— What is TrinketOS? Why would I want to use it?

Technically speaking, TrinketOS is a ludo-narrative experience in the form of an android launcher.

In other words, it is a launcher, a game and a story — all unfolding at the same time. All in retro-futuristic pixel style of The Wizard.

Why? Because I think that making another pixel platformer is not enough to capture the true nostalgic spirit. Install TrinketOS if you want to roleplay a Vault Dweller, that uncovered an old terminal on the mysterious planet, and explores its secrets with holographic wizard.

In this unique experience, your device becomes that terminal, it turns into a game asset, like a guitar in Guitar Hero, or a gun controller in Duck Hunt.

And also, if you'd like a neat, cozy retro launcher with a ton of customizations.

— Will it run on my device? What are system requirements?

It is an android launcher. It runs the best on devices with android 13+, and supports android versions down to Android 6. Custom Android builds are not officially supported, results may vary. The older the device, the more limitations and quircks it may have.

The ideal device is what it was initially developed on: a gaming handheld with horizontal touch screen and controller buttons. Chapter II also supports older and smaller devices, screens with different ratios (e.g. squarish ones) and phones with vertical screen.

There are no specific requirements. TrinketsOS does not demand much disk space or processor power. It runs slightly slower the older the device is.

If you are expert in custom systems and want to see TrinketOS on other devices — join our team! Maybe with your help, in the future it will come to non-android devices.

— Why do you call your launcher "OS"? It is factually incorrect! Make a real OS or Android fork!

Just add the word "fantasy". It is an OS in the same manner as Pico8 a console (it is technically a game for gamedevelopers, with very sofisticated "mods"). And for the same reason: in both cases making a "real thing" would need a much bigger community & investments, while "fantasy" version already serves its function. Which in case of TrinketOS is being an interface that changes how you interact with your device. A launcher with benefits.

Also, imagine supporting all the custom hardware with its private drivers instead of device manufacturers. Just check out the compatibility list of some known custom linux OSes — every new device they will "maybe support in the future", or even never. In fact, if you are ready to do this, welcome aboard — maybe together we will turn it into a "real" OS, who knows?

— Why is it not open source? Why use github repository then?

Just to secure it a little bit in the beginning. It will be fully open source, as soon as the community grows enough to collaborate on development, like Godot does. For now you can get an access to the code if you are ready to really contribute your time to the development. Also, you'll get access to a part of resources if you are a translator, designer and so on.

Nothing is hidden in the code, except secret achievements. You can check the traffic (which is zero except github) or android logs. If you are really commited to security though, I can give you a personal access to the code, so you could confirm everything is clear.

GitHub repository is used to manage build versions for now, codebase is private. As soon as there are enough collaborators, codebase will go public and repository will function as intended.

— What is your business model? Will you add ads or paid version? Will you sellout one day?

There are no ads, spyware, trackers, miners or data collection in our software, and will never be. We despise that and those who do that. Some ugly deodorant or pay-to-win game banners in my cosy pixel art interface, are you kidding?!

Also there is no "business", TrinketOS is supported by a community. Instead of paid version, subscribe to our Ko-Fi or suggest other platform that is comfortable for you, and we will create an account there.

We won't sellout because it goes against the main goal: creation of the independent "os-like" system for android devices.

— Your pixelart is not perfect! I found a bug! Translation is incorrect!

Come and draw better! Come and fix it! At least, create an issue on GitHub. This is a young software in the phase of active development.

— Are fonts, pixelart and music licensed? Have you stolen it?

All assets are either created by The Wizard or the community, or have an open license (like CC-BY), or we have official permission from authors to use them.

All authors are properly credited in the "Links" section of the menu, and in the default "Links" tab.

— Why do I need this when I have S-DE, Daijisho etc?

If you can't see the difference, maybe you don't. But in fact, they are different things with a different purpose. Those are emulator frontends, their main thing is to manage your emulated games collections: scrape covers, download descriptions, combine them into folders for different consoles. TrinketOS is an os-like UI, whose goal is to make your android device look and feel not like a phone, but like a small individual console from another time, like retro PC or terminal.