Comment by retsibsi

I know this is a tangent to your main point, but in case you haven't already done so, check out some of the other Zachtronics games. SpaceChem is my favourite; it's not literally a programming game like TIS-100, but conceptually it pretty much is.

They also have another game (the name of which escapes me right now) that is sort of like a bigger version of TIS-100, where you have to write code for microprocessors. I didn't get into that one -- it was a bit less pure and straight to the point compared to TIS-100 or SpaceChem, and one of my favourite things about those games is their fundamental simplicity and transparency -- but I've heard it is good too.