TIS-100 Reviews

Fun puzzles and challenges, never know what's coming next. Some questions are very difficult and can take awhile mainly due to the constraints imposed although that makes it all the more fun to be creative in solving.

The assembly is extremely simplified, so it's very easy for anyone to pick up and enjoy. The extreme simplification also makes the challenges difficult for people who are experienced writing standard assembly with more than 1 usable register. Good game, I recommend for all audiences. In my opinion, even when it's not on sale, the price is very reasonable.

Haven’t played TIS-NET DIR yet... but SEQUENCE SORTER is way more difficult than the others.

fun times. Could be more difficult. Admittedly does get more difficult optimizing solutions but most of the primary puzzles are not hard

This game is straight up assembly programming. The TIS-100's unique architecture means that there are new problems and solutions, so you can't just use existing assembly knowledge, but the mindset you need to play this game is that of an assembly programmer. I, personally, love that.

- Learnt MIPS assembly language. - Decided that I would never need this knowledge for the rest of my life. - Started this game. - Tricked into enjoying the simplified same thing with less flexibility. I don't know what I like anymore. 10/10. Great little puzzles for anyone who learnt assembly code for no reason.

In short, TIS-100 is an assembly-like programming game providing roughly 50 puzzles. The game features an interesting architecture consisting of nodes (mini-CPUs) which can basically only store one variable at a time. To extend the limiting capabilities of individual nodes, the architecture allows nodes to communicate data with their neighbours in a two-dimensional grid. What I love about the game: [list] [*] Simplicity of the language; the syntax can easily be picked up after reading the manual one or two times. [*] Challenging puzzles with interesting concepts that sometimes pop up again in later puzzles. [*] The provided code debugger is visually pleasing and is easy to use. [*] Some of the easier levels provide additional challenges for special Steam achievements, making you think outside the box. [/list] What I don't like about the game: [list] [*] The locations of the in- and outputs sometimes feel awkwardly placed. When this happens, I feel like the user should have been able to adjust these positions, but alas. [*] The nodes can only store up to 15 instructions. Sometimes you have to optimise your code structure, or even think of a different approach altogether, which can be frustrating at times. [/list] All in all, I would recommend this game to others with a similar interest in programming language puzzle games.

I was getting interested in assembly code, but I don't actually want to learn all the details. So this game is perfect. You get a simplified version of assembly code and each of the problems are well thought out so they are fun to solve. I especially like getting the steam achievements. They force you to find a new method without using the obvious command. Edit: Be careful though. I ran across a tough puzzle (sequence sorter) and it really hurt my ego. I couldn't solve it. I had a notebook out, drawing the logic of my code, refactoring nodes so they each have self contained tasks and communication is straightforward. I even solved mini problems one by one. how to move the sequence back and forth. how to compare values. how to remove the lowest value. How to keep a count of the number of values left on the stack. Still took me 8 hrs and I feel like I don't really know all of what my solution is doing. There are numbers going every which way and in the end I get the solve.

Good introduction to assembly programming. Limited registers and logical operators force you to be creative with solutions. If you have experience programming in assembly you can jump straight in but if you do not I would definitely recommend reading the entire manual and some community guides on best practices. Nominal solutions are not very difficult but optimizing for space and time complexity allows you to get a lot more out of each puzzle!

This game really makes me want to walk into a playground and beat up the first unsupervised child I see 10/10