This is The Codex of Alchemical Engineering. It is a simple machine building and programming puzzle game.
[video=youtube;JHQpBIVuQl8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHQpBIVuQl8[/video]
Here I have made my own solution to a level. It doesn't use the fewest programming symbols, but I find my version to be more elegant than spinning manipulators around until they finally get to do something.
What is happening here is that each arm is programmed with a simple set of instructions, which are mathematically aligned to be in phase. The upper arm does four iterations, turning 90 degrees each time, and the lower arm must move exactly three atoms, so it must do three iterations for every four iterations of the upper arm.
The lower arm just does one thing - grab an atom, turn, push it over and then turn back - repeat.
The upper arm has a contextual instruction which allows one function to accomplish several things depending on the surroundings.
First, it grabs the molecule, then it flips it 180 degrees, then pushes out, releases, grabs again, then rotates 90 degrees and repeats.
On the first four iterations the upper arm does nothing but rotate, as the lower arm must load exactly three atoms.
Next it grabs, but the 180 degree flip and the push out don't do anything here. Then it turns to the 3 o'clock position
At the 3 o'clock position, there are some converters there, but not enough to convert everything in one pass. On first arriving it converts one atom to salt. The 180 degree flip then comes into play, converting the second atom to salt, and the first atom to mercury. It then pushes out, drops it (which does nothing here) picks it up and pulls it back in, passing over the converters a second time which converts the mercury atom into sulfur, and the first salt atom stays salt because it already is converted.
Then it goes to 12 o'clock, where the 180 degree flip comes into play a second time, reversing the first flip because it needs to be oriented correctly for the target to accept it. It then pushes out, drops the molecule (actually useful this time) and the molecule is accepted and vanishes, which means it will now safely use the existing close instruction that comes next in the function.
At the 9 o'clock position it does nothing but buy time for the lower arm to finish its job.
[video=youtube;JHQpBIVuQl8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHQpBIVuQl8[/video]
Here I have made my own solution to a level. It doesn't use the fewest programming symbols, but I find my version to be more elegant than spinning manipulators around until they finally get to do something.
What is happening here is that each arm is programmed with a simple set of instructions, which are mathematically aligned to be in phase. The upper arm does four iterations, turning 90 degrees each time, and the lower arm must move exactly three atoms, so it must do three iterations for every four iterations of the upper arm.
The lower arm just does one thing - grab an atom, turn, push it over and then turn back - repeat.
The upper arm has a contextual instruction which allows one function to accomplish several things depending on the surroundings.
First, it grabs the molecule, then it flips it 180 degrees, then pushes out, releases, grabs again, then rotates 90 degrees and repeats.
On the first four iterations the upper arm does nothing but rotate, as the lower arm must load exactly three atoms.
Next it grabs, but the 180 degree flip and the push out don't do anything here. Then it turns to the 3 o'clock position
At the 3 o'clock position, there are some converters there, but not enough to convert everything in one pass. On first arriving it converts one atom to salt. The 180 degree flip then comes into play, converting the second atom to salt, and the first atom to mercury. It then pushes out, drops it (which does nothing here) picks it up and pulls it back in, passing over the converters a second time which converts the mercury atom into sulfur, and the first salt atom stays salt because it already is converted.
Then it goes to 12 o'clock, where the 180 degree flip comes into play a second time, reversing the first flip because it needs to be oriented correctly for the target to accept it. It then pushes out, drops the molecule (actually useful this time) and the molecule is accepted and vanishes, which means it will now safely use the existing close instruction that comes next in the function.
At the 9 o'clock position it does nothing but buy time for the lower arm to finish its job.
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