10 ms·

Quantum mechanics and Tomb Raider (2007)

86 points by zydex 4y ago

sqrt666 4y ago
Also of interest: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/try-your-hand-at-quantum-go-fish/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/try-your-hand-at-qua...
moron4hire 4y ago
This is why I love the level completion replay from Super Meat Boy. It plays all of your previous attempts, superimposed in real-time. I always thought it'd be really crazy if you could play with all those ghost images in action and there was collision detection with them. So all those "particle" meat boys would be interacting with each other and maybe create some wave diffraction patterns.
- krallja 4y ago
  Does Not Commute, by Mediocre AB, is a fun mobile game that plays with this concept.
- diegoperini 4y ago
  "Braid" has that kind of collision.
- tumey 4y ago
  Sounds like Super Time Force, where your previous attempts remain and assist future attempts. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrYrd1AuQR0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrYrd1AuQR0
someweirdperson 4y ago
Why does it link to an anchor #more-12?
- zydex 4y ago
  Apologies, that’s my mistake I didn’t realise it was in the url when I copied and submitted.
- dang 4y ago
  Fixed now. Thanks!
egypturnash 4y ago
The part with the tombs that must be completed by stacking up the corpses of multiple failed Crofts reminded me of the c64 game based on Nemesis the Warlock: https://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=https%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/details.php%3FID%3D1775 https://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=https%3A//www.lemon64.com/g... It is not necessarily a very good game but the concept of stacking up enemy corpses to climb to the next screen is a fascinating one. Here's a video of someone slogging their way all the way through it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmt4mdyIEuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmt4mdyIEuE
- benibela 4y ago
  That reminds me of old flash games This one had all kind of weird mechanics. You die if you touch the green spikes (living the gray corpse) and have to press the button in the middle to continue: https://youtu.be/IWdz-tZyJUI?t=410 https://youtu.be/IWdz-tZyJUI?t=410 And the sequel had superpositions: https://youtu.be/JXLEwDNRp2k?t=232 https://youtu.be/JXLEwDNRp2k?t=232
andreareina 4y ago
There's a puzzle in Planescape: Torment that requires dying[1] several times to solve. [1] he gets better
- guyomes 4y ago
  The game Cursor * 10 [1] also requires you to cooperate with previous version of yourself to solve puzzles. It was a fun small game. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor*10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor*10*
residualmind 4y ago
Hooray for hypertext and the QT links in the article. An insomniac morning turned into brain gymnastics. Especially when I got to Superdeterminism, things started to make sense again, some waves collapsing on me. I have yet to encounter one of those Free Wills in the wild.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
danbmil99 4y ago
I didn't notice the author, but I was reading this thinking to myself, this blogger has a better understanding of quantum mechanics than your average internet crank...
tpoacher 4y ago
There is another similarity with tomb raider. At confined resolutions / lower versions, Lara's most famous "features" become composed of a limited discrete number of polygons, appearing pyramidal in nature, and with an apparent increase in size (a phenomenon known as "boob shift") But once you increase the version number, you get a nice continuous function space instead.
rasz 4y ago
>So, let’s make the game a bit more interesting. Let us assume that every time Lara dies, she leaves behind a corpse in that location for future incarnations of Lara to encounter... Then Lara will start noticing the following phenomenon (assuming she survives at all): whenever she navigates any particularly tricky puzzle, she usually encounters a number of corpses which look uncannily like herself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Returnal_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Returnal_(video_game) "Selene explores the planet and is shocked when she comes across corpses of herself. She learns that every time she dies, time loops back to the moment she crashed, sending her back to her starting point. The planet seems to change with every loop, and Selene begins experiencing vivid visions."
- orlp 4y ago
  Also somewhat related, the 'Heaven Sent' episode from dr. Who.

86 points by zydex 4y ago

Also of interest: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/try-your-hand-at-quantum-go-fish/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/try-your-hand-at-qua...

moron4hire 4y ago

This is why I love the level completion replay from Super Meat Boy. It plays all of your previous attempts, superimposed in real-time. I always thought it'd be really crazy if you could play with all those ghost images in action and there was collision detection with them. So all those "particle" meat boys would be interacting with each other and maybe create some wave diffraction patterns.

krallja 4y ago
Does Not Commute, by Mediocre AB, is a fun mobile game that plays with this concept.
diegoperini 4y ago
"Braid" has that kind of collision.
tumey 4y ago
Sounds like Super Time Force, where your previous attempts remain and assist future attempts. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrYrd1AuQR0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrYrd1AuQR0

someweirdperson 4y ago

Why does it link to an anchor #more-12?

zydex 4y ago
Apologies, that’s my mistake I didn’t realise it was in the url when I copied and submitted.
dang 4y ago
Fixed now. Thanks!

egypturnash 4y ago

The part with the tombs that must be completed by stacking up the corpses of multiple failed Crofts reminded me of the c64 game based on Nemesis the Warlock: https://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=https%3A//www.lemon64.com/games/details.php%3FID%3D1775 https://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=https%3A//www.lemon64.com/g... It is not necessarily a very good game but the concept of stacking up enemy corpses to climb to the next screen is a fascinating one. Here's a video of someone slogging their way all the way through it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmt4mdyIEuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmt4mdyIEuE

benibela 4y ago
That reminds me of old flash games This one had all kind of weird mechanics. You die if you touch the green spikes (living the gray corpse) and have to press the button in the middle to continue: https://youtu.be/IWdz-tZyJUI?t=410 https://youtu.be/IWdz-tZyJUI?t=410 And the sequel had superpositions: https://youtu.be/JXLEwDNRp2k?t=232 https://youtu.be/JXLEwDNRp2k?t=232

andreareina 4y ago

There's a puzzle in Planescape: Torment that requires dying[1] several times to solve. [1] he gets better

guyomes 4y ago
The game Cursor * 10 [1] also requires you to cooperate with previous version of yourself to solve puzzles. It was a fun small game. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor*10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursor*10*

residualmind 4y ago

Hooray for hypertext and the QT links in the article. An insomniac morning turned into brain gymnastics. Especially when I got to Superdeterminism, things started to make sense again, some waves collapsing on me. I have yet to encounter one of those Free Wills in the wild.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

danbmil99 4y ago

I didn't notice the author, but I was reading this thinking to myself, this blogger has a better understanding of quantum mechanics than your average internet crank...

tpoacher 4y ago

There is another similarity with tomb raider. At confined resolutions / lower versions, Lara's most famous "features" become composed of a limited discrete number of polygons, appearing pyramidal in nature, and with an apparent increase in size (a phenomenon known as "boob shift") But once you increase the version number, you get a nice continuous function space instead.

rasz 4y ago

>So, let’s make the game a bit more interesting. Let us assume that every time Lara dies, she leaves behind a corpse in that location for future incarnations of Lara to encounter... Then Lara will start noticing the following phenomenon (assuming she survives at all): whenever she navigates any particularly tricky puzzle, she usually encounters a number of corpses which look uncannily like herself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Returnal_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Returnal_(video_game) "Selene explores the planet and is shocked when she comes across corpses of herself. She learns that every time she dies, time loops back to the moment she crashed, sending her back to her starting point. The planet seems to change with every loop, and Selene begins experiencing vivid visions."

orlp 4y ago
Also somewhat related, the 'Heaven Sent' episode from dr. Who.