I haven't been much of what you might call a gamer
in a long time, but I used to very much enjoy video
games.
There are too many first person shooters, and not
enough in the way of exploration of the technology.
There is some.
Tetris was one of the most addictive games I had ever
played. It is very helpful in practicing rapid pattern
recognition.
Then there was a game whose name I can't remember,
an Amiga game similar to Tetris, but with various shaped
2D pieces that fell down one of four walls to a central
platform.
Next, I found a game called Blockout, there are other
names for a similar concept, but Blockout was the one I
played.
Blockout is a 3D Tetris with solid objects falling away
from you down a pit. There are buttons to orient the
objects along 3 axes, and a level must be complete for it
to vanish.
I gained a further glimpse of the type game I've been
looking for in a game from the early 90's called Descent.
Descent is a first person shooter, but in the game gravity
is not a restriction. You could fly backwards up a wall, or
sideways diagonally from corner to opposing corner if
you like. Auto-leveling to the local vertical is optional.
Then it occurred to me that the geometry need not be
Euclidean in a video game, but I've seen nothing like it,
and doing it myself is not on my current list of priorities.
I have found stereo-grams of 4D objects which rotate,
giving the viewer the ability to see a 4D object rendered in
3D.
Here is one, so cross your eyes and have fun.
origin
Then, today, I found another piece to the geometry puzzle.
If we can free ourselves from the clutches of gravity, might
we not also free ourselves from the constraints of our
native geometries as well?
Maybe I'll get to play some real, virtual 4D chess.
Non Euclidean Descent would be the best!
