Got a game for you low-level programming NERDS

18    29 Mar 2016 05:51 by u/MagicalCentaurBeans

I just stumbled across the Zacktronics dev team's catalogue on steam and in particular, the game "TIS-100".

The plot of the game is that you came across this mysterious computer with notes from your uncle who was trying to repair/complete it. You take up this challenge yourself, advancing in progressively harder levels.

The gameplay consists of programming in a mock-assembly language, moving values from one place to the next. For example, the current problem I am tackling begins with this prompt:

Read from in.1 through in.4

Write the input number when the value goes from 0 to 1

Two interrupts will never change in the same input cycle

and the game interface is presented as: https://i.sli.mg/JO29Wc.jpg

I've never programmed real assembly, so I'm not sure if each node is the equivalent of a core? or what. After you program you can run it using the test values, set breakpoints and step through where everything is getting hung up.

Apologies to the mods if this isn't appropriate here! The gameplay arguably qualifies as programming, though perhaps rather useless in that respect.

The game's cheap and makes you think. http://store.steampowered.com/app/370360/

8 comments

7 u/J_Darnley 29 Mar 2016 13:54

A better place to buy it from: https://www.gog.com/game/tis100

0 u/8bCvYq2vpg 30 Mar 2016 06:40

Thanks for doing that for us man. I didn't even think to look.

1 u/tame 29 Mar 2016 09:15

Zachtronics games are awesome. I haven't played this one yet but as I understand it, the language in TIS-100 is a pretty typical assembler language for a micro. (For bonus points, this guy wrote a TIS-100 emulator for executing game code outside of the game. :)

1 u/skruf 29 Mar 2016 15:09

I've seen this game before and it seems pretty cool. Never had any time to try it, or much other games for that matter.

That being said, I believe you posted in the correct subverse, it's quite relevant.

1 u/SelfReferenceParadox 29 Mar 2016 17:35

The game is both incredibly good and incredibly hard.

1 u/main_gi 30 Mar 2016 00:16

"Real" assembly is not parallel like this; parallel programming is usually done in more specialized stuff like networking. It's Zachtronics by the way; they have some pretty cool games. This one I feel is the weakest; it's too much like actual programming, and it keeps all the things I hate about programming. Other games similar to this one are LogicBox (more a learning style, I guess) and Great Permutator, which are not made by them.

One of the more unfortunate aspects is not only does it not change much with programming, but you don't really repair stuff at all, you complete stock challenges. Wish there were more plot connection.

0 u/MagicalCentaurBeans [OP] 30 Mar 2016 01:59

Infinifactory appears to be a 3d version of the great permutator. haven't been able to find logicbox on steam.

valid criticisms!

1 u/main_gi 30 Mar 2016 02:06

Thanks; Infinifactory and Great Permutator are very different however, if you haven't played them. The comparisons basically stop at the conveyor and block level. For Great Permutator, the inputs are limited, the game is very time focused, the amount of items you can use is limited, the board is always 11x11, generally the game is more limited, but also more focused, which I really like.

LogicBox is online, a commercial version here, but it had a previous free version on Flash that was a lot less extended here. I must note that there are a couple 'deceptive' things I don't like; the dev is having life-related issues with getting the last part done and the game is currently "perpetually on sale" for that time (it's been a year since he said he'd do it) and there are currently only 4 parts of the game. By the way, if you don't know, Zachtronics also did start on Flash games, with games like KOHCTPYKTOP ("Constructor" in russian). Those are generally less accessible, but people who got into them like them.