TIS-100 2015

Released: July 20, 2015
Genres: Puzzle · Simulator · Indie
Platforms: Linux · PC · Mac
Developer: Zachtronics
More info: Wikipedia IGDB

Where to buy

Digital: GOG Fanatical Steam itch.io
In a collection: The Zachtronics Puzzle Pack

GOG
Physical: Search on Amazon

Affiliate links: GOG, Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, ININ Games and Amazon

Is it still worth playing?

You have found a broken TIS-100, a Tessellated Intelligence System of the early eighties, and its manual, and you rewrite its corrupted code segments to repair it and unlock its secrets. It is a 2015 puzzle game for Windows, the Mac and Linux, with an iPad version in 2016. Twelve nodes sit in a grid, each with one register and a backup, and the puzzles are programs: a cut down assembly language written node by node to take numbers in at one edge and put the right ones out at another. Zach Barth cut it out of a larger idea of his, The Second Golden Age, and finished it on its own. It began in early access in June 2015 with about 25 puzzles and had 50 by release the next month. The twelve nodes still make the machine the puzzle, with the manual the only help.