Mac Game/Trojan Wipes a File for Each Alien Killed

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Heh. This reminds me of psdoom on Linux, which was essentially the original Doom game modified so that each monster was tied to a process running on the system. Wounding a monster would slow it down (by reducing the process priority) and killing it would kill the process. If I remember correctly, just as in the original Doom, the monsters would also fight each other, so even if you hid in a corner and didn't shoot anything, eventually the game would kill itself. 😛 Or if you ran it as root (administrator) I imagine your computer would eventually go down. >:)
 
it's brilliant, a lot of mac users don't even know what file extensions are, and that is what you see after you shoot something. It's hilarious that some of the aliens have health bars, I can only imagine that those are lengthy files that you are erase shot per shot.
 
lol , sounds fun to do before formatting a hard drive.

But , to me it's jsut a game that needs 32 somewhat warnings so people wont download it unless they want to delete stuff.
 
Absolutely malware. Society has tried making life as insulated and safe as possible and it's a worthy goal. Those of you who say it's the user's own fault for using the program - how would you react to the street safety technician who says "well I'm not going to put side barriers on this bridge, if you drive off the side, it's your own fault. " It's the same analogy. Putting this worthless software out there is endangering people's computer usage and while those people who become victims are darwinian idiots, shouldn't we as a society protect them too?
 
This game reminds me of the old shareware "Inner Space", which would let you fly a spaceship into a folder on your hard drive and cleanse it of viruses. You'd see all of your files floating around, and you could either destroy them or absorb them. No actual files were harmed by playing "Inner Space", though.
 
[citation][nom]pbrigido[/nom]I killed 1,203,395 aliens and my computer still works.[/citation]

Seriously? You played it for that long? lol... I think I might have to buy a mac just so I can destroy it with this game. Technically not malware, but almost.
 
[citation][nom]adaman2576[/nom]lol. I wonder if he got an A.[/citation]
I would have given him a PhD for making this.
[citation][nom]njalterio[/nom]This may be a very fun way to delete files for which you do not have access! (guest account)?[/citation]
It does sound like a fun way.
'Runs back to old school and loads game on all Macs'
 
[citation][nom]JWL3[/nom]Absolutely malware. Society has tried making life as insulated and safe as possible and it's a worthy goal. Those of you who say it's the user's own fault for using the program - how would you react to the street safety technician who says "well I'm not going to put side barriers on this bridge, if you drive off the side, it's your own fault. " It's the same analogy. Putting this worthless software out there is endangering people's computer usage and while those people who become victims are darwinian idiots, shouldn't we as a society protect them too?[/citation]
Another real stupid analogy. First off, if this made sense, we'd have to assume everywhere we drive is or walk is protected by 'side barriers'. And we both know for a fact that's not true. So by your shallow assumptions, it's quite evil of the construction company to have left out side barriers on the road I just seen some guy drive off of and crush the front end of his car. Totally 'their' fault, not his, right?

And despite all of this, it's not even close to the same idea either way. A bridge without side rails can lead to DEATH. A game deleting files can lead to an embarrassing technical support phone call, and some lost valuable information for your total lack of reason.

And as far as protecting idiots, it's certainly not this programmers responsibility, my responsibility, or even natures responsibility. There's an old saying that goes something like this;"Survival of the fittest." Unfortunately it's a little hard these days to get yourself killed out of a complete lack of common sense (Though it still happens frequently), so now the world works in different ways. It's not evil or malicious in any way, it's just a fact of life.

Anyone who downloads something so blatantly marked as a virus, ignores their scanners, and opens this file anyways, out of ignorance, deserves to have their computer rendered unusable. This idea couldn't be more simple.

How do you idiots breath without injuring yourselves?
 
