alt.hn

3/26/2026 at 10:47:36 AM

A Verilog to Factorio Compiler and Simulator (Working RISC-V CPU)

 https://github.com/ben-j-c/verilog2factorio

by signa11

3/29/2026 at 4:14:45 PM

Verilog to X compilers always bring me such joy. (There are several ones for Minecraft)

I wonder with the new Timberborn 1.0 update with automation if there’s enough to build a computer from water gates…

by buildbot

3/30/2026 at 10:11:33 AM

... Curtain rises.

A technical interview at a company that uses Verilog.

Near future.

A candidate walks in. Big Factorio fan. The interviewer smiles and gestures toward a gaming PC. Factorio is already running.

The candidate squints. "What, are we gonna speedrun science in 40 minutes?"

The interviewer grins. "That would be too easy for you."

"Oh, I get it. No-belts challenge? Deathworld, no weapons? Rampant? Space Age blindfolded?"

"It's a debugging session," says the interviewer. "You know. The thing you'll actually be doing on the job."

"Got it. So what are we debugging? Train signals? Belt congestion? Fluid throughput? Nuclear ratios?"

The interviewer turns the monitor slightly.

"Here is a Hello World program in Verilog."

A beat.

"It has been transpiled into a Factorio map."

The candidate leans closer to the screen. Eyes agitated.

The interviewer smiles. "You just need to find a few problems with it."

... Curtain falls.

by konovalov-nk

3/31/2026 at 7:20:58 PM

And the candidate never leaves, unable to stop playing.

by skyberrys

3/29/2026 at 3:08:03 AM

What a wild idea, but it makes sense! I haven't taken the time to get it working. I've heard a lot about Factorio, but I stayed away from it so far.

by skyberrys

3/29/2026 at 6:29:05 AM

Factorio is a great game that's easy to compartmentalize and allocate small, discrete periods of time to, especially if you're an engineer of any kind.

by brailsafe

3/29/2026 at 9:05:30 AM

Crack is the best thing you ever can try, my friend, trust me! It’s not addictive at all.

by 9dev

3/30/2026 at 7:52:28 AM

factorio got me spitting blood from lack of sleep...

by lucyjojo

3/31/2026 at 4:04:03 AM

Small price to pay

by brailsafe

3/29/2026 at 7:03:36 AM

Sure, in the same way you can easily limit yourself to one cigarette a day.

by BiteCode_dev

3/29/2026 at 11:18:26 AM

* "small" as measured by estimated lifetime duration

by el_isma

3/29/2026 at 10:06:17 AM

#not

by Vasbarlog

3/29/2026 at 4:21:46 AM

Well don't if you value sleep and free time. Whilst slightly in jest, sincerely, it is incredibly addictive.

by ddlsmurf

3/29/2026 at 9:45:48 PM

The first time I played it I got a little sleepy and went to bed. It was 3 am.

by wbl

3/30/2026 at 3:06:12 AM

I am an avid gamer. However Factorio is the only game I have been playing for years. It is truly unique.

by deterministic

3/29/2026 at 8:09:08 AM

Amazing work, and a fantastic idea, congratulations to the author. I am definitely trying this next week-end!

by ur-whale

3/29/2026 at 4:27:59 PM

> I had a little bug in the ASCII font, so the smiley face is frowning.

Happens to the best of us!

by ivanjermakov

3/29/2026 at 4:45:17 PM

hey, I made this!

Thanks for showing it here!

by peaboff

3/29/2026 at 9:15:41 AM

Can it run Doom?

by tomekowal

3/29/2026 at 1:40:18 PM

Maybe if you can get it to zoom out far enough and wire up an array of lights on the surface of Nauvis…

by plasticchris

3/29/2026 at 3:03:30 PM

I tried on my 1366x768 display fully zoomed out and it doesn't cover enough space for DOOM's 320x200 display if each pixel is one tile. But maybe you could get the display working on the map? Not sure if that's even possible, are there any Factorio tiles that can change their map color on demand? Or just download some kind of utlra-zoom mod, that works too.

by ogghostjelly

3/29/2026 at 6:43:52 AM

Truly excellent.

by jw1294