A.I. System and Arcade Games
March 28th, 2008
The first arcade games were built on discrete logic and were strictly based on competition between the players. Therefore there wasn’t any A.I. system.
Peculiar methods have been used in the arcade games. A [popular method of controlling an NPC in the game was by scripting.
Path finding is another common A.I. system that has been used in the real time strategy games. Path finding works by calculating how to get an NPC from one place to another after considering the terrain and obstacles.
Games like Quake and Pursuit based all the opponent actions on particular stored patterns. The space invaders further improved these actions by adding in-game events which were dependent on the hash functions.
This resulted in a variety of complex enemy movements.
Pac-Man incorporated this technology at the same time jazzing it up by providing different personalities for each ghosts.
Although the ghost movements in Pac-Man felt random, it was a cleverly scripted and well disguised action.
1990s saw the emergence of finite state machines. The arcade racing games were powered by a ‘rubber banding’ A.I. system.
If the computer controlled the opponents “fall behind”, they received a superb boost allowing them to catch up.
The system too, works the other way around, enabling the human players to catch up if they fall behind. The arcade shooting games should ideally have a large rule base which is basically the list of NPC options like attack long range, call for help, flee etc.
The trick lies in applying a random factor to choose from this base factor. This has provided an enhanced sense of intellect and improved the fun quotient.
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