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Comment by eterm | Hacker News Reader

Ten years is long enough to inspire the next generation to make zach-like games.

Games like Signal State or Turing Complete.

But it's a sad goodbye to Zachtronics. They have a certain style of layering story to take you out of the raw mechanics which most their rivals don't. I think Shenzhen I/O was their peak but TIS100 is also a must-play and I certainly enjoyed most their other games.

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I think Zach has a certain level of finesse and polish that is hard to find elsewhere. The further you look into the details, the more impressed you get.

For instance, just browse through some of the datasheets of Shenzhen I/O. It mimics reality all too well (mistakes in datasheets, chinese-only text, various fonts and layouts, handwritten notes, etc.).

I've yet to find a Zachlike outside of Zachtronics proper that didn't feel like a knockoff rather than a true peer. Signal State was probably the closest aesthetically, but didn't capture at all the optimization puzzle that makes a Zachlike so addictive. Not to mention that it was simply far too easy.

The rest that I've seen weren't even in the same ballpark of polish. Maybe in a world where we only got the Codex of Alchemical Engineering, they would seem more up to scratch. But we've had Opus Magnum and Exapunks.

Factorio most successfully scratched the same itch as the Zachlikes for me. There’s Human Resource Machine and 7 Billion Humans, which have a similar puzzle format with online histograms. Prime Mover comes to mind too, but the learning curve was steep.

I have only played a few of Zach's games. Which one do you like the most?

I think Opus Magnum and Shenzen I/O are the most interesting (for me).

Well said.

I wish I could have convinced more people to play TIS100. I will have to try some more.

I’m proud of myself for getting all the way through TIS-100, and I think I still hold the records amongst my few peers who tried it.

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