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Beam: Reflection's 501B open-weight model

https://reflection.ai/blog/introducing-beam
444•Philpax•14h ago•142 comments

Accountability mechanisms can be joyful (2024)

https://liquidbrain.net/blog/accountability-and-joy/
33•luu•2d ago•7 comments

Find the flattest route between any two points in SF

https://flattensf.com/
196•ishan0102•11h ago•70 comments

Dust: Pretraining Transformers Without Backpropagation

https://qlabs.sh/research/dust
183•E-Reverance•12h ago•43 comments

Friendship ended with Deno, now Node is my best friend

https://dbushell.com/2026/10/03/deno-to-node/
163•ibobev•10h ago•89 comments

Opus 5.5 agents discover two room-temperature magnetic semiconductor candidates

https://www.vals.ai/blogs/room-temperature-magnetic-semiconductors
350•outlier99•12h ago•231 comments

Protect Your Friends and Loved Ones

https://ephemeral.cx/2026/07/protect-your-friends-and-loved-ones/
19•speckx•2d ago•4 comments

Web Search API

https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-10-02-introducing-web-search-api/
545•tosh•22h ago•248 comments

Example.com just launched the biggest redesign in decades

https://www.debugbear.com/blog/example-dot-com-redesign-history
218•jgx0•10h ago•138 comments

Resurrecting iChat Audio and Video Conferencing

https://blog.pipetogrep.org/2026/09/11/resurrecting-ichat-audio-and-video-conferencing/
45•thepipetogrep•5h ago•12 comments

Testing 12 different Zigbee temperature/humidity sensors

https://smarthomescene.com/reviews/best-selling-zigbee-temperature-sensors-tested/
110•walrus01•2d ago•49 comments

An algorithmic failure beneath the secret ballot

https://blog.citp.princeton.edu/2026/08/03/an-algorithmic-failure-beneath-the-secret-ballot/
77•leecoursey•2d ago•46 comments

Competitive Programmer's Handbook (2018) [pdf]

https://cses.fi/book/book.pdf
198•vinhnx•2d ago•47 comments

Why Common Lisp is now the best programming language

https://www.vivienhenz.com/common-lisp
155•misterchocolat•6h ago•214 comments

The complement of true is true, except when it's false

https://dryperspective.github.io/posts/complement-of-true/
10•aw1621107•1d ago•1 comments

Global Solar Atlas: summary of solar power potential globally

https://globalsolaratlas.info/
52•stratts•10h ago•34 comments

ChatGPT is adding real cartoonists' signatures to fake New Yorker cartoons

https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/chatgpt-is-adding-real-cartoonists-signatures-to-fake-new-yorke...
428•rdmuser•10h ago•309 comments

Show HN: Photoc – Command-line tools for photographers

https://github.com/ahmetomerv/photoc
33•ahmetomer•2d ago•5 comments

Show HN: Entombed in a Raycaster

https://www.stelabouras.com/blog/entombed-raycaster/
22•stelabouras•2d ago•5 comments

The lamps in my house

https://arslan.io/2026/10/05/the-lamps-in-my-house/
199•farslan•19h ago•89 comments

Ephemeral Testing

https://lemire.me/blog/2026/10/05/ephemeral-testing/
56•ibobev•10h ago•19 comments

DEDA – Tracking Dots Extraction, Decoding and Anonymisation Toolkit

https://github.com/dfd-tud/deda
63•greyface-•1d ago•6 comments

Using A.I. and machine learning to decode communication of sperm whales

https://blue-continuum.com/the-man-who-listens-to-whales
18•dnetesn•1d ago•6 comments

Samon: Designing a Zen Garden Raking Puzzle

https://gwern.net/doc/design/2026-10-03-gwern-samon.html
42•networked•9h ago•20 comments

Apple and a hacker's future

https://stratechery.com/2026/apple-and-a-hackers-future/
256•maguay•23h ago•216 comments

Making a GTK application in Haskell, part 1

https://floreal.tech/blog/2026/making-a-gtk-app-in-haskell-part-1/
156•Vosporos•18h ago•41 comments

Qualcomm licenses patents on Huawei’s LogicFolding chip tech

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-05/qualcomm-licenses-patents-on-huawei-s-logicfol...
190•0xedb•1d ago•125 comments

The first fully implanted cochlear implant reaches patients

https://spectrum.ieee.org/fully-implantable-cochlear-implant
90•rbanffy•4d ago•71 comments

