0x10c

[CaptainJester]

Markus has a new game in the works.

http://www.0x10c.com/

[Mads]

What's interesting so far, is the DCPU-16. http://0x10c.com/doc/dcpu-16.txt
GitHub has also implemented support for the assembly code. https://github.com/blog/1098-take-over-the-galaxy-with-github

[Nate]

I'm glad he is having fun, but assembly doesn't have mass appeal.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[lhkbob]

Minecraft got a lot more people willing to install mods (which wasn't the easiest the Minecraft was organized), so maybe people will like the rest of the game and be happy to install programs written by others for the DCPU.  It might even inspire some to learn more than they normally would.

[davedes]

You'd think the computers in the future would be controlled by slightly higher-level languages...

I really would like to see a game that includes its own high-level programming language -- so you could program the game within the game.

[pitbuller]

You'd think the computers in the future would be controlled by slightly higher-level languages...

I really would like to see a game that includes its own high-level programming language -- so you could program the game within the game.

If it's supports assembly you can just target that with higlevel langues that you use today and just work compiler. 16-bit might be restriction but there is lot of that you can do with 16-bits computers.

[Cruiser]

Yeah, we could even go and implement a JVM for that CPU :-P.

BTW, here's an attempt to make an emulator of the DCPU-16: https://github.com/swetland/dcpu16/blob/master/dcpu.c

[ReBirth]

If you follow him he already talked about it for long time. I always thought he was doing Java only.

[Riven]

There is already a (beta) LLVM backend for it, so you can code in C and compile to DASM/DCPU.

[Cruiser]

If you follow him he already talked about it for long time. I always thought he was doing Java only.

But the DCPU-16 is implemented in Java right?

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Riven]

If you follow him he already talked about it for long time. I always thought he was doing Java only.

But the DCPU-16 is implemented in Java right?

It doesn't really matter. I'm quite sure that Notch implemented it in Java, but in the end all DCPUs will run serverside so we wouldn't know.

[Cruiser]

It doesn't really matter. I'm quite sure that Notch implemented it in Java, but in the end all DCPUs will run serverside so we wouldn't know.

I know :-). It just sounded like @ReBirth thought that this was not implemented in Java.

Anyhow, it's an exciting game idea. I think all geeks at some point have dreamt of implementing some kind of detailed star ship simulation :-D.

[ReBirth]

Well, seriously I consider this as new thing.

[Nate]

Minecraft got a lot more people willing to install mods (which wasn't the easiest the Minecraft was organized), so maybe people will like the rest of the game and be happy to install programs written by others for the DCPU.  It might even inspire some to learn more than they normally would.

I looked at it briefly, thought "oh god" and wandered off... and I'm a programmer.

Compiling to it from other languages is interesting. Still no mass appeal, IMO (not that it is necessary). It does sound like a neat project.

[theagentd]

I'm just seeing the Apple effect here. Everyone makes tablets, no one buys them. Apple makes tablets years later, the market booms. I just don't see the appeal of a normal computer in a game. Either you want to learn or produce something or have fun, not program something without a future without having much fun. But considering the insane amount of time people spent on making worthless stuff in Minecraft, it probably at least won't fail...

[kappa]

Yup, there were all sorts of insane geniuses building stuff for Minecraft (like working computers ), etc. Do keep in mind that the modding community around 0x10c will likely make tools to make stuff much easier, probably even some sort of visual editors that won't require players to write code to make/do stuff.

[sproingie]

I'm just seeing the Apple effect here.

QFT.  Every game with a turing-complete scripting language is just as moddable, and what matters is the allowed sets of inputs and outputs (e.g. Lua scripts in WoW are jailed to a subset of the UI).  This is solely the geek factor -- I just hope there's more game there than Minecraft.

[ShannonSmith]

When he first announced the project I thought the virtual cpu idea was plain weird and didn't make a whole lot of sense in a game. Why not just include a scripting language that would be far more efficient to run and easier to code for?
But having seen the gigantic instant community that has sprung up around it and people talking about learning programming just to play the game I am both baffled and somewhat in awe.

[princec]

Not that baffling - there are a lot of people now who hang off of Markus' every word as gospel.

Cas

[Riven]

I don't think it's that, actually. Minecraft has such a large player base, that there are bound to be hundreds of developers both willing and capable of writing assemblers, emulators, debuggers, etc.

If he would have designed a game around lawn mowing, an equally compentent and willing subset of the player base would have raised up to the challenge to fill him in on the latest and greatest models/technology in that area.

It doesn't take mindless fanboys to follow his ideas, it's about the big numbers.

[princec]

Exactly - with 500,000 fans there are bound to be hundreds of people with the sort of motivation needed. And there is some odd cult-of-Notch thing at work too.

Cas

[Geemili]

5,553,697

According to minecraft.net

[davedes]

I don't think it's all about numbers. It's about the niche audience that Minecraft caters to: people who geek on creating big systems from the ground up.

Although I've never tried minecraft I'd probably fall in the same niche. When I was younger I used to script my own Runescape bots, edit save files, modify game textures, etc. Anyone remember Uplink? That was an awesome game. These things attract a particular audience, same with 0x10c.

IMO it's just a bit too low-level at the moment, although I'm sure that will change before long.

[badlogicgames]

I played Minecraft once after buying for 10 bucks. Never played it again, didn't appeal to me. The 0x10c doesn't appeal to me either from the looks of it, but the DCPU thing, even if it's a little silly and even though there are better architectures to target, got me wasting time on writting yet another high-level language/compiler. I don't think it has necessarily to do with the cult of Notch.

[Eli Delventhal]

I for one love writing Assembly code. The incredibly simplicity and lack of "magic" makes for a very clear and fun programming language in my opinion. I'm interested to see what happens. If the tools become good enough and the game is actually fun I would really enjoy programming my ship to autopilot or fly in doughnuts or whatever.

[sproingie]

As much as I love high-level languages, with ever more exotic structures like functors, monads, continuations, restarts, and so on, I have to admit I have quite a soft spot for Forth.  The PostScript dialect of it is my favorite syntax for it, but ANS feels like the best macro assembler there is.  Not that I have any hopes of writing anything practical in Forth, but it's still just a hell of a lot of fun.  The Forth community is full of some ... colorful characters too.

[DruLeeParsec]

I love Minecraft and I really like many of the things Notch does to support the Indie Game community.  But the game 0x10c just doesn't strike me as fun.  Mojang has made so much money on Minecraft that Notch can build whatever he wants.  More power to him for doing what makes him happy and for trying something really different and weird.  But I just don't understand the vision for 0x10c and probably won't buy it.

[Roquen]

Forth is a really cool language (not so great as a transport IR...for you geeky kids that take my meaning.)  I'm sad to admit that monads sometimes make my head hurt.