Sunday, December 28, 2008

A Different Kind of Game

My son-in-law put me on to this wonderfully new and different kind of sensory sight and sound game that appeals to our faculties of intellect, reason, and art all at the same time.

Please try it and perhaps we can discuss the philosophical aspects and figure out why the "shoot 'em up" types of video games are so much more popular.

Ira Glickstein



4 comments:

joel said...

I tried it, but didn't get any color. -Joel

Ira Glickstein said...

Thanks for trying http://playauditorium.com/.

You have to complete the first group of problems before you get to the second group, which has color. I have not completed the second group yet so there may be additional levels to go as things get more and more complicated.

The thing I especially like is that there are no written directions. You have to physically (using the mouse) move stuff around until you figure out what it does.

It is kind of like doing a physics experiment with mirrors and lenses and, at the second level, colored filters.

You are rewarded by pleasant music and nice visuals and get a feeling of accomplishment when you realize that some of the discs reflect the moving light beam in different directions. I am still not clear exactly how changing the diameter of the discs affects the reflective properties. I have done so to make some of the problems at the second level work but do not yet "get" it.

If anyone gets more deeply into it please share hints and perhaps we can discover additional levels, etc.

Early in the PC days of the late 1970's there was a text game called, I believe, "ROSE". All the instructions said was "The object of this game is to determnine the object of this game. Your move." You then typed something, such as "AA" and pressed Return and got a reply of "+5 points" or "-1 point". You had to do this repeatedly until you discovered some of the ways to get points. However, "AA" might get you 5 points the first time and lose you10 points the second time you tried to use it. You discovered that the reward system had to do with combinations of entries, etc. I do not remember the winning strategy for the ROSE game but it involved several levels of understanding and consumed lots of time and gave lots of pleasure of accomplishment.

Ira Glickstein

Stewart A Denenberg said...

I'd love to try the game but I can't figure out how to boot it up. I've tried clicking everything clickable but all I get is an empty "auditorium"! What am I missing here?

Stu

Ira Glickstein said...

Stu: Perhaps you do not have the latest version of Java or something like that. Have you tried it on a different computer?

When I click on http://playauditorium.com/ I get the word "Auditorium" and a window with moving objects and music. AFter a short time the window just has the word "Auditorium" and "click anywhere to begin". Have you got that far?

It is really well worth the time to try this thing.

Anyone else have success (or failure) or know how to solve Stu's problem? Perhaps it only works for C-minds? Or, it it totally in my imagination?

Ira Glickstein