Recent reviews by 0x737368

This game is a puzzle stylised as an assembly language simulator. Like many before have already stated: if you're a programmer in some way you'll probably love this game, if not - you should probably look the other way. TIS-100 can be extremely tedious at some points, but those that are familiar with working with code will recognise the rush of excitement and happiness that comes when you find the solution(and the inevitable feeling of stupidity that it took you so long to think of it).

I think this game is the closest I have ever seen to the core idea of "hacking" - finding out how something works, tinkering with it, experimenting, trying to break it and to fix it. Usually, this is a very slow process and you'll only get results through tiny increments - and the game nicely balances this so that you still feel the frustration but it doesn't get so overwhelming that it feels like a job and not a game.

However, whilst the core game is great, albeit frustrating at times, it doesn't end there! You can also try yourself at editing the game files to make your own custom levels implemented through Lua, which is very "meta", and can bring hours upon hours of fun if you have the inclination for that kind of stuff. You can even draw pictures in the console if you can figure out how the damn IMAGE_OUTPUT input array works. And I'm sure there are more things to discover in the game engine that I haven't got around to yet. If you manage to find something new and cool don't forget to share it on the TIS-100 subreddit so you can get your well-deserved tips of the fedoras in your direction from fellow 1337 haxX0rs.

All in all, a great game with a healthy dose of frustration with small periods of accomplishment! If grinding your face on sandpaper all weekend to impress your friends(haha, read: "disinterested acquaintances") with how much of the sandpaper you managed to smoothen out with your face sounds like great fun to you - then get this game!