I played both of them.
Turing complete has a more non-linear arcade mode. I mean that you can choose which level you want to complete first.
There is also soundtrack and a little bit of story line present.
There is also gog version of this game.
I feel that I learned almost no new skills this semester, but I remember asking my circuit design lecturer questions about this game (in particular, about the possibility of constructing full-adder with fewer elements). That was fun
You can stick to nandgame, if you don't want to pay, you loose almost nothing, but playing Turing Complete is more handy because it keeps progress on your computer and/or on the steam account.
So, if you clean cookies every time you restart your browser, when using ungoogled-chromium for example, you better play Turing complete.
I've completed both nand2tetris and Turing Complete. A note about differences:
- TC only goes up to the level of writing programs in assembly, while nand2tetris has you build layers of abstraction on top of that so you can program in a Java-like language. In fact, TC doesn't give you "assembly code" at all, you just implement binary instructions, and they leave it to you to decide your own mnemonics for each byte of the 4-byte instructions (on the second computer you implement).
- TC lets you make more of the decisions yourself regarding architecture, like how to address memory.
One thing I didn't like about TC is that, when doing the projects to build the (second) computer, it doesn't regression test. When you implement new opcodes, you can be credited for completing the level, even though you broke the previous ones you implemented, and you might not realize it until several projects later, when your computer doesn't work.
Turing Complete is a great game. Finishing it was a major sense of accomplishment for me, particularly since I rarely complete games (though Zachlikes are a common exception).
This is from my Steam review (one of two ever, I liked it so much):
> Man, what a trip. I’ve played the NAND game and MRHD, among others, but never quite got to the “build a computer” endgame. I did with this one. At this point I’ve built a 256-byte RAM system that does six math instructions, six conditional jumps, and subroutine calls using its own stack—then developed my own assembly language for it which I'm now using in the endgame to solve more traditional programming puzzles.
> And I designed and built the entire architecture for it myself. The initial levels are mostly "one solution only" problems that each results in you designing a component. But by the time you're at midgame, all the decisions are yours as long as the output is correct. Previous problems tend to hint towards partial solutions of later problems, but very little is given to you outright. That gives you an incredible sense of accomplishment for what you put together.
That said, unless they improved the bit where wiring tends to merge together and virtually short out during edits, it can be a little frustrating once things get very complex. It's not enough for me to not recommend it, but there was a point where I felt like I was having to master the tricky interface quirks as much or more than the logic. Shenzen IO did that part much better.
While we're recommending programming games, I think Virtual Circuit Board is a bit underappreciated. It's a pure sandbox, not a game, so you have to bring the ideas yourself, but it hits a really sweet spot somewhere between Minecraft redstone and Logisim.
You just draw traces and add gates on a grid, with a few special IO components like the Nand2Tetris course. But there's some kind of compilation of the circuit, and simulation can be blazing fast, way faster than other programming games/programming friendly sandbox games.
Rather than being schematic, it is almost too real.
The 3D lab is equipped with a breadboard, power supplies, signal generators, various passive and active components, and chips such as the timer 555.
I attempted to use it to complete a lab from my university, where I had to construct a trigger from a chip with 3 NAND gates.
But at this point getting membership at nearest hackerspace may be a decent option.
> But there's some kind of compilation of the circuit
Realistic enough.
Back then you could compile your PCB project in altium designer, but now this button would be called validate.
Sorry, if I wrote too much in this discussion thread.
Definitely recommend Turing Complete. I've been playing it off and on over the last few weeks, just finished the first working CPU. It includes small hints and solutions for most levels, so if you get stuck, you'll always have a way forward. The interesting thing is, for a lot of levels, you can just google the component you're trying to build and use actual logic diagrams as guidance.
The game makes the whole topic a bit easier to grok with its visuals and the ability to step through your circuits when they're running. So, great fun. But beware, if you've been bitten by Factorio addiction, you might be in danger of missing a lot of sleep :)
Also, as some other comments mentioned, I highly recommend the Zachtronics games. Exapunks is amazing. But they're quite different, they're more like puzzle games about programming.
