The Hardest Computer Game of All Time [View all]

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/01/robot_odyssey_the_hardest_computer_game_of_all_time.html




My first computer was an Apple IIe with 128KB of RAM, no hard drive, and a 5¼ inch floppy drive. One of the top educational games back then was Rocky’s Boots, an inventive game that taught the basics of formal logic to kids. I loved it when I was 6. Two years later, I got Robot Odyssey, which promised to expand on Rocky’s Boots by extending the formal logic to actual programming. The game devastated me. My brain could not comprehend how to solve its puzzles. I finally finished it—13 years later, and not without some assistance.

Let me say: Any kid who completes this game while still a kid (I know only one, who also is one of the smartest programmers I’ve ever met) is guaranteed a career as a software engineer. Hell, any adult who can complete this game should go into engineering. Robot Odyssey is the hardest damn “educational” game ever made. It is also a stunning technical achievement, and one of the most innovative games of the Apple IIe era.

<Snip> A good article for the older geeks out there.