Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Poltifar]

After checking some other posts in this forums about the games "KOHCTPYKTOP: Engineer of the People" and "Bureau of Steam Engineering", I decided to check who made those cool games. My extremely long and tiresome (google) research led to this site:

http://www.zachtronicsindustries.com/

Seriously, check out the games there. They are really wonderful, and I'm sure DF players will like them, mainly because:

1. Many rely heavily on designing stuff with parts and such, such as a steam robot, or a factory, or digging tunnels, etc...
2. They are quite complex (and have a steep learning curve ofcourse )
3. Some are truly original IMO, as I've never heard of any other game that is quite like them.
4. For the DF players who are into programming or similar logic-oriented passtimes such as puzzle solving, there are games that use a simplified coding language ingame to control certain elements, and there are games that can be really hard puzzles such as the most recent game "KOHCTPYKTOP: Engineer of the People" were you build microchips using semiconductors and such

All in all, fun games to melt your brain in your spare time Basically, they are all games that encourage creative thinking and tinkering, while being complex enough to keep people interested

EDIT: I just noticed that the community on that site seems to be well aware of Dwarf Fortress, as is apparent in comments about a very dwarfy mining game

[Deadmeat1471]

I saw these before, was scared off by my lack of knowlege in electronics. I'll give it a serious go and see how it goes

I played spacechem, its pretty hard but unique.

[Mephisto]

Back in the day, there was a DF Infiniminer server. Then along came Minecraft and all the other clones and... goodbye.

[cerapa]

I like his games. All excellent puzzle games that require thought. Havent bought Spacechem yet, but am planning to at some point.

And damn you for reminding me that I wanted to complete KOHCTPYKTOP but got stuck on the later levels. I have already forgotten all my solutions, so thats gonna be hard to do.

[Soulwynd]

*points at the search tool*

[breadbocks]

Yeah. There's a huge thread already.

[Sowelu]

Considering that this was a necro, I'd say that the quasi-OP already used the search tool, so good on them.

The terrible, awful search tool of worthlessness.  It's bad and not very good.

[Deadmeat1471]

Anyone have any tips/pointers on this? I'm learning how to play but with no understanding of electronics am finding it hard at times to understand what i'm supposed to do.

I've learnt the basics of AND and OR and NOR gates from minecraft, but I struggle on the second one to figure out what I'm supposed to do for the Duel 2 input and gate second task

-Regarding Engineer of the People

[poca]

I generally enjoy his games. Of course, he isn't very good at documentation so the first puzzle of almost all of his games is discovering the nature of game itself. Once you've done that you can usually have quite a bit of unique fun playing with the puzzles.

My favorites (in order) were probably KOHCTPYKTOP, Silicon Foundry and Infiminer.

I would really recommend Silicon Foundry.

The core of that game is designing circuits on the next abstraction level above KOHCTPYKTOP. The block units are processors, memory chips, oscillators and you have to meet the requirements for various historical designs of MP3 players and GPS units etc. Of course, you have to license or research any block to make it available.

It doesn't stop with circuit design. What you need to design is dictated by orders with requirements, quantities and what your customer will pay per chip. An example order is the Optical Mouse which needs 2 USB pins, 2 D IO pins, RAM >= 1KB, CPU >= 4MHz and a CCD sensor. You have an order for 220,000 units that will pay $5 per unit.

You have a fab machine that can output 10,000 units. Once you have a design that meets the specs you fulfill the order by enabling your design on that machine. All the space you used to design a circuit will have decreased the yield and that affects how many units you get out of a fab machine each week. All the stuff you add to the design will increase the batch cost which is what it costs to run your fab making that design. You'll also have to pay a per chip licensing cost for any designs you haven't researched.


Silicon Foundry
http://thesiteformerlyknownas.zachtronicsindustries.com/?p=638

Silicon Foundry
Written by Zach on April 12, 2008 — 42 Comments

Silicon Foundry is my latest game in the games for engineers series. You play as the new owner of an integrated circuit factory who must produce chips to meet orders from your customers, and use the profit to pay back the loan for the factory. It’s surprisingly complicated, so I’ve forgone written documentation and made a video tutorial instead. I suggest watching the video as you download the game.

Basic gameplay is divided into two components – an economic macrogame, in which you buy machines, lease and research components, and produce devices to sell to customers, and an engineering minigame in which you must place components on the IC dies, ensuring that the proper connections are brought to the pins and that internal requirements, such as CPU speed and memory, are met. Much like with real ICs, simpler chips result in higher yields – by minimizing the area used for each design, you can produce cheaper chips and turn a higher profit, allowing you to meet the economic macrogame’s victory conditions. While the game has a somewhat steep learning curve, the economic conditions are fairly forgiving, making the game very winnable. Just remember not to produce more chips than your customers will buy!

[poca]

*points at the search tool*

Yeah. There's a huge thread already.

I used it to find 2 "Zachtronics" threads starting in 2009 (this one included) and a "SpaceChem" thread from this year. I was considering a necro myself. 

[Soulwynd]

Yeah, I would rather have necro-ed that one.

It's even worse when people repeat the exact same thread and go "Oh, I know there's a thread already."

I think i will start necroing old threads as soon as people do that.

[Deadmeat1471]

You know whats more annoying that necro'd threads?

People offtopic whining about necro'd threads.

[Rakonas]

I thought alchemical engineering was the best one.
Konstructor is good, but I acquired such a thin grasp of the way the game works by the tutorial that I only completed the first level, and the first thing that comes to mind is the taste of what I was eating at the time (which was delicious mcdonalds hash browns) so I really don't understand it.

[The Scout]

Bureau of Steam Engineering is hard. One of the boilers don't work for me, so my gun never works.

[Soulwynd]

You know whats more annoying that necro'd threads?

People offtopic whining about necro'd threads.

Necroing threads isn't annoying, clone threads are.

Be ready to be annoyed then; Annoying people is our specialty and it will never stop.

I thought alchemical engineering was the best one.
Konstructor is good, but I acquired such a thin grasp of the way the game works by the tutorial that I only completed the first level, and the first thing that comes to mind is the taste of what I was eating at the time (which was delicious mcdonalds hash browns) so I really don't understand it.

I kind of liked Konstructor more than space chem even. Space chem is a game that as soon as you finish a level you feel like never touching it again... But then you do... and then your brain melts and you gotta stop for a week again.