Nothing is 0k: Atari 2600 Generative Poetry

Nothing is 0k is a randomly generated poem for the Atari VCS.

Because of the size limitations of the Atari 2600 (4k rom), it is nearly impossible to hold text of any substantial quantity in memory, let alone display it on-screen. In order to do so, I've chosen to represent words in the playfield with each letter's binary form of its ASCII hexadecimal equivalent.

Nothing is 0k for the Atari 2600

With six lines total (two stanzas of three lines), each line contains words with either four or two letters (4-2-4 stanzas). The playfield itself displays the binary form of the hexadecimal code for each letter.

Secondly, the colours of each line represent one letter of a six-letter adjective that represents the mood of the poem, or could also be inferred as the title for each two-stanza poem. The Atari 2600 uses hexadecimal code to represent colour, so by looking at the TIA colour codes (NTSC), you can decipher the randomly generated words.

The poem from above, decoded.

The dots on the bottom of the screen are to aid in reading. Each dot represent one bit; a space, another.

I found the graphical representation in this abstract form an interesting way to view these poems. It can be likened to reading poetry from another language with a different iconography. I suppose it lets you see the forest without knowing that it's made of trees.

Generative poetry on such a constrained platform represents, to me, not only a personal challenge, but also a way to prove that the Atari VCS is so much more diverse and capable than imagined, or even originally intended. I love exploring its boundaries.

Both the .bin and the .asm files are available, free.

Press left joystick button to begin, and to generate a new poem.

-SRT

iFound Jesus: An Interactive Acrylic Painting

or, My Act of Contrition.

About:
iFound Jesus is my latest iOS creation for the iPhone. It is an interactive acrylic painting, wherein you get to play hide-and-seek with Jesus, his disciples and apostles. When you find them all, Jesus gets to find you!

Basically what happens is this: You start at home base, and have to look behind buildings, trees, graves, and other such objects for Jesus and his friends. Upon finding them, the children begin running, with a 3-second untaggable head start, toward home base. If you manage to catch these elusive youngsters, they will teach you a passage from biblical scripture. Then, when everyone has either been tagged or returned safely to home base, you get to play as Jesus, finding his friends, and ultimately, you.

Screenshot from iFound Jesus for iPhone

Creation:
Everything in this game, sans text, was painstakingly painted with acrylic at the exact scale of the iPhone screen. Why? Masochism. Personal challenge. Also, I'm a stickler about wasting paint. Mostly, because I wanted what you see on the screen to represent the actual painting itself. I know it would have been much easier to paint everything larger and then downsize them, but having the brush strokes be actual size was important to my vision.

Everything painted at scale of iPhone screen

Once painted, the images were scanned and saved. Each frame of animation was numbered, labelled, and reversed for direction. All in all, each character has between 22 and 28 frames, half of which were painted, at a size that was especially challenging with the types of brushes that I own, and the thickness of the paint applied.

I especially thank this picture for animation models.

It's hard to say how many man-hours went into painting this piece, since I worked on it over the course of a couple months, at short intervals when I had the chance. I must say, however, that overall I was pleased with how the images turned out.

GameSalad:
GameSalad is another "no coding required", "build it yourself" game creation engine. In the past, I used the Scrolling Game Development Kit 2 (SGDK2) to create my Adventures of the Overgrown Oatmeal game for the PC, and GameSalad is very similar. The reason I chose GameSalad this time is because they allow for iOS game creation.

Essentially, in GameSalad, you drag and drop the images and sound you wish to include, then go through a veritable labyrinth of drop-down menus in order to create your game. Perfect for people without a lot of coding experience (i.e. Me). Although it crashes frequently, isn't the most efficient method of game creation, nor is it easy to define AI behaviour, GameSalad is a great way for us to create this type of art without spending countless hours in Xcode. In other words, for you more adventurous Moment artists, I highly recommend GameSalad if you wish to give this type of art a go.

Peaceful Play:
For this project, I was going for the most nonviolent, peaceful experience I could think of. A scoreless game of hide-and-seek with the Son of Man seemed to me the most innocent form of game play imaginable.

However, upon reading Devin Monnens' War and Play, it became clear to me that what I created was a jihad against a Christian horde.

Whoops.

Okay, so through a certain lens, this game can be viewed as a seek-and-destroy mission. Please believe that that is not my intention. While I highly recommend reading Mr. Monnens' paper (an analysis of war in games of all sort), I intended this to be a calm, self-paced game of chase and reflection, family friendly for all.

Now that I have become better acquainted with the concept of conflict in games, I have a much better understanding of how to approach my next game, which will instead address conflict resolution.

