From: Paul Hughes (paul@planetp.cc)
Date: Wed Jul 19 2000 - 15:54:24 MDT
Great idea Emlyn, and I'm glad to see this idea pop up again.
Way back in 1988, I came up with a similar idea which I actually managed
to code to some completion. I wrote it in BASIC! The game was of
course text based and single player only. Here was my game:
You first entered your name, your location and the date. The game then
started with you sitting at the computer playing this 'stupid' game.
"Your mission if you choose to accept it is to make it the center of the
galaxy. Better get up and start making a difference! "
The idea was to reach the center of the galaxy with the necessary
technology to enter the black hole that lies there and escape into
another, perhaps higher dimensional universe. Much of the game was
inspired by Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson, who I read avidly
back then while 'altered'.
The smart player soon realized that two things would be essential to
making it, extending your life (cryonics, nanotechnology), and living
long enough to experience and use the very advanced technologies
necessary to get you there.
**The dynamics of the game and scenarios you encountered were determined
in large part by a cellular automata 'agents'. Meaning what you did in
once scene effected the entire game world in subtle and sometimes
dramatic ways. I programmed "butterfly" effects throughout the entire
game. That way every person who played had a different set of
circumstances in which to use and dodge to obtain the ultimate goal of
the game - living long enough to make it to the center of the galaxy.
The games biggest limitations was the overall size of the game world,
which was limited almost entirely by the amount of time and energy I was
willing to build it.
I never published the game to my discontent. But I was able to share it
on several BBS's at the time.
Cheers,
Paul Hughes
http://planetp.cc/
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