The Steam link is in Danish, by the way!
Sounds pretty intriguing – makes me think of LabVIEW, which is quite understandable coming from the same people who made SpaceChem. But heck if I’m going to pay for an early-access game.
What happens if you tell it to
jmp ffff:0000
It seems like they’re primarily using early access in order to solicit community feedback during the final stage of development. They did this with their previous game, Infinifactory, and were pleased with the results. I don’t think Infinifactory spent very long in early access, so you likely won’t have long to wait until the final release for this one.
I’m very intrigued by this game, and also by Infinifactory, but I’ve hardly scratched the surface of SpaceChem, especially since I keep restarting it on new platforms and devices.
I’m pretty sure that the secret is that it either runs on Spock’s brain, or it demands human sacrifice…
Oh please, oh please, oh please… after you solve the 99th puzzle, have the game link to a Rick Astley video.
I actually just bit the bullet on this one last night… it’s only a couple of bucks, and it’s been a long time since I’ve done much asm programming. I’ve made it through the first seven or so puzzles in a couple hours playtime, with most of that being attempts to figure out how to get better scores on the solutions I already came up with.
The instruction set’s pretty stripped-down (I keep wishing for a xor), but it’s been interesting so far. It definitely requires a programmer’s mind, but it’s still basic enough that it probably doesn’t require previous exposure to asm or other languages to dig in.
Conceptually, it’s really similar to Spacechem - it’s a different mechanism and is all text, but it still comes down to dragging things around in loops to accomplish each specific puzzle’s goal.
Does the TIS-100 run on thermionic valves?
/and: purchased!
One of my frustrations with SpaceChem has been that it would be so much simpler if it would just let me write code…
Maybe this one will feel better, but your description makes me think it will be similar. That’s totally fine, I can always go to Elevator Saga or WarriorJS, but I’ll probably pick this up anyway.
I may have given the wrong impression, though I’m not sure. The frustration I’ve felt both in SpaceChem and TIS-100 comes down mainly to how strictly constrained the workspace can sometimes be, so if that’s what you mean then yes, they’re a bit similar. It’s a different kind of challenge because it’s code you’re writing… but there are still strict limits on the available tools for the job, and the puzzle of it (at least, as far as I’ve gone so far) revolves around forming an algorithm that will take specific set of inputs and transform them in the right way for output.
SpaceChem did have some interesting twists on what you were doing for the goal in later puzzles, I don’t know yet whether this one has anything similar.
Yes, that’s how I read your comment. Thanks for clarifying. I’m still totally going to play this, but I might have to pick up Infinifactory first.
Welp, see you next Spring!
One of the reasons I have enjoyed TIS-100 so much is exactly this, all of that mucking around with “stuff” is stripped off, and it’s only the logic part left. If you’re the kind of person who gets deep satisfaction from programming, you’ll probably find TIS-100 delightful.
i am trying to move my arduino coding to eclipse ~ can i get a tis-100 module/workspace for eclipse ?? i have not spent $$ on a game since like , ohhhh , moo2 , but this is surely intriguing !! ( public domain , creative commons , and copyleft !!! ) ~ ( of course , a xor b is approximately equal to ( ( a or b ) and ( not ( a and b ) ) ( other approximations exist and this one may be written or coded differently , also , if the game scores by code length , well , 4 ops instead of one ~ ) ) ( also , if one merely strips ( or deletes ) the end string of ’ ?L= danish ’ off of the url , well , ~ )
Where does it say anything about CC/open-source?
mmmm , it says nothing about open source , but it does seem to be an assembler language based game ~ eclipse was originally mainly for java ( i think ) and for sure it supports diverse c and other compilers for backends and many many other languages frontally besides c or cc or c++ ( or java ) ~ also , almost all of my comments are dada or satire or obviously stoned out of any-ones little mind ; ; ; i am a true shultz++ , i not only know nothing , but i am also unaware of when my meager attempts at humour are transparently NOT funny to many or most of the ( presumed ) sentient followers of this superb blog ~ also , i left my { snark and end-snark } tags in my other nas cluster and , uhhh , ’ sincerely ’ passive-aggressive defense and apology to follow ~ but , again , thanks for playing !! 
please be sure to enjoy the other acts here at open mic nite , remember to tip your server , and let us have a BIG round of applause for our host and sound board tech tonite , ahhh , boing boing !!
If you’re not sure whether or not the game is for you, try reading the “manual” for the TIS-100 that comes with the game as a PDF
Is the pdf of the manual available without buying the game?
This game is everything that is my nightmare. I just graduated from a software engineering program, and the stupid classes on assembly nearly killed me. Assembly is SO different than c based languages it makes me want to murder. C has a flow and a readability that assembly just does not. Assembly for fun? Nah thanks. But, who knows? Maybe I’ll learn something 
Gah. I’m not singling you out here as an individual, but this confirms my feeling that the whole computer science education system has headed in a radically wrong direction, if you just graduated from a software engineering program and you’re not comfortable with assembler.
If you don’t get intimate with some assembler language, even though it’s difficult, then you don’t understand how the processor running your code actually works. If you don’t understand how the processor works, then sooner or later when that underlying layer of reality is going to totally fuck with your beautiful abstract program, you may not have the mental toolset to understand why and how.
You’ll probably learn, but you’ll have to do it at the worst possible time, in the middle of some crisis.
