At the end of every episode in "Once Upon Atari," Rob Fulop (author or co-author of Demon Attack, Night Driver, Space Invaders, and Missile Command for the 2600) talks about how many children in the 80s played thousands of hours of Atari 2600 games and the effect that it had in their psychological development. Specifically, he believed it produced a nihilistic generation due to the overarching message that "you always lose" in the end. He contrasts it to the early television he watched as a child where the overarching message was "it will all work out" in the end. He says that he thinks about this a lot, and that him and everyone at Atari is responsible for that.
Will you drown?
101–110 of 145 posts
Re: Will you drown?
#102Re: Will you drown?
#103What a simple and profound game.... I hope Notch is feeling ok.
Given the fairly nihilistic ending ( You are dead, you are forgotten, there is nothing. ), I sure hope he's OK.
Re: Will you drown?
#104Re: Will you drown?
#105It's a one way trip. it's inevitable.
More money. More Problems.
Re: Will you drown?
#106Here's the full graph of the game logic (SVG) (spoilers): https://cdn.rawgit.com/CyberShadow/11329584/raw/5d295c9557d3... Code: https://gist.github.com/CyberShadow/11329584 Legend: - Round nodes are problems - Rectangular nodes are things you can have - Gray round nodes are problems that don't go away after solving them - Green lines are things solving problems gives you - Red lines are things needed to solve a probl…
Thanks that is it a dot graph? OK I see, it is. I recall (not a CS grad here either) using that on something complex I did several years ago. Your graph really puts Notch's logic and my decisions while playing his game, into perspective.
Re: Will you drown?
#107Re: Will you drown?
#108End up going in circles at one point because I didn't realize I had any integrity. Similar to life indeed.
Same here. I just replayed it and realized I didn't notice when exactly I got it. I had to play it for a third time to see the exact point. It made me go: "oh".
Brilliant.
Re: Will you drown?
#109Automate the clicking with this small snippet: https://gist.github.com/jadekler/11337433. Ironically, you never move past 'teenager' if you always choose the first option available =)
Re: Will you drown?
#110At the end of every episode in "Once Upon Atari," Rob Fulop (author or co-author of Demon Attack, Night Driver, Space Invaders, and Missile Command for the 2600) talks about how many children in the 80s played thousands of hours of Atari 2600 games and the effect that it had in their psychological development. Specifically, he believed it produced a nihilistic generation due to the overarching message that "you alway…
That seems a little harsh. It was a nihilistic time. Missile Command was brutal, but no more so than The Day After[1]. You always lose pinball in the end, too, but nobody blames that for ruining the youth. Well, nobody in that generation. Previously, like everything else novel the youth do, it was Satan's handmaiden.