Rats Play DOOM • Hacker News Board

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#21

Post by k0ba » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:03 PM UTC

saltwatercowboy wrote: post #20

That's such a fun project. Some really excellent Show HN items this week, but this is my favourite.

thx. :3 years of hard work. you might check out yolorun.capital for similar projects.

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#22

Post by why_at » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:05 PM UTC

quasarj wrote: post #4

How can he not include a video of it working? D:

In the results section it looks like there's supposed to be an image of it but the link "placeholder_rat_playing.png" returns a 404 :(

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#23

Post by chickenhun » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:06 PM UTC

Good news: Here's a cute video of Todd being habituated to the setup: https://x.com/yolorun_capital/status/1999598643339227564

Bad news: no video of them playing on this setup, just on the previous version. We iterated on v2 too long, our pet rats grew old and couldn't be trained. We open-sourced the hardware and software so others can build upon it. You can TLDR the whole thing in this thread: https://x.com/yolorun_capital/status/1996632980903620886?s=2...

...Also, here's my personal X, dm me if you have any questions, or would want to build it for a lab or for yourself: https://x.com/viktor_thoth

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#24

Post by observationist » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:09 PM UTC

chickenhun wrote: post #23

Good news: Here's a cute video of Todd being habituated to the setup: https://x.com/yolorun_capital/status/1999598643339227564 Bad news: no video of them playing on this setup, just on the previous version. We iterated on v2 too long, our pet rats grew old and couldn't be trained. We open-sourced the hardware and software so others can build upon it. You can TLDR the whole thing in this thread: https://x.com/yolorun_…

I was worried this was going to be one of the petri dish of neurons type things, but the reality of it was awesome. More gaming rigs for rats need to be developed - it looked like Todd was actually enjoying it, and you toned down the potentially scary bits in a good way.

Kudos for the experiment and giving your pet an awesome enriching environment!

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#25

Post by k0ba » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:10 PM UTC

chickenhun wrote: post #23

Good news: Here's a cute video of Todd being habituated to the setup: https://x.com/yolorun_capital/status/1999598643339227564 Bad news: no video of them playing on this setup, just on the previous version. We iterated on v2 too long, our pet rats grew old and couldn't be trained. We open-sourced the hardware and software so others can build upon it. You can TLDR the whole thing in this thread: https://x.com/yolorun_…

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46151150 )

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#26

Post by skluug » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:14 PM UTC

This isn't true of all rats

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#27

Post by OhNoNotAgain_99 » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#28

Post by ge96 » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:16 PM UTC

> It maximizes immersion without obstructing whisker space

hehe very important

although... if the walls moved and touched the whiskers in conjunction with the game could be something

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#29

Post by apgwoz » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:21 PM UTC

ginkoleaf wrote: post #6

For those afraid to click: This does not appear to hurt the rats or involve doing any surgery on them.

I was very happy to see this. I’m fairly against live animal testing, but giving rats the joy of playing Doom??? I think I _may_ have to be OK with this.

Re: Rats Play DOOM

#30

Post by apgwoz » Fri, Dec 12, 2025, 10:23 PM UTC

escapecharacter wrote: post #10

ginkoleaf wrote: post #6

For those afraid to click: This does not appear to hurt the rats or involve doing any surgery on them.

Is it ethical to turn rats into gamers?

I think it might be _unethical_ to not spread the joy of playing Doom for the first time? Though, I’m not entirely sure there’s been enough research done about the effects of violent video games in rat gamer populations.