Dropping quarter after quarter after quarter into Donkey Kong Jr.
I can definitely relate to how these early problem solving challenges mapped to today. Getting around in Zork, finding things, making them useful, all using words, is, if not similar, certainly an echo.
I love video games and I will surely play these two (Consensus really interests me) but the element I want to focus on is "ai is a leveler". I completely agree. I work in an association, in a small french village, and we're trying to develop a local projet around STEAM knowledge for social innovation. I'm a designer and a nerd, with basic, basic coding capabilities. AI comes out, and a world unlocks for me. As an example, me, alone, I can now propose to care's local professionals to codevelop interactive aids for people with cognitive difficulties using inexpensive hardware. Before, even if I had the idea, I would had either had to spent 3 months learn a specific subset of coding, for then losing it two weeks after, or hiring someone (impossibile for a small organization with low budget).
My point is: AI is for sure still a strongly centralized, capital intensive commodity. But it can allow people with limited resources access to do great things. We should do it, we have to, this is the way it should be used, and we should demonstrate it and let it emerge, show the potential in small things beyond the slop making and automatic mail answering.
Okay, Dr. Sam. I played both games. I liked Just This Once, but Consensus was a mystery and the music drove me batty. I couldn't figure out why it kept presenting the same actions and then told me I failed when I had no idea what I was supposed to do. My experience with video games was trying to play shooter games with my boys. I was awful at it. I always ended up dead before I could figure out where the enemy was. LOL. My son turned the action speed down really low so I could play Nazi Zombies with him. I could play that way.
Thank you, Kathy. This is really helpful feedback. You should be able to turn the music off at the top, as I understand this won't be for everybody, but perhaps I've designed the game to require too high a level of gaming literacy, especially around Japanese role-playing games. This is very useful feedback for me as I continue to explore this space. Thank you.
gawd - games in this arena are such a foreign country and always have been. It actually may be more accurate to say different planet. I never understood, or got close to understanding, but over the decades I have known and loved a few humans that were fluent in Game-World. I have a weird sensory felt experience of 'games' adjacent... I mean, I can feel the poetry in the other at the same time as not understanding a beat of it. I feel it in this essay, Sam - the music in the words. I do attune to the passion in a thing I can't bend my brain around. I can be moved in my own kitchen listening to science programmes on Radio4 - not understanding the thing but feeling it anyway.
I am moved by your Terminal Poems, because they are beautiful poems, Sam, but also by the design you folded them into. Seeing that black 'screen' with the specific green from old computers, touches something deep in my bones. It's the same part that weeps in the kitchen without warning. It's why I always feel the music in Jack Clark's Import AI newsletter, alongside mostly not understanding the words...
I remember the sense of awe when I first played xenon 2 on my cousins’s amiga, the soundtrack and graphics were entirely beyond the humble capabilities of my tape fed spectrum. Happy (simpler) times, I look forward playing these two games!
Ahhhh I love to hear all of this! My partner games and I on the other hand was kept from most gaming systems until later in life so I struggle with them. I admire anyone who build and can actually play video games/games.
This sounds like a wonderful idea and maybe I should pass this on to her to also experiment with!
I mostly tinker with the C64. Recently, I discovered a GitHub repository called VibeC64, a framework for coding on the C64 with AI assistance. While I’ve created small text adventures for the C64 using BASIC and XC=BASIC, I’m hopeful that AI could help me achieve even more. I’ll be sure to try out your games.
Zork on the Commadore 64.
Space Invaders and Missile Command on Atari.
Dropping quarter after quarter after quarter into Donkey Kong Jr.
I can definitely relate to how these early problem solving challenges mapped to today. Getting around in Zork, finding things, making them useful, all using words, is, if not similar, certainly an echo.
Great perspective, great application.
I still dip in and out of zork every now and again. What a game!
