Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to EndBOX – A toy-like retro computer for EndBASIC
Hello HN! EndBASIC has been featured a few times here before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31651881, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37495166), but today I want to show you something different that I've been working on for the past 6 months: the EndBOX. The idea is to create a toy-like device that: * boots fast into EndBASIC, * feels playful and hackable, * and is focused purely in experiencing (graphical / game) programming in simple terms. Just you and a BASIC command line---with some DOS touches. You'll find pictures and full details in the…
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier.
- 1IV
Hi everyone, When the pandemic started, I put QuickBASIC in front of my kids and could see them enjoy toying with writing some simple programs. Since then, I've been working on a side project to build a similar experience using modern technologies, with the goal of having a tool to teach the foundations of programming to (my own) kids. This is what EndBASIC is: is a retro-looking, BASIC interpreter with DOS-like features -- built for the web. The environment is designed to be minimalist in an attempt to reproduce the computing experience of the 1980s where the computers were simpler to…
2021 · its alternatives →
- 2
Finally got my hobby OS up and running on real hardware. I love the old IBM thinkpads, so thought it was the perfect machine to get it working on. Been working on it for quite some time now, but this has been a big milestone!
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 3
I am proud to present my solo hobby project NAND. This year-long undertaking follows the completed Nand to Tetris course, but ported to the web with its own runtime, user interface, and IDE. Using the "Load example program" selector, you can try out some programs I wrote on NAND's emulated hardware such as 2048, a genetic algorithm, and a manual stack overflow to corrupt the screen. Check out NAND at https://nand.arhan.sh Additionally, I've authored an extensive writeup about the project. Read about it on the GitHub repository's readme.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4
To try it out, simply build the project yourself from source, or use attached bootable ISO image of the system (in Releases on Github) and run it in QEMU. https://blog.vxn.dev/rou2exos-rusted-edition
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5
RetroTick parses PE/NE/MZ binaries, emulates an x86 CPU, and stubs enough Win32/Win16/DOS APIs to run classics like FreeCell, Minesweeper, Solitaire and QBasic, entirely in the browser. Built with Preact + Vite + TypeScript. Demo: https://retrotick.com GitHub: https://github.com/lqs/retrotick
Feb 2026 · retrotick.com · its alternatives →
- 6IS
Hey everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster. I've just reached beta in my game BoxByte Lyte. -What is it- It's a free 3d arcade game for hardcore players that uses color matching in interesting ways. Also it's a one button game, well movement and one button. Cool huh? The final release will be free too. -What I need- This is a very challenging game, so I really need to balance the difficulty so that it's still hard but not impossible. It would be great just to hear your experiences of the game and how far in it you got. -Where can I report bugs?-…
2015 · its alternatives →
- 7
A while back I wrote a CHIP-8 emulator (which is considered the Hello, World! of emulators and is more accurately a virtual machine since historically CHIP-8 was an interpreted language running on top of the COSMAC VIP to make game programming easier). But a few months ago I got really interested in embedded software, so decided it would be neat to port my emulator to a STM32 MCU and design a console around it as a learning experience, since CHIP-8 never existed as a physical system. I didn't know much about embedded software when I began, and even less about electronics, but I managed to…
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
Emily is Away▲104A retro AIM simulator. Chat with Emily.
2015 · kyleseeley23.itch.io · its alternatives →
- 9
- 10
Crossy Road▲105Old school Frogger meets new school pixels.
