DailyDirt: Playing Super Mario By Rote... Is Fun?

Video games that are entertaining need to be simple enough for people to understand, but at the same time, hard enough to be a little challenging and not too easy to beat. Games like Flappy Bird demonstrate this sweet spot for gameplay, and some classic games like Super Mario are still widely enjoyed even decades after their initial releases. Computers can play games like these, too, but they can't enjoy them like we do. Check out a few of these links on creative ways to continue playing Super Mario.

• YouTuber PangaeaPanga appears to have taught himself how to play Super Mario while blindfolded -- in just a few days. The Force is strong (warning NSFW language) with this one... or.. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. Anyway, it's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense. [url]
• Machines watching people play Super Mario can learn how to design new levels that are playable and novel. This doesn't necessarily mean that the game is still entertaining, though. [url]
• MarI/O is software that has learned how to play Super Mario in about 24 hours -- without knowing very much about the game at all. Seth Bling wrote the program and released the code and described how a genetic algorithm learned what to do in the game. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

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