David Friedman recently created a daily word puzzle called Gisnep! I’ve been hooked on it ever since I discovered it last week. As a non-coder, he created it using a form of guess-and-check programming with ChatGPT and other AI large language models.
Years ago I was inspired by his 50 States in 10 Minutes game and made my own copycats.
The video game emulator Delta lets one play NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, GBA, and Nintendo DS ROMs (which are easy enough to find online) on your iOS device. The newest version now supports iPadOS features such as full screen and runs multiple games at once. Thanks to airplay, the games can be streamed straight to your AppleTV or other supported device.
Trying to play old Nintendo titles with touch screen controls proved less than ideal but after I hooked up a bluetooth Xbox controller, I found the experience to be like I remembered. It gave me quite the dose of nostalgia. I still died on that very first Goomba in Super Mario Bros, though.
A 13-year-old competitive Tetris player became the first known human to beat the game on the original NES by forcing it into a kill screen. The player, Willis Gibson, at the same time broke world records for overall score, level achieved, and total numbers of lines in the 34-year-old game. Previously, only an AI had been able to “break” Tetris.
From Sofia Ferreira Santos writing for the BBC:
In 2010, professional competitive gamer Thor Aackerlund managed to reach level 30 by using a technique called hypertapping, where a player vibrates their fingers in a way which moves the controller faster than the in-game speed.
This led to other gamers adopting hypertapping and other techniques to see how far they could go — but as of last month, only AI had been able to reach the game’s true kill screen.
A kill screen happens when a player reaches a level which causes the game to crash.
At the end of his 38-minute run, Willis’ screen crashes and blocks no longer come down as he beats the game.
The teenager — who goes by the name of Blue Scuti on YouTube — has played the game since he was 11, and has competed in several gaming tournaments.
Whether or not you care about Tetris, don’t miss his reaction at the end of this video.
(via Waxy)
Taipan! is an old Apple II game that I used to play as a kid.
Taipan is a classic strategy game that was originally released for the Apple II computer in 1982. It was developed by Art Canfil and published by Avalon Hill. The game is set in the 19th-century Far East and allows players to become wealthy merchants by trading goods and engaging in naval battles.
In Taipan, players start with a small amount of money and a ship, and their goal is to build a successful trading empire. They can purchase goods at various ports and then sell them at other ports for a profit. The game includes a dynamic economic system, with prices fluctuating based on supply and demand. Additionally, players must manage their ship’s crew, deal with pirate attacks, and navigate through storms and other hazards.
Taipan gained popularity for its engaging gameplay and strategic depth. It was known for its detailed graphics, considering the limitations of the Apple II’s hardware, and its challenging gameplay. The game’s success led to ports and adaptations for other platforms, such as the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS.
Although it’s been several decades since its release, Taipan remains a beloved classic among retro gaming enthusiasts and is often remembered as one of the standout titles for the Apple II computer.
I’m delighted to have discovered a webpage hosting a javascript port of the original game. Some of the delays were annoying me so I made my own copy and shortened them. Eventually I might get around to adding the ability to repay the money lender more and take advantage of the 100% interest bug.
I also discovered where one can find the most statistically likely cheapest and most expensive places to buy and sell a given commodity with these arrays:
var BP=[['Opium',11,16,15,14,12,10,13],
['Silk',11,14,15,16,10,13,12],
['Arms',12,16,10,11,13,14,15],
['General Cargo',10,11,12,13,14,15,16]];
Each cargo type is represented by an inner array, where the first element is the name of the cargo, and the subsequent elements represent the pricing coefficients for the ports.
The ports are indexed from 1 to 7, with the pricing coefficients following this order. So, for example, the pricing coefficients for Opium correspond to the ports in the following order: Port 1 Hong Kong – 11, Port 2 Shanghai – 16, Port 3 Nagasaki – 15, Port 4 Saigon – 14, Port 5 Manila – 12, Port 6 Singapore – 10, and Port 7 Batavia – 13.
