2/9/2008 - Assassin's Creed Guard Love

It's amazing to see how far artificial intelligence in video games have come. I've heard that in the original Pac-Man, there would be a pattern in the way the ghosts move and that you can play a perfect game by simply knowing the pattern. Obviously, if this was the case, then there was no sophisticated A.I. in that game, even if you thought that the ghosts were scheming against you.

Even in the side-scrolling days of gaming, there would always be a pattern to the enemies and that the way they could beat the human-controlled characters would be to have quicker attacks or programmed with inherent advantages like better weapons. When fighting games came around, this lack of true artificial intelligence meant that the computer-controlled characters would "cheat". I see this prominently in the Street Fighter II games where the computer would immediately respond to one of your attacks with the only attack that could counter it. This may be possible within the design of the game, but the split-second manner in which the counter-attack is pulled off is humanly impossible. The computer would also "cheat" by pulling off charged special moves without charging, something that definitely could not be done by a human.

Despite these advantages, the computer can be beat because eventually you will start to recognize the pattern and take your own advantage. These patterns are actually deliberately programmed into boss characters and it gives you a kind of satisfaction to recognize them and using it to beat the game.

A.I. in video games made its biggest leap when first-person shooters came around. In the more difficult single-player campaigns you'll see the enemy use cover effectively and try to surround you. Perhaps because FPS's take place in a 3-D environment, you are less able to discern any patterns that are programmed into the computer opponents. However, it is a necessity to make the enemy smarter in these games, otherwise the difference between playing against the computer and another human being would be far too great. For a real challenge, nothing will ever beat going online against the hardcore gamers.

Still, with the tremendous processing power of today's consoles it is getting to the point where computer-controlled enemies will be programmed with artificial intelligence that make them more natural and almost human. Take the next-gen video game Assassin's Creed, for example. Your character is in the middle of an entire city packed with computer-controlled characters that are doing "everyday" things like shopping at markets, conversing with one another, and even committing petty theft. They do so in such a naturalistic way that the experience that it all really does seem like real life. In fact, it's a little scary to see how some characters behave:



It just proves that bots have to get off too...

2/7/2008 - Apple Music Event 2001

It's hard to believe, but it's been almost seven years since Apple first introduced the iPod. Looking at this introduction video now, it was so hard to imagine back then that this little device that plays music would be the one thing that brought Apple back into the mainstream of consumer electronics. After all, it only worked on Apple machines which at the time had very little market share. Also, it was very expensive compared to MP3 CD-players that could play about 100 songs per CD. I don't even know if Steve Jobs himself knew what a phenomenon the iPod would be, even though in this video he touts all the features that did make it a smash: its ultra-portability (even though it looks so bulky now), its ability to store your entire music library (even though the current Nano holds the same amount at less than half the price), its ease of management (one could argue that iTunes has gotten bloated now), and its cool sytle (again, the current Nano trumps the original in every respect).



Of course, at the time, no one knew what was really up the sleeves of Steve Jobs: the iTunes online music store and the availability of iTunes for Windows. The first came at a very opportune time when the RIAA started to seriously crack down on Napster downloaders, forcing the file-sharing program to cease operation. Who knew that so many people would happily switch to paying for their music? And everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY was shocked when iTunes came to Windows. Even Jobs said that "hell has frozen over" when it happened. But looking at it all now, it all made sense. Only true geniuses like Steve Jobs would have known it years ago.

2/6/2008 - Funny Madden Glitch

Hmmm... this glitch on a Madden football game reminds me of that critical Superbowl play where the Patriots could not sack Eli Manning before his throw to Tyree. Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

2/5/2008 - Tron Project (1999)

It's probably safe to say that Tron was the movie that started it all... well, the trend of movies being completely or mostly computer-generated, that is. Tron was released at a time when arcade games were all the rage, and it definitely took advantage of what was in fashion. It's use of computer terminology was loose, to say the least, but for moviegoers back the, it's "special effects" were like nothing they've ever seen. Looking back at it now, the graphics do seem quaint... in fact, they can be reproduced by an out-of-date PC with only a Pentium 2 and 128MB of RAM, as this video shows:



That's a pretty great re-creation of perhaps the most memorable scene in the movie. And you can bet that they had this as a stage in the arcade game.

