Sep 30 2009Video Game Deletes Files Off Your Computer
Lose/Lose is a video game created by Zach Gage that plays like a traditional space shooter, but with a twist!
Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted.
Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player's mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land?Why do we assume that because we are given a weapon an awarded for using it, that doing so is right?
I didn't actually bother reading all that because oh I dunno, I WAS TOO BUSY WHIPPING SOME ALIEN ASS! Unfortunately, the bug-eyed bastards got me in the end. Now, what happened to Photoshop?
Zach's Porfolio (game is available for download there)
Thanks to Luciano, who managed to kill all the aliens AND save the princess AND see Samus Aran naked because the man is a damn hero.
Reader Comments
1. frothy - September 30, 2009 12:35 PM
i don't even want any of these dumb system files.
2. ciao - September 30, 2009 12:35 PM
that's insane >>;
3. JADE - September 30, 2009 12:35 PM
Why the hell would you even tempt fate by playing that stupid game.
Mr. Cow ..........will you.......ummm..........will you..........oh I can't say it
4. Dan - September 30, 2009 12:36 PM
its stupid, who would download this....
5. Dishy Dishyington - September 30, 2009 12:39 PM
I just downloaded it! I want to "get it in the end" like GW.
6. ciao - September 30, 2009 12:41 PM
then again...this will be acceptable on every April first.
"hey bob, want to play a neat retro game on your personal business computer? It's so fun, it almost beats bacon"
7. pedo pedro - September 30, 2009 12:42 PM
YAY New Game for the computers at work !!
8. naas - September 30, 2009 12:45 PM
do not want
http://www.sneeko.net/images/gifs1/gmanwindow.gif
9. Neil - September 30, 2009 12:46 PM
Sounds like some publicity whore grasping for attention to me.
10. DF - September 30, 2009 12:48 PM
Zach must be a massive douche
next thing ya know he'll put one out cept with zombies and claim that killing zombies may not be the right thing to do
everyone knows aliens will kill you just as zombies will but with more anal-probing
11. Wade - September 30, 2009 12:52 PM
I wonder if it deletes registry stuff the would suck! have fun totally frackin your computer up
12. Matty - September 30, 2009 1:04 PM
iono.. he has a good point.. i mean when the aliens DO come.. we will probably shoot first.. which will be like deleting important things from earth.. cause ya know.. they are going to blow all your stuff up in return. they prolly just stopped for gas anyway..
13. prank - September 30, 2009 1:07 PM
Send the game to someone you hate/don't like ! And BANG! you mess his/her PC. It's a game to play on others PC not your. OR on a PC before formating it.
14. scurl - September 30, 2009 1:14 PM
pfft..this reminds me of an "artist" explaining why shoving fish into the empty rings from a six pack is art. there's no art, it's just some fey hippie trying to "teach" people right from wrong.
which reminds me of an email i received sometime in the mid 1990's:
"this is a voluntary computer virus, please forward this to everyone you know, then format your hard drive. thank you"
15. JFreezy - September 30, 2009 1:18 PM
I'm going to play this on my work computer! If I play long enough, maybe I will mess up the network and we can all go home early!
16. Hawk - September 30, 2009 1:22 PM
What a great game!! I LOVE playing it on my bosses computer!
...damn aliens are winning too!
17. Pat - September 30, 2009 1:26 PM
I dunno, GW. Was it really responsible of you to provide us with the dowload site for this game?
18. Pat - September 30, 2009 1:26 PM
download*
19. MechanicalApe - September 30, 2009 1:30 PM
noice
20. Dream - September 30, 2009 1:34 PM
Booyeah! Highest Score FTW!!!!!!!!!!
21. Mr. cow - September 30, 2009 1:37 PM
Moo
22. Blastphemer - September 30, 2009 1:51 PM
Instead of deleting random files...maybe this guy could work it out to target internet history & temp files. Porn Invaders!!!
23. dart - September 30, 2009 1:54 PM
I'm actually tempted to play this on a school computer, though I'd probably be expelled.
Useful tool for teaching the unenlightened why you need these things called 'anti-virus programs' and why you don't uninstall them under any circumstances as well.
On top of that - would be funny if there was a boss to defeat that just happened to be the MBR of the drive you installed the game to. Although that might be going a little far...
