PAL8TRO

**ok so I made a thing.**

PAL8TRO is a little poker roguelike demake I built for the PICO-8 fantasy console. If you've played Balatro you already know the vibe: you play poker hands to score points, beat the target ("the blind"), cash out, buy weird modifiers in the shop, and try to break the game before the game breaks you.

Except it all fits in a 128×128 screen, 16 colours, and one tiny cartridge.

**how do i play this crazy little thing?**

- Pick up to 5 cards from your hand and play them. Only the cards that actually make the hand score, so kickers are just along for the ride.

- Your score is **chips × mult**. Blue box times red box. You'll be staring at those two numbers a lot.

- Beat the target before you run out of hands, then hit the shop with your winnings.

- Every third round is a **boss blind** with a nasty rule: hearts taxed, smaller hand, no gold payouts, that kind of thing. The music even drops into a darker key when one shows up.

- Clear 8 antes (24 rounds) and take down the final boss to win the run.

**what's in the box**

- 9 poker hands you can level up in the shop

- 20 mods, each with its own little pixel portrait (lucky penny, royal decree, pack hunter, a sword shaped like a spade…)

- 3 card enhancements: bonus, gold and glass cards

- 9 bosses plus a final boss

- hard mode for the Balatro veterans: higher targets, fewer discards, less starting cash

- a stats screen so you can see how many times you've played a pair (it's a lot. it's always a lot.)

- the whole PAL8TRO main theme, about 4 minutes, squeezed into PICO-8's sound chip, plus sound effects.

Gamepads work too, by the way - especially emulation handhelds like the Trimui Brick, Miyoo, Anbernic etc.  That's what I made this to play on.

(I have an unhealthy amount of emulation handhelds)

**demo vs full game**

The free demo gives you the first half of the game (antes 1–4, four bosses), which is plenty to see if it clicks for you. The full version has all 8 antes, the final boss and hard mode.

Hope you have fun with it. If you get a ridiculous score, I genuinely want to see it.

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FAQ

**is this Balatro?**

nope. It's a fan-made demake *inspired* by Balatro, built from scratch for PICO-8. It's not affiliated with LocalThunk or Playstack in any way. If you haven't played the real thing, go play it, it's incredible. This is just my tiny love letter to it.

**how long is a run?**

A full run is usually somewhere around 20–30 minutes, depending on how long you stare at the shop (I stare at the shop a lot).

**is it hard?**

Normal mode is fair but it'll still get you, since the back half of the run ramps up properly. Hard mode is for people who already know what they're doing. Bump it with L/R on the title screen.

**what are mods?**

Basically jokers. Little passive bonuses, like "+4 chips per face card" or "+1 mult if you play two hearts". You can hold 3 at a time, so a lot of the game is figuring out which 3 play nicely together. Hold UP during a round if you forget what yours do.

**does it save?**

Your stats, best scores and settings save automatically. Runs themselves don't, so finish what you start.

**can I play it on my handheld (Miyoo, Anbernic, etc)?**

DEFINITELY! It runs on official PICO-8, so the web build and the desktop builds are the safest bet. Some handhelds run PICO-8 clones instead of the real thing, and the music in this one streams in a slightly unusual way, so clones might struggle. 

**why PICO-8?**

Because the limits are the fun part. Fitting a whole roguelike, a 4-minute song and 20 hand-drawn portraits into one tiny cart was a puzzle I couldn't stop poking at.

**I found a bug / I have an idea**

Drop a comment below! I read all of them.

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