Constellation Games Read Online Free PDF Page A

decide you want a computer
system or some other facet of the metadata
(such as a manufacturer's catalog, government
proclamation, etc.) let me know and
I'll ship it to you.
    "Ask about the gibberish!"
    "Yeah, yeah."
ABlum: so we've gotten the file off the device but it's all "babamamagaga"
----
Curic: It's written in a standardized
language for sharing technical
information. (Simple Affect Metadata Exchange.)
I translated the 'field names' manually, and
used a new transliteration to get the rest into the Roman
alphabet.
But there is no automated English
translation yet.
Because it's the SAME of twenty thousand
years ago, a translator for humans to run on their
computers is not anyone's top priority.
----
ABlum: ok i don't want to sound ungrateful, but what good is this to me now?
----
Curic: Now is better than later.
The translation will get better as our concept
maps improve.
Ariel, I have many other contacts. I have to coordinate some more
shipments, so I may be slow to respond for a while.
Please let me know when you decide on a computer
system to investigate.
    "So now we decide?" I said. "Let's just pick the first one."
    "No!" said Zhenya. "Pick the one with the most games."
    "Well, now you've made it complicated," I said, "so we might as well form a plan. Let's figure out the most influential human game system of all time, and we'll use the metadata to find a similar ET system."
    "The Sega MegaDrive!" said L.
    "Well, that was really cool, but—"
    "The fucking Scorpion, man," said Zhenya, pointing at me.
    "What's the fucking Scorpion, man?"
    "Clone of the decadent ZX Spectrum. I learned to program on that thing. Man, it was the shit."
    "You're obviously just going on nostalgia. We need objective measures. An influential system has—"
    "Lots of games, like I said. The Scorpion had—"
    "Hardware clones," said L.
    "Games that had lots of sequels."
    "Sales numbers, long lifetime," I said. "This is what I'm talking about. If the database includes records for these things, we can count the records without understanding the language, and without having a stupid argument about human systems. I'll write some data-mining scripts."
    "Hold it, dude!" said L. "Once you start game-related coding, this becomes outside work. You need approval from your project lead." L. folded his arms. "Now, if I am your project lead, you'll get approval, no problem."
    "You little punk!" said Zhenya. "It's tiny script!" L. just stood there, unmoved by human pity, totally devoted to the cause of employment contracts and mobile-phone rhythm games and DLC upsell.
    "No, he's right," I said. I got out of my chair and picked up my laptop. "Excuse me a sec," I said. "I'm going to talk to my project lead."
    "Ariel, do not give in to this punk!"
    "I'm not giving in," I said. "I'm quitting this job."
    Blog post, June 21
    I'm in the airport now, waiting for my flight. L. and the other Brazilians are seeding the Constellation Database of Electronic Games of a Certain Complexity, so if you want a copy, just queue it up.
    I'm writing code again, and now it's the code I want to write: code that goes into a database of alien secrets and finds the parts that are worth translating.
ABlum: how many games are we talking about here?
----
Curic: Well, the concept of an individual
"game" is somewhat fuzzy, but:
More than a million games and less than ten million.
Enough for you to spend your life examining.
Though I do not recommend spending so much time on
something already so well catalogued.
    My first set of filters on CDBOEGOACC found a Farang console that was very popular about ninety million years ago. Curic translated its name as the Brain Embryo. Farang are enough like humans that I should be physically able to play the games. Even though Curic says she's never heard of this game system, or even this period of her species' history, I feel safer starting with a Farang system.
    I've kept my promise to Jenny to stop watching TV, but it's inescapable in the airport, and