The same could be said about Farming Sims, Management Sims... even War Sims ( if you happen to be in the military ) or Space Sims ( if you happen to be an astronaut ). :P
There you go, I think you've figured out the true point of this game.

Like justanoldgamer said: because it could have been the lowest tested machine but I'll also add that the game was made in Unity so you can't expect high optimization like Retro City Rampage being able to run on DOS....

Not stoping anyone from saying it. It would be funny.

I might pick this up


Office Space?

yes sir :D

At a job where I did some web programming so time on the Linux command line (Bash) and a text editor (VIM), I was able to occupy myself (when there was nothing to do) playing Nethack. Peoples were always amazed when I told them it was a game.

Here it is. It is written in Whitespace, and I have stripped all whitespace characters to make it more readable. It has been attached to this post. (Just rename it to have a .txt or .ws extension.)

Anyway, have you heard of INTERCAL? If you don't say "PLEASE" often enough, your code is rejected for being not polite enough, and then you need to get a whole new stack of punch cards, rewrite your code, and wait for the compiler to complain that your code is now too polite.

Also, INTERCAL has a COME FROM statement (like a GOTO, but the other way around.) In other words, the behavior of code can be drastically altered by a line that is in a completely different part of the program.

The screenshots do look rather intimidating. I for one feel myself being rather tempted. I never learned assembly coding, so this might be a fun challenge if a good bit easier (at least to start with) than having to write an actual program with bits in ASM.

For that matter, while many programmers by trade are paid to make stuff work, and be robust. I fear many aren't actually paid to optimize their code anymore, and if they are, it's usually a monumental task. This on the other hand seems to be rather limited in scope and more manageable. Not to mention being a good way of training yourself to think of optimization.

For me, I do support for work, and primarily webapps and simple database backed systems between support requests. I loved Spacechem, even if it was basically graphical coding in a lower simpler, and more satisfying level. Just might get this too.

not true. I'm a nurse

see below

I haven't played yet but after reading the manual I can say a few things:

- It does have similarity to assembly but with a lot less instructions to learn.

-The fact that there is so few instructions probably make it easier to create simple puzzle that aren't so simple to solve.

- I can't prove it but I think the language is Turing complete if only because I've seen even simpler programming language that were said to be Turing complete.

- It should not be too long before someone build a real TIS-100

- This is going to be fun.

Wait, hold up: is this a game where I have to code in fuckin' Assembly?! Holy shit, this is fuckin' brilliant!

Hell yes! INTERCAL is brilliant!
And the GOG forum accepting zero-byte attachments is funny, too :)

My head hurts just from looking at the screenshots. Do want!

Most programmers deal with vastly different tasks. I could've said this game is to programming what leveling a character in WoW is to riding a roller trainer, except it's also educational. I remember being confused by the idea of variables as a kid, and it took more than a decade for me to get object-oriented programming. Assembler was pure sorcery. Now that low-level languages are having a popular comeback due to the rise of amateur microelectronics and the Internet of Things, TIS-100 is a good intro to basic concepts.

Since you asked

SPOILER ALERT

This is a puzzle. Each tile can contain code which is executed line by line, then repeats, until it pauses for lack of input or encounters an error. Tiles have up to 4 ports to transfer numbers between them.

The objective is in the left-hand corner. Numbers from the "in" column are fed from the "in" direction(s), as indicated by the arrow(s). Your goal is to output correct numbers via the "out" arrows. Correct numbers are pre-computed in the "out" columns, and the empty columns next to them will fill up with numbers you end up getting as the program runs.
The "communication failure" tile is cosmetic, clicking the debug button displays microfiction telling the game's story.

This is a level selection screen. "Untitled program" is a draft of a solution, "create new program" are empty save slots, and statistics are the game phoning home to tell you how much you suck. Harder puzzles are opened up when you solve easier ones, since they build on each other.

This is an artistic representation of a manual. Your character got one with the TIS computer, and you'll get the pdf with the game. Print it out or open it in another window, and reread it when you get stuck (sticky parts are highlighted).

This is how microfiction is presented.

There are three sandboxes (level editors) to create your own programs and puzzles. This one features an advanced node (stack memory) and advanced output (the graphic console).