Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#1

Post by drubs » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 5:07 PM UTC

Hi everyone!

After spending hundreds of hours, we're excited to finally share our progress in developing a reinforcement learning system to beat Pokémon Red. Our system successfully completes the game using a policy under 10M parameters, PPO, and a few novel techniques. With the release of Claude Plays Pokémon, now feels like the perfect time to showcase our work.

We'd love to get feedback!

Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters
drubinstein.github.io

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#2

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 5:07 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#3

Post by jononor » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:26 PM UTC

Very nice! Nice to see demonstrations of reinforcement learning being used to solve non-trivial tasks.

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#4

Post by xinpw8 » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:28 PM UTC

This is a first-in-world, isn't it?

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#5

Post by worble » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:39 PM UTC

Heads up, clicking "Next Page" just takes you to an empty screen, you have to use the navigation links on the left if you want to get read past the first screen.

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#6

Post by drubs » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:42 PM UTC

worble wrote: post #5

Heads up, clicking "Next Page" just takes you to an empty screen, you have to use the navigation links on the left if you want to get read past the first screen.

Thanks for the heads up. I just pushed a fix.

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#7

Post by bee_rider » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:52 PM UTC

Ah, very neat.

Maybe some day the “rival” character in Pokemon can be played by a RL system, haha. That way you can have a “real player (simulated)” for your rival.

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#8

Post by modeless » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:52 PM UTC

Can't Pokemon be beaten by almost random play?

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#9

Post by worble » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:55 PM UTC

drubs wrote: post #6

worble wrote: post #5

Heads up, clicking "Next Page" just takes you to an empty screen, you have to use the navigation links on the left if you want to get read past the first screen.

Thanks for the heads up. I just pushed a fix.

I think you fixed the one below the puffer.ai image, but not the one above Authors.

Re: Show HN: Beating Pokemon Red with RL and <10M Parameters

#10

Post by bubblyworld » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:57 PM UTC

What an awesome project! I'm curious - I would have thought that rewarding unique coordinates would be enough to get the agent to (eventually) explore all areas, including the key ones. What did the agents end up doing before key areas got an extra reward?

(and how on earth did you port Pokémon red to a RL environment? O.o)