The Hardest Computer Game of All Time

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/01/robot_odyssey_the_hardest_computer_game_of_all_time.html




My first computer was an Apple IIe with 128KB of RAM, no hard drive, and a 5¼ inch floppy drive. One of the top educational games back then was Rocky’s Boots, an inventive game that taught the basics of formal logic to kids. I loved it when I was 6. Two years later, I got Robot Odyssey, which promised to expand on Rocky’s Boots by extending the formal logic to actual programming. The game devastated me. My brain could not comprehend how to solve its puzzles. I finally finished it—13 years later, and not without some assistance.

Let me say: Any kid who completes this game while still a kid (I know only one, who also is one of the smartest programmers I’ve ever met) is guaranteed a career as a software engineer. Hell, any adult who can complete this game should go into engineering. Robot Odyssey is the hardest damn “educational” game ever made. It is also a stunning technical achievement, and one of the most innovative games of the Apple IIe era.

<Snip> A good article for the older geeks out there.

[JaneyVee]

1. Harder than Oregon Trail? My herd always came down with anthrax & dysentery.

Never did make it to Oregon. Maybe one day....maybe one day.

[Orrex]

2. What about Hammurabi?

The drought always killed my wheat crop and depleted my grain stores.

[Bjorn Against]

3. Never played that one, but I think there are many games that could be called the hardest ever

Battletoads for the NES is probably the hardest I remember that did not allow you to change difficulty levels, there are a number of games that do allow you to change difficulty levels and some of them are nearly impossible on the hardest difficulty level.

[X_Digger]

4. That game drove me crazy until I got into electronics in HS.

I got it from the local radio shack- the only source of software in our little town in umm.. '85?

I played it solid for 6 months, only getting to the second level.

Later in high school, when I took an intro to electronics course, I came back to it and almost finished it. (I think I just got frustrated.)

[Demo_Chris]

5. Carnage Heart was pretty brilliant as well. nt