Intended Rhetoric:
Naturally, I have chosen to try to say something with this game beyond that of just playing hide-and-seek, and beyond that of promoting a peaceful way of thinking.

First of all, there's the very act of searching, actively seeking Jesus, his friends, and more importantly spiritual guidance.

Also, there's the rule that you play as Jesus as often as you play as you. This is me trying to say that we are all one and the same as Jesus.

And yes, I do realize that I painted all characters as white people.

That, too, was intentional.

I'm certainly not a bible thumper in any manner; in fact, I addressed my issues with the Christian concept of God in an earlier blog about my first iPhone app. The Word. This piece of game art is mostly my attempts to reconcile with my own issues. I consider myself a spiritual seeker, yet have hit a road block which I believe I cannot get past until I work through previous foundational trauma. Knowing that I'm not the only one, I hope that this may help others along the way, or if nothing else, awaken others to a different light.

Intended Audience (and Inadvertent Alienation):
Intended audience, again, is mostly myself, and those in the same boat as I. Furthermore, I hope this game can be enjoyed by children while learning about selected beautiful ideas of the bible, without any of the hatred and violence that so profusely scatters its pages.

The problem is the inclusion of Thomas and Mary.

On the one hand, by including some gnostic literature that was not deemed acceptable by the church so long ago, I am trying to spread ideas that are foreign to most of today's Christians, but ideas that are just as enlightening as many other mystical traditions. I consider these relatively recently found writings (Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary) just as important as anything included in the New Testament.

Others will disagree. In fact, most may disagree. For that, I am heartily sorry. I realize that this will be a deal-breaker for many. But again, while I would like as large an audience as I possibly can, I will not sacrifice my integrity for a couple bucks.

Sorry.

Overall:
I am incredibly pleased to have put my heart and time into this project, and am more than happy with the result. Yes, I believe I could have created something "better" by doing the coding myself.

But I didn't want to.

I wanted to enjoy the process of creating a painted work of art, which was both interactive (forgive the term, academics) and as animated as the paintings at Hogwarts. In this arena, I believe I succeeded.

Moreover, I wanted to use this as a tool to alter some signification when it comes to God. Has it worked?

I don't know yet; I have a lot of work to do.

In the meantime, the game is available here: iFound Jesus

Your comments are welcome here, and I would love to hear from you about your experience with this game.

Thank you all for checking in. I can't wait to show you my next project!

-SRT

Cimmerian Cell: My First Card Game

ABOUT:
Presented with minimalist artwork to replicate the style of early ASCII mazes, Cimmerian Cell is a logic-based adventure-style card game that brings the concept of randomly computer-generated dungeon games to a non-digital format. The narrative is intentionally left out for maximum imaginative play.

The rules are designed to be simple. There are no character stats to stumble through, and no complex battle system to learn. Games are easy to play for all ages, don't require hours to finish, and allow for virtually limitless dungeon-space possibilities, demanding endless and exciting replayability.

Cimmerian Cell is a single and multiplayer game, provided each player has their own deck.

INCLUDED:
45x ROOM cards
2x STAIR cards
3x MONSTER cards
1x SWORD card
1x SCEPTER card
2x Instruction cards

Check it out here: Cimmerian Cell

The kids had a blast play-testing this one!

-SRT

[boxed]: A Rubik's Cube Poem

In the same vein as [squared]: a Dice Poem, I have created a manually-generative poem using the squares on a Rubik's Cube.

There are many combinations.

They have inexpensive "puzzle blocks" at some larger craft stores, and the words were printed on label paper, so there is no reason you can't give this project a go. Create your own non-digital generative poetry as a piece of Moment Art, with a little extra elbow grease!

Shown below are pictures of the faces of my cube before they were realigned. After changing the order, the poem opens up completely different worlds of insight into the characters of the piece, sides of them that I could not possibly consider on my own. With just a little effort, you can make a poem that almost creates itself.

There are a good number of people that pursue studies on computer-generated poetry, and understand a lot more about it than I do. I hope, that if nothing else, I am able to bring a largely esoteric field of study to those without the programming capabilities.

Total cost? A couple bucks and some time well spent. Consider this a Weekly Moment Art piece if you will, but please consider giving this type of poetry a try.

