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Comment by M4v3R | Hacker News Reader

4 years ago Notch (creator of Minecraft) released specs for DCPU-16 - imaginary 16-bit CPU that could run limited, but quite complete set of instructions. The goal was to put this into his new game - 0x10c. People went crazy about this idea and a whole community appeared with people building assemblers, compilers, specs for new hardware and other tools for creating software for this architecture.

I also got interested in it and found the same article from 1988 that OP is referencing, which resulted in me writing a simple BASIC to DCPU-16 ASM compiler, also in Go [0]. The code isn't of very high quality (it was just a pet project) but if anyone wants to take a look, go ahead.

[0] https://github.com/M4v3R/DCPU-Bas

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It's a shame that Notch dropped the 0x10c project. The concept seemed to me like a great way to get kids more interested in actual computer engineering (as opposed to just using computer applications).

It seems TIS-100[0] would fill that gap pretty nicely (I've heard good things from friends). It's by the same author[1] that introduced the concept of block worlds (that Minecraft used for example).

[0]: http://www.zachtronics.com/tis-100/ [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Barth

There is a similar type game called Human Resource Machine[1] which I can also recommend. It's made by the same people who made Little Inferno.

My one gripe with it however is that it takes the middle ground between teaching assembly to people unfamiliar with programming and those who already have some knowledge, and doesn't quite satisfy either.

[1] https://tomorrowcorporation.com/humanresourcemachine

Tech Compliant seems to have picked up the torch: https://www.reddit.com/r/techcompliant/

We're hoping to fill that gap with https://armoredbits.com - although admittedly at a higher level (any off the shelf programming language).

Yeah, I was very sad when it was shelved. The idea had a great potential, which was apparent by a very vibrant community that sparkled around it, with literally thousands of people creating content for a game that didn't even exist yet.

Through some off the record interviews with the music composer for 0x10c it seems like Microsoft owns it now. I'm really hoping that someone convinces them to make it.

He said he dropped it because he couldn't find a way to make it fun. I'd look to other games in the same vein instead of pushing for this specific one to be released.

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