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 ZACHTRONICS_GAMES//QUERY:WHAT[INSERT=QMARK] Zachtronics, a games company and a guy (Zach Barth), well known for games where you start off solving neat little programming puzzles with open solutions and end up setting fire to your desk because you have to synthesize a whale through a MIDI interface. In reality, all Zachtronics games follow a pretty similar formula; you're meant to achieve a result, and using the specific, abstracted programming language of the game, you assemble a solution. Your solution is then compared to your steam friends through various criteria, and then you get to sit there for two hours straight, staring at your screen, wondering how the gently caress [LLJK]Johnny_Videogames managed a solution that uses half the parts, takes a fourth of time and looks like loss.jpg. Then you figure it out though, and when you've created something elegant, unique and beautiful it's a feeling beyond anything else. GAME_CATALOGUE (gonna flesh out these game descriptions a bit eventually, if anyone wanna help me with the ones that are a bit bare bones I'll welcome it) Infiniminer If this had been more of a thing we might never have gotten Minecraft, but that means we might never have gotten Notch, so I think we can all agree this should've been more of a thing. Anyway, this is history in more ways than one.   SpaceChem The first assembly game with a proper release, SpaceChem has you assemble chemicals under the auspice of a creepy pyramid. Seems kind of sus if you ask me.   Ironclad Tactics ... Not sure. I don't think people cared for this one. Civil War mech card game, I guess?   Infinifactory Aside from trying out infiniminer back in the day, this was my first Zachtronics game. A pretty big departure from the 2D style of Infinifactory that would come to define Zachtronics, it's currently their only 3D game (apart from Infiniminer, but yeah). Personally, I think this is a nice place to start if you want to get into Zachtronics stuff.   TIS-100 A personal favorite, TIS-100 might be the most inscrutable Zachtronics game. Where Spacechem and Infinifactory are somewhat intuitive based on the fact that you're assembling something most people have a rudimentary knowledge of (chemicals, a piece of a factory), TIS-100 is basically an assembly programming programming puzzle game. It's at times the most frustrating bullshit you can imagine, but when solutions reveal themselves and you make the little things do the thing (obviously I have no actual knowledge about programming), you feel like a loving genuis. It's critical that you print out the manual and use it as a place to put your coffee cup a couple of days, that's half the experience.   SHENZHEN I/O Basically, you work for a cheap electronics manufacturer and are given a spec for each puzzle. You get a number of components to use, but the big one is a microcontroller that you program using the game's own very simple assembly language. You are encouraged to cut corners to save power/cost, and the specs are incomplete and let you produce products which do unexpected things or work poorly in undefined cases. As an example, you make a doll that plays music, but you never actually have to play the same song more than once. So it's totally fine if playing the song a second time will fail - the child who has to reboot their doll to hear the song again won't be happy, but your bottom line will be. It's simple enough that you can play without knowing anything about assembly language, but deep enough that you can spend a long time optimizing if you want to top the leaderboards. Beat my high scores, thanks in advance. -Jeffrey of YOSPOS   Opus Magnum I suspect this is a personal favorite of many goons. Way more of a visual learning experience and physics puzzle than previous games (aside from Infinifactory), it might also be the prettiest Zachtronics game, allowing the strangest, dumbest and most creative solutions. Basically an alchemy sim, it's your job to assemble alchemical compounds with little levers, gears and movers, by way of a cool little MIDI interface. Another good place to start if you want to get into the games.   EXAPUNKS A return to the programing grognardness of TIS-100 (and SHENZEN I/O?), EXAPUNKS has you program tiny little robots that you use to hack libraries, secure archives and... bodies? In addition to having a cool setting and being stylish as hell, it has the printable manual(s) of TIS-100, but where you could probably survive not printing out the TIS-100 manual, I'd say you're missing out on too much not assembling the EXAPUNKS zines and you might as well not bother buying the game. So, there.   Eliza Now this is something completely different, but it's something incredibly good. Eliza is a visual novel, a major departure from pretty much anything Zachtronics apart from the story intersitials between puzzles in other games, and it's better to experience it than have it explained. If you've ever struggled with mental health treatment and counseling, it's a good journey.   MOLEK-SYNTEZ Now this is more familiar. Evoking Opus Magnum in many ways, MOLEK-SYNTEZ lets you live out your dream of making drugs in a weird 3D printer/grabby bobby in a tiny Romanian apartment. More visual and less nerdy than EXAPUNKS or TIS-100, it still promises to be hellish in all the right ways.   Möbius Front '83 https://twitter.com/zachtronics/status/1320774950857236480 quote:The year is 1983 and the United States of America must defend itself from an enemy it could have never imagined— an America from an alternate universe that will stop at nothing to seize control of the country’s heartland! In addition to the actual game parts of the games, most Zachtronics games have cool extras and minigames that you can usually engage with at will. There's strange solitaire games (SHENZEN I/O had a standalone release), whatever that Sigmar's Garden in Opus Magnum is (it's fun, that's what it is), and EXAPUNKS basically has a programmable little game boy (all I've made it do is play the Dark World Theme from Zelda). When your brain is wrung out from puzzling, you can chill out with everything else the games have to offer. GROUND_RULES Always spoiler tag your gifs and describe what game it's from, and which puzzle it's from! Accidentally seeing the solution to a puzzle you've been simmering on for days sucks so