Racter

Adventure 1984 Dos Dosbox Inrac Corporation Multimedia novel

A computer personality you can interact with

True AI – Artificial Intelligence operators/entities have been on the minds of computer programmers for a very long time, even before computers, as we know it today existed. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that this game tries to simulate something similar, and offer you the tools to interact with it. So, a similar game was developed with the Sound Blaster audio cards, years before this one, Dr. Sbaitso to be more precise, but Racter surely takes it a step closer to the uncanny valley. So, in the game you interact with the eponymous character, Racter, which strings together sentences and phrases, so as to simulate having a conversation with you. The algorithms and the way it is coded make it quite well suited to talk with you for up to a few minutes, without you becoming aware that you are talking with a virtual entity, but, of course, talk too much or ask very specific questions and the simulation begins to break down. Still, the fact that the game can learn new words from you is very interesting, but the interest fades away. So, play it only for the uncanny elements of the presentation. Nope, singularity wasn't reached back in 84, but something much smaller and yet enticing was!

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