2/4/2008 - PERFECTVILLE Still Population 1

Being an Apple Macintosh fanatic, you'd think that my favorite Superbowl commercial would be the famous 1984 ad that started it all, and it was... until yesterday. I'm a Mac fan, but I'm also a Miami Dolphins fan. It was pretty disappointing season this year to say the least... with the Fins only winning ONE game, Tom Brady erasing Dan Marino's records, and the Patriots on their way to becoming the 2nd undefeated team, something only the 1972 Dolphins team has accomplished. That is the one record that hasn't been taken away from them and it has stood for 36 years. In fact, whenever the last "undefeated" team loses a game during the season, veterans of the '72 team toast to a bottle of champagne.

Well, it was looking really unlikely that the bottle would be opened towards the end of yesterday's game. I mean, it looked like every other come-from-behind win by the Patriots the past few weeks. A team would get really close to beating the Pats, but then Brady would turn it on and throw the winning touchdown. It all seemed inevitable that the results would be the same, with New England being the favorite by 13 points, and the Giants being only a Wild Card team. But then a miracle happened. It was truly like out of the movies... a real Rocky story... only this time Rocky beats Apollo in the first movie. I'm sure everybody has seen the highlights of the last drive by Eli Manning, but highlights are nothing like watching it live. The pass to Tyree will be the stuff of legend. And the pass to Burress allowed the '72 Dolphins to open that bottle.

This bridge to history was something that was not lost to Reebok's advertising agency. They planned an ad that would air immediately after the Superbowl depending on the outcome of the game. I don't know what the commercial would have been like if the Patriots had won... probably a passing of the torch or something. But the commerical they did air? PERFECT.

2/2/2008 - Perpetual Luigi Machine

I've featured a handful of "Perpetual Mario Machine" videos on this blog, and something seemed missing... Oh, that's right, he has a brother, Luigi! Mario is such a big star in the video game world that it's easy to overlook Luigi. After all, he was just a color swap of Mario in Mario Bros. and in Super Mario Bros. (and they were both the same color if you caught the Fire Flower). He finally became a distinct character in the U.S. version of Super Mario Bros. 2, being taller and skinner than Mario, and he was able to jump higher than Mario, but he is slower and harder to control. However, in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, Luigi loses these distinctions and becomes just a color-swap of Mario again. This was probably because our version of Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn't recognized in Japan until after part 3 came out. Luigi was then unceremoniously dumped from the 3-D Mario games, Super Mario 64 and Super Mario sunshine. He did get is own game in Luigi's Mansion, but he might as well have been a stepbrother of Mario instead. Luigi returns to glory in Super Mario Galaxy, with his unique controls from Super Mario Bros. 2. It's time that he got the recognition he deserves, and to celebrate, here's a "Perpetual Luigi Machine" video:

2/1/2008 - CES 2008 - Optimus Maximus keyboard

The Consumer Electronics Show had its run last month in Las Vegas and boy, would I have loved to be there. I've never been at one of those trade shows before, but I can just imagine the atmosphere. The neon lights, the gambling, the booth babes, and of course, the gadgets! Even though I wasn't there, reading all the tech blogs and watching the videos from the floor was the next best thing. There were bigger and thinner TVs and smaller and more capable cell phones, and I'm sure the trend will continue next year.

One really innovative thing that made an appearance is the Optimus Maximus keyboard. When I first heard about this thing, I thought it was some kind of Transformers branded keyboard. While I was wrong on that, the keyboard is transformable in that it is infinitely customizable because its keys are actually little LED screens. That is, if you can make a picture out of 48 x 48 pixels, you can put it on a key. Like the representative describes in this video, you can make your computer keyboard as ugly as you want. And look: it works on a Mac!