bad, guys, and I need you to be careful about that poo poo. ok that's it COOL_STUFF.bin The big thing about Zachtronics games is that most of them let you export your solution to a gif, which you can then show off to everyone else so they can marvel at how amazing or terrible it is, that's one cool thing we can do in this thread. The other big thing is that if you're friends with someone, you can compare your solution to theirs, so let's all be friends. I'm probably gonna gently caress with a spreadsheet eventually, but for now, I'll edit your profile into the OP. ZACHEADS.lame https://steamcommunity.com/id/marchidian/ https://steamcommunity.com/id/GuavaMoment https://steamcommunity.com/id/glareseethe/ https://steamcommunity.com/id/bort_simpsone/ https://steamcommunity.com/id/stickasylum/ https://steamcommunity.com/id/daedalus/ Other than that, please let me know what I should fix or add to the OP. Now go get your brains broken. https://twitter.com/shrecknet/status/950473795759828995 Black Griffon fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Oct 28, 2020 |
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Jul 10, 2020 22:34
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Zedd posted:And I should play TIS-100, it's been in my library forever now. The feeling of accomplishing something in TIS-100 is unlike any other gaming experience I've had. I treasure it very, very much.
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Jul 10, 2020 23:25
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MZ is my current jam, and one of my favorite things with Zacthronics stuff is when you're learning the ropes and you make complete poo poo, just turds from an rear end, but you made it, and you're proud of it because it's your ugly baby. (Diethyl Ether)  GuavaMoment posted:Is it one of these? It's 100% that first one, thanks! Black Griffon fucked around with this message at 10:39 on Jul 11, 2020 |
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Jul 11, 2020 09:18
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Ciaphas posted:So what are your tools/controls in Druglab Sim 2020 here? I've only ever seen GIFs and it's not terribly clear what's being manipulated where or why compounds are appearing Inside the hexagon, you can place various molecules. The spot you place rhe molecule acts as a "spawn", so if the spots occupied by the molecule are cleared, a new molecule of the same type appears in the same spot. On the perimeter of the hexagon, you've got six manipulators. With these you can move and rotate molecules, delete them, send them to output and–most interestingly–manipulate the hydrogen atoms bonded to component parts of the molecule. You can add or remove hydrogen or push it along the molecular chain, and in this way you not only change the hydrogen count of atmos, but you also manipulate the molecular bonds. Any given atom has a limited amount of bonds, which means it will bond or detach from other atoms if you change the hydrogen count. The goal is to use precursor molecules to build more complex molecules, there's a lot to remind you of OM there, but I find that it's a deceptively simple, elegant and clever game that stand on its own.
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Jul 11, 2020 16:17
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Another thing that's so great and unique with the games is the first time you get a solution that's competitive with your way smarter steam friends on your first try. (stone cold jane austen you're frustratingly clever) (Valnoctamide) 
Black Griffon fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Jul 13, 2020 |
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Jul 12, 2020 11:13
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aaah, that's clever
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Jul 13, 2020 10:52
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It's an incredible feeling. I remember playing TIS-100 and just jotting down code on loose slips of paper while at work, nothing else comes close.
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Jul 13, 2020 16:04
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When I finally realized I got it down to 360 I kinda lost my breath for a minute.  Edit: got it down to 15 symbols and I swear there's 14 symbols just scratching at my cornea. Black Griffon fucked around with this message at 09:19 on Jul 15, 2020 |
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Jul 15, 2020 00:31
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Glare Seethe posted:Cut this down by almost 400 cycles and am now second only to Stone Cold Jane Austen on my list. That revolver drum spin at the end is so nice though
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Jul 16, 2020 20:50
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This version is uglier, though.
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more nerds for the nerd mines!
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Jul 23, 2020 19:00
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Oh man, I'm very excited for this. Apparently Ironclad Tactics was pretty middling, but I bet that they've learned from that, and everything else in the intervening years.
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Oct 28, 2020 11:15
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Oh yeah, I got a message from them too, but I just ignored it. Hopefully they're aware.
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Jan 4, 2021 21:34
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Ah hell yeah to the last three posts. I downloaded TIS a few days ago and cleared my progress, and it's killing my brain all over again.
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Jun 17, 2021 08:12
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Anyone up for writing a blurb about Last Call so I can stuff it in the OP? I'll get to the game soon hopefully, just haven't had the capacity.
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Jul 6, 2022 10:04
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It's very nice to see this thread pop up every now and then, and it reminds me to pick up a zachtronics again every now and then as a bonus!
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Feb 26, 2024 14:09
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