TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

http://www.zachtronics.com/tis-100/

by doener • 10 years ago

195 82 10 years ago

zachtronics.com

irfanka• 10 years ago

You know what's also an open-ended programming game?! Programming.

sanxiyn• 10 years ago

True, but as a game, it's a bit too open-ended for my taste.

dschuetz• 10 years ago

Limited resources and means, you know, promote creativity. Programming a modern standard computer nowadays is quite available to average Joe and Jane. That's why we have tons of crapware. But, forcing them to program a less common, sophisticated, complicated or limited architecture forces them to adapt and into being more creative. This serious game is quite a good example, and, I suppose that was also the intention behind it.

tluyben22• 10 years ago

I prefer actual old hardware for that (60-70-80s), that way the results really give some strange satisfaction. Personal ofcourse.

qwertyuiop92417• 10 years ago

You know that multiple games can go in different directions with one concept, right?

Sometimes you just want to write asm for an architecture that's far to bizzare to possibly be real. Is that so wrong?

graphenus• 10 years ago

It's actually pretty good! Trapped me for couple hours solving some non trivial puzzles!

misingnoglic• 10 years ago

For the record, the game is 50% off here (and 10% goes to a charity of your choice): https://www.humblebundle.com/store/tis100

qwertyuiop92417• 10 years ago

Probably my favorite Zachtronics game. Although I haven't had a chance to play IF or SIO yet.

tempodox• 10 years ago

If it weren't for this post, who knows when I would have found out there is an iOS version of this game! Discoverability on the iOS AppStore is really bad.

quantumhobbit• 10 years ago

I'm not seeing it on iPhone. Is it iPad only?

OberstKrueger• 10 years ago

iPad only. It's listed in the App Store as TIS-100P.

US App Store link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tis-100p/id1070879899

SCdF• 10 years ago

Did they just release two games at the same time (along with Shenzhen I/O)? Or did I miss this one earlier?

indy• 10 years ago

This is an earlier release

samstave• 10 years ago

by the same people?

EDIT: NM, yes.... by the same

teraflop• 10 years ago

TIS-100 was released about a year and a half ago.

socmag• 10 years ago

Watching the videos, this really brings how it felt learning to code circa '76-'77... with Atari-2600 style sounds, an assembler (ZOMG), a back story plus achievements! Love it :-)

These kinds of games should be mandatory for CS education. Even better if you could toggle through the entire architecture being simulated, Bus, CPU/ALU, Memory and all.

qwertyuiop92417• 10 years ago

There are a few differences: TIS explicitly aims away from bit-twiddling, and in fact has no real bits to speak of (the integer range is -99 to 99, IIRC, but it's definitely something along those lines.

swozey• 10 years ago

I bought their newer game, Shenzhen I/O last night and it is very cool. It's still early access but I've been enjoying it. http://store.steampowered.com/app/504210/

Edit: Just realized there's a post about shenzhen too, woops.

pmoriarty• 10 years ago

I've played both TIS-100, and their earlier game, Space Chem. Like Space Chem, which doesn't have a whole lot to do with real chemistry, TIS-100 doesn't have a whole lot to do with programming. They use chemistry and programming as window dressing for what are otherwise pretty uninspiring puzzle games.

To my knowledge, the game that gets closest to real assembly language programming is Core Wars.[1][2]

Also, it's not assembly language, but Screeps[3] uses real Javascript programming, or any language that compiles to Javascript.[4]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corewar

[2] http://www.corewars.org/

[3] https://screeps.com/

[4] https://github.com/jashkenas/coffeescript/wiki/list-of-langu...

jblow2• 10 years ago

I am not sure how you can say these games "don't have a whole lot to do with programming". They are programming.

