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A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

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Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#51

This was fun to play...for about 2 minutes before all the manual work of moving processes around got very tedious, which may be the point of the game. What I would like is a little code edit window where i could code simple routines to handle the scheduling, then be able to watch the result.

This is why we must daily thank the elves inside our machines. It's tough work!

Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#52
I love this idea! I totally see it in the classroom or being played by someone who's trying to learn how to make an OS (which is on my personal bucket list)

What I didn't like, is the tutorial is separate from the game. It would be awesome imo, if there's a tutorial stage where the game is explained hands-on (maybe pausing the game with explainers, until I start to get how to play) Otherwise I have to memorise the instructions before trying the game.

Regardless, amazing little game.

Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#53
post #30

This would be huge if it was « rogue like », where you could buy new more performant components that allow you to reach further into the game. The game makes you naturally lose, and there are milestones that you can reach (bosses, or loot that stays throughout sessions). For instance you could unlock GPUs, docker containers, another SSD, antiviruses…

Or a bitburner-like game, where scripting the solution is required.

Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#54
post #30

This would be huge if it was « rogue like », where you could buy new more performant components that allow you to reach further into the game. The game makes you naturally lose, and there are milestones that you can reach (bosses, or loot that stays throughout sessions). For instance you could unlock GPUs, docker containers, another SSD, antiviruses…

[deleted]

Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#55
Great concept but I did not have a ton of fun playing after the novelty wore off after a few minutes. It would've been more fun if time stood still and I had the opportunity to plan what I do at each cpu cycle. I was looking forward to managing cpu cache hits and ram usage.

Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#56

Fabulous concept, but personally I did not find very fun actually playing.

A lot of these puzzle/micromanagement games are very similar to stuff folks do for work. I stopped playing an entire category of puzzle games once I realized it was basically programming, which I do all day for a living anyway. Gamified programming is still programming.

After you switch to managing LLM agents all day, programming at home will be fun again. Just don't use an LLM to play the game...

Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also consider RTS elements, like assigning certain schedulers to handle workloads which are swappable and tuneable, maybe with some skill tree unlocks.

unlimited possibilities to expand the game scope through a tech tree: - Hyperthreading - interrupts - compressed main memory - L3 caches - TLB caches - CFS - cgroups - TSO/GSO - performance / efficiency cores - dynamic clock speed - thermals - PCI bandwidth / lanes - ... Game could start with a single CPU and 2-3 processes and then all this comes on top step by step and you can automate it away through tech tree.

[dead]

Re: A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events

#60
post #9
post #6

Maybe that's what the Linux scheduler is actually - humans' consciousness stuck inside the computer managing the processes. Sounds like that black mirror multi-part episode "White Christmas".

So that's why the Matrix needed humans to power their systems!

The original idea of the Matrix was for the humans to be processors, but they changed it because they thought people wouldn’t understand that.
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