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Computer program that learns to play classic NES games
About this video
Tom7 explains and demos software that learns to play NES games by finding score patterns in memory and then searching for inputs that raise it. It is the video companion to his SIGBOVIK paper.
Why it appears in the archive
Loved on HN as a hilarious, brilliant example of hacker-academic work and cited whenever game-playing AI or fuzzing comes up.
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From the Hacker News discussion
Thanks for pointing that out. I wouldn't have noticed who that was otherwise. His video on learnfun/playfun is both hilarious and amazing. [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗There was an AI created the absolutely brilliant Tom7 on on his YouTube channel 'SuckerPinch' on April 1, 2013 that paused a game of Tetris instead of losing. In my opinion, Tom doesn't get enough credit for his work. He released his AI a full 8+ months before DeepMind released their Atari playing AI. Watch the whole thing, it's delightful. The AI pauses Tetris right before it loses at around 16mins into the video. [VIDEO] I also recommend his other videos. Brilliant guy. Edit: Here's the paper [LINK]
Read original comment ↗Haha, I love it. There was a SIGBOVIK submission a couple years ago that looked at byte patterns within video game RAM (specifically NES) to automate the playing of. Pretty entertaining stuff. [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗Tom 7's work on machine learning and NES emulation is very impressive. This isn't the first time he's attacked that space; you can see previous experiences he had with an automatic game-playing AI he built called "LearnFun / PlayFun" on that YouTube channel also: [VIDEO] [LINK] [LINK]
Read original comment ↗If you're interested in a "dumber" approach to machines "learning" to play classic video games (including Super Mario Bros), tom7's video [1] and paper [2] on Playfun are both fascinating. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]
Read original comment ↗In the context of AI and gaming, I definitely recommend this series of three youtube videos: [VIDEO] Some games are played better than human would.
Read original comment ↗You should look at some other things the author did. They fit in the same area of craziness, and are absolutely great. For example [LINK] , Portmantout: A portmanteau of every English word, or the first one, [VIDEO] , Computer program that learns to play classic NES games. I also liked the humor in What, if anything, is epsilon?, [LINK] .
Read original comment ↗I'm not sure many people can pull this off. The author here was also great in his presentation about automated NES playing, [VIDEO] . You don't see often academics & hacker work that is also combined with the right amount of humor. He even 3Dified the original Zelda!
Read original comment ↗