Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with game

The Origin of the Matrix

madmamasmith — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:30:53 -0800

Origin of the Matrix relating to a Science Fictional setting... I am reading Neuromancer by William Gibson and the main character mentions "the matrix", as something he "jacks in to". Now this is my first foray into sci-fi and I am only about 20 pages in but I was wondering where the term originated. Did The Matrix movie steal this term and its meaning from Gibson or was it already being used in previous sci-fi works? I have only ever heard it used in a sci-fi context so that's why I;m wondering. I'm admitting my lack of knowledge in this area, so please don't make me feel like a ding dong if the answer to this question is blindingly obvious to you! Also, while on the topic of Sci-fi, the last book I read in the genre was Ender's Game in junior high and I loved it, so please suggest any sci-fi reads I should check out.

Multiplayer iPhone games?

Tu13es — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:13:44 -0800

What are some multiplayer iPhone games that don't require players to be actively using their phone to play? I just discovered Words With Friends (and Chess With Friends) and love it because I don't need to be actively using my phone at all times to play it. If you haven't played them, they're basically Scrabble (or Chess) games where you open the app, play your move, then wait until your opponent makes their move. Perfect for when I'm at work and can only use my phone occasionally.

Games that are only multiplayer over wifi or bluetooth are out. Bonus points for games that are free, but I'd consider paid ones as well. Bonus points for apps with Push notifications when it's your turn too.

The most fun way to hold a raffle

biwa-shu — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:23:30 -0800

Are there more fun ways to give away a variety of prizes at a raffle than just draw names/numbers from a box? ie: gameshow-style, competitions, etc. We'll be having a raffle at an event with about 80 people. We'll have a variety of prizes worth anywhere from $5 to $50. What are some fun ways that we can choose the recipients, instead of just going "OK, next one ... OK, next one..."?

Is there software that will time my game play?

TigerCrane — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:01:37 -0800

Is there a timer that will keep track of how much I spend on a game? I use games to practice my typing and I want to log my practice hours. I've googled the subject, and what I've found is programs that turn the game off after a certain time has passed. I want to play MORE, not less. Is there something out there that will do that?

Game on!

timpollard — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:30:57 -0800

Does anyone know where in the UK I can buy sheets of blank (on both sides) printable playing cards, similar to the ones from the US site 'www.plaincards.com'? I want to print out a home-designed card wargame and perforated card sheets would make life so much easier! Thanks in advance...

Help me get into Rockstar ;)

prufrock — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:05:17 -0800

I have a phone interview with Rockstar New England. What should I expect? And is there anything obvious I need to prepare. I'm applying for a Game Programmer position. I applied there a couple of years ago when it was MadDoc Software. At that time, they handed me a 10 part test upon applying. It seems to me that their interview process has changed. And if I recall there were people on MeFi who work there. Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated, of course.

So, what is the process like these days. And is there something specific you recommend I brush upon.

Thanks!

Projects for Christmas-weary adults?

ollyolly — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:43:24 -0800

Monopoly and decorating cookies aren't interesting enough to woo my relatives away from their naps. What are some fun projects, challenges, and DIY kits the adults in my extended family can do together for entertainment over Christmas week? I'll be spending Christmas with my extended family, which is mostly adults (teenagers through 60ish). We'd like some group activities for when the conversation lulls--preferably, fun things we can do together around a table, tasks that require some creativity or mental challenge. These can be individual tasks we all do at the same time, or things that require group effort.

Things we've enjoyed in the past (but that are getting old):
-carving pumpkins
-gingerbread and card houses, cookie decorating
-sculpting with clay
-working on logic and Microsoft Puzzle Challenge problems

I'd like some more ideas in this vein--things that take up enough mental effort that everyone has something to do if conversation lulls. Bonus points for anything mildly competitive (e.g. highest card tower) or producing a finalized product worth keeping or eating (this bunch likes puzzles and Make-style DIY kits).

Too niche for the hive mind?

Baldons — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:52:11 -0800

Recommendations for "let's play videogame X" videos? I'm enjoying some of the "let's play" videos on youtube - it's like movie commentaries on dvd, but for videogame playthroughs. It can be fun! This is good, for example - first timers doing Gunstar Heroes, not knowing one thing about it, discovering things. Do you have recommendations about interesting, funny, outrageous, surprising "let's play videogame X" videos?

Does Xbox 360 have a proxy option with authentications?

omaralarifi — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:17:06 -0800

Does Xbox 360 have a proxy option with authentications such as username and password with it? Or PPTP w/ authentications. Also does it have a VPN support?

