But the thing is that a lot of that cognitive capacity is already present in rats - so why can’t we just use rats? There are a couple of players in the space like Neuralink, BlackRock, and Paradromics that are testing their devices on monkeys and then rolling them out to humans. You can see the rats in action in this video below.ĭivulging exactly why he got this idea, Tóth said in his interview with Futurism, ”It’s very relevant to brain computer interfaces (BCI) - a space I’m trying to get into in the long run. Tóth encouraged the rat with a little tube to feed it sugary water as a treat whenever it did something correctly. A rat was suspended in a harness on top, where it could move the ball with its feet, which sensors translated into movement in the game world and mirrored it onto a curved computer monitor in front of the gaming rodents.”Īs the rat moved about on the ball, it would also then, in turn, run about in the halls and corridors of Doom II. How did Tóth teach rats to play Doom II you ask? Well, as he explains in his blog, he forged his own personal setup out of odds and ends for the sum of less than $2,000 that consisted of “ a large polystyrene ball that could be rolled in any direction via ball bearings. Tóth decided to teach rats to play 1994’s Doom II in order to better understand brain computer interfaces, and now, in an article for Futurism, he thinks it may be beneficial to take the rats onto Twitch for some livestreaming. So, while former Feinstein Institutes neuroengineer Viktor Tóth didn’t have as flippant a reason to try as I suggested, last year he fulfilled that dream for some lucky rats in the name of science. Photocopiers, pregnancy tests, fridges, and balls of yarn have managed to run id Software’s classic shooter over the years (though I may have made one of those up), but what about the one who is playing Doom? Why does it always have to be us humans enjoying a good old rip and tear through hell on Earth or Mars? Surely even a rodent must dream of being Doom Guy? We live in a world where all sorts of things can play some form of the eternally badass FPS grandaddy known as Doom.
Mortal Kombat 11 is due out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on April 23. It’s an obvious unfortunate end to a project that would’ve remedied the cheesy and slapped-together aspects of the original MK Trilogy game, but hopefully Warner Bros resurrects the project in some form in the future. Blind Squirrel Games’ Danny Huynh, managed to share a couple of screenshots from this remaster (which you can see below).Īccording to Huynh, MK Kollection Online would also feature a new mode, called the Krypt mode, which was meant to introduce a new way to play the original trilogy. They were tapped to do a remaster of Mortal Kombat Trilogy called Mortal Kombat Remastered, known back then as Mortal Kombat Kollection Online, which is the one that has now been cancelled. This is where Blind Squirrel Games came in. However, Warner Bros suddenly informed the team in early 2018 that they were off the project. In 2017, the team behind Mortal Kombat HD Kommunity, also known as Mortal Kombat HD Remix and Mortal Kombat Returns, was given the opportunity to develop remasters of the first three Mortal Kombat games. This wasn’t the first time an official remake was cancelled, however. Unfortunately, according to DSOGaming, Blind Squirrel Games have cancelled that remake. This one involved the first three Mortal Kombat games. Remember that video showing off a remastering of the original Mortal Kombat? Sure, that was one of the fan remakes, but there was apparently an official remake being worked on by Blind Squirrel Games (who were responsible for Borderlands Enhanced and the BioShock Collection).