Comet 64

Can't turn off cursor blinking, worst feature ever! returned.

I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a bad game; it is evidently very well-crafted in some aspects (like the delightful bichromatic aesthetic), but as a programming puzzle, it really leaves a lot to be desired. In terms of syntax, the language is more reminiscent of modern high-level ones but with many of the limitations of assembly, and this leads to very strange things. For example, the computer has no RAM, only type-specific registers (int, float, bool, char, string). There is a function that returns the length of the string, and in some cases, it's even possible to perform type casting; furthermore, the string in the corresponding register can be arbitrarily long (???). This mishmash of high- and low-level properties, however, made it really hard for me to immerse myself in programming this fictional language/machine, because in the end, they all seem like random features taken from other languages without a solid and organic architectural direction. And this issue is exacerbated when we get into the language's expressiveness. For instance, the bool register can only be used to evaluate whether to execute a jump or not; it is not possible to use it as an integer and therefore …

The puzzles took me about 5 hours in total to solve. It would probably take quite a bit longer to get all optimization stars, but I don't plan to do so. I do Advent of Code puzzles as a pastime, so I don't know if I would be the target demographic. I didn't find the puzzles all that difficult. The primary issue is not the algorithm itself, but trying to implement it with such an incredibly limited language and VM. Extremely few registers, no variables, etc... You do get a fairly nice debugger, allowing you to step through a program as it executes, set break points, and so on. I think without those tools (programming "in the dark" so to speak) it would be much, much harder. Pacing seems good. The bonus levels (the A: and B: disks) can all be cheesed very simply using a technique that would be familiar to competitive programmers, but I won't go into that here to prevent spoilers. It would probably be more fun to ignore that technique in favor of coordinate tracking (which is described in the instruction manual). My only criticism is the lack of any kind of story. The store page makes it sound as though there is some narrative that unfolds as you get further and further in, but ther…

Nice little pseudo-assembly programming puzzle game. If you like solving coding problems in heavily restricted environments, you'll enjoy this.

a good game

Comet 64 is a "Programming Puzzle Math" game using assembly-like (low-level language). If you enjoy this type of game, consider playing it.