A silly game

[fivemack]

Recently, thanks to mobbsy, I have been playing quite a lot of SpaceChem.

I suppose it's most like Peeko Computer on the BBC Micro, except that the machine model is multi-threaded (yay!) and lacks jump instructions (less yay); you're given a set of primitives with slightly awkward behaviour and a task to perform, and you have to write the best program to do the job. It seems that I can usually write programs that work, but they are much bigger and slower than the optimal ones whose existence is suggested at the end of the level; and the game doesn't tend to give you advice on style and efficiency.

See: large, slow acetylene and ammonia factories





I know that a lot of my friends play this; how does one build smaller, faster factories?

Comments

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, an new game I didn't know about.

It would be shameful for me not to do a good one for the acetylene level: I did this (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~pcorbett/schem_acetylene.png) which I think has the advantage of being pretty. Furthermore with a little loop size fiddling, I even managed to elimaate the need for syncs.

Remember:

1) The start point can be moved
2) Exploit symmetry where possible

[ptc24.livejournal.com]

(Of course, the solution there can be optimised further. Even then, it isn't the best).