Knumber Knower

Welcome to Knumber Knower: the game of Knumeric Knowledge.

In computer typography it is generally considered polite conduct to design typefaces such that the digits 0 through 9 have uniform logical widths- even if the glyphs themselves vary- so that numbers align nicely in tabular layouts and numeric displays don't wobble horizontally as values change. Imagine, now, an impolite typographer who has cursed your sight with a typeface in which each digit has a distinct width. Do you have the strength, the neuroplasticity, and the modicum of free time necessary to face such terrors head-on? Do you have what it takes to be a Knumber Knower?

Gameplay

Press W on your keyboard to advance through dialogs.

In the main game display, you will be shown a pair of numbers. Press A, W, or D on your keyboard to classify the top number as greater than, equal to, or less than the bottom number, respectively. Classify a number wrong, and it's game over. Likewise if you take too long; the dot moving right to left at the bottom edge of the display shows you how much time you have to make your decision.

About

Knumber Knower is a CHIP8 game written as part of Octojam 10, using the Octo IDE.  The whole program fits in less than 3.5kb of RAM, and has been carefully composed to work within the constraints of the original COSMAC VIP kit computer's CHIP8 interpreter (including waiting for a vertical blanking interval after each sprite-draw operation), to avoid exercising any functionality that was broken on the influential SCHIP interpreter, and to have relatively consistent animation and timing on much faster modern interpreters.

Full source code is included. The ambitious tinkerer might have a go at un-cursing Knumber Knower's font and comparing the resulting difficulty curve.