Lots of interesting programming learning games links via b0rk on Twitter
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/06/25
Every once in a while, b0rk (Julia Evans, of [Wayback/Archive] wizard zines fame) asks interesting questions like below that results in lot of cool links.
I have blogged assemblies of them before (see for instance Lots of interesting git links via b0rk on Twitter) and this one is no different:
[Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans on Twitter: “what are some helpful programming learning games? thinking of things like mystery.knightlab.com for SQL, and flexboxfroggy.com, and ohmygit.org especially interested in games that have helped you learn something”
- [Wayback/Archive] The SQL Murder Mystery
- [Wayback/Archive] Flexbox Froggy – A game for learning CSS flexbox
- [Wayback/Archive] Oh My Git!
The response was overwhelmingly good (I tried to indicate when games are not free or not playable from a web browser). I summarised it below.
Note I have removed all Unicode emoji as those are very hard for many people including those relying on screen readers for accessibility, see [Wayback/Archive] End Unicode Abuse (@MathAbuse) and their reply-videos: that is how much time those emoji take getting read aloud each and every tweet you have them in your social media names and content. Which reminds me that I need to find a less obtrusive way for all those Wayback and Archive links.
- [Wayback/Archive] Tonći Galić on Twitter: “@b0rk Perhaps someone else mentioned it but “Turing complete”
store.steampowered.com/app/1444480/Turing_Completehelps me learn what goes on in a computer on the lowest levels”- [Wayback/Archive] Turing Complete on Steam (~USD 20)
- [Wayback/Archive] Ryan on Twitter: “@b0rk You want to look up all sorts of Koans like this one for #PowerShell by @vexx32”
- [Wayback/Archive] Chuck Larrieu Casias on Twitter: “@b0rk
overthewire.org/wargames“- [Wayback/Archive] OverTheWire: Wargames
The wargames offered by the OverTheWire community can help you to learn and practice security concepts in the form of fun-filled games.
- [Wayback/Archive] OverTheWire: Wargames
- [Wayback/Archive] Daniel Popescu on Twitter: “@b0rk” and[Wayback/Archive] bencord0 on Twitter: “@b0rk
vim-adventures.comwas very helpful to get me past the absolute basics not a game for programming languages, but has helped me immensely for doing programming” and[Wayback/Archive] Kurtis Nusbaum on Twitter: “@b0rk vim-adventures.comchanged my life” - [Wayback/Archive] Andrew Lenards on Twitter: “@b0rk For practicing CSS selectors:
flukeout.github.io“,[Wayback/Archive] Paul Reinheimer on Twitter: “@b0rk I revisit the CSS bento box when I do front end.” and[Wayback/Archive] Elaine (she/her) on Twitter: “@b0rk CSS Diner” - [Wayback/Archive] Agnes (she / they) on Twitter: “@b0rk Command Line Murder Mystery-
github.com/veltman/clmysteryYou use the terminal to, erm, ‘solve a murder mystery’ . Helped to get comfortable with the CLI & get used to using the commands.” - [Wayback/Archive] Francisco on Twitter: “@b0rk TIS-100. Really easy and the language is a must in any CV.”
- TIS-100 – Wikipedia
- [Wayback/Archive] Zachtronics | TIS-100 (~ USD 6 on steam/gog/iOS)
TIS-100 is an open-ended programming game in which you rewrite corrupted code segments to repair the TIS-100 and unlock its secrets. It’s the assembly language programming game you never asked for!
- [Wayback/Archive] Alex Hillman on Twitter: “Grid Critters and Flexbox Zombies from @geddski!… “ and[Wayback/Archive] Dave Bee on Twitter: “@b0rk Another flexbox game that helped me was”
- [Wayback/Archive] Dave Geddes (@geddski)
- [Wayback/Archive] Learn CSS Grid Mastery Game (~USD 150, sometimes lower or free)
- [Wayback/Archive] Flexbox Zombies | Mastery Games (USD ~180, sometimes lower or free)
- [Wayback/Archive] David Turner on Twitter: “@b0rk
deadlockempire.github.io“- [Wayback/Archive] The Deadlock Empire (C# version)
- [Wayback/Archive] Kendall Morgan on Twitter: “@b0rk
regexcrossword.comis probably one of my favorites.” - [Wayback/Archive] Andrew Janke on Twitter: “@b0rk The good ol’ Python Challenge? This was the first thing I did back when I was first learning Python.
pythonchallenge.com“ - [Wayback/Archive] Kurt Frock on Twitter: “@b0rk
grasshopper.appto get absolute beginners started with JavaScript.” - [Wayback/Archive Rob Cobb on Twitter: “@b0rk My favs from a couple years ago
csed.substack.com/p/the-best-online-interactive-learningmethod.actends to get less love than it ought to!”- [Wayback/Archive] The best online interactive learning experiences (hey, this approach looks familiar!)
Here’s my list of the best online interactive learning experiences. After the list, I try to pull out the patterns and underlying principles that make them great.
- [Wayback/Archive] Welcome to Method of Action
Method of Action creates tools, toys and games to help you learn design, for free.
- [Wayback/Archive] The best online interactive learning experiences (hey, this approach looks familiar!)
