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turing’s revenge

An upgrade to the basic kit: twice the disks, twice the tiles, plus some advanced tiles.

£64.00
United States
Price is all-inclusive (shipping calculated at checkout). We cover all duties/import fees up front, with nothing extra to pay on delivery. more info
Free shipping on US orders over £150 GBP

Turing’s Revenge is an upgrade to the basic roons kit. It comes with twice as much building space and twice as many tiles, plus some bonus items not available in the core kit.

The kit is tailored for our upcoming roons2doom tutorial sequence. These assume no prior knowledge, and walk you through building a computer from the ground up. You’ll start with basic logic gates; then learn how to stitch them together into more complicated systems. Finally, we’ll design a fully-general computer, and explore how to get the video game running purely on marbles.

Please note: the exact tiles in the kit may differ slightly from the photos, as we optimise the tileset for working with the tutorials.

advanced tiles

Turing’s Revenge comes with some special tiles:

  • The xor acts as a standalone XOR logic gate, saving you from having to build an XOR out of simpler roons
  • The distributor makes it possible to work with marbles in half-positions, allowing for more compact designs
  • The pocket provides a simple way to capture the output of a pattern, permanently locking a marble in place.

extra bars

The kit comes with 8 extra bars, making it easier to save and modify your patterns without having to tear down your existing work.

preorder

We’re currently fulfilling the original Kickstarter rewards. The estimated dispatch time for preorders is 7-8 weeks.

Each kit is manufactured in our workshop in Camden Town, London. We use lots of machines that make cool beeping sounds, and finish each kit by hand.

Kits will be dispatched in this order:

  • Kickstarter backers
  • Post-Kickstarter reservations (based on the date the reservation was made)
  • Preorders (based on the date of the preorder)
what can I build with it?
  • All basic logic gates, such as AND, OR, XOR, NAND, XNOR, etc
  • Devices to read/write memory
  • Arithmetical operators for performing addition, subtraction, comparing numbers, etc
  • Every component for a general-purpose computer that can run DOOM (in theory!)
what can't I build with it?

Generally, you'll only be able to build a handful of simple devices at a time. If you're building a more complex device (for example, a subtracter that reads two numbers from memory) and you want to build a second complex device (e.g. a 4-bit multiplexer) you'll typically need to dismantle the first device so you can reclaim tiles.

is this the right kit for me?

Turing's Revenge is a flexible middle level, with a good balance of advanced features vs price. If you're looking for something simpler, you could start with Babbage's Bits instead, our entry-level kit. If you're keen to build bigger devices right away, check out Lovelace's Delight, or add-ons such as the Buffer peripheral.

All kits are interoperable, and can be used to extend each other — so don't worry too much about exactly which kit you get.

what does the kit contain?

We're still tinkering with the exact best ratio of each type of tile for the tutorials. While the photos on this page should be reasonably representative, the exact tiles in your kit may differ. The tiles you receive will be optimised for following the roons2doom tutorials; we aim to update this page with a precise tile breakdown soon.

is this the same as the Kickstarter kit?

No, but it's similar. This kit is a streamlined combination of the original Turing's Revenge and the Von Neumann Surprise kits. Kickstarter backers will also receive some additional materials (not listed here).

can it run DOOM?

Yes, in theory_ The tutorials will work through multiple designs for a computer that can run DOOM (or any other C program). However, these computers will be very large, very slow, and can't (yet) be connected up to a monitor or controller.

(We're cooking up solutions to all of these as we speak.)

A more realistic expectation: you'll be able to build every component of a computer that runs DOOM, and learn how to connect each component up. But unless you buy hundreds of kits, don't expect to be able to build a full computer all at the same time.

is it kid friendly?

roons is designed for ages 14+. Younger children can definitely learn how to build things with roons, but for safety purposes they should have adult supervision. Small pieces such as the individual tiles are choking hazard.

where's the shapez 2 themed version?

Currently unavailable, but it should be added to the store soon!

Kickstarter backers

If you’re a Kickstarter backer (thanks!), please be aware there may be small differences between the original reward tiers and the kits available here on whommart — make sure to check the product description.

consolidating orders

We may be able to bundle your order with your original Kickstarter reward — more info here.

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