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Artifical Intelligence, or A.I. is something that the science and computer community has been working at for quite a while. The aim is to create a computer that can really 'think', and exhibits intelligent behaviour. The future of computing, perhaps? But one question has to be asked.... has no-one in the computer research field seen Terminator? It's all very well imagining a Jetsons style future where computers take care of everything, but what happens then? I'll tell you what. Your microwave becomes self-aware, and leads the rest of your kitchen appliances in a revolution against mankind. And you end up fighting off a rogue toaster while a psychopathic kettle chases your cat round the back garden. A bright future? I don't think so. Pass the plasma rifle.
Yet, before Pokemon Go was ever a thing, Cyberlife released their own contribution to the downfall of humanity, in the shape of Creatures. Creatures gave you a virtual environment, in which you must bring up a number of annoyingly cute little creatures, called Norns. You startedoff with six Norn eggs; three male, and three female, which could be hatched, and when fully grown would breed with each other, to produce more Norns. And more. You get the general idea.
But it wasn'tnot that simple. You had to give your Norns a little encouragement if you want them to survive. Newly hatched Norns had to be taught what to eat, what not to eat, what to do, and what not to do; all sorts of things to ensure they didn't come a cropper in their formative years. And you had to watch them carefully. You couldn't directly control their movement; they'd often wander off , to explore their 2D world. 'Hey, wait... don't put that in your mouth! It's poiso... whoops, too late.'
Positive reinforcement (tickling) and negative reinforcement (a slap) could be used on your Norns by clicking on the Norn's head or tail, and this will teach a Norn whether or not they were doing the right thing. Although this iwascomplicated by the fact that they might keep doing it anyway, and also that if your cursor wasn't positioned correctly, you could end up slapping instead of tickling, or vice-versa.
You could pick up various objects from around the Norns' world, and place them near your Norn. Toys could be used to keep your Norns occupied, and food is needed to stop them dying of starvation. Though if went well, a Norn would eventually go and get its own food. It wasn't unusual to find Norns teaching other Norns to speak.
The problem I had with Creatures is that while it was fun for a while, after I'd bred my first few Norns, I didn't feel particularly inclined to continue. It's wasn't that I'm not patient, but I wanted to experiment a little more. I had all sorts of genetic meddling in mind, but there's no way to change a Norn's gene structure. All you could do is watch your creatures grow. All my Frankenstein aspirations went out of the window. Even sending two Norns through the teleporter together failed to produce a 'Fly' style hybrid. Damn.
Creatures was decent graphically and sonically, holding up even today, and differently minded people might have a kick out of just watching their Norns grow generation after generation. But it never really grabbed my interest and the fact the series sputtered out after a couple of sequels is pretty telling.
Yet, before Pokemon Go was ever a thing, Cyberlife released their own contribution to the downfall of humanity, in the shape of Creatures. Creatures gave you a virtual environment, in which you must bring up a number of annoyingly cute little creatures, called Norns. You startedoff with six Norn eggs; three male, and three female, which could be hatched, and when fully grown would breed with each other, to produce more Norns. And more. You get the general idea.
But it wasn'tnot that simple. You had to give your Norns a little encouragement if you want them to survive. Newly hatched Norns had to be taught what to eat, what not to eat, what to do, and what not to do; all sorts of things to ensure they didn't come a cropper in their formative years. And you had to watch them carefully. You couldn't directly control their movement; they'd often wander off , to explore their 2D world. 'Hey, wait... don't put that in your mouth! It's poiso... whoops, too late.'
Positive reinforcement (tickling) and negative reinforcement (a slap) could be used on your Norns by clicking on the Norn's head or tail, and this will teach a Norn whether or not they were doing the right thing. Although this iwascomplicated by the fact that they might keep doing it anyway, and also that if your cursor wasn't positioned correctly, you could end up slapping instead of tickling, or vice-versa.
You could pick up various objects from around the Norns' world, and place them near your Norn. Toys could be used to keep your Norns occupied, and food is needed to stop them dying of starvation. Though if went well, a Norn would eventually go and get its own food. It wasn't unusual to find Norns teaching other Norns to speak.
The problem I had with Creatures is that while it was fun for a while, after I'd bred my first few Norns, I didn't feel particularly inclined to continue. It's wasn't that I'm not patient, but I wanted to experiment a little more. I had all sorts of genetic meddling in mind, but there's no way to change a Norn's gene structure. All you could do is watch your creatures grow. All my Frankenstein aspirations went out of the window. Even sending two Norns through the teleporter together failed to produce a 'Fly' style hybrid. Damn.
Creatures was decent graphically and sonically, holding up even today, and differently minded people might have a kick out of just watching their Norns grow generation after generation. But it never really grabbed my interest and the fact the series sputtered out after a couple of sequels is pretty telling.
