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Posted by exploraz 3 days ago

A game where you're an OS and have to manage processes, memory and I/O events(github.com)
327 points | 70 comments
GL26 11 hours ago|
This would be huge if it was « rogue like », where you could buy new more performant components that allow you to reach further into the game. The game makes you naturally lose, and there are milestones that you can reach (bosses, or loot that stays throughout sessions). For instance you could unlock GPUs, docker containers, another SSD, antiviruses…
sudoshred 9 hours ago||
Also consider RTS elements, like assigning certain schedulers to handle workloads which are swappable and tuneable, maybe with some skill tree unlocks.
nielsole 6 hours ago|||
unlimited possibilities to expand the game scope through a tech tree: - Hyperthreading - interrupts - compressed main memory - L3 caches - TLB caches - CFS - cgroups - TSO/GSO - performance / efficiency cores - dynamic clock speed - thermals - PCI bandwidth / lanes - ...

Game could start with a single CPU and 2-3 processes and then all this comes on top step by step and you can automate it away through tech tree.

DonHopkins 1 hour ago|||
Severe Running direct process scheduling keyboard control game mechanic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrUWFo2D1Xs

heroku 3 hours ago|||
[dead]
peddling-brink 5 hours ago|||
Or a bitburner-like game, where scripting the solution is required.
petee 3 days ago||
Rebooting could be a mini-game where you dodge the user's BIOS keystrokes a few times before they give up
AgentMasterRace 17 hours ago||
The absolute bane of my existence, I had a time a week ago repairing my bootloader after I (stupidly) did 3 months of windows updates after running a bunch of disk repairs and other recovery based things after I (again, stupidly) fell for a fake repo for deepseek tui and infected myself
freedomben 22 minutes ago||
Oh man, you've had a week from hell my friend. Uploading virtual platonic data-free hugs
lofties 17 hours ago||
I'm pretty sure this is exactly what is happening in real life. I pressed F12 damnit! Go into the bios already!!
gcoakes 15 hours ago||
Some friendly tips from post-silicon validation:

sudo systemctl reboot --firmware

shutdown /r /t 0 /fw

These reboot directly into BIOS.

For Windows CMD+R menu, run it by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+Enter (elevates to admin). You may have to do it twice for some unknown reasons after reinstalling the OS.

Xiexe 2 hours ago|||
Had to learn this recently when my wife’s computer refused to register requests to boot into bios despite spamming F12 / Del many different times across many different USB ports. Such a pain in the ass.
nullpoint420 3 hours ago|||
You are a life saver. I never knew about --firmware!
phaser 5 hours ago||
I love this idea! I totally see it in the classroom or being played by someone who's trying to learn how to make an OS (which is on my personal bucket list)

What I didn't like, is the tutorial is separate from the game. It would be awesome imo, if there's a tutorial stage where the game is explained hands-on (maybe pausing the game with explainers, until I start to get how to play) Otherwise I have to memorise the instructions before trying the game.

Regardless, amazing little game.

donpdonp 16 hours ago||
This was fun to play...for about 2 minutes before all the manual work of moving processes around got very tedious, which may be the point of the game. What I would like is a little code edit window where i could code simple routines to handle the scheduling, then be able to watch the result.
lelandfe 5 hours ago|
This is why we must daily thank the elves inside our machines. It's tough work!
fredley 3 hours ago||
As an OS, I wish the user would launch fewer programs. What a chore.
monocasa 17 hours ago||
Fun fact: operating systems were originally programs intended to replace most of the work of a human job description, that of computer operator.
marcosdumay 2 hours ago|
Computers were first marketed into replacing the work of humans that had a job called "computer" (what spreadsheets finally did)... Operating systems were create to replace computer operators (what they didn't)... For a while some people called compilers "automatic programmers".

The marketing and management of IT always had this fixation with replacing people. It always has been the wrong answer and the real value always came from making people better.

advisedwang 19 hours ago||
Fabulous concept, but personally I did not find very fun actually playing.
loloquwowndueo 18 hours ago||
A lot of these puzzle/micromanagement games are very similar to stuff folks do for work. I stopped playing an entire category of puzzle games once I realized it was basically programming, which I do all day for a living anyway. Gamified programming is still programming.
glaslong 16 hours ago|||
I have a problematic relationship with Zachtronics games for this reason.

I love TIS-100, but at some point I realized I was studying the user manual for a fictional computer, trying to learn it's fictional assembly language, to optimize some multicore data flows.... and decided I should probably get paid for doing that in real life instead.

wing-_-nuts 3 hours ago||||
I do like some of them, like pico 8 is a constrained game programming environment, and it takes me back to the days of the power of qbasic, being able to do dang near anything without burying yourself in a massive layer of abstraction and complexity.
jonahx 18 hours ago||||
Many programmers program for fun outside of work.
ivanjermakov 5 hours ago|||
When I play games scratching programming itch I always think if I'd be better of working on pet projects instead.
hnlmorg 7 hours ago|||
I’m one of those people. And what we do is write actual software for fun rather than pretend software in a computer game.

If I wanted logic flow embedded in a game then I’d want it in an environment that’s far removed from traditional programming. Such as building contraptions in Minecraft.

axus 4 hours ago||||
After you switch to managing LLM agents all day, programming at home will be fun again. Just don't use an LLM to play the game...
jasonfarnon 17 hours ago||||
That's what bugged me about the old MS Flight Sim games. It felt like the actual job.
mrguyorama 1 hour ago|||
That's why you can speed up the simulation. Certain portions of flight are dramatically more entertaining than others. So take an hour to boot up the 777 from cold and dark, setup all the computers and management, do all the preflight, manage taxi and takeoff, then run the actual 7 hour flight at 10x speed so you can do the fun landing.

But even games that seem like just a job can be fun. Euro Truck simulator is fun because you are entirely self directed. Each job produces tangible results and you feel yourself progressing in a clear way that you often do not feel in a real job.

lukan 9 hours ago|||
Yes, but many dream about actual flying for real, but cannot so enjoy this substitute.

(I enjoy more arcade style)

GolfPopper 15 hours ago||||
But just think of the great training this will provide for your enslaved upload in the future!
ChrisRR 7 hours ago|||
Tell me you play Zachtronics without saying Zachtronics
loloquwowndueo 6 hours ago||
What’s Zachtronics. Never heard of it.
rhdunn 5 hours ago||
A game company (https://www.zachtronics.com/) that have made a series of games where you either build machines or write instructions to solve a task. An example is Opus Magnum where you convert input elements to output elements.

The games track things like cycles taken to complete the task, size/area of the machine, and cost. Those scores are shown on separate leaderboards and optimizing for one can come at the cost of another (e.g. faster machines may be bigger and/or more expensive).

internet_points 10 hours ago||
OTOH I now have a lot more sympathy for my cpu's, I should give them some slack
freedomben 20 minutes ago||
Now we just need to write an OS that will play this game and we'll be golden.

Nice work! I have a kid trying to learn about OSes right now and I think this can be helpful for him

swiftcoder 9 hours ago||
This is not quite as exciting as psDooM [1]

[1]: http://psdoom.coffeefish.org

monkpit 19 hours ago||
Reminds me of psDooM

https://psdoom.sourceforge.net/

SomeHacker44 19 hours ago|
Does this game make me MCP? Can I battle Jeff Bridges with discs?
edoceo 18 hours ago|
Get Tron to Sark so he can communicate!
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