[immibis]

I found that Silicon Zeroes is a pretty crappy emulation of a Zachtronics game. IIRC each level has an intended solution and only gives you the exact parts to create that solution, even if a better solution would be possible with different parts you've used before.

[xnorswap]

While you're right that Silicon Zeroes is not the best as a zach-like puzzle game, I actually found it did a better job of teaching me about building a computer than most similar games.

However, I played it years before Turing Complete was released, and I'd probably recommend that over SZ. But SZ does a better job at introducing some of the timing concepts.

[Arnavion]

The earlier levels are like that, but the later levels have a lot more leeway.