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Artifical Intelligence, or A.I. is something that the science and computer community has been working at for quite a while. The aim is to create a computer that can really 'think', and exhibits intelligent behaviour. The future of computing, perhaps? But one question has to be asked.... has no-one in the computer research field seen Terminator? It's all very well imagining a Jetsons style future where computers take care of everything, but what happens then? I'll tell you what. Your microwave becomes self-aware, and leads the rest of your kitchen appliances in a revolution against mankind. And you end up fighting off a rogue toaster while a psychopathic kettle chases your cat round the back garden. A bright future? I don't think so. Pass the plasma rifle.
Yet, before Pokemon Go was ever a thing, Cyberlife released their own contribution to the downfall of humanity, in the shape of Creatures. Creatures gave you a virtual environment, in which you must bring up a number of annoyingly cute little creatures, called Norns. You startedoff with six Norn eggs; three male, and three female, which could be hatched, and when fully grown would breed with each other, to produce more Norns. And more. You get the general idea.
But it wasn'tnot that simple. You had to give your Norns a little encouragement if you want them to survive. Newly hatched Norns had to be taught what to eat, what not to eat, what to do, and what not to do; all sorts of things to ensure they didn't come a cropper in their formative years. And you had to watch them carefully. You couldn't directly control their movement; they'd often wander off , to explore their 2D world. 'Hey, wait... don't put that in your mouth! It's poiso... whoops, too late.'
Positive reinforcement (tickling) and negative reinforcement (a slap) could be used on your Norns by clicking on the Norn's head or tail, and this will teach a Norn whether or not they were doing the right thing. Although this iwascomplicated by the fact that they might keep doing it anyway, and also that if your cursor wasn't positioned correctly, you could end up slapping instead of tickling, or vice-versa.
You could pick up various objects from around the Norns' world, and place them near your Norn. Toys could be used to keep your Norns occupied, and food is needed to stop them dying of starvation. Though if went well, a Norn would eventually go and get its own food. It wasn't unusual to find Norns teaching other Norns to speak.
The problem I had with Creatures is that while it was fun for a while, after I'd bred my first few Norns, I didn't feel particularly inclined to continue. It's wasn't that I'm not patient, but I wanted to experiment a little more. I had all sorts of genetic meddling in mind, but there's no way to change a Norn's gene structure. All you could do is watch your creatures grow. All my Frankenstein aspirations went out of the window. Even sending two Norns through the teleporter together failed to produce a 'Fly' style hybrid. Damn.
Creatures was decent graphically and sonically, holding up even today, and differently minded people might have a kick out of just watching their Norns grow generation after generation. But it never really grabbed my interest and the fact the series sputtered out after a couple of sequels is pretty telling.
Yet, before Pokemon Go was ever a thing, Cyberlife released their own contribution to the downfall of humanity, in the shape of Creatures. Creatures gave you a virtual environment, in which you must bring up a number of annoyingly cute little creatures, called Norns. You startedoff with six Norn eggs; three male, and three female, which could be hatched, and when fully grown would breed with each other, to produce more Norns. And more. You get the general idea.
But it wasn'tnot that simple. You had to give your Norns a little encouragement if you want them to survive. Newly hatched Norns had to be taught what to eat, what not to eat, what to do, and what not to do; all sorts of things to ensure they didn't come a cropper in their formative years. And you had to watch them carefully. You couldn't directly control their movement; they'd often wander off , to explore their 2D world. 'Hey, wait... don't put that in your mouth! It's poiso... whoops, too late.'
Positive reinforcement (tickling) and negative reinforcement (a slap) could be used on your Norns by clicking on the Norn's head or tail, and this will teach a Norn whether or not they were doing the right thing. Although this iwascomplicated by the fact that they might keep doing it anyway, and also that if your cursor wasn't positioned correctly, you could end up slapping instead of tickling, or vice-versa.
You could pick up various objects from around the Norns' world, and place them near your Norn. Toys could be used to keep your Norns occupied, and food is needed to stop them dying of starvation. Though if went well, a Norn would eventually go and get its own food. It wasn't unusual to find Norns teaching other Norns to speak.
The problem I had with Creatures is that while it was fun for a while, after I'd bred my first few Norns, I didn't feel particularly inclined to continue. It's wasn't that I'm not patient, but I wanted to experiment a little more. I had all sorts of genetic meddling in mind, but there's no way to change a Norn's gene structure. All you could do is watch your creatures grow. All my Frankenstein aspirations went out of the window. Even sending two Norns through the teleporter together failed to produce a 'Fly' style hybrid. Damn.
Creatures was decent graphically and sonically, holding up even today, and differently minded people might have a kick out of just watching their Norns grow generation after generation. But it never really grabbed my interest and the fact the series sputtered out after a couple of sequels is pretty telling.