I didn’t know about this, it looks awesome!
My list of consoles to buy is getting dangerously long 
There is a big repository of games for it! And all seem to be under GPLv3! (Could they be ported to Pokitto?)
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Uzebox handheld has moved a little closer to completed:
http://uzebox.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2198&start=140#p30100
and some really cool work being done towards an FPGA-based handheld!
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…stumbled over a couple more, the ‘Glyph’ and the ‘Spike’, over here:
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Just got a GameShell a few weeks ago and would like to say that I don’t even use the retroarch portion (yet?).
It can run games natively (it runs a linux OS). So far I’ve mostly used it for playing Pico-8 games, but I’m also updating my own system to run smoother on it (which is made using mini2dx a java framework).
I was hesitant about getting it because I didn’t just want a mobile emulation station. But when I discovered it was just linux and folks could actually make stuff for it without even emulating I was all in 
.
It definitely will NOT replace my Pokitto since they aren’t even the same category really. GameShell is a mobile computer that plays games and programs and is simply shaped like a game console. But is so much more.
Pokitto is a game console and IoT device.
I’ll eventually see if there is some way I can use them together 
. The GameShell keypad is a programmable arduino board so my first thought was getting that to work as an input device for Pokitto.
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You can probably write Pokitto code on it, and maybe flash the Pokitto somehow.
(Assuming there’s a USB port, or a way to bolt one on.)
I was going to try and run the PokittoEmu on it 
(the gameshell itself not the keypad lol)
The keypad does indeed have USB though
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