Icarus review

The following review was submitted to BreakSpace

I guess I know the editor's policy to AI assisted and developed games now

Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic. Do I like it? Not really. Is it useful? Sometimes. I’ve used it to explain errors with Node when I couldn’t find the documentation, or I’ve exhausted alternative sources.

As the world seems to be moving towards this AI technology, and as a software developer myself (albeit modern days PHP stuff), I understand Ed’s concerns as stated in his editorial for issue six: we need an AI policy. On that note, here’s a review for a game made with the help of Claude. I didn’t know who he was either, but it turned out that it wasn’t a ‘he’, but a Large Language Model or something.

Icarus starts out looking like a bat and ball game, when in fact it is more like a catch-em up. Think Kaboom! on the Atari 2600, but with a hint of Greek mythology as a theme. Collect stars, gold and power ups by moving your “bat” left and right; hearts provide extra lives, and beware of attracting the wrath of Zeus.

On each level, various items fall from a starry night sky as above, some items will elongate your bat, whilst others shorten it. The controls are responsive, and the graphics are slightly naive. It has a certain early 1980s feel to it, especially the repetitive looped game music during play.

How much of this is Claude and how much is human is unknown, but it’s an interesting if a little repetitive distraction for your work break, and as such I’m arguing here for the inclusion of AI assisted games with the caveat that there are no Aces awarded to them. If our leader Mpk agrees, you’ll be reading this review in BreakSpace issue 7; if not, it’ll appear on my blog. Neither of which I mind, but even with my suspicions about AI, I’m okay with it assisting fledgling developers as long as the output isn’t dreadful and the resulting software works on original hardware.

Icarus is available from free from here.

All issues of BreakSpace are available for free download from here.

Best? Or Good Enough?

It's 2026. We are nearing the end of a long, hot summer. And here I am, writing this blog post on a Speccy 128 (hardware) clone thanks to some esxDOS trickery and a handy file browsing and manipulation utility by shrek128, namely Bow Commander.

Why not write this on the Blogger interface? One may ponder. To answer that rhetorical question I will put it this way: whilst I tolerate modern days computering and technologies, I love messing around with 8-bit machines, especially from the main two brands from the 1980s - Sinclair and Commodore.

Working with nearly ancient home computers gets you back to the absolute necessities. No AI getting in the way, and in this instance not even a spelling and grammar check! But this way of writing provides something that modern applications with swish user interfaces does not: a blank canvass that's good enough, allowing a different and freer creative process. Every key press is its own unique experience and in this case, using the rubber keys of a Spectrum, its own battle.

Fighting the technical limitations of an Eon ago is somehow more rewarding. No wonder machines like the Sinclair ZX Spectrum remain relevant today, with many regular releases of all types of software, although mostly entertainment stuff.

Who'd have guessed that in 1990 or 1991 that someone would still be using 8-bit home computers so readily some three decades later? One has to wonder what this says about the modern tech? Or, perhaps a more pertinent observation is that it is all part of the human condition, wanting to go back to simpler times or being afraid of change?

For me, it has always been about what is useful. Here is the prime example. To write, I just need a simple text editor. That is all. But for you to read these words, I am then reliant on modern days technology, though I'm not adverse to publishing my ramblings on cassette tape for the old Speccy if anyone is interested?

As I mentioned above, for me, "best" is often beaten by good enough. The text editor in Bow Commander is good enough. The Omni 128HQ is good enough. And the Spectrum 48 is good enough. You only need more, or better, if you believe that you do.