What's the online equivalent of a dozen Playmobil dudes?

nebulawindphone — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:02:03 -0800

I'm looking for the online equivalent of a dollhouse, or Lego or Playmobil people — a Flash/Java/whatever app that lets the user dress up a bunch of characters with different clothes/props/features/whatever and arrange them in a scene. I know I've seen stuff like this on websites for kids. The catch is, we need this for a psycholinguistics experiment we're running, which means we need to be able to run the app on our own server and record the user's actions (with consent, of course). Does something like this exist? Right now, we're running the experiment in person.

It goes like this: The subject gets a pile of Playmobil dudes with different outfits and hats and hairdos and props that can be swapped in and out. They read a short description (f'rinstance, "Six pirates are standing in a circle. There are two pirates with swords. A few girls are looking at the pirates.") and then are asked to arrange the toys to match it, and we take a picture of whatever they come up with. The hypothesis has to do with how the wording of the description affects the scene they set up.

It doesn't have to be pirates and girls. It doesn't even have to be people. They don't need pirate hats or swords or whatever. We just need two or three kinds of $X, with two or three interchangeable $Y's that can go on each $X, and the ability to line up the $X's in different ways.

None of us are fast or slick enough as programmers to make it worth writing our Flash game (or whatever) that works like this. But if there is an existing one, even if we have to do some tweaking and tinkering to get it to do what we want, that would be very good news — it's much easier to recruit subjects if they can participate from home, for starters.

Suggestions?

Elusive jigsaw puzzle - Mad Magazine related?

routergirl — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:25:42 -0800

Seeking old jigsaw type puzzle from my childhood. Possibly Mad magazine related, or drawn by Al Jaffee... slim details inside. When I was a kid I had this puzzle. It was a small one, perhaps 5x7 inches or so when complete. Each piece was a strange character, and it was accompanied by a poem that gave clues as to how they all fit together. One piece was either Alfred E. Neuman's face or a face very similar to his. Other pieces included a cartoony type white dog with one arm held high, a woman in heels, a desk cluttered with several things, a seemingly drunk man with a party hat (I think he was reclining, with legs sprawled, on the floor at the bottom of the puzzle), a red telephone, and various other people/cartoon-ish animals. I lost it some years back. It's been nagging at me over the last year or so, but my google fu is failing me. I expect my search terms are too broad (mad magazine jigsaw, mad magazine puzzle). I've tried doing some searches on ebay but come up empty. We kept it in a plastic box, but I can't guarantee its the box it was sold in - it was just a non-descript little box that it happened to fit in, and we kept the poem folded inside with the pieces. The pieces were cardboard - not prime jigsaw puzzle material, but not paper, and it didn't seem thin enough to be a bonus Mad Magazine insert.

I was born in '73, but had older siblings/step-siblings and my older brother collected Mad Magazine for some years. From what I remember of the artwork (the pieces I remember, I remember vividly) it was probably put out in the mid to late 70's or early 80's.

I suspect I'm out of luck, but generally I don't give up without trying the hive mind. Also - is there a name for a jigsaw puzzle where each piece consists of a character or item, or are they all just... "Puzzles"?

How do you play card game: Bomb City

metadave — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:06:49 -0800

A couple sitting next to me on a plane were playing a fast two person card game that looked fun. I asked what it was called and they told me it was "Bomb City". Possibly I heard the name wrong. I figured I could easily look it up online and get the rules. No such luck. Does anyone know the rules for "Bomb City"? It was a two person game ( possibly more - I dont' know ), played with a deck of standard playing cards including jokers. I think each person started with three piles of two cards in front of them with the top one frace up. Each game seemed to take 5 or 10 minutes. Thanks in advance. - Dave

How to simultaneously exchange information?

deadweightloss — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:27:13 -0800

How to simultaneously exchange information? Say a friend and I want to exchange pieces of information, but it is very important that we reveal the information at the same time (equivalently: neither of us know the other's info at the time we commit to our own announcement). if we are in the same room, this is easy, we both write our information on slips of paper and then exchange slips. If we are not in the same room, there is no obvious analogue. For example, simultaneously sending emails does not work, as he could get my email, view my information, alter his announcement, and then send his email all in a few seconds.

If an example would help, say that we are both to name positive whole numbers, and if the sum of our numbers is odd, I have to do an unpleasant task, while if it is even, he has to do the task. Obviously if he can see my information before committing to his announcement, the interaction is trivialized. So we want to find a way to randomize who gets the task using this method.

So how can we do this if not in the same room (presumably over the Internet)?

One thing reducing the difficulty of the problem: we are friends, so we will not get caught lying to each other (and if we are, a suitable punishment can be arranged). However a solution that would allow him to lie without my knowing won't work.

