1 day ago
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There’s a lot going on with video games and generative AI right now. Microsoft and Google have each created models that can dream up virtual worlds, with significant limitations. And people have been using Grok, the gen-AI chatbot from Elon Musk’s xAI, to make rudimentary clones of old arcade games.
All you have to do is type “write me Pong” and AI (sort of) does the rest, albeit quite badly. On Feb 21, xAI employee Taylor Silveira claimed to have created an accurate version of 1980 coin-op Pac-Man using Grok 3, all the ghosts moving perfectly around their maze while Pac-Man chomps down dots, power pills and fruit.
The takeaway is that AI can apparently write simple video games in seconds, so long as you have a good command of the software. But is that really true? How good are these Pac-Man clones, and how do you make one? Can anyone do it? Could I do it? I decided to randomly approach some people on X who had posted their own Grok Pac-Man clones to ask how they did it, and I then had a stab at it myself.
Attempt one
Author: John Hester, @HesterJohn
Time spent: two hours
First up, welcome retired corporate software developer John Hester from California. Perhaps Hester can help explain why people are gushing over Grok. “Grok is a large language model (LLM) that competes with other language models like ChatGPT or Llama,” he says over Zoom. “Grok 3 is the most advanced because it’s learning new things on a daily basis.”
So, is it as easy as typing: “Hello, Grok. Please write me Pac-Man”? (Manners are important. My mum still says please and thank you to Alexa.) “Almost,” says Hester. “I asked: ‘Can you create [a version of] Pac-Man that I can play on a Windows desktop?’ I didn’t give much more detail. It chose to write it in [coding language] Python … I got a pretty good approximation in seconds. It knew Pac-Man was yellow, a ghost was red, and the maze was blue, but my Pac-Man was square. I had to say: ‘Make Pac-Man round with its mouth open. Get the ghosts to actually chase Pac-Man.’ I need to add more ghosts, the power pills, more levels. From my experience as a software developer – where I was using AI to write half of my code – I’m extremely impressed with Grok. I’d give myself three out of five.”
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but now Musk has announced he’s starting his own gaming company using Grok to develop games,” says Hester. Isn’t computers writing code how Terminator starts? “The main worry with the AI doomers is once machines are able to improve themselves, humans are out of the loop. I’m sufficiently concerned, but also cautiously optimistic that AI is not going to kill us all.”
Score: 3 stars
Attempt two
Author: Justin Martin AKA SuperTrucker, @supertrucker
Time spent: One hour
“I wanted to make a game for my four-year-old son,” says 41-year-old ex-truck driver SuperTrucker, from New Jersey. “I took programming in high school, but I’m not a coder. It was surprisingly easy. My first attempt, Pac-Man was a dot, there were no pellets, the warp tunnels didn’t work, and the ghosts wouldn’t move until you were in their line of sight, but then came screaming at you. You can’t ask open-ended questions like: make Cyan a hunter and Red a scavenger. You have to be specific. Sorting out the bugs was frustrating. After an hour, I decided to make Tetris instead. Grok is great at making Tetris.
“When I was behind the wheel, there was a massive push to recruit. There was a skill bar, and everyone has to be able to drive to a particular safety level. So they made the trucks easier to drive. Now the pool of truck drivers has gone through the roof and wages are down. I see the same thing happening with AI.”
Score: 3 stars
Attempt three
Author: Jimmy AKA 8 Bit, @0rdlibrary
Time spent: 15 minutes
“I found an image of the original Pac-Man and dragged it in. It’s pretty freaking awesome how quickly it broke it down,” says 8 Bit, who also lives in New Jersey. (I’ve no idea why all these AI-assisted Pac-Man cloners live in New Jersey, so I ask Grok: “There’s no evidence that people who use Grok are concentrated in New Jersey,” it answers, uselessly.) “The sound and maze could be more accurate, but it’s got an actual server for high scores. I’d give it four out of five,” says 8 Bit.
Score: 3 stars
Attempt four
Author: Stiven AKA OxLnk, @LnkWeb3
Time spent: Five minutes
“I wanted to see what Grok could do,” says 32-year-old OxLnk over Zoom, who is from Estonia and works in HR but dabbles in AI and crypto in his spare time. “I asked it to write me Pac-Man. It was so fast – I’m very impressed.” However, I’m not sure he’s got the colours, maze, ghosts or even Pac-Man right, even if it was only a five-minute jobbie.
Score: 1 star
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Attempt five
Author: Stephane AKA Zast, @zast57
Time spent: 30 minutes
“I loved Pac-Man when I was young,” says Zast from France over DM. “I found it very easy, but I had to correct the controls and increase the intelligence of the ghosts. When you ask for modifications, it often adds a few bugs, which is annoying. I’m impressed by Grok 3. In the time it’s taken to answer you, I’ve used it to create a version of Arkanoid. It’s that easy.”
Score: 3 stars
Attempt six
Author: Matt AKA Phreakops @phreakops
Time spent: 10 mins
So far, most of these games do look like Pac-Man. But what of the crapper efforts? Over to Phreakops, from somewhere in the UK, who has summed up the mood of the entire country in one Pac-Man clone. “I’d noticed Musk’s engagement accounts gushing over their creations – Asteroids etc – and gave it a go,” he says over DM. “Pac-Man didn’t feel a big ask for something as hyped as Grok 3. The results were a lot worse than I expected. I won’t be a game developer anytime soon!”
Score: 1 star
Attempt seven
Author: ₿lackthorne, @BtcBlackthorne
Time spent: Unknown
I knew that randomly approaching people on X would backfire sooner or later. “All it takes is a two- or three-sentence prompt. But it was kind of a failure, as Grok couldn’t be bothered to place the Pac-Man in a non-wall area,” says ₿lackthorne over DM. Unfortunately, my invitation to chat further over Zoom apparently means I’m after his crypto. “[Expletive] you, scammer,” he says. I ask if it would help if I sent over my Guardian credentials. “How about [Expletive] you?” comes the reply. Shame, as this is definitely the best Pac-Man clone yet – everything from the ghosts’ eyes and the extra lives to the maze makes it a five-star attempt. But after such an unsavoury exchange, I feel compelled to knock it down to three.
Score: 3 stars
Attempt eight
Author: Rich Pelley, @richpelley
Time spent: All afternoon
Having dished out the criticism, it’s only fair to have at go at it myself. “I’ll assume you want an accurate version of Pac-Man based on the classic arcade game – complete with a proper maze, four ghosts with distinct behaviours, power pellets, and smoother gameplay?” says Grok. Yes, please. Unfortunately, the next steps are beyond me. I was hoping a pixel-perfect version of Pac-Man would somehow pop up on my screen. Instead, I need to open the Terminal to install XCode and then use Pip to install PyGame and … I think I need some fresh air, so decide to dress up as Blinky and run around the maze at my local park instead.
Score: 0 stars
