[b4ux1t3]

Zachtronics is awesome. Not only do they make some of the best puzzle games in the world, their write-ups are always full of juicy details.

I really liked their modern take on "retro" programming. I am not of the mind that we need to start teaching every developer how to hack away at assembly, but there's no denying that working on limited hardware (like what is still found in embedded devices) benefits greatly from at least a passing familiarity of it. I think that's kind of what their goal was and is with games like TIS-100 and SHENZHEN I/O. Not necessarily to give seasoned assembly hackers fun games to play, though it certainly does, but to give younger programmers an idea of what working with low-level code can look like.

This article has made me want to re-install TIS-100 and see if I can;t finish some of the levels I struggled with. . .