What if computers could play video games? Well, technically they can. Whenever you play a game that has other beings that can move independently (for example a hockey or football simulator, or a first-person shooter), AI (artificial intelligence) is employed. Basically, the better the AI, the better and less predictable your computerized opponents will be.

AI can also be used to control a player of a regular platform game, like Mario Brothers. And a competition has started for just that purpose. The goal of the Mario AI Competition is to have developers send in their artificial intelligence code, and have it control Mario through an infinite number of random levels. The competition is to see who's AI can get Mario through the highest number of levels.

So, why have a competition like this?

From the site:

One of the main purposes of this competition is to be able to compare different controller development methodologies against each other, both those based on learning techniques such as artificial evolution and those that are completely hand-coded. So we hope to get submissions based on evolutionary neural networks, genetic programming, fuzzy logic, temporal difference learning, human ingenuity, hybrids of the above, etc. The more the merrier! (And better for science.)

This seems like a great way to get programmers and other scientists that are interested in artificial intelligence involved in a fun but useful exploration of the craft.

Popular video hosting site Vimeo has announced that they will no longer allow videos of video games on the site. Specifically, they're going to be deleting "game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of player vs player battles, raids, fraps, or any other video gaming videos that simply depict individuals playing a video game." As of September 1st, all videos that fall under that description will be deleted.

The staff blog post on the subject lists some reasons for the decision, including the staff's feeling that these videos don't meet the standards of "creative expression" that the site tries to uphold. More importantly, though, video game vids tend to be some of the longest and most common videos on the site, slowing down transcoding times for the other content that Vimeo is apparently trying to encourage.

Debate has already fired up in the comments section of the Vimeo blog, as users wonder why the site would cut off a type of video that is evidently popular enough to take up significant system resources. There's also a fair share of relieved comments from folks who are glad to see this type of "unoriginal" content removed from the site. We can see the points that both sides are making, but what's your take?

[via Eric Rice on Twitter]

In the annals of video game history, there is no finer an opportunity for endless explosive glee than the vertical shooter. Most vertical shooter games involve a little two-dimensional spaceship that flies only in one direction (up) and shoot lots of interesting projectiles at an abundant cache of enemies. These seemingly endless enemy spaceships apparently have figured out how to fly in many directions--including right at you, which is bad--unless your trigger finger is fast enough.

Naturally, if you've just had a stressful day at work and you're wedged between two New Yorkers on the subway as you drive home, you might have the urge to blow something up. This is when the vertical shooter is at its most valuable. Pop open your mobile phone, fire up the latest Robotech offering, a vertical shooter in every respect, and blow away thousands of virtual enemies until your stress is gone, you reach your subway stop, or your cell-phone's softkeys (the game's trigger buttons) wear out.

There's plenty of sites out there that let users trade books, movies, CDs, and video games. But sometimes you want a site that does one thing and does it well.

Swopster is a community for video game fans looking to unload their old games. There are sections for PS3, PS2, PSX, PSP, Xbox 360, Xbox, Wii, DS, GBA, GameCube, and PC games. Sorry, no Dreamcast or Super Nintendo here.

First you enter a list of games you own, then you can let other users browse your catalog and explore the site for games you might want to play. Just select the game you're looking for and Swopster will connect you with users who have the game so that you can work out a trade. The service is free, but you'll have to pay for shipping.

[via AppScout]

In the game Doodle you play the part of a stick figure. Your goal is to get to the checkered flag at the end of the board without being erased or attacked by one of the stray spiked balls. The first few levels of the game are pretty simple with nothing attacking you and are designed primarily for you to get the hang of controlling the stick figure. As the the levels progress you have to fight more eraser and the game gets more difficult.

GameTap is sort of like Netflix for old video games, except without the mailbox. For $10 per month, you have access to an online library of older video games from a variety of consoles ranging from PC to Nintendo.

The company currently offers access to 864 games, and the catalog is growing. Now GameTap is planning to launch a new site that will provide access to about 30 popular games for free. Titles will include Metal Slug, Joust, and Rampage.

The site will be advertising-support, and is set to launch on May 31st.

[via Ars Technica]

Gamegum is an online community based on flash video games. Registration is free, and once you sign up you can submit games you've created as well as play "comment and vote-on" games that others have created.

