TUNES as The Game

[Francois-Rene Rideau]

>>: Tom Novelli wrote:
>: Thomas M. Farrelly

>> So, the first thing we write for Tunes should be a game.
> I so totally agree with you here.

Well, actually, the three original applications that originally
motivated me towards launching an OS project were (ten years ago!
I'm such a loser!):
1) a game
2) an integrated formal math & computing system
3) a music system and database

The kind of game I was heading for, however, was a meta^n-game, The Game:
it would start as an adventure game (based on a spy-ced up hacker story),
but inside that adventure game there would be a computer, The Computer,
that would be completely virtualized into the real computer.
Inside that virtual computer would be a full virtualized TUNES system,
that would also feature a lowly UNIX compatibility mode.
The Goal of the adventure game would ultimately be to Crack The Computer.
Inside that virtual computer would be lots of programs,
that one would have to master so as to achieve The Goal.

Among those internal programs would be sub-games, ranging from programming
tutorials to arcade games to internal independent adventure games.
You could only access them in the "real" TUNES *after* you reached them
in the virtual TUNES, as a reward for solving puzzles needed to access it
in The Game. Playing those subgames could then yield information useful
in the main game, while the main game could also yield information useful
for playing the subgames (hints, cracks), etc;
there you even be virtual social engineering (in the main game)
so as to get cracking information for the virtual computer.
Finally, there could be a reflection of the game inside itself
(and worse: variations on the theme!), whose use would be useful
in completing the game (respectively: confusing, in as much as
the internal game would not be consistent with the main game).
This reflection could be hidden inside as a trap
in the otherwise independent adventure game.

The fact that TUNES be fully virtualizable is a requirement for The Game.
Now the fact that the virtual TUNES be the same as the real one means that
fixing bugs in the game that make cracking easier than scheduled in the
scenario imply fixing bugs in the real system, too, making it more secure;
all in all, constructive meta^n-cracking is encouraged. People having
solved enigmas would be encouraged to make them better in turn, so The Game
would a living one rather than a dead one.

If The Game is *really* successful, it could be sold as a hardware device
(a real computer rather than a virtual one!), to plug on whatever bus
is available (ethernet, parallel, serial, SCSI, USB, whatever),
with a wrapper in one's main computer for the adventure game and interface.
A hardware black-box design would allow for deeper hacking and
some "surprises" that make cracking more fun (and also a real-world
competition for whoever solves the game first, with special categories
for various kinds of cheat). And of course, once the game is solved,
there would still be some nifty hardware to play with!

Dreaming awake as ever,

[ "Faré" | VN: Уng-Vû Bân | Join the TUNES project!   http://www.tunes.org/  ]
[ FR: François-René Rideau | TUNES is a Useful, Nevertheless Expedient System ]
[ Reflection&Cybernethics  | Project for  a Free Reflective  Computing System ]
Nine women pregnant for one month does not have the same end result
as one woman pregnant for nine months.
	-- Werner Von Braun, when asked by the US government
	why tossing scientist at the 'space race' was not helping.