0x10c Promises To Bring Assembly Language, INXS Back Into Vogue

Mojang’s new game, 0x10c, is making ripples throughout the nerdosphere this week, as the mind-blowing proposition of an in-game programmable computer begins to take hold in cubicles all over the world. Within a week of the game’s announcement, several communities, a couple of emulators, and even a C-like compiler have sprung up in response to Notch’s released DCPU specification. The computers will even have an open-source community-made operating system.

It’s all just so freakin’ meta.

This is going to be a game for nerds, by nerds. If you’re not a nerd already, you’re going to want to look into becoming one, or perhaps purchasing one (they’re pretty cheap). A few factoids that Notch has tweeted out:

Game will be first person, played largely inside a ship

The main look will be “untextured”, but there will be some textures (for the computer screens, for example)

Wireframe mode!

There will be programming, in-game software will be developed by players

The DCPU-16’s programs will be shareable

There will be no antivirus measures… that will be up to the players to create.

Aiming at about three computers per ship

There will be 3.5″ floppies

Unfortunately real hard news is scarce for “Trillek”, as some are pronouncing it (or Tex to the Twelfth if you’re not into the whole brevity thing). Notch has posted a few screenshots however, and he’s stated that the graphical engine will be heavy on effects and ploygons, but light on textures. The game will represent “what we thought the future would be like in the 80’s”… I’m picturing Tron meets Dune.

But that leaves plenty of room for speculation, right? I mean we can basically take for granted that after clearing away the massive 281,474,976,710,656-year rheum accumulation, the folks who slept all that time will be greeted by some nasty hyper-evolved aliens, and the top hits of 1988 on the ship’s radio. I can’t wait.

Waking up to this would sure get me psyched up to rebuild a post-post-post-apocalyptic society in a dying galaxy:



Some information courtesy of Hack A Day.