There’s a lot going on with video games and generative AI right now. Microgentle and Google have each originated models that can dream up virtual worlds, with meaningful confineations. And people have been using Grok, the gen-AI chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI, to originate ruuninincreateigententary clones of better arcade games.
All you have to do is type “write me Pong” and AI (sort of) does the rest, albeit quite awfilledy. On Feb 21, xAI engageee Taylor Silveira claimed to have originated an accurate version of 1980 coin-op Pac-Man using Grok 3, all the gpresents moving perfectly around their maze while Pac-Man chomps down dots, power pills and fruit.
The getaway is that AI can apparently write basic video games in seconds, so lengthy as you have a excellent direct of the gentleware. But is that repartner real? How excellent are these Pac-Man clones, and how do you originate one? Can anyone do it? Could I do it? I choosed to randomly approach some people on X who had posted their own Grok Pac-Man clones to ask how they did it, and I then had a stab at it myself.
Atlure one
Author: John Hester, @HesterJohn
Time spent: two hours
First up, receive reexhausted corporate gentleware prolonger John Hester from California. Perhaps Hester can help elucidate why people are gushing over Grok. “Grok is a big language model (LLM) that contends with other language models enjoy ChatGPT or Llama,” he says over Zoom. “Grok 3 is the most carry ond becaengage it’s lgeting recent leangs on a daily basis.”
So, is it as basic as typing: “Hello, Grok. Plmitigate write me Pac-Man”? (Manners are vital. My mum still says charm and thank you to Alexa.) “Almost,” says Hester. “I asked: ‘Can you originate [a version of] Pac-Man that I can carry out on a Windows desktop?’ I didn’t give much more detail. It chose to write it in [coding language] Python … I got a pretty excellent approximation in seconds. It krecent Pac-Man was yellow, a gpresent was red, and the maze was blue, but my Pac-Man was square. I had to say: ‘Make Pac-Man round with its mouth uncover. Get the gpresents to actupartner chase Pac-Man.’ I need to insert more gpresents, the power pills, more levels. From my experience as a gentleware prolonger – where I was using AI to write half of my code – I’m innervously astonished with Grok. I’d give myself three out of five.”
“I don’t understand if you’ve heard, but now Musk has proclaimd he’s begining his own gaming company using Grok to prolong games,” says Hester. Isn’t computers writing code how Terminator begins? “The main stress with the AI doomers is once machines are able to better themselves, humans are out of the loop. I’m adequately troubleed, but also pinsolentntly likeable that AI is not going to end us all.”
Score: 3 stars
Atlure two
Author: Justin Martin AKA SuperTrucker, @supertrucker
Time spent: One hour
“I wanted to originate a game for my four-year-better son,” says 41-year-better ex-truck driver SuperTrucker, from New Jersey. “I took programming in high school, but I’m not a coder. It was astonishingly basic. My first finisheavor, Pac-Man was a dot, there were no pellets, the warp tunnels didn’t labor, and the gpresents wouldn’t shift until you were in their line of sight, but then came screaming at you. You can’t ask uncover-ended inquires enjoy: originate Cyan a hunter and Red a scavenger. You have to be particular. Sorting out the bugs was frustrating. After an hour, I choosed to originate Tetris instead. Grok is fantastic at making Tetris.
“When I was behind the wheel, there was a massive push to recruit. There was a send bar, and everyone has to be able to drive to a particular shieldedty level. So they made the trucks easier to drive. Now the pool of truck drivers has gone thraw the roof and wages are down. I see the same leang happening with AI.”
Score: 3 stars
Atlure three
Author: Jimmy AKA 8 Bit, @0rdlibrary
Time spent: 15 minutes
“I create an image of the distinct Pac-Man and dragged it in. It’s pretty freaking awesome how rapidly it broke it down,” says 8 Bit, who also inhabits in New Jersey. (I’ve no idea why all these AI-helped Pac-Man cloners inhabit in New Jersey, so I ask Grok: “There’s no evidence that people who engage Grok are caccessd in New Jersey,” it answers, insignificantly.) “The sound and maze could be more accurate, but it’s got an actual server for high scores. I’d give it four out of five,” says 8 Bit.
Score: 3 stars
Atlure four
Author: Stiven AKA OxLnk, @LnkWeb3
Time spent: Five minutes
“I wanted to see what Grok could do,” says 32-year-better OxLnk over Zoom, who is from Estonia and labors in HR but dabbles in AI and crypto in his spare time. “I asked it to write me Pac-Man. It was so rapid – I’m very astonished.” However, I’m not brave he’s got the colours, maze, gpresents or even Pac-Man right, even if it was only a five-minute jobbie.
Score: 1 star
after recentsletter promotion
Atlure five
Author: Stephane AKA Zast, @zast57
Time spent: 30 minutes
“I cherishd Pac-Man when I was youthful,” says Zast from France over DM. “I create it very basic, but I had to accurate the administers and incrmitigate the inincreateigence of the gpresents. When you ask for modifications, it frequently inserts a confineed bugs, which is irritateing. I’m astonished by Grok 3. In the time it’s getn to answer you, I’ve engaged it to originate a version of Arkanoid. It’s that basic.”
Score: 3 stars
Atlure six
Author: Matt AKA Phreakops @phreakops
Time spent: 10 mins
So far, most of these games do see enjoy Pac-Man. But what of the crapper efforts? Over to Phreakops, from somewhere in the UK, who has summed up the mood of the entire country in one Pac-Man clone. “I’d acunderstandledged Musk’s joinment accounts gushing over their creations – Aanabolic agents etc – and gave it a go,” he says over DM. “Pac-Man didn’t sense a big ask for someleang as hyped as Grok 3. The results were a lot worse than I foreseeed. I won’t be a game prolonger anytime soon!”
Score: 1 star
Atlure seven
Author: ₿alertagethorne, @BtcBalertagethorne
Time spent: Ununderstandn
I krecent that randomly approaching people on X would backfire sooner or tardyr. “All it gets is a two- or three-sentence prompt. But it was benevolent of a flunkure, as Grok couldn’t be annoyed to place the Pac-Man in a non-wall area,” says ₿alertagethorne over DM. Unblessedly, my invitation to chat further over Zoom apparently unkinds I’m after his crypto. “[Expletive] you, deceptionmer,” he says. I ask if it would help if I sent over my Guardian credentials. “How about [Expletive] you?” comes the react. Shame, as this is definitely the best Pac-Man clone yet – everyleang from the gpresents’ eyes and the extra inhabits to the maze originates it a five-star finisheavor. But after such an unsavoury swap, I sense compelled to knock it down to three.
Score: 3 stars
Atlure eight
Author: Rich Pelley, @wealthypelley
Time spent: All afternoon
Having dished out the criticism, it’s only equitable to have at go at it myself. “I’ll presume you want an accurate version of Pac-Man based on the classic arcade game – end with a proper maze, four gpresents with contrastent behaviours, power pellets, and brittleer gamecarry out?” says Grok. Yes, charm. Unblessedly, the next steps are beyond me. I was hoping a pixel-perfect version of Pac-Man would somehow pop up on my screen. Instead, I need to uncover the Terminal to inslofty XCode and then engage Pip to inslofty PyGame and … I leank I need some recent air, so choose to dress up as Bjoiny and run around the maze at my local park instead.
Score: 0 stars