And for those interested, here's what the python program looks like, though you may download it here: boxed.py


# [boxed]
# Sonny Rae Tempest


from random import choice
from time import sleep


square1=['It was her first time.','She wore her best dress.','What if it never happened.','What if it happened again.',"She didn't want to, though.",'She always thought she might.']
square2=['There was a plane overhead;','There was a bonfire;','There was a dead bird;','There was never time;','There was a tree;','There was always space;']
square3=['the news confused her.','the grass tickled her.','the coffee warmed her.','the truth astounded her.','shadows blanketed her.','the dog nuzzled her.']
square4=['In the right night, she was','In their eyes, she looked',"In the wrong state of mind, she'd feel",'In October, she looked so','In her own eyes, she felt','In the right light, she looked']
square5=['easy.','easy to talk to.','twitchy.','comfortable.','amazing.','insecure.']
square6=['She never liked her','She stretched her','She tapped her','She rubbed her','She pinched her','She stroked her']
square7=['legs. There was a time when he',"feet. That's the only reason he",'eyes. The truth is that he always','shoulders. She only assumed that he',"kneecaps. Maybe that's why he",'cheeks. What if he never']
square8=['amazed her','touched her','wanted her','despised her','loved her','hit her']
square9=['so poignantly.','; so what?','so delicately.','so forcefully.','so much.','so hard.']


while True:
print ('\n'+choice(square1)+' '+choice(square2)+' '+choice(square3)+' '+choice(square4)+' '+choice(square5)+' '+choice(square6)+' '+choice(square7)+' '+choice(square8)+' '+choice(square9))
sleep(8)


Also, check out Gunning With Scissors in Kill Screen Magazine.

-SRT

The F Word: The Semiological Experiment that Apple Rejected

Apple rejected my latest experimental app, The F Word, for its profuse use of profanity. This app takes a block of text, either typed or pasted, and replaces every instance of the word "the" with "the fucking". So it can take any innocuous text and turn it into something that sounds a lot, well, angry. Apple didn't want it.

Fair enough.

I didn't expect that they would. So now I can present to you a free web app: The F Word. (Or copy/paste thefwordsrt.appspot.com). As far as I know, it only works on iPhones. Just navigate to the app, save the address to your phone's home screen, and it'll act just like any ol' other app would.

Here is the lowdown, from the app's About page:

More than merely a semiological experiment, the intention of The F Word is to use a simple, and by itself meaningless, word to alter the tone of almost any text to one with more passion, levity, or angst, depending upon which metaphor you personally attribute to the F word.

By effifying a block of text, fairy tales are more frightening; legal documents are less intimidating; Lacan loses his staunchness and Heidegger isn't so high-brow.

Whichever text you're struggling through, The F Word will, at least, make it a more tolerable read. Type in text or paste entire papers' worth of text. The hope is that the F word will become a little more Fun, and a little less Feared, or a signifier.

Or, just use it for a laugh; that's cool too.

Screenshots:

After you've effified the text, click the "Effified Text" tab on the home screen to see your text. Ensure there is at least one instance of "the" in the text, or nothing will change.

Hope you all enjoy!

-SRT

The Word: Holy Bible Choose Your Own Deity Version

My first app.

I'm so excited, and very pleased with the turnaround time by Apple (less than a week, wow!).

First in a planned series of semiologically-experimental iPhone apps, The Word is designed to alter signs in the Holy Bible KJV by replacing the words God and Jesus with whomever you choose.

From the app's About page:


Now you, too, can replace the word "God" with whomever in this Holy Bible edition.


The Word is more than simply a semiological experiment.


Growing up, I attended Catholic mass every week, each time growing more and more detached from, and belligerent toward, a belief which I didn't hold.


After Confirmation, I never attended mass again, and have since carried a hostile image wherever the words "God" and "Jesus" appear.


I've since read the Bible, but to this day, those words leave a bad taste in my mouth, even though the concept itself is delicious.


So, I created The Word in order to replace a word, nothing more than an iconic metaphor, to one with which I am more comfortable.


And so can you.


Replace the words "God" and "Jesus" with names, concepts, or other gods which most strongly resonate with you.


Less able to believe in Creation theory? Try replacing "God" with "the universe". Already sold on another faith but appreciate the Bible's message? Use "Krishna", "Hera", "Ayn Rand".


Luke17:21 "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for, behold, the kindgom of God is within you." Try using your own name for "Jesus"; discover your godliness, and perhaps some latent narcissism.


When you are ready, return to the home screen, click "Deities", enter your gods, then click "Re-Deify". Your Bible-reading experience should now be a little more personal and meaningful.


Anything beyond that is semantic.

It has an official release date of November 18th, so look for it in the Entertainment section, else find it right here: The Word

-SRT

@Babycastles

The good people at Babycastles have graciously posted the video of 'INNOVATIVE LEISURE: NEW ATARI GAMES', curated by Ian Bogost. I had a wonderful time appearing via Skype, and felt very empowered by the size of the projector screen. My thanks to all involved for the warm reception, and my sincerest apologies for those who tried to play the game poem sans directions!

Innovative Leasure: New Atari Games - Babycastles show curated by Ian Bogost
from Ida C. Benedetto on Vimeo.

-SRT