DailyDirt: Playing Super Mario By Rote... Is Fun?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Video games that are entertaining need to be simple enough for people to understand, but at the same time, hard enough to be a little challenging and not too easy to beat. Games like Flappy Bird demonstrate this sweet spot for gameplay, and some classic games like Super Mario are still widely enjoyed even decades after their initial releases. Computers can play games like these, too, but they can't enjoy them like we do. Check out a few of these links on creative ways to continue playing Super Mario.- YouTuber PangaeaPanga appears to have taught himself how to play Super Mario while blindfolded -- in just a few days. The Force is strong (warning NSFW language) with this one... or.. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. Anyway, it's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense. [url]
- Machines watching people play Super Mario can learn how to design new levels that are playable and novel. This doesn't necessarily mean that the game is still entertaining, though. [url]
- MarI/O is software that has learned how to play Super Mario in about 24 hours -- without knowing very much about the game at all. Seth Bling wrote the program and released the code and described how a genetic algorithm learned what to do in the game. [url]
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Filed Under: ai, artificial intelligence, flappy bird, games, genetic algorithm, machine learning, seth bling, super mario, video games
Companies: nintendo
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The funny thing is, what you hate is arguably one of the core reasons Mario emerged as the definitive platformer/game-in-general in the first place: http://kotaku.com/5558166/in-praise-of-sticky-friction
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I hate the inertia-based gameplay because it makes everything uncertain. You've come to a stop, for whatever reason, at the edge of a gap. You need to jump over the gap, but exactly how much of a run-up do you need to make? A couple steps isn't going to cut it. Or let's say that you need to jump on a single block with nothing below it. You need to run exactly fast enough to make the jump, but if you run too fast, there's about a 90% chance that you're just going to skid off the other side and lose a life.
What if the same movement physics were implemented in Tetris? Can you imagine trying to play a version of the game where the pieces don't move instantly and when they do start moving, they don't always stop where you want them to? Or you need to hold the rotate button down to get the pieces to rotate, but once they start, they don't immediately stop when you release the button?
Imagine how frustrating the game Sokoban would be if it used SMB's inertia-based movement.
Or Frogger. You need to build up speed to jump onto a log, but if you go too fast you'll just skid off the other side.
Or dozens of other classic games. They all played well because you knew exactly what the game was going to do when you moved the stick or pressed the button. There was no uncertainty in the controls.
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Actually, I was never that big a fan of Asteroids and its derivatives (Blasteroids, Stardust, clones) for exactly that reason. I always found it much too easy to crash into the asteroids once I started moving. I like it on the Atari 2600, but I usually just stayed in the middle of the screen and turned. I usually played the variation where pulling back on the stick flips your ship 180 degrees.
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Never more so than playing touch rugby and some of the opposing team seemed to not realise they are supposed to slow down and stop before changing directions... Stupid cheat codes. And don't even get me started on real-life cliphax!
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Bad news, everyone! Only 15 Pirate Mike posts at SuprBay in month of June.
Pirate Mike had one big score though, misled some 330-some views by dropping the Taylor Swift name in Music category. Still ZERO replies.
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Good news, everyone! Pirate Mike sneaked one in just before the bad news!
Also good news on teh censorship front: I'm up to TWENTY-FIVE attempts trying to get in on the Craiglist article! Feep cour kingers yrossed!
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Re: Good news, everyone! Pirate Mike sneaked one in just before the bad news!
Also gotta love the fact that for someone who whines, constantly, about how you're being 'censored', you sure do seem to post a lot. Martyr complex much, or is it just masochism?
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Way to make algorithms sound intelligent. Doesn't change the fact that they don't know Ura Butfuqa isn't a name unless you tell them.
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That's Suq Maddiq's cousin.
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You're very welcome, but I can't take credit - Suq was a donor to Stephen Colbert's Super PAC, and Colbert gave a shout out to his dad Likka Madiq and his mom Munchma Quchi.
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Good one!
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