These coefficients play a role in determining the prices you’ll encounter when trading in each port. They’re used as multipliers or modifiers to the base price of a cargo type. The higher the coefficient for a specific port, the more likely the prices for that cargo type will be high in that port. Conversely, lower coefficients create prices for that cargo type that are relatively lower.
By utilizing these coefficients, it makes it easier to strategically plan trading routes and make decisions based on which ports are likely to offer the best returns for buying and selling different types of cargo.
XKCD, presumably to celebrate the milestone achievement of the launch of SpaceX’s Starship, has created a charming space exploration game, Escape Speed, that’s much deeper than it appears.
Explain XKCD has some hints to help solve it (such as a link to the subway map, and a map of the entire playing area.)
(Via Waxy)
What is rocketcrab.com? Simply put, it’s a collection of open source party games for phones. You choose a game and invite your friends to join.
Here are the descriptions from a few of the games:
Drawphone:
In Drawphone, there are no winners… only losers! Players take turns drawing pictures and guessing what those pictures are. If you guess correctly, nothing happens! If you guess wrong or draw like a toddler and ruin the chain of drawings and guesses, rest assured that you will be mercilessly mocked for your honest mistake (which ultimately doesn’t even matter in the grand scheme of the world).
Wavelength:
Wavelength is a social guessing game where two teams compete to read each other’s minds. It’s a thrilling experience of TALKING and THINKING and HIGH FIVING that anyone can play—but it also has some of that deep word game sorcery, like Codenames, where your decisions feel tense, strategic, meaningful.
Fake Artist:
Everyone is drawing one picture together…and one doesn’t even know what they draw. There is a Fake Artist hiding among the real artists – can you find out who it is? The Fake Artist has to be careful not to be give himself away and guess what is being drawn while the real artists have to signal the other artists with their drawing that they know the word, without making the drawing too obvious for the Fake Artist. The catch? you only get to draw one line.
Enigma:
Two warring factions are trying to send secret messages to their comrades, but their communications are broadcast for the enemy to see. To keep their messages secret, each faction “encrypts” their messages using 4 keywords, known only to their comrades. Meanwhile, the enemy tries to intercept their messages by listening to their clues and figuring out the enemy’s keywords. The first faction to intercept 2 messages from the other faction wins, unless a faction loses by miscommunicating 2 of their own messages.
Based on The Resistance, Snakeout:
Out the snake, or be outed as a snake! ?
Snakeout is a game in which a team of loyalists is infiltrated by a group of snakes. The loyalists must try to figure out who the snakes are, and the snakes must try to keep the loyalists from figuring out their identity. The game is separated into five missions. The first team to “win” three missions wins the game.
And more… They’ve even got Secret Hitler, Code Words, and One Night Werewolf.
I don’t remember the last time I played Monopoly but I have fond memories of the game. My dad built it up as one of the greatest board games ever when he picked up a used copy at a garage sale. I tend to agree (at least when I was kid — of course board games have come along way since I was a kid).
My friends always thought our set was weird because it had a milk cartoon, egg holder, and goblet instead of the usual metal shoe, wheel barrow, or scottie dog, etc. but I’ve come to love the classic wooden pieces over the more modern metal ones.
The video above discusses the use of artificial intelligence to figure out the best Monopoly strategy. It took the equivalent of 1600 years of monopoly playing for the AI to discover that… I won’t spoil it for you except to say that if you’ve ever looked into strategies, the best one is one you probably already know.
(Via Kottke)
Following up my Wordle post from a couple of days ago, here is a story about someone using software analysis on Twitter posted guesses to solve Wordle on the very first guess.
It turns out the squares
taking social media by storm contain enough information to correctly guess the daily Wordle on the first attempt each day.
The site includes some examples and has a link to download the code.
Wordle, it’s all the craze lately.
I’ve done a deep dive figuring out the best first guess word for Wordle.
TLDR: Skip to the last table which breaks down the best words by the greatest chance to have the most letters in the word in the correct spot vs the most letters in the word but in the wrong spot.
Find out more after the jump.