Anthropic reported diary entry to police, woman faces felony charge

https://www.techspot.com/news/114091-florida-woman-used-claude-diary-anthropic-reported-shoot.html
724•emptybits•1d ago•561 comments

Linux containers in 500 lines of code (2016)

https://blog.lizzie.io/linux-containers-in-500-loc.html
125•mkornaukhov•19h ago•29 comments
Open in hackernews

Show HN: Reverse Pac-Man

https://reverse-pacman.staticrun.app/index
78•Eagle64•1y ago
Keep one eye on the first ghost and the other on the second

Comments

brudgers•1y ago
I can't see the whole screen on my laptop, and the screen doesn't scroll.
Eagle64•1y ago
Thanks for the feedback. It is fixed
pmontra•1y ago
It's one of those things that "why did nobody think about it yet?!"
toast0•1y ago
Pac-Man Vs. [1] was a commercial game on this wavelength. I don't think I ever played that one.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Vs.

jaimebuelta•1y ago
I was going to say the same thing. Pac-Man Vs was incredibly fun and a great party game.
thih9•1y ago
Fixed link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Vs%2E

(trailing dot escaped via %2E)

roskelld•1y ago
One Little Ghost (2012) [1] [2] for the ZX81 is one version I only recently found out about. Figured it was worth mentioning here given how impressive it is for a game on the humble ZX81 machine that's well over 40 years old.

[1] https://bobs-stuff.itch.io/one-little-ghost

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq2hOlC97SQ

iorekz•1y ago
genius
Eagle64•1y ago
Haha. I’ll take the compliment.
roskelld•1y ago
Are you planning on adding the power pills to give Pac Man a fighting chance?

Also, I noticed that he often circles around the upper left area a few times at the start even though there are no dots to collect.

Eagle64•1y ago
Good idea ! That will add a new cool dynamic. The behavior of the Pac-Man is to avoid the ghost with some random pattern added. This might happen.
xnx•1y ago
Very cool. Gemini is such a fun tool to do a one-shot MVP of a game like this: https://g.co/gemini/share/7639ee864df7

Gemini wasn't clever enough to disallow ghosts changing directions mid-way, but it did do a smart thing with "pellets remaining" scoring.

Eagle64•1y ago
Really ? Even if you specify that ghosts can turn only at intersections?
xnx•1y ago
I'm sure it could. I was very unspecified with my prompt (below). No doubt it could add sound, etc. as well.

Prompt: Create a game of Pacman with only 2 ghosts. Instead of the player controlling pacman, the player controls the ghosts.

Controls: Ghost 1 (Red): WASD or ZQSD Ghost 2 (Cyan): Arrow Keys

amadeuspagel•1y ago
Awesome. It's mind-bending to control two players. The idea of using arrow keys to control one player and WASD to control another is genius. Maybe you can visualize which is which by coloring the explanatory text.
eesmith•1y ago
I used to solo play 2-player Gauntlet for the PC this way, back around 1990.

In the 1980s it was pretty common to have 2-player games with both players on the same keyboard.

Edit: Spacewar (see https://archive.org/details/msdos_Spacewar_1985) is an example of a two-player-on-one-keyboard game, from 1985.

redbluething•1y ago
Yellow Wizard Needs Food Badly!
chrisweekly•1y ago
Warrior is about to die!

man that takes me back

CloudNetPro•1y ago
Me and my friends used to play 3 player simultaneously in D-Zone. Obviously we had to be kind with each other about space around the keyboard and about key presses. Still one of the best gaming experiences I ever had.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/69231/destruction-zone/

KennedyHere•1y ago
Fun game! From the title, I was expecting to guide Pac-Man to put all the dots back in place.
Eagle64•1y ago
Haha. I haven’t thought of this. That would be a cool other mode
GlassOwAter•1y ago
Poo-Man or Puke-Man
xnx•1y ago
Crap-Man?
vunderba•1y ago
While that would be amusing, mechanically it would be identical to the original game.
derefr•1y ago
Not really. Presume that everything is time-reversed, and the game kills you if you do anything not possible when your playback is flipped around and played "forward." Then:

- Obviously, you "emit" dots and fruit and power pellets as you traverse the grid.

- Less obviously, once you populate a dot/fruit/power pellet onto a grid square, you can't visit that position again — as, if reversed, that'd look like you going over those things without collecting them.

