TIS-100

Within TIS-100, the player is said to have come across a malfunctioning TIS-100 computer ("Tessellated Intelligence System") and its manual, based on early computers of the 1980s. The computer is presented to the player as twelve separate processing nodes laid out in a four-by-three grid. Each node has a single processor register to store a numerical value as well as a backup register. Nodes also hold their own assembly language program as entered by the user.

The assembly language, a simplified version of real-world assembly languages, allows the node to accept external input or a numerical value sent from an adjacent node, perform basic math and logic operations, store and backup the current data value, and then send results to an adjacent node or to the program's output. Later puzzles introduce stack nodes and an output to a simple 5-color graphics display.

TIS-100 was based on an idea that Zach Barth, the founder and lead game designer of Zachtronics, had years prior. The concept was named The Second Golden Age, which was set in the Middle East sometime in the near future, in which the player would program nanobots to be injected into the player-character's blood as to be able to solve various types puzzles akin to Myst. One aspect would be the player-character coming across a used electronics store and finding an old computer with corrupted areas, which as they worked to clear up, would discover these corrupted areas contained the core of an artificial intelligence. While developing Infinifactory, Barth wanted to try to start work on The Second Golden Age but found the effort, concurrent with Infinifactory, was far too difficult.

However, he had completed the assembly-language puzzle aspect, and decided to go ahead and refine only that portion as a full game. To finish off the game, he worked with Keith Holman to write the language's manual inspired by similar computer manuals of the time, and with Matthew Burns to craft a simple story around the game. They used concepts from a Mondo 2000 infographic based on cybertech fashions to write the tongue-in-cheek narrative for the game and manual.

In its article "Can Videogames Teach You Programming", Rock Paper Shotgun called the game's technology "relevant" and said "if you can survive its stiff challenge, you’re ready to code".