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Something a lot like Pokemon Yellow

roganmurley.com

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Re: Something a lot like Pokemon Yellow

#11

Post by npinsker »

> Suppose we want a new version of Pokémon Yellow with a new Pokémon creature. We don’t need to change the game’s source code, we just need to edit the wiki and then press the “remake game” button. Modding a game becomes as simple as editing the wiki. Creating a game becomes as simple as writing its wiki.

Is this actually at all feasible? The total amount of storage space used by the Pokémon wiki is hundreds of times larger than the original game, likely requiring many times more effort to write than spent by the original programmers, and it still doesn't cover many, many aspects of that game (e.g. that Pokémon is tile-based; what buttons do in various contexts; sound and visual UI design) -- to say nothing of the clever ASM and memory tricks necessary to make the game work on the Game Boy.

I'm reminded of that comic where the punchline is "do you know the industry term for a specification precise enough to generate a program? Code. It's called code."

Re: Something a lot like Pokemon Yellow

#13

Post by cronin101 »

dantondwa wrote: post #5

Hah! I spent a lot of time as a child reading and studying that guide, while actually never playing the game until many years later.

I did the same thing, used to fall asleep reading the strategy guide for at least a year before I got the game myself.

I was similarly absorbed with those annual “bumper collection of cheats for video games” books that used to come with tech magazines, endlessly rereading them and memorizing them for games I never owned.

I wonder:

A) How much this is endemic to the Hacker News demographic. I’ve always been absorbed in the pursuit of useless knowledge (later in life this manifests in unnecessary PC watercooling and Haskell addiction).

B) If we all had genius parents that realized you can spend £3.50 (much less than the cost of an A list game) and keep a child occupied for an entire year, while also encouraging them to read (!!).

Re: Something a lot like Pokemon Yellow

#14

Post by NeoTar »

esnard wrote: post #2

Wow, I also spent years reading those guides before playing by first ever Pokémon game. I even started to write my own guide. As a child, it was very fun. Now I'm wondering how many people share the same experience.

I was the same with a GameFaqs walkthough of Pokémon Red/Blue. It was written in a very interesting style too and like many people I wish I could play the Pokémon game that it helped to create in my head.

Re: Something a lot like Pokemon Yellow

#16

Post by NeoTar »

npinsker wrote: post #11

> Suppose we want a new version of Pokémon Yellow with a new Pokémon creature. We don’t need to change the game’s source code, we just need to edit the wiki and then press the “remake game” button. Modding a game becomes as simple as editing the wiki. Creating a game becomes as simple as writing its wiki. Is this actually at all feasible? The total amount of storage space used by the Pokémon wiki is hundreds of times…

> it still doesn't cover many, many aspects of that game

But I kinda love that as an idea. The text of the wiki defines the core ideas of what the game is, but a lot is left unspecified and to be interpreted.

Pokémon legends Arceus feels a lot like what someone who had only read about the franchise may create as a game, and it's a pretty awesome addition to the series.

Re: Something a lot like Pokemon Yellow

#18

Post by john-radio »

idle_zealot wrote: post #12

> Changing a game becomes as simple as modifying a wiki I feel like an implementation of Pokemon Yellow in a reasonably modern high-level programming language would be easier to reason about and modify than a sprawling wiki written in English.

Yes, I got the sense from reading this that the author has neither spent a lot of time contributing to a wiki, nor writing software, because both tasks are scarily complex in a way that the blog entry skates over. But then I clicked "About" and I see they are in fact a staff engineer at reddit, so shows what I know.

Re: Something a lot like Pokemon Yellow

#19

Post by kevinmchugh »

idle_zealot wrote: post #12

> Changing a game becomes as simple as modifying a wiki I feel like an implementation of Pokemon Yellow in a reasonably modern high-level programming language would be easier to reason about and modify than a sprawling wiki written in English.

Right. You could make adding a Pokemon as simple and predictable as modifying a yaml file.
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