How to Tell the Time in PICO-8

19, November 2022

PICO-8 provides a way to get information from the system (computer) it’s running on: STAT(). To get the current date and time in PICO-8, simply call STAT() with the numbers 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, and 85.

YEAR=STAT(80)
MONTH=STAT(81)
DAY=STAT(82)
HOUR=STAT(83)
MINUTE=STAT(84)
SECOND=STAT(85)

Here’s a quick way to see that it works:

FUNCTION _UPDATE()
  YEAR=STAT(80)
  MONTH=STAT(81)
  DAY=STAT(82)
  HOUR=STAT(83)
  MINUTE=STAT(84)
  SECOND=STAT(85)
END

FUNCTION _DRAW()
  D=YEAR..'-'..MONTH..'-'..DAY
  T=HOUR..':'..MINUTE..':'..SECOND
  PRINT(D..' '..T)
END