# TIS-100

15 Hacker News commenters recommended TIS-100 and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A game about assembly programming praised for teaching programming. Critics say constraints get hard too fast and it starts to feel like work.

## Why people recommend it

- Teaches assembly and programming well (3 comments): "Having a really stripped down assembler was a fantastic learning tool!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48767133)) "TIS-100 is what made me want to be a programmer in the first place." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766364)) "might have a lot of pedagogical value" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46901473))
- Recommended as a programming game (4 comments): "if you want a game that kind of feels a little like the GA144 then you might be interested in TIS-100" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50268456)) "If you want programming games I can highly recommend TIS-100" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46708188)) "there's ones like TIS100 which I keep meaning to revisit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47647838))

## What people warn about

- Constraints get hard too fast (1 comments): "For me they get too hard (due to constraints) too fast (if not straight up obscure)." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48773834))
- Gets tedious after a while (1 comments): "TIS-100 was also fun, until it started feeling like work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766830))
- Basic tasks are painful (1 comments): "It's painful to get basic stuff done, but you can do some amazing things with some effort." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48716540))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [EmuDevz](https://hackerapproved.com/p/emudevz.md): 18 recommend
- [Elevator Saga](https://hackerapproved.com/p/elevator-saga.md): 14 recommend
- [Exapunks by Zachtronics](https://hackerapproved.com/p/exapunks.md): 12 recommend
- [Bitburner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitburner.md): 9 recommend
- [Human Resource Machine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/human-resource-machine.md): 6 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.zachtronics.com/tis-100/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "TIS-100", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tis-100/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).