Like stated in the past, hackers might find Macs lame to infect and suh but at least this kiddo did it with style along the mac users. Hope they have been enjoying the ride so far 😛
 
[citation][nom]Curnel_D[/nom]Another real (SIC) stupid analogy. First off, if this made sense, we'd have to assume everywhere we drive is (SIC) or walk is protected by 'side barriers'. And we both know for a fact that's not true. So by your shallow assumptions, it's quite evil of the construction company to have left out side barriers on the road I just seen (SIC) some guy drive off of and crush the front end of his car. Totally 'their' fault, not his, right? And despite all of this, it's not even close to the same idea either way. A bridge without side rails can lead to DEATH. A game deleting files can lead to an embarrassing technical support phone call, and some lost valuable information for your total lack of reason.And as far as protecting idiots, it's certainly not this programmers(SIC) responsibility, my responsibility, or even natures(SIC) responsibility. There's an old saying that goes something like this;(SIC)"Survival of the fittest." Unfortunately it's a little hard these days to get yourself killed out of a complete lack of common sense (Though it still happens frequently), so now the world works in different ways. It's not evil or malicious in any way, it's just a fact of life. Anyone who downloads something so blatantly marked as a virus, ignores their scanners, and opens this file anyways, out of ignorance, deserves to have their computer rendered unusable. This idea couldn't be more simple.How do you idiots breath(SIC) without injuring yourselves?[/citation]
So, anyone who has a different opinion than you is an idiot who's too stupid to breathe? That in itself is an absolutely moronic position. Oh, and you should learn to master basic English before calling other people idiots.
 
[citation][nom]webgrunt[/nom]So, anyone who has a different opinion than you is an idiot who's too stupid to breathe? That in itself is an absolutely moronic position. Oh, and you should learn to master basic English before calling other people idiots.[/citation]
You seemed to have missed the idea entirely. It's not an agreeable or disagreeable stance. Someone who thinks that after intentionally downloading and running a clearly marked virus, causing damage done to their computer, blame should be laid on the shoulders of the virus programmer needs a serious lesson in universal common sense.

And I'm terribly sorry (I'm not at all) I don't have time to proof read all of my blog comments. Fortunately, I have way too much crap to do.
 
Not malware, and anyone who thinks that it is clearly does not know what malware actually is. Malware is defined by a program or software that is designed to damage or corrupt the computer without the users knowledge (If you missed it, the key words are "without the users knowledge"). Since he clearly explains with more then enough warnings that it will delete files if you kill aliens, and will delete itself if you get hit by an alien. Also you have too go and find his download for the game, which Im sure has warnings there as well.

The game does bring up an interesting point of a game with real world consequences. I wonder what would happen if you simply sat there and dodge the aliens long enough, does it eventually end and have some kind of message or is it simply a never ending sequence of aliens that is simply set to make the user fail no matter what they do (some what like the real world, and mostly likely college that the student has finally graduated from).

Also the game brings to mind a good statement about society, in the idea that if you are just handed a game (whether or not it will do some kind of damage) that the user assumes that they are suppose to simply destroy the objects on the screen. It shows an absent minded society that must can not think out side of the box too find a different solution (shoot or just dodge until you ultimately fail).

I hope he was given an A (or how ever they grade a thesis...), I congratulate him on a job well done with something that could be seen as simple (an old style alien/ship game) that brings about a new look on the game and more importantly an interesting point about society all together.
 
It's pretty pathetic that you can pass this off as malware. If people are warned and they fail to abide by that warning then they deserve whatever comes to them. Please do not support stupid people. We should let them kill themselves off. Please take warning labels off of everything.
 
[citation][nom]anamaniac[/nom]I would have given him a PhD for making this.It does sound like a fun way.'Runs back to old school and loads game on all Macs'[/citation]
Actually a thesis is usually written as part of your final grade for Masters and Doctoral degrees, so he might very well have earned his PhD from this.
 
A fun little bit of trivia:
Back in the "early days" of computer gaming, when Sierra (many of you will feel fond memories at the word) was on its rise toward temporary dominance, Ken Williams [I believe] wrote a Red Baron type game which, when you died, had the "real life feature" of crashing your computer.
They felt it would give a sense of "urgency" to staying alive & completing your mission.
Not surprisingly...it didn't sell well. 😉
Fun comparison though! :)
 
thats the type of thing I would expect from Fine Arts student...

"woah dude! what if there were like, real life concequences to doing bad things in a game?? *takes another puff* "

If i wanted real life consequences to something I did in a simulation, I'd just do it in real life!! get a job!
 
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