What is the name of this game?

zinfandel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:28:14 -0800

A quickie - what's the name of the game where a bunch of people sit in a circle and the first person whispers a secret into the ear of the person on one side, they whisper it to the next, and it goes around the circle, only to end up being an entirely different secret? For example, someone starts with "I gave my brother a ride to work" and it ends with "I saw my mother ride a stork." I remember playing this as a kid, and I've also been in a volunteer orientation class where this was used as an bad way to communicate.(Google is not my friend this evening.)

Does anyone have any great real-world examples?

What are some good iPhone games for a six year old

shothotbot — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:23:59 -0800

What are some good iPhone games for a six year old? My six year old daughter likes to borrow my iPhone to play games, but she doesn't like most of the kids games she has tried. She like the motion-x poker dice game (I think she is the only kid in first grade who knows what a full house is) and also the GalagaRemix games. What else might she like? Nothing too violent, please.

Help me remember this 4X space game...

CarlRossi — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:54:44 -0800

Looking for a 4X style empire game from my youth. Difficulty: Played it on a VT-100 terminal. Crazy boring details inside. Here's what I remember. Game was made prior to 1993, single player, turn-based, ASCII characters on a VT-100 terminal. (Could be VT-102, but don't hold me to that, let's say it's in the VT-100 family.)

1. It was an Empire style game that took place on a single screen.
2. The screen did not scroll to show more territory.
3. Each planet was represented by a letter. i.e. A, B, C, D...
4. Planets were randomly populated around the screen and the player and computer player started at opposite corners.
5. When ships crossed paths in space, or when your ships attempt to take an enemy planet, they battled. What was unique was an animated counter that showed real-time losses. The victor was the one who had ships remaining at the conclusion of the battle.
6. The winner was the one who controlled all the planets. (Like Empire)
7. One could expect the game to take about 15 - 20 minutes to play.
8. I think I played this on my university's (URI) PR1ME/PrimOS, as opposed to another mainframe. I don't think there was another one, I think the other one was an internet server.

I'm hoping this game wasn't just limited to URI, but was a common PR1ME program for geeks to kill time.

Google searches turn up results that point me to Sins of a Solar Empire and the like, but sometimes I want a game that'll take 15 mins to play instead of days. If there's even a version that will still work today. But nonetheless, I want to know its name.

Old but awesome shareware.

metacollin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:35:27 -0800

Help me identify an older mac shoot-em-up with procedurally generated levels. Identifying features:
*This was a 360° space-shoot-em up style game.
*Gameplay focused heavily on rooms connected by teleporters, and I remember these rooms being rocky in nature. It did not take place in space.
*These rooms featured interesting obstacles in addition to enemy spacecraft, and were different every time I played, leading me to believe there was some randomization or procedural generation going on.
*Enemy space craft would often drop their weapon, which you could absorb, similar to Kirby. I remember a variety of lasers, multishot, and even a ball and chain style weapon.
*This game was shareware, and I BELIEVE it came out soon before or after Mac OS X adoption began taking place. I'm by no means certain about this. There may be a classic version, OS X version, or both.
*It is by no means limited to the mac platform, I am only sure that there was a mac version.
*There was a boss fight every level, or possibly every few levels.

Musical Jelly Beans - jayisgames

FusiveResonance — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:01:00 -0800

google-fu = poor. I am looking for a flash game involving multi coloured jelly beans which serve as triggers for different musical instruments. This game was originally linked to from http://jayisgames.com/.

The user could grab various musical instruments/contraptions onto the playing grid. The instruments were then piped together to allow jelly beans to flow through the instruments. Each time the beans went through an instrument they triggered sound.

Much Thanks.

Are there any games out there like these?

biochemist — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 10:57:32 -0800

I'm looking for PC/Mac (have both) games similar to Indigo Prophecy and Shadow of Destiny. I loved the games because of the way your previous choices influence later ones, as well as the surreal and psychological aspects present. Both of the games have a similar 'feel' that I'm looking for. Any suggestion is great as long as it's not a point and click adventure game.

Identify this 90s puzzle/action game

gentle — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:23:14 -0800

Identify this game. I played it in the late 90s on the PC or the Amiga. It was an isometric puzzle/action/adventure game set in the future in a tall skyscraper where all the robots (cleaning bots, security bots etc.) had suddenly gone crazy. The opening sequence showed you, the hero, entering the building (via a helicopter?). I remember the game as being quite colorful as well as graphically elegant and spare.

