Mechanical AI Made In LittleBigPlanet

Laurens writes "Despite slow sales of LittleBigPlanet in the USA, you might have heard of the calculator made within the game, but now that has been topped. I found a fully-functioning AI machine which plays Tic-Tac-Toe against the player. Considering that you can't actually program in LBP, this feat is impressive; it is a machine which has mechanical AND and OR ports made of pistons and proximity detectors, a physically moving Program Counter, and hundreds of wires. The level is called 'Tic Tac Toe' and is by author Cristel." Another player created a similarly amazing level that is a recreation of John Conway's Game of Life.

The most powerful...

[binaryspiral]

I find it very interesting, and somewhat ironic, that the most powerful home gaming console in history has people programing in mechanical gates.

Very cool indeed.

They could take this a huge step further

[StreetStealth]

The minor resurgence of interest in mechanical computers brought about by LBP is pretty cool, but I think Media Molecule could really latch onto this and offer some excellent DLC for the advanced users.

Mechanical computers are fun to watch, but they require lots of level space as well as complex physics simulation to perform even the most basic operations. Here's where an expansion pack could pick this trend up and run with it: Add the ability to build little breadboards with transistors. Now there's no physics overhead, and just imagine the stuff you could wire up!

Re:The most powerful...

[Anonymous Coward]

I find it very interesting, and somewhat ironic, that the most powerful home gaming console in history has people programing in mechanical gates.

Very cool indeed.

Unless you were trying to make a joke, I'm not sure if you understand the difference between how games are made for the PS3 (by developers/producers) and how a user-level-creator within a specific game is being playfully used to expand the frontier of possibilities of that construct.

What the hell are you talking about? What exactly do you think he doesn't understand?

Re:They could take this a huge step further

[AKAImBatman]

Here's where an expansion pack could pick this trend up and run with it: Add the ability to build little breadboards with transistors. Now there's no physics overhead, and just imagine the stuff you could wire up!

That would remove all the charm of these hacks. What's really cool about such mechanical machines is that they demonstrate computer science in a visual manner. Even we professionals who know that computers != electronics are wowed to death when we see a mechanical computer large enough to watch its operation and see its inner workings. (Even if it is virtual.) Imagine what it's like for those not familiar with computer science? Such a massive computational machine is beyond their belief, even if it performs a simple task. It hearkens back to 60's scifi where computers are monstrously large creations that have incredible brain power. It's pretty cool stuff!

Replace all the mechanics and physics with a few virtual circuit boards and you remove all the charm. The levels stop being machines of wonder and go straight back to their black boxes. To the average user, a circuit board in the game is nothing but a fancy script.

Re:Fun news, but old news... Starcraft?

[Trahloc]

Sounds awesome, would have been great if you provided a link instead of doing the whole cranky "get off my lawn" routine.

Re:Is anyone playing this game?

[Tokerat]

They finally start making video games where you're free to make whatever you want, like a Mario Paint you can walk around in, like what we all wanted when we where kids...

...and you're SHITTING on it?

You, sir, are no gamer. No flame intended, but you'd rather be part of an interactive movie than play a game. This is a game for real gamers.

Not everyone knows how to mod Half-Life 2, but anyone can pick up LBP.

Re:They could take this a huge step further

[fictionpuss]

You can get gears to work reliably if you scale them all down by one grid unit to allow centering. If you scale them by different amounts though, the teeth will grind in that effect you mentioned.

Re:They could take this a huge step further

[cyb3rdemon]

GMod by itself is already so much better than this. With Wiremod, it's incomparable (a radar or an automatic turret are one of the easier machines to make. With skill, you could make an AI robot or a car that converts to a boat on water.) For those who don't know, GMod is a modification for Half-Life 2 that allows you to spawn and manipulate the game's objects, and use motors, constraints, and other tools to make contraptions, vehicles, puzzles, and random fun stuff. Wiremod is an extension of GMod that gives you over 100 logical gates, sensors, and tools to make much more complex devices than can be easily done in Gmod. You could do something as simple as wiring a button to a radio transmitter and a receiver to an explosive to make a radio-controlled bomb. If you're advanced, you could use the CPU (programmable in ZASM) and text screen to make a console control panel. You really could get amazing results at any level of knowledge. With games like this, I wonder what it is that makes LittleBigPlanet so revolutionary. Everything it does has been done before and done better.