Review of the game, Turing Complete

I recently started playing the game Turing Complete[1], and oh boy is it quite something. I'm just going to come out and say that I think it is fantastic, even if it still has a lot of polishing that is needed, it's the best game I've played in years.

The game takes you step-by-step through how to build a computer, from basic logic gates to multiple architectures, up to the complexity level of having a call stack and solving some problems using recursive logic. Now this isn't a new idea, and I'm aware that other games have the same idea. I haven't tried them so I can't really comment, but one of the greatest features of Turing Complete is that it leaves you at the end with a sandbox you can just build computers and programs in -- something that, as I understand it is typically missing in some of thees others. The only thing I wish is that the game continued, right up into compilers, and high level languages.

Now, there's quite some context needed to explain why my opinion is so favourable. I've been programming for over a decade, I hold more than one degree in Computer Science, and I've watched nearly every video Ben Eater[2] has ever published so my experience with this game is going to be quite different to most. Now, I think that having significant pre-existing knowledge of how computers work at their most fundamental is unfortunately a hard requirement of this game, and is very much part of why I have found is plain sailing -- only one puzzle have I been stuck for some time, to the point where I had to look up how the calculation it typically done using binary logic, to them implement it. If you aren't already familiar with things like RS-latches, half-adders, and like then I would say perhaps first spend some time watching Ben Eater's back-catalogue. But if you have that background, then I can't recomment a better way to spend many, many hours.

[1] Turing Complete Game's Website

[2] Ben Eater's YouTube Channel

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Last Updated: 2021-10-31

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