Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

zachtronics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 85 posts

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#41

Post by mindcrash »

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.

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#42

Post by maxander »

wolfgke wrote: post #28
esoteric_wombat wrote: post #26

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, Zacht…

> 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…

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.

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#43

Post by psyc »

pmoriarty wrote: post #24

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…

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.

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#44

Post by jbpetersen »

empath75 wrote: post #33
KirinDave wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Not to mention the game that inspired Minecraft.

Along with Dwarf Fortress

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#45

Post by dmd »

maxander wrote: post #42
wolfgke wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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 .

Grade or middle school, really. "Clever highschoolers" are writing their own bare-metal OSes these days.

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#46

Post by strangecasts »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #39
angryredblock wrote: post #25

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

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.

> 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/

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#47

Post by TooSmugToFail »

mindcrash wrote: post #41

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: basi…

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

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#48

Post by jblow »

jblow wrote: post #30
pmoriarty wrote: post #24

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…

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 r…

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"???

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#49

Post by Pyrodogg »

mjevans wrote: post #40
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Ah yes, Red Power. The developer, Eloraam has been working on making a standalone game based on it.

https://twitter.com/TheRealEloraam/status/767550784464625664

Also, if you like TIS-100 and Minecraft, check out the TIS-3D mod! It's basically TIS-100 in Minecraft. Build your own modular computers.

https://mods.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/238603-tis-3d

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfJs2Xk8SdM

Re: TIS-100 – Tessellated Intelligence System

#50

Post by qwertyuiop924 »

mjevans wrote: post #40
qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Eloraam (the mod author) is working on a full game based on the mod. She claims to have started work on it, so knowing her it will be done by 2029.
Post reply on HN