Fantasy Consoles

Fantasy consoles are software that emulate a non-existing machine. Unlike emulators, which mimmick the hardware functionality of existing hardware, fantasy consoles do not have a physical counterpart.

Technically they are very close to said emulators and often time exist

1. as a project for a beginner emulator developer, as it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, making it easier to implement than real hardware.
2. To work as a middleman to make other software that runs on it more portable. As such they make an interface to write programs and so every program that can run that fantasy console can run an the programs written for it.
3. To explore novel ideas for various hardware that would be much more effort to make use of in actual hardware.

There are plenty of them and each has its own quirks, some examples:

• IBNIZ: Made to run demos and other demoscene stuff on it
• UXN: Made to have a portable middleman for simple software and games. Programmed in a stack-based assembly-like language (UXN TAL)
• TIC-80: Mostly used for making games, occasionally used in the demoscene. Programmed in LUA.
• PIC0-8: Similar to TIC-80. Also a sort of engine for games.
• SAF: Made to adhere to "Suckless" philsophy. Uses C.

Fantasy consoles often times are a lot more limited than actual hardware due to them being a lot simpler, which makes them considerably more fun to program, unlike more complex computers.