25 comments

  • GL26 6 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…
    • peddling-brink 31 minutes ago
      Or a bitburner-like game, where scripting the solution is required.
    • sudoshred 4 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 2 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.

  • 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
    • lofties 13 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 10 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.

    • AgentMasterRace 13 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
  • QuantumNoodle 19 minutes ago
    Great concept but I did not have a ton of fun playing after the novelty wore off after a few minutes. It would've been more fun if time stood still and I had the opportunity to plan what I do at each cpu cycle. I was looking forward to managing cpu cache hits and ram usage.
  • phaser 53 minutes 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 11 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 1 hour ago
      This is why we must daily thank the elves inside our machines. It's tough work!
  • monocasa 12 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.
  • swiftcoder 5 hours ago
    This is not quite as exciting as psDooM [1]

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

  • triangleman83 1 hour ago
    14 minutes and 533,000 pts. I unlocked the auto sort option which helped immensely
  • advisedwang 15 hours ago
    Fabulous concept, but personally I did not find very fun actually playing.
    • loloquwowndueo 14 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 12 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.

      • jonahx 13 hours ago
        Many programmers program for fun outside of work.
        • ivanjermakov 1 hour ago
          When I play games scratching programming itch I always think if I'd be better of working on pet projects instead.
        • hnlmorg 3 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.

      • jasonfarnon 12 hours ago
        That's what bugged me about the old MS Flight Sim games. It felt like the actual job.
        • lukan 4 hours ago
          Yes, but many dream about actual flying for real, but cannot so enjoy this substitute.

          (I enjoy more arcade style)

      • ChrisRR 3 hours ago
        Tell me you play Zachtronics without saying Zachtronics
        • loloquwowndueo 2 hours ago
          What’s Zachtronics. Never heard of it.
          • rhdunn 1 hour 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).

      • GolfPopper 10 hours ago
        But just think of the great training this will provide for your enslaved upload in the future!
    • internet_points 5 hours ago
      OTOH I now have a lot more sympathy for my cpu's, I should give them some slack
  • monkpit 15 hours ago
  • SomeHacker44 14 hours ago
    Does this game make me MCP? Can I battle Jeff Bridges with discs?
    • edoceo 13 hours ago
      Get Tron to Sark so he can communicate!
  • Retr0id 3 hours ago
    Tangentially reminds me of https://deadlockempire.github.io/ where you play the role of the scheduler, but your job is to make vulnerable programs misbehave.
  • degurechaff 8 hours ago
    Need OOM Killer button to kill nasty process
  • mephage 15 hours ago
    Maybe that's what the Linux scheduler is actually - humans' consciousness stuck inside the computer managing the processes.

    Sounds like that black mirror multi-part episode "White Christmas".

    • fragmede 14 hours ago
      So that's why the Matrix needed humans to power their systems!
    • mrkstu 14 hours ago
      Master Control Program
  • cubano 6 hours ago
    I can think of very few things that I'd rather not do then to be an OS. Talk about a thankless "game"...and I'm glad this came up.

    Since when have games become more about just completing boring tasks and not about using your mind and dexterity to kill evildoers? Hell, the original Space Invaders was 100x more fun then this, and all we had to do was press a button to kill advancing aliens.

    • Hugsbox 3 hours ago
      My wife plays a game where you use a pressure washer to clean areas up. Also plays a lawn mowing simulator. Oh, and a game where you run a supermarket, where you maintain inventory, stock shelves, and operate the checkout. Some people just like these types of things.
      • theflyingelvis 1 hour ago
        I have a pressure washer and a mower. I am happy to let her come to my house and use them on my house. I’ll even let her pick up my groceries!
    • LelouBil 6 hours ago
      Games are just something someone finds enjoyable to do.

      You have all kind of games, some that are actual programming, some that are purely reflexes and dexterity, some that are in between.

      > Since when have games become more about just completing boring tasks and not about using your mind and dexterity to kill evildoers

      I encourage you to browse Steam a bit if you are asking this.

    • fragmede 3 hours ago
    • benj111 5 hours ago
      I kind of agree, but on the other hand many boring, meaningless things are gamified with the addition of points.

      Is Monopoly about skill? Chance? Or just scratching that itch of getting more tokens than the other person?

  • yiyingzhang 11 hours ago
    This is cool! I may introduce it to the undergrad OS course I teach at UCSD. Does it have memory hierarchy?
  • NietTim 2 hours ago
    What a fun idea for a game!
  • armdave 11 hours ago
    Cool stuff! Would love to see this recommended in introductory OS classes to give an intuition
  • butz 7 hours ago
    Easy, just give all RAM to Chrome.
  • Affric 15 hours ago
    Played this originally, glad to see scripting included
  • benj111 5 hours ago
    Have any useful algorithms emerged from these kinds of games?

    Like has someone invented a novel scheduler or sorting algorithm?

  • aranelsurion 13 hours ago
    got rebooted at 332k @ normal. maybe being an OS wasn't my calling :)
  • fragmede 14 hours ago
    This didn't get a lot of traction the other time I saw it, but one easily imagines this as part of a a game to teach operating systems, starting from no MMU all the way to how we manage distributed supercomputers like a DGX GB300, or Google's borg.
  • drfunk 3 days ago
    sounds a lot like a tweet from the parody account @PeterMolydeux !
    • keyle 13 hours ago
      What's he doing these days?
  • dmaginas 3 days ago
    Great idea!