The game was rendered isometrically, with each floor of the building being a level. Rooms were typically offices with cubicles and computers. On each floor, you had to navigate through the various rooms and avoid or destroy the robots and (I think) reach some kind of computer. The robots typically moved in a predictable pattern, and so usually the puzzle was about avoiding/disabling them in a certain order.

As the game progressed, you traveled higher and higher in the building until you finally reached the penthouse. I seem to remember there being some guy you had to rescue there, but it could be that he was the mastermind behind the whole robot uprising.

I'm not a hippy, but I game like one.

soelo — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:37:24 -0800

Is there a browser based Civilization clone that's any good? shmegegge asked it first on the blue, but I'm asking it here =)
I loved Civ2 the most, and I currently play KOL, AdventureQuest and Cities (RPGs, but mentioned to give you an idea of what I like). What I don't like is being forced to duel other players or protect my land from them. I only wanna fight the game!

And it doesn't have the be a civ clone as much as have building and research be a big part of the game play. Facebook games are good, too.

PS3 franchises with story but little backstory?

Riki tiki — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:01:21 -0800

What video game franchises in the current generation would be good to pick up for the first time? I like games with a decent focus on story or lore. I just bought a PS3 and am looking to build up my library a bit. Problem is, I look around and see a lot of those types of games with large numbers at the end of their titles... Metal Gear Solid 4, Resident Evil 5, Devil May Cry 4. Not having played the earlier titles in these series, I'm hesitant to buy them for fear that the plot will make little to no sense to me or that I'll end up with a cruddy cash-in sequel that only appeals to people who had their minds blown by the early entries.

Which franchises justify that fear and which don't? Of the ones that have a rolling storyline, do the earlier games hold up well enough to be worth playing now (and would I be able to play them on a new PS3)?

The above were just examples, I'm open to any other franchises you can think of. Also feel free to assume a fairly loose definition of "story", I just mean it to exclude franchises where the plot is just a flimsy framework to justify the gameplay, like Street Fighter.

(also no need to talk about the following: Fallout 3, Oblivion, GTAIV, or the Final Fantasy series)

New! Improved! Mood-brightening and enlightening!

fiercecupcake — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:21:43 -0800

What are some good, fun, little Internet surprises? More like this, less like Goatse. Little things you can make and send to a stranger/acquaintance/friend/lover/imaginary Internet person. Some things I use for this purpose are someecards.com and the above puri site. I'm always looking for more.

Key features:
* Free or for a nominal fee
* Surprising, inspiring, creative, fun, silly
* Not necessarily romantic

Yes, I can draw something in Paint and attach it to an e-mail, or take a picture and send it to someone, but I'm looking for something a little more unexpected. I feel like I've seen threads like this in AskMe before, but I can't find any of them!

help me find a particular website that previously appeared on metafilter...

thermonuclear.jive.turkey — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:49:51 -0800

help me find a particular website that previously appeared on metafilter... Hi, I feel like a total n00b asking this...

recently (within maybe the last 12 months I guess) there was a post on metafilter. The post was about a website that had a collection of fictional writeups on nonexistent games (i.e. reviews of games that don't exist). I think *most* of these fictional reviews were about computer/video/electronic games, but some might not have been.

One review in question sticks out: it discussed a fictional disk-based computer game that you could only play once, there were no published rules or instructions for the game, and at the end of the game it would erase the disk, and (according to the fictional article) remaining copies of this game were now extremely rare.

Can you direct me to the metafilter post and/or the website in question?

My feeble google-fu, and metafilter-search-fu, come up short.

Yes I'm a n00b. I'm sorry.

Find me a sandbox to dig in

rikschell — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:51:36 -0800

I love Sid Meier's Pirates! I loved the original back in the '80s, and I love the remake even more. What other games might I love? I like sandbox games in general, but this one has a lot of action and adventure, and the historical setting is very atmospheric. The violence is minimized/stylized (I'm not interested in GTA-type gangbanging), but there are plenty of choices on how to play and what to do.

I find myself wishing there was a game where I could be an explorer (a remake of Seven Cities of Gold!) or a knight or something. No RTS or God games.

I haven't been up on gaming in about 20 years, though I've played various Dooms and Quakes and stuff. I spent a long time having only Macs, which didn't help. Now I have a netbook, which means I can run older PC games pretty well. New, not so much. I don't care about vintage. Story is not what I'm looking for (I started Deus Ex once, but didn't feel like I could give it its due). Free play, like the classic games I've already mentioned, plus maybe Elite (but faster paced) and Wasteland (though that gets a little too RPG-y). I've tried just playing the old games emulated, but they don't always work too well, and after seeing how great the Pirates! remake came out, I want more like this...