2015 · crossyroad.com · its alternatives →
- 11
Retro Gears▲68A mix of retro, pixels and Micromachines on steroids
2016 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 12
TIC-80▲69Create and play games for a retro fantasy computer
2017 · apps.microsoft.com · its alternatives →
- 13
Crossy Roads meets the Jetsons in a colorful arcade runner
2015 · play.google.com · its alternatives →
- 14
- 15
A gory retro platformer with dynamic ragdoll physics
2017 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →
- 16
I've never posted on ShowHN before, but I wanted to share my Xmas 2025 project; to try a new approach to controlling our kids screen time. This also involved massively over-engineering a solution in order to play with a shiny new gadget (and avoid the in laws at Christmas, obviously) I've shared some learnings on AI coding with embedded devices, and how I approached the product design/hardware selection side of things. The Web App is at https://screenie.org - and I'm Open Sourcing the device and web app code later today (links to follow on that site)
Jan 2026 · partridge.works · its alternatives →
- 17
The HN community may find the context of the prompts, organized by each turn in each session, the most useful. See the website/docs/prompts.md and session-X.md files. I also started exploring some workflows for the LLM to execute, organized in the website/docs/tasks/ folder. I found it pretty handy to have the LLM document our work as we went and simply embedded the static site into the executable, along with all the music and logic. The whole project took me about a day for the backend. The C++ controller itself took only a few turns. I enjoyed focusing on my son's…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18
A WebAssembly runtime embedded in Godot game engine projects. Interact with Wasm modules from GDScript. Accessing Wasm modules via GDScript provides the following benefits. - Sandboxed environment allows safely loading zero-trust mods/extensions to a project. - Single target means that Wasm modules can be built from any language e.g. Rust, Go, AssemblyScript and the single binary can be run on all platforms. - Fast execution compared to GDScript allows for offloading compute-heavy operations or running bots/mods/etc. at high FPS. This might be useful for loading mods, bot AI,…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19
I've been working on a browser-based programming game where you write bots to explore procedurally generated dungeons in any WebAssembly-compatible language. It's like a minimalist roguelike where your character's brain is a program you write. There are pre-made libraries for C, Rust, Zig, Go, and AssemblyScript. The game mechanics are intentionally simple for now, but the challenge comes from building up your bot's understanding of the world from limited local information. Your code needs to handle mapping, pathfinding, and strategy while dealing with monsters and potentially hostile other…
2025 · shaneliesegang.com · its alternatives →
- 20
A little game I made to show off an old project. The functionality of the CPU is derived entirely from simulated logic gates. All the operations and control flow are based on the underlying properties of the logic gates, and changing their operation leads to corresponding changes in function. The original game code is all python and it runs in the browser using wasm/pyodide. Not very mobile friendly
2024 · loreley.one · its alternatives →
- 21
I built LunarBasic because I wanted a modern recreation of BlitzBasic from back in the day. I wanted it to have good step debugging features, and I wanted it to compile down to a native binary with no external dependencies. I do know there's an open source BlitzBasic out there but I wanted something simpler and more concise. It does have a "pro" feature set, but for the foreseeable future, anyone joining up will have the pro version in perpetuity (eg I'm not trying to sell anything here). It's early (v0.8.0). Would love feedback on the language design and compiler output, especially from…
Aug 2026 · lunarbasic.com · its alternatives →
- 22
VSCode extension with games (Snake, Plinko, slots), HN/LessWrong reader, and Pomodoro timer for AI coding wait times. Fake currency only. Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=TouchGra... Built in a week with Claude Code after seeing Chad IDE get ratio'd for integrating real gambling. Happy to answer questions or get roasted on the code.
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23
Build retro games using WebAssembly for a fantasy console
2021 · wasm4.org · its alternatives →
- 24
Hi HN! We're Jeremy, Victoria, Krishna, and Daniel from the local LLM (Lemonade SDK) team at AMD and we're building Infinity Arcade (https://infinity-arcade.app). This project combines an open-source app and model to demonstrate what is possible for local LLM coding on the ~200 million everyday laptops out there with 16 GB of RAM. The progress has been surprisingly good, so I thought I'd show it here. The problem: while LLM coding is amazing with large cloud-based models, the results you get with today's open-source 7B-8B parameter models (the maximum size for an average consumer…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- I've built a BASIC interpreter with DOS-like features for the web alternatives
- My self-written hobby OS is finally running on my vintage IBM ThinkPad alternatives
- I made a programmable computer from NAND gates alternatives
- A DOS-like hobby OS written in Rust and x86 assembly alternatives
- RetroTick – Run classic Windows EXEs in the browser alternatives
- I spent 6 years making a cool free game alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →