CH102 - AI
"Evelyn, you know I'm not tech-savvy, so can you explain things a bit clearer?"
Ethan waved his hands, eager to learn more.
"Okay, let me break it down for you from the basics."
Evelyn shook the creative draft in her hand, flipping it to the first page and pointing to the second paragraph. "Ethan, based on your concept, 'Pac-Man' is an unrestricted maze-chasing game, right?"
"Yes," Ethan nodded. "The basic gameplay is to control the sprite, our protagonist, to eat all the dots hidden in the maze while avoiding four chasing guardians/ghosts. Once that goal is achieved, it's considered completing a level."
"An advanced feature is the flashing dots in the four corners of the maze. If the protagonist eats them, he gains the ability to devour ghosts, making them fear him and move slowly."
"At a higher level, once a ghost is eaten, it respawns in the center ghost house."
"That's my entire concept. So, is it too complicated?"
"But this time, we won't be making a circuit board game because we have the MOS 6502."
Ethan felt that the biggest issue with 'Pac-Man' was the lack of basic physical feedback, unlike 'Snake' that used basic photoelectric feedback for game effects.
However, it was unavoidable because, with the evolution of the gaming industry, CPUs were destined to enter the game production field. To put it crudely, electronic arcade machines were essentially personal computers.
When facing the unstoppable tide of history, Ethan naturally chose to embrace it actively. Compared to all other game companies on the market, they had a unique advantage – the MOS 6502 was comparable to the Motorola 6800!
When a game company had a special supply of hardware...
Ethan couldn't think of how he could lose!
"I have creativity, I have technology, and damn it, I have hardware..."
Isn't this just beating all his peers?
But now, before he could wield his metaphorical whip against his competitors, Evelyn informed him that there were bugs in the game?
How could he accept that?
And as he was about to express his thoughts with a barrage of questions, full of confusion and amazement, Evelyn raised her hand, saying, "Okay, Ethan, I know you're in a hurry, but calm down for a moment."
"I know this game needs the MOS 6502 for development, and I'm prepared for the challenge. So, can you please recall what I just said? I mentioned that your design doesn't follow the binary logic."
"And what that means..."
"Let me explain it this way: in binary, the carry rule is every two make one."
"1 in binary is 1, but 2 is not 2, it's 10, and so on. 3 is 11, 4 is 100..."
"In this case, how high can the MOS 6502 count?"
"Up to 255."
"Because it's an 8-bit processor."
"8 bits mean you can imagine eight slots in front of you, each representing 0 or 1. In this scenario, the maximum displayed number is 1111, 1111, which is 255 in decimal."
"If you add one more unit, the data will overflow."
"And if one unit represents one level, then this game can only have 255 levels. There's no infinity, as you mentioned."
"So, to make 'Pac-Man' play endlessly like 'Snake,' it's impossible."
"Because the MOS 6502 CPU has limitations."
"Do you understand what I mean?"
Evelyn tapped the creative draft with her slender fingers.
After the crisp sound, Ethan realized it wasn't that the game couldn't be made, but the infinite loop within the game couldn't be achieved!
And for him, it was just a trivial matter!
If he couldn't make an infinite loop, then so be it!
After all, in this world, no game could truly go on indefinitely!
'The Legend of Zelda' was sticky enough, but after the release of 'Tears of the Kingdom,' it quickly faded away overnight.
Well, the assembly and crafting were quite enjoyable.
So, as long as a game remained interesting for a certain period, it was already a huge success.
"This doesn't matter. Since MOS 6502 has a limit, let's push this chip to its maximum."
"We'll excel in what we can do, and the rest, leave it to the world."
Ethan's words carried a light-hearted tone.
If the game could be made, then all problems were not really problems.
However, his words made Evelyn close her eyes suddenly.
When she opened them again, a wry smile covered her face.
"Oh, Ethan, do you know how big of a project your decision implies?"
"255 levels, if I design it alone, it might take a year."
"And, that's not the most important part; it's the four ghosts."
"The four ghosts will chase the player in different styles."
"When designing these four ghosts, you thought your ideas were brilliant, right? Yes, I admit. But let me tell you, making this game isn't as simple as 'Snake.' If we want each ghost's path to have randomness, then we have to write separate code for each of the four ghosts, giving them different thought processes. Then, when the protagonist eats the invincible dots, these four ghosts need to use the same detection code to ensure they switch from chasing mode to avoidance mode..."
"For this..."
"Do you know what kind of technology this involves?"
"In the current scientific language, it's artificial intelligence."
'What The Fuck!'
Ethan was shocked!
Because he never imagined that developing 'Pac-Man' would be so challenging.
"AI?" he asked incredulously.
"Yeah, AI," Evelyn nodded with a smile.
When he heard the confirmation again, Ethan felt his vision darken.
Because at that moment, he wasn't sure if this game could be made.
'Pac-Man' involved AI?
This was a bit too much!
Remember, AI wasn't thoroughly researched as an industry when he time-traveled!
ChatGPT 4.0, that was genuinely useful!
As he pondered why 'Pac-Man' seemed more challenging than 'North Country Blocks,' Evelyn raised the draft paper and waved it in front of Ethan. "Hey! Why are you daydreaming?"
Ethan spread his hands, saying in a very casual manner, "Because I'm thinking if our project has any backup plans."
"Oh, Ethan, don't you trust me?"
Evelyn's teasing smile appeared as Ethan looked puzzled.
After all, just now, Evelyn was transmitting negative emotions to him!
"Can you?" Ethan asked with scepticism.
"Give it a try," Evelyn didn't give a definite answer. But the next moment, she said, "Just like you said, we'll excel in what we can do, and the rest, leave it to the world."
It seemed like she didn't want to continue on this boring topic, but rather found a new toy.
After giving herself encouragement with a positive tone, Evelyn stood up directly, waving the draft paper in front of Ethan and urging him.
"Go! Go! Go!"
"Let's make the game!"
"Ethan, I'm telling you, you can't escape anywhere during this time! Before I finish making the game, you can't go anywhere
!"
"It's only been half a year since the production of 'Snake,' right? In half a year, you've given me such a big challenge?"
"I really appreciate it!"
"This time, I'll make you understand how difficult making games really is!"
"So you won't give me even tougher challenges next time!"
TL Note:
'Pac-Man' indeed has a limit, as described in the text due to the CPU's upper limit restriction. Google even restored this joke on its official website on the 30th anniversary of 'Pac-Man.' At level 255, the game ends, and the old version crashes.
'Pac-Man' is the pioneer of game AI, and it is still used as a benchmark for testing AI capabilities in self-learning programming by companies like Facebook, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Microsoft. It holds cultural significance and technological importance.
In reality, the creator of 'Pac-Man,' Toru Iwatani, led a nine-person team and took seventeen months to create the game, much longer than the typical four months for a game at that time. Iwatani mentioned that they wanted to make the game more enjoyable. If all four ghosts moved the same way, the players would find it too easy to complete levels. So they decided to individually design paths for each ghost. At that time, few people on the team understood the concept of AI, as it was only popular in the scientific community of prestigious universities in the United States like Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, MIT, and Harvard. They had to write code with determination because AI was not well-explored during their time. Fortunately, they succeeded.