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Trace - A Signal Game

A puzzle game where an oscilloscope is your only sense organ — characterize mystery modules by reading their signals.

Exploring Started: Sept 2026 Updated: Sept 2026

Overview

Sealed modules arrive on your bench with their labels half gone. Your job is to characterize each one and file a report — and the oscilloscope is the only way to find out what’s happening inside. It’s a fun way to build an intuition for how electronic signals actually behave.

The Design Bet

The player may never touch real hardware, and that’s fine: the goal is priming, not competence. When they later stand in front of a real scope, they should get the “oh, that’s what this knob does” moment and have nothing to unlearn. That licenses aggressive simplification of the interface, and forbids exactly one thing: teaching anything a real bench would contradict. The operator’s manual documents the instrument only — no solutions, because explaining how to coax a given signal into view would delete the very case that teaches it.

Current Status

Playable, with a design manual and an operator’s manual alongside it.