BeepMini Console

The BeepMini Console is for playing tiny games made with the Adventure Game Maker. You can load a cassette image and play instantly in the browser. If you wish to play pre-made games there’s plenty of the games page.

What is BeepMini?

BeepMini is a fantasy console made for the web. A tiny (virtual) 8-bit machine that never existed, but could have.

It’s simple enough that you can throw together ideas in an afternoon, but it still has all the essentials: tile graphics, animated characters, sound and music, and a textmode editor. Games run in the browser, load instantly, and are easy to share.

What it can do

BeepMini comes with a few core features:

• Graphics: Tilemaps, animated actors, and a fixed retro colour palette.
• Audio: Generated music and sound effects, plus basic speech synthesis.
• Input: Keyboard controls (arrows and a couple of keys keep it simple).
• Game structure: Passcode support, level progression, and lightweight save alternatives.

Everything is small and self-contained. Each game runs as a single “cassette” that can be loaded straight into the console. Or you can use code to build your own games from scratch.

Creating game cassettes

Games are packaged as tiny cassette images that you can load into the BeepMini console. Currently they can be made with the BeepMini Adventure Game Maker.

It feels a bit like popping an old cartridge into a console. You can swap cassettes in and out, and the whole game world loads in instantly. That’s part of what makes BeepMini feel like real retro hardware, even though it lives in the browser.

Why BeepMini?

BeepMini is about constraints and creativity. The fixed palette, tiny file sizes, and simple rules force you to get clever. That’s where the fun comes from.

I made it to allow me to make games quickly without having to think too much about design and creating assets. The goal was to have a platform that does all the heavy lifting, so I can focus on making fun experiences.

It’s quick to pick up, fun to mess around with, and gives you just enough power to make something unique.

I wanted it to be fun for me to use, as well as for players to play.