- You'd randomly enter the powered-up state, and you'd then have to visit one of the unpopulated power-pellet grid positions in order to emit the power pellet to get out of that state — before the powered-up-state timer expires. (The power-up-state going on longer than that is invalid!)

- While in the powered-up state, you'd see pairs of ghost eyes unavoidably approaching you; they'd touch you, turn into ghosts, and then flee from you. That's fine. But once they become ghosts and move off of the grid-space you occupy, you can't touch them again.

mtVessel•1y ago
On FF (similar on Edge):

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to reverse-pacman.staticrun.app. PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR

Eagle64•1y ago
Thanks for letting me know. There is a problem with the host. I moved it to itch.io https://themarelle.itch.io/reverse-pac-man
kmoser•1y ago
On Firefox it freezes on the keyboard instructions screen for me. Console shows it requires WebGL. Maybe put a message on screen indicating that?
xnx•1y ago
Would be fun to have dual stick controller support: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Gamepad_API
tantalor•1y ago
You should make it so user can hold down a key to change direction before they reach the intersection, joystick style.

As it is, it feels like you are checking for key press (not key down) in a narrow window when the ghost reaches the intersection. That is very hard to play. It is much more forgiving if I can press and hold the key whenever I want.

Eagle64•1y ago
Thank you for the suggestion. Your wish has been granted. It is definitely better like this.
tantalor•1y ago
Yes! thanks
bentcorner•1y ago
For anyone interested in this style of gameplay mechanic, the game Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/Brothers__A_Tale_o...) uses a twin-stick approach to this, and builds puzzles around controlling two "people".

It's a quick play and the game is pretty good, I recommend experiencing it.

bitwize•1y ago
That game was an emotional journey, man. Very short as these games go, but it hit hard.

And the music was by Gustaf Grefberg, "Lizardking", my favorite oldskool demo musician by a mile.

progforlyfe•1y ago
It's not loading at all for me. Hug of death?
Eagle64•1y ago
Even with this link ? https://themarelle.itch.io/reverse-pac-man
narcindin•1y ago
Reminds me of a demo I played 10 years ago called swap box turbo. Designed for two players, it is a simple platformer where you and your partner swap positions and momentum every 3 seconds.

You can play it single player too and have an experience similar to this.

https://www.freeindiegam.es/2012/12/swap-box-turbo-nifflas/

kazinator•1y ago
The ghosts don't respond to a key until they encounter to an intersection, so that you cannot reverse direction instantly. Maybe there is a deliberate point to that, but it doesn't make it less annoying.
adamiscool8•1y ago
I like the concept but shouldn't the score be counting down? Or am I trying to shepherd Pac-Man into eating as many as possible to get a high score?
lostmsu•1y ago
The game screen is cut on the right when browser window is small.
nprateem•1y ago
This was why I liked opposing force. Give NPCs their own backstory and make them playable.
staticman2•1y ago
Nintendo did something like this with "Pacman vs" for GameCube. The multiplayer gimmick was the players controlling the ghosts couldn't see the entire map and the player controlling Pacman could with a Game Boy Advanced linked to the Gamecube.
thih9•1y ago
The game is also available on nintendo switch and it supports multiplayer with that same gimmick, with two devices.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Vs%2E

vunderba
•
1y ago
I built a dual snake game where you simultaneously control two snakes a while back, perhaps I should do a Show HN about it at some point.

https://specularrealms.itch.io/the-twins-of-caduceus

Fair warning: It's a game made for people who excel at ambidextrous tasks like patting one's head and rubbing one's tummy, or juggling Rubik's cubes that you are also solving.

LocalH•1y ago
Idea for a "challenge mode" on top of that, since this would probably be too hard for casual play:

A series of levels where you are given a score at the beginning. You must find the path around the map that brings your score exactly to zero, using reverse Pac-Man scoring rules (each dot you lay reduces your score by 10, etc). If you reach zero with more dots to lay, or finish laying down all dots without reaching zero, you die (as those would also be invalid states).

Recording input for these challenge runs would be a cool idea too, as you could have the option to watch the run "forwards" for further entertainment. To lessen the difficulty a little bit, the player could even have access to the "forward" version of a run that completes the desired score target (with appropriate bonuses for players who don't utilize the "hint" run).

alnwlsn•1y ago
For that, you want this rom hack/patch

http://48k.ca/bacman.html

mrighele•1y ago
Me too, also because I remember playing that kind of game, on a Creativision, more than 40 years ago [1]

[1] https://archive.org/details/Crazy_Chicky_1981_VTL