Maybe you didn't ever have the experience of programming on an 8-bit CPU and don't get the joke? The machines in these games are comically limited, "this is like the cruftiness of an 8-bit CPU but even worse". The funny thing about TIS-100 is that it's a speculative fiction game, postulating an alternate reality -- what if we had gone down the path of multicore CPUs back when they were still super-primitive?

jblow2• 10 years ago

Wait I just realized maybe a lot of kids these days don't know what assembly language is and that's why one might say this "doesn't have a lot to do with programming"???

RandomOpinion• 10 years ago

I think pmoriarty's point is that, while they are programming games, the programming is abstracted and obfuscated into puzzles in a way that puts it a good distance from how practical programming is done these days. You have to admit that the type of accumulator-based CPU architecture used in these games is archaic and only found in the smallest microcontrollers today. And the multi-core structure and other constraints bears only a passing resemblance to how real systems work.

None of this detracts in the slightest from their being great games but they're no more related to actual programming than Starcraft is related to leading actual troops into battle.

qwertyuiop92417• 10 years ago

It may not acurately represent asm, but it does accurately represent programming. The kind of problem solving that Zachtronics games use is the same sort of problem solving that programmers do.

psyc• 10 years ago

First of all, Zachtronics puzzle games are beyond amazing. I put Infinifactory in my top 3 games of any genre of all time, and I don't know anybody who doesn't love Space Chem. Second, TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O are assembly language programming, full stop. Surely you realize that x86 is not the only assembly language? There are myriad machines with myriad assembly languages. Just because the machines in TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O are imaginary doesn't mean they aren't assembly languages.

angryredblock• 10 years ago

Love it -- reminds me of a more focused Uplink.

qwertyuiop92417• 10 years ago

This doesn't remind me of Uplink at all. For one thing, TIS very much focuses on actual programming, even if it is an estoric language for an architecture that could never exist.

strangecasts• 10 years ago

for an architecture that could never exist.

Interestingly, there is a real world equivalent to the TIS architecture: the GA144[1] has lots of memory-constrained Forth cores with software defined I/O between them.

[1] http://www.greenarraychips.com/

ionised• 10 years ago

Uplink isn't really about programming at all though.

That said, if you liked Uplink you should try Hacker: Evolution and HackNet.

esoteric_wombat3• 10 years ago

For really good non-programming puzzle games, I'd recommend Snakebird[0] and Stephen's Sausage Roll[1]. Try out Snakebird first, it's cheaper and works great on mobile devices. Don't let the cute art fool you, it's a monstrous game. If you get through most of Snakebird and still don't hate yourself, look into SSR. It's much more hardcore, but has some mind blowing puzzles.

As far as programming puzzle games go, Zachtronic basically has the market cornered.

[0] http://snakebird.noumenongames.com/ [1] http://www.stephenssausageroll.com/

wolfgke2• 10 years ago

As far as programming puzzle games go, Zachtronic basically has the market cornered.

I wouldn't say that: There is at least

- Human Resource Machine

and if you look a little bit more around (programming games that are not programming puzzle games in the purest sense) there is

- Else Heart.Break()

- Glitchspace

- Hack 'n' Slash

There also seem to be (I don't know this game, but it seems plausible to me that they fit the list)

- Cyber Sentinel

KirinDave2• 10 years ago

It's true, but all of those games are... well...

Zachtronics doesn't pull any punches. Their games are amazing. Even the deceptively simple Infinifactory is actually full of amazing and beautiful opportunities for elegant programming concepts (the first time you realize, "I can... I can make a clock with controllably variable periodicity!? What?" And TIS-100 resembles programming in a stripped down Erlang-like mode.

HRM is a great starter into the Genre, it's sure. But Spacechem is on a totally different level of complexity and beauty and depth.

maxander• 10 years ago

Else Heart.Break() has definite aesthetic charm, but the programming required (as far as I played, at least) is pretty shallow- geared towards clever highschoolers, I suspect.