- [Wayback/Archive] Code4OSINT on Twitter: “@b0rk @learn_byexample Not really programming, but great for problem solving skills. Use it sometimes for #OSINT related training.
sourcing.games“ - [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “@b0rk …”
- [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “It amazes me so much that to learn #flexbox, there are so many interactive websites, which help you learn by playing a game. Wanted to highlight a few that I have come across. Each one is simply brilliant 🚀 . A thread 🧵👇🏻”
- [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “Flex Box Adventure is an interactive adventure game allowing you to use your flexbox skills to assist the game character to solve 24 challenges. “
- [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “Knights of the Flexbox Table includes 18 “dungeons” to teach you flexbox. This course is unique because you’re not writing pure CSS, but instead, you’re using Tailwind CSS classes.”
- [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “Flexbox Froggy has been around for quite some time and continues to be a popular choice for learning flexbox syntax. Use the different parts of the flexbox spec to arrange the frogs as required to pass the different levels.”
- [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “Flexbox Zombies is another educational game to learn flexbox syntax. Each section advances a zombie-related plot while giving you expertise in a new flexbox concept, along with survival challenges that help you use your new flexbox skills.
geddski.teachable.com/p/flexbox-zombies“- [Wayback/Archive] Flexbox Zombies | Mastery Games (~USD 180, but sometimes lower or even free)
- [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “Flexbox Defense is a play on the ‘tower defense’ strategy game genre that teaches you flexbox through 12 challenges where you have to use flexbox syntax to stop incoming enemies from getting past your defenses.
flexboxdefense.com“ - [Wayback/Archive] rajat jain on Twitter: “Flexy Boxes is a straightforward flexbox playground that also generates the code for you. Being an older tool, this also provides legacy flexbox code and vendor prefixes but you can select “Vanilla CSS” for the code you’ll use in most cases.
the-echoplex.net/flexyboxes“ - Full thread on one page: [Wayback/Archive] Thread by @rajatexplains on Thread Reader App
- [Wayback/Archive] The Unoriginal Angel on Twitter: “@b0rk Not what you’re looking for, but Oxygen Not Included exercises a lot of the mental muscles you use to design, debug and refactor systems.”
- [Wayback/Archive] John Hyland on Twitter: “@b0rk Long, long ago, I learned some of the basic principles of object oriented programming (without realizing it) from ZZT. I still have very fond memories of that game.”
- [Wayback/Archive] Sundeep on Twitter: “@b0rk A game to learn or teach the Unix shell: …”
- [Wayback/Archive] James Webber on Twitter: “@b0rk I think I got Human Resource Machine from a humble bundle. It’s a puzzle game that teaches basic programming concepts. I thought it was fun into it started to feel like work, but I don’t know how a beginner would feel”
- [Wayback/Archive] Matt Ficke on Twitter: “@b0rk Regex golf was really helpful for me:
alf.nu/RegexGolf?world=regex&level=r00…“ - [Wayback/Archive] Rex on Twitter: “@b0rk I’ve used flexbox tower defense, grid garden and rxjs fruits for learning these concepts.”
- [Wayback/Archive] Laura on Twitter: “@b0rk Accessibility Maze:”
- [Wayback/Archive] Thomas Adam on Twitter: “@b0rk For regex:.”
- [Wayback/Archive] Lokendra Bohra on Twitter: “@b0rk”
- [Wayback/Archive] Clara McKenzie on Twitter: “@b0rk The old Zoombinis games, essentially taught pre-programming. Logic is key. Keep an eye on all things TERC
terc.edu“ - [Wayback/Archive] Alex M. on Twitter: “@b0rk @nethack
nethack.orglearn compiling it from source, learn vi keys, learn create configuration files with $EDITOR”- [Wayback/Archive] NetHack 3.6.6: NetHack Home Page
- [Wayback/Archive] alt.org – Public NetHack Server (you can even play it in a web browser)
- [Wayback/Archive] Jeff Knee on Twitter: “@b0rk Old school: Robotwar”
- RobotWar – Wikipedia
- Apple //e (enhanced) [apple2ee] – MAME 0.239 (ILP32): Robotwar (woz-a-day collection)
Robotwar is a 1981 strategy/programming game written by Silas Warner, and published by MUSE Software. It requires a 48K Apple ][+ or later.
- [Wayback/Archive] guillemnicolau on Twitter: “@b0rk”
- [Wayback/Archive] Marco Rieser on Twitter: “@b0rk”
- [Wayback/Archive] Patrick Simon on Twitter: “@b0rk
play.elevatorsaga.com“ - [Wayback/Archive] Masoud on Twitter: “@b0rk
colobot.info“- [Wayback/Archive] Official Colobot: Gold Edition website – International Colobot Community
Colobot: Gold Edition is a real-time strategy game, where you can program your units (bots) in a language called CBOT, which is similar to C++ and Java. Your mission is to find a new planet to live and survive. You can save the humanity and get programming skills
with source code at GitHub under [Wayback/Archive] TerranovaTeam.
- [Wayback/Archive] Official Colobot: Gold Edition website – International Colobot Community
Before assembling the above list (and finding David Turner already suggested it), I responded with a C# game I helped translate towards Delphi:
- [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers on Twitter: “@b0rk
deadlockempire.github.io“- [Wayback/Archive] The Deadlock Empire C# version
- [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers on Twitter: “@b0rk A branch with the Delphi language (I still need to find time to refactor it into selecting languages, then post a pull-request) is published at
jpluimers.github.io/deadlockempire.github.io“
I know nothing about Flexbox, but given the number of games I got the feeling that either it is very easy to learn and remember, or very difficult. I wonder which direction it will be when I learn it.
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Leave a comment