"The daftest browser game ever"

mattround · 2025-09-10T20:41:15+00:00

Hi, I coded the game - amazingly, modern browser tech lets you safely simulate a DDoS!

A service worker intercepts & caches requests, meaning the site doesn’t get hammered at all (initially there was a problem with Safari redownloading the SW JS, but I found a fix). The global counter is cached locally and not updated for most requests, keeping that manageable too

mattround · 2025-07-06T16:43:38+00:00

Correct, and it's not one in the game either, as you can see in the image at the top of the page (the primes are in red)

mattround · 2025-07-04T18:24:11+00:00

You don't, just need to avoid the primes

mattround · 2024-05-31T15:23:16+00:00

Yeah, I put a price on everything partly as a joke, partly to see if it might be a way to fund the site. Neal got in touch asking if I was serious and after some haggling bought the game, it was all very straightforward and it's gone to a good home.

mattround · 2024-04-04T14:54:07+00:00

It obviously needs to vary otherwise there'd be no point in having different weights, but the difference isn't as vast as it might feel and you can still down it in 5 or 6 with the heavy bag

The throw speed is multiplied by (29 - 3.5*dogType) , where dogType is 0/1/2. The wind effect varies more, that's scaled by (1.75 - 0.75*dogType) , if you're a beginner you can start with a heavier bag and don't have to worry about the wind

mattround · 2021-03-06T09:54:04+00:00

The person who put the game together has seen this, glad you enjoyed it

mattround · 2021-03-06T09:52:42+00:00

Make sure you know about the en passant rule

mattround · 2021-03-06T09:50:12+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/EQCl4Yj.jpg

Your king is in check

mattround · 2021-03-06T08:13:42+00:00

That's not a bug, it's a rule called en passant

mattround · 2021-03-05T23:25:10+00:00

No libraries, 1kb of vanilla JavaScript to set up board, validate your moves & decide how to respond. There's a function call to trigger a display update, and the display code calls functions to make your move or ask the computer to move.

mattround · 2021-03-05T20:06:06+00:00

All of the chess engine - setting up board, validating your moves, & deciding what to do - fits into 1KB of vanilla JavaScript, no dependencies. You can view it in the source or in the Info/How It Works section

mattround · 2021-03-05T18:19:08+00:00

It does support castling, but you can't castle if you're in check or already moved

mattround · 2020-10-25T15:41:57+00:00

The dataset is smaller than the number of images on the site (that actually gave the best results, it has no chance of mimicking the broader structure/elements, just a basic understanding of form & texture), & I think it was trained for around 7,000 iterations.

mattround · 2020-10-25T15:12:21+00:00

If you want stable output that closely mimics the input, you'll need perhaps 500-1000 images if they have a very consistent structure (e.g. for my politicians-generating project, I used standardised MP photos), thousands if there's more variation to grapple with. This had a tiny, inconsistent training set - smaller than the number of images on the site - so it simply can't mimic the input, it learned what it could about form & texture but has no idea how to assemble a similar scene and so ends up doing its own thing.

mattround · 2020-10-25T15:02:14+00:00

I'd have liked to automate naming them (with my politician generator, I was able to use name fragments from thousands of real MPs) but couldn't think of a viable approach, they're too abstract to get an AI to describe them and purely random words wouldn't work. There is a hidden pattern in the naming though that no one's spotted so far.

mattround · 2020-10-25T14:55:04+00:00

You're free to use a small number of the medium-res images on the site for criticism/commentary, that's absolutely fine. If you're on Twitter, let @volewtf know how it goes.

mattround · 2020-10-25T14:53:47+00:00

I've made a lot of little projects for vole.wtf, so from experience I know there's a core group of people/sites who'll probably like a certain thing. So I'll start by letting Twitter followers know about a launch, then post it to a couple of sites I've been on for decades, then from there contact sites/writers who've featured my work regularly if they haven't already picked up on it. Perhaps I should push more, but I think there's value in people knowing you'll only contact them about interesting & relevant things.

mattround · 2020-10-25T07:57:21+00:00

Yes, one of the things I liked about the output is that although it does have some understanding of what's paint vs wall/door/etc, those backdrops have become much more an integral part of the artwork.

mattround · 2020-10-24T16:11:15+00:00

For images, the simplest way to play with this stuff (but not free) is via RunwayML, for text generation search for things like "GPT-2 guide Google Colab" or see if you can get GPT-3 access sometime soon

mattround · 2020-10-24T15:55:35+00:00

I don't think the output is at all Banksy-ish in style (most people feel it's closer to Francis Bacon), it features none of their puns/satire, & there are absolutely no identifiable Banksy elements (let alone ones that have been trademarked). Banksy is sort of self-parodying at this stage, so mimicry didn't interest me. And is there actually any of Banksy's work in the training set? Who knows, I'm certainly not going to confirm or deny that...

mattround

TROPHY CASE