Yesterday Gamegum made revenue sharing live on their site. Users who create Flash games and post them on the site can also put up adsense ads and earn revenue for their games. The percentage of time your ads will be displayed on your game depends on your "Gumpoints" are points users can earn for posting games, voting on games, posting in the forum and other activities on the site.

Unless you spend tons of time on this site, or submit tons of games you're never going to get to the top revenue sharing percentage (50%). Submitting a game will earn you only 40 points of the 10,000 you'll need to get to a 50% revenue share. With 0 points however you can earn 25% so even new users will earn something.

For those of us who don't make our own Flash games this is a great site for finding some fun games to play. I found this site earlier and have spent 3 hours today playing games off the site while I was trying to write this post.

Games are divided up by genre such as puzzle, sport, strategy, casino, and arcade, so there is something for everyone.

Want to lose weight by playing video games? Not coordinated enough to play DDR? Tim Tucker has the solution for you: Tetris Weightlifting. It's a version of Tetris that you control with a pair of handles each attached to a set of weights. You pull the right handle to move the piece right and vice versa for the left, and press a button on either handle to rotate the piece. Tucker built the Tetris Weightlifting machine out of an open source version of Tetris and a Phidgets electronic sensor. "Users expressed high satisfaction with the system," says this promotional poster. "They focused more on game-play than on exercise, setting goals based on in-game cues rather than traditional metrics such as number of repetitions." It sounds like my kind of workout, but Tucker doesn't say how many calories players can actually burn. You can download the Java source for his customized version of Tetris as well as the C# code for his sensor controller.

[Via Waxy.org]

Got a hankerin' for some classic 8-bit gaming? Want to play right now? Look no further than vNES, a fantastic site of questionable legality that lets you play any of almost 400 classic Nintendo games in your browser, for free. As you may have already guessed, vNES is a basic Java-powered NES emulator, and it has games for every taste, including a few dozen Japanese titles, some funky unreleased and prototype games, and even a "Games That Aren't Fun At All" category. It has most of the classics, and more are being added every day. It works great without any noticeable slowdowns or glitches in most games, but beware: vNES can be a bit of a memory hog. Bookmark vNES while you still can, as I doubt Nintendo's IP lawyers are going to be as happy about it as I am, especially once they start selling these classic games for the Wii.

[Via Lifehacker]

It's one thing to clone a video game in Flash; it's something else entirely to write an entire emulator for an entire game console, and I don't think it's done until now: Darron Schall and Claus Wahlers have released FC64, a Commodore 64 emulator implemented in Flash. For now FC64 is alpha-quality and very much a work in progress, but if you have Flash Player 9 beta installed you can play a live demo of Matrix, a homebrew C64 game by Llamasoft. Darron Schall has some more information about the project on his blog, and the full source code for you ActionScript jockeys is available at the FC64 web site.

[Via Waxy.org]

Here's a follow-up on our post about DOSBox. If you're looking for some free games to play on your new old-school emulated DOS system, check out Liberated Games. Liberated Games has a great list of games that are free to download from various computing eras. You will find the likes of the original top-down Grand Theft Auto, BMX Simulator, or even Quake III: Arena, and all for free. Some games are open-source offerings with source code available, while others are strictly binaries.

The creators of the site are currently looking for some assistance maintaining it, so if you have a passion for free games, maybe offer to lend some assistance. This is the kind of online endeavor that deserves some support.

Keen readers may have noticed the little dogear up in the corner linking to Weblogs, Inc.'s newest blog, PS3 Fanboy. You may think we have our obsessions here at Download Squad, but you haven't seen obsession until you visit the fanboys (and girls!) over there. They couldn't be more excited about Sony's Playstation 3, and if your enthusiasms run along the same lines, do yourself a favor and check it out.

It's a foregone conclusion that video games are the next big medium for advertising, and ads in games have already become pretty commononplace. Most people will put up with them, despite the fact that they already paid a forty bucks or more for the game. But what about when the ads start connecting to the ad agency's servers over the Internet to tell them about your playing habits? As reported by our pal Vladimir at Joystiq, that's exactly what's happening with Vivendi's SWAT4: not only does the game download new advertisements to show you while you're playing, it also tells Vivendi's advertising partner, Massive, how what time you start and stop playing, and how much time you spent looking at each ad.

Head over to Joystiq for more details, or read the complete report (including how to block the ads and the intrusion) by Andrew Smith and Peter Wood.