24. DF - September 30, 2009 2:02 PM
@14
that would be the amish computer virus
http://www.upperregister.com/~charlie/AmishVirus.html
25. Schuenator - September 30, 2009 2:15 PM
Do pieces of your computer start breaking off once you've run out of stuff to delete?
26. Ollie Williams - September 30, 2009 2:21 PM
@23
Anti-virus? Ohhh, you mean those resource-heavy programs Windows users have to buy? Silly mortals.
27. Justina - September 30, 2009 2:21 PM
i just lost the game.
28. Edward Nygma - September 30, 2009 2:26 PM
lol this is a fun way to delete my porn files
29. AminN - September 30, 2009 2:45 PM
HA!!!!
I will FOREVER SOLVE my XENOPHOBIA... With my mighty Windows Vista User Account Control rendering the deletion abilities of this application FUTILE!
30. a dog - September 30, 2009 2:53 PM
@26
nerd
31. M_D - September 30, 2009 3:01 PM
why in the hell would you play this game?
32. MechanicalApe - September 30, 2009 3:59 PM
so, WHO HAS THE HIGH SCORE?!?!
33. MechanicalApe - September 30, 2009 4:01 PM
@27 I LOST THE GAME, TOO :'( lol
34. John - September 30, 2009 4:30 PM
Heres what I got from the creator's review:
"Hi, I'm an emo kid with moderate programming skills who wants to make something that damages computers, and I'm inclined to simplistic political notions. So in order to cause destruction without my program actually being labeled a virus and to make people think I'm totally uber deep with political thoughts and junk, I made this game!"
35. Code - September 30, 2009 4:48 PM
This is the funnest way to format my computer ever!
36. Bob - September 30, 2009 5:09 PM
I want to send this to my jackass roomate
37. College student - September 30, 2009 5:38 PM
What's the point of this game?
Fun way to delete your files???
38. OtterMan - September 30, 2009 7:06 PM
@33 Fuuuhhhhhh I just lost the game twice!
39. Mr. Anderson - September 30, 2009 7:40 PM
I think this is a good idea. Would be fun if you were getting a new computer or something just to play it and see what gets deleted.
40. Mr. Anderson - September 30, 2009 7:48 PM
BTW, is this mac only?
41. Mr. Anderson - September 30, 2009 7:52 PM
OMFG THIS JUST DELETED MY GREEK GEOGRAPHY ESSAY!
42. luciano - September 30, 2009 8:14 PM
well, since nobody suggested, I will - virtual machines, anybody? vmware or ms virtual pc?
43. Colorless Rainbow - September 30, 2009 9:29 PM
lol, it reminds me of that thing from ages ago that opened your cdrom saying there's your cup holder. i think my noob parents actually fell for that and i had to stop them XD
but this game is a little more risky. i mean, they could at least limit the deletion to the temp folder or something...
44. Jaded Icon - October 1, 2009 7:53 AM
This is kind of similar to cyanide pills. You can use it yourself and be suicidal (software wise) or you can give it to someone else and be a murderer (douchebag).
45. Geekofan - October 1, 2009 8:26 AM
Must See!!!
http://alturl.com/obg7
__________________
46. Sotesf - October 2, 2009 6:54 AM
now just make it for virses found on your comp;;;...think of all the fun we can have AFTER we surf shady porn sites
47. shadow6 - October 2, 2009 12:31 PM
how do u exeicute the game i see no exe file?
48. HxCereal - October 2, 2009 6:20 PM
@ 48 you tard.
this is just dumb as hell
49. Yoshi - October 5, 2009 6:12 PM
GRR.. Here I am, thinking this is going to be a windows game. So I create a snapshot of my parallels xp vm and disable profile shared directories then unzip it and it's a mac app... Argh! I haven't got an os x vm...
50. dadoren - October 6, 2009 4:43 PM
I made a game similar to this idea but you were protecting villagers.
I had a warrior run around and kill monsters. each villager was assigned to files in the sub folder. every time a villager died the file would be deleted and if all villagers died or character died your computer would dup every file on your computer and crash it. adding "good time" to all your system files turning them into corrupt or broken links. Unfortunately in testing I ran the bad compiled version and turned my computer into a paper wait (blew up hard drive.) never tried again computers are expensive.
51. Astos - October 23, 2009 3:01 PM
Killing aliens is justifiable, even comendable, because they're different and therefore wrong.