It's not, and in the VAST majority of cases with modern CPUs compilers already do a better job of optimizing than any hand optimized assembly(primarily because of the increasing complexity of modern CPU archs).

Adding up numbers(cycle counting) is also about as fun as, oh, say, watching grass grow, paint dry, rocks turn to sand, etc.

Seems like these guys have a good base idea for their "games" but then never really take them anywhere that I at least, am interested in going. i.e. fake chemistry WTF?! playing factory?! lets time warp back 40+y to program is pseudo assembly for shits and grins with the added benefit of a 40+y old looking interface?

BTW: on the steam groups someone mentioned what seems to be a similar themes "game". I don't recall the name but it should be easy to turn up the tis-100 steam forum. I DID look up the game(while I remembered it's name) and it does indeed seem similar, and is online only IIRC(not sure why...other than maybe they feed you ads as it's free).


[EDIT]
OK, I lied. I made myself unlazy and went to lookup teh other game's name, it's Dark Signs. OK I didn't completely unlazy myself, so go google it if you're interested as I won't be back to post the URL...
[/EDIT]

Each stage, or level has a goal, for example read "input A" and send the value to "output G". In this example you would have to write code in the nodes to move the input value of "input A" to "output G". This example is really easy, all you need to do is move the input value from node to node by using commands like "mov up, down" or "mov up, right" which simply move the input given to a node from a node above itself to the node beneath itself or to a node to the right of itself.
Later it get´s more complicated, f. ex. you have to compare values mathematicly or send a certain sequens. The game comes with a pdf containing all commands so you don´t need to know an actual assembly language to play it.
This way, it becomes a logic puzzle rather then a programming exercise.

To check if you´ve done everything correctly, you will have to click the "run" button to let your "program" run thrue all inputs and the game checks if the resulting outputs are correct and gives you a score based on how many nodes and commands you used.

Oh, I've just watched Quill18's video about the game, and it seems interesting.
Unfortunately, I already know that I would get stuck soon in the next levels :\