I love video games and I will surely play these two (Consensus really interests me) but the element I want to focus on is "ai is a leveler". I completely agree. I work in an association, in a small french village, and we're trying to develop a local projet around STEAM knowledge for social innovation. I'm a designer and a nerd, with basic, basic coding capabilities. AI comes out, and a world unlocks for me. As an example, me, alone, I can now propose to care's local professionals to codevelop interactive aids for people with cognitive difficulties using inexpensive hardware. Before, even if I had the idea, I would had either had to spent 3 months learn a specific subset of coding, for then losing it two weeks after, or hiring someone (impossibile for a small organization with low budget).
My point is: AI is for sure still a strongly centralized, capital intensive commodity. But it can allow people with limited resources access to do great things. We should do it, we have to, this is the way it should be used, and we should demonstrate it and let it emerge, show the potential in small things beyond the slop making and automatic mail answering.
This is so wonderful to hear. And what a brilliant use of AI. 👏👏👏
Okay, Dr. Sam. I played both games. I liked Just This Once, but Consensus was a mystery and the music drove me batty. I couldn't figure out why it kept presenting the same actions and then told me I failed when I had no idea what I was supposed to do. My experience with video games was trying to play shooter games with my boys. I was awful at it. I always ended up dead before I could figure out where the enemy was. LOL. My son turned the action speed down really low so I could play Nazi Zombies with him. I could play that way.
Thank you, Kathy. This is really helpful feedback. You should be able to turn the music off at the top, as I understand this won't be for everybody, but perhaps I've designed the game to require too high a level of gaming literacy, especially around Japanese role-playing games. This is very useful feedback for me as I continue to explore this space. Thank you.
I did figure out how to turn off the music. I just wasn't sure if the sound would give me hints. It didn't.
Ooh. That is a great idea! 💡
Love to see it, great work here Sam! 🔥🔥🔥
Thanks Leor! And also for the inspiration. 🙏
gawd - games in this arena are such a foreign country and always have been. It actually may be more accurate to say different planet. I never understood, or got close to understanding, but over the decades I have known and loved a few humans that were fluent in Game-World. I have a weird sensory felt experience of 'games' adjacent... I mean, I can feel the poetry in the other at the same time as not understanding a beat of it. I feel it in this essay, Sam - the music in the words. I do attune to the passion in a thing I can't bend my brain around. I can be moved in my own kitchen listening to science programmes on Radio4 - not understanding the thing but feeling it anyway.
I am moved by your Terminal Poems, because they are beautiful poems, Sam, but also by the design you folded them into. Seeing that black 'screen' with the specific green from old computers, touches something deep in my bones. It's the same part that weeps in the kitchen without warning. It's why I always feel the music in Jack Clark's Import AI newsletter, alongside mostly not understanding the words...
Thanks so much Caro. And it is never too late to pick up the gaming bug!
I remember the sense of awe when I first played xenon 2 on my cousins’s amiga, the soundtrack and graphics were entirely beyond the humble capabilities of my tape fed spectrum. Happy (simpler) times, I look forward playing these two games!
Thanks Tim! And Xenon 2, now you are talking!!! 🤓👽
Ahhhh I love to hear all of this! My partner games and I on the other hand was kept from most gaming systems until later in life so I struggle with them. I admire anyone who build and can actually play video games/games.
This sounds like a wonderful idea and maybe I should pass this on to her to also experiment with!
Please do Chelsey! And you can easily play these as well. I promise they require zero gaming literacy. 🙏
I mostly tinker with the C64. Recently, I discovered a GitHub repository called VibeC64, a framework for coding on the C64 with AI assistance. While I’ve created small text adventures for the C64 using BASIC and XC=BASIC, I’m hopeful that AI could help me achieve even more. I’ll be sure to try out your games.
This is sooooo cool! Going to have to check this out immediately. Let me know how you get on with my games as well. 🙏
Hey Sam,
Played them both. Would love to talk more about them. I'm not a developer. But I'm a creative (emerging novelist) and a psychologist.
Thanks so much! And for sure please drop me a DM. 🙏