A collaboration between them and Zachtronics would be lovely.

musha68k3• 10 years ago

A good friend of mine is totally into hackmud: https://www.hackmud.com

It looked neat but I have the same problem as with music games like Guitar Hero etc - I'd rather continue programming on one of my many pet projects or practice playing actual guitar...

I may be missing out though - I wouldn't know because I actually never invested more than 30 minutes in any of those games (also bought TIS-100 last year, never actually played it once).

Incidentally - are there any music games (rhythm, composition, etc) that are similarly "hardcore" as a TIS-100 that anyone would recommend?

I finally might be giving TIS-100 another shot as it is Sunday and all :)

gallerdude• 10 years ago

+1 for Sausage Roll

eridius• 10 years ago

Snakebird was excellent. Some of the puzzles there were quite fiendish and many had to be put down and and left to percolate in my brain. At least once I woke up with a solution, and I solved several in the shower. I managed to finish all of the normal puzzles, but haven't made much headway on the cloud puzzles.

tetrep• 10 years ago

I'd say Quadrilateral Cowboy is a notable exception.

http://blendogames.com/qc/

tgb• 10 years ago

Also try Jelly no Puzzle: http://qrostar.skr.jp/index.cgi?page=jelly&lang=en

em3rgent0rdr• 10 years ago

snakebird is tough!

JoeDaDude• 10 years ago

Here is another programming game, this one with a nice GUI: http://tomorrowcorporation.com/humanresourcemachine

poisonarena• 10 years ago

from the same company!

qwertyuiop92417• 10 years ago

No, actually.

kukx• 10 years ago

It reminds me of DCPU-16 that was supposed to be a part of the cancelled 0x10c game[0]. The specs[1] of the cpu and other hardware where published and the community created emulators, tools and programs around it [2][3]. Even custom, virtual hardware.

It wasn't clear what the DCPU-16 was going to be used for. But the community assumed it will handle navigation, communication, weaponary and internal spaceship systems.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLt4VVEJ9Kk

[1] https://github.com/lucaspiller/dcpu-specifications

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqefqWol1Cw

[3] http://www.0x10cforum.com/

qwertyuiop92417• 10 years ago

IIRC, that use was confirmed. There was also a minecraft mod that allowed you to create computers with emulated 6502s as processors. It ran forth, but you could also customize the OS.

Shame it died, really.

mjevans• 10 years ago

I played that mod. It made me really want Forth to have been part of the college education I had.

mindcrash• 10 years ago

If you loved TIS-100 you will absolutely love its follow up Shenzhen IO to death. Its like TIS-100 (in regards to the "solve problems by programming" part) only this time you also need to create the machine running your programs by taking components and linking them together. And I explicitly say "components" because you not only have microcontrollers, but also memory banks, bridges, screens and the like.

TL;DR: basically Shenzhen is TIS-100++ and its freaking awesome.

Check it out here: http://www.zachtronics.com/shenzhen-io/

The video on that page was entirely made from ingame material, by the way.

TooSmugToFail• 10 years ago

I've seen it, it looks great. Do you have any idea how useful it is for actually learning how microcontrollers work?

admiralacorn• 10 years ago

Not the person you're replying to, but it's a good primer/introduction to toy with. Much of the waveform generation stuff and I/O aligns pretty well with stuff that was taught in school. Granted, it simplifies stuff a bit since it's a game. However, it does bring me back to my microcontroller design classes.

gnuvince• 10 years ago

A fun game I've been playing: http://www.microcorruption.com/

Gotta use those MSP430 assembly skills to bust through digital locks.

jxy• 10 years ago

The most fun I had with a programming contest is the ICFP contest 2007 [0].

[0] http://save-endo.cs.uu.nl

    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    Spoilers ALERT
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

You will be writing an interpreter to write images, then you'll find sound, and you'll find yourself working with an interactive fiction, and...

yonirom• 10 years ago

One of my all time favorite programming puzzle games is Box-256, which I haven't seen mentioned.

http://box-256.com/

TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

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