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Dr: Ha ha! This one's posesses a death ray.
Dr: But it's defunct.
Dr: I sure hope you can't get it working. HA!
Dr: The tubes are hot young things though - should be useful for this pet project of yours.
Pebble: I'll check. Send the access code.
Dr: Ha, ha ha. One moment.

---- File transfer: |#######################| 100% ----

Dr. Pebble?
Pebble: Yes?
Dr: You are keeping in mind the terms of our agreement?
Pebble: Of course, Dr.
Dr: Splendid!
Dr: Then you don't mind...?
Pebble: Not at all.
Dr: Excellent! I've got a juicy morsel of a story for you.
Dr: I've been festering in this recent heat - the boilers are just down the hall and instill the air quite deeply with the most horrid humidity. But! They let me above ground this afternoon! Isn't that unexpected? I cannot quite fathom the reasoning. It gave me a chance to shake the old bones loose for once. And I saw the most beautiful summer flowers! . . .

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Dr: So much emphasis on miniaturization! Really making me exercise my PhDs; trying to get their money's worth I suppose.
Pebble: But it will still be launched in time?
Dr: Oh yes! Do not fear my dear friend. They have redoubled efforts on the project, and luckily my late colleague bequeathed quite the body of high-quality technical work upon it from his past efforts, pushing us forward even faster.
Pebble: Good.

[Connor]

  i get the sudden feeling i shouldnt be on this page...

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Blinking LED from inside of a custom stack-based virtual machine written in assembler on the CPU of satellite #1. Next comes loading bytecode over USB interface (lower right in picture above). Then comes loading bytecode sent from the jmpserver.

One original source of inspiration for a tiny dash of context:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/9ofT0ImsHK0 (I'd advise muting it, the music is terrible)

[airman4]

this thread is already legendary

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Tidbits of an overview:

• A simulation of satellites roaming another solar system far away.
• Each satellite hosts a simulated CPU and connected peripherals (power controllers, radio modules, solar panel managers, etc.).
• Players interact with the same set of satellites via a terminal on their computer that connects through the jmpserver, which is a satellite itself. The jmpserver acts as a network gateway to the far off machines.
• The embedded operating systems running on the satellites have exploitable bugs. Satellites can be taken control of through the interfaces they expose to the players over their network connections. Exploitation may be as simple as guessing a password to use the functionality already built into the host satellite control system, or as complex as finding bugs allowing remote code execution that completely changes the operation of a satellite.
• As a sandbox, anything goes. For example: A virus may rage across the entire network and send all infected satellites to a fiery deathspin through some atmosphere. Or players could hack satellites to act as bulletin board systems that other players can connect to and chat over.
• And who knows, maybe some of the satellites are real...

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The context here ("how the player will explore it" below) is that this is not your traditional graphics-based game, nor a wholly text-based game, or a mix with ASCII art. It's a world you interact with through programming, and through hacking. The implementation as I see it would present the player with a terminal window showing that a connection has been made over the internet to some BBS-esque software called "SatOS" (explained below). Through poking around the player comes to the realization that they are interacting with a satellite in space. Eventually they realize it's in far off space, not around earth. Even later they realize there are many more satellites and a large immersive procedurally-generated world to interact with. With luck they discover that the satellite has an accurately emulated microprocessor and SatOS can be legitimately hacked (because it is not some contrived interface put forth by the game, but actual software running on this imaginary system), allowing indirect access to other satellites, information embedded in satellites, sensors on satellites (like cameras!), propulsion systems, and etc.

Here's excerpts from chats I had with a friend about the idea. These were early ruminations.

So here's the overarching, no-secrets-held-back story. Keep in mind how the player will explore it though.
There is a planet that is inhabited by the Old.
They are animals like humans that are smart and use technology to make progress
But on their world, for millennium, they've encountered a limit
when they develop certain technologies they are wiped out. missiles fall from the skies across the world and burn their civilization down
the limits are very specific. if they develop weapons of mass destruction, vessels for space travel, or technologies that deplete the resources of their world they are hit by catastrophe from above
the Old have learned over a long stretch of time, and occasionally relearn, the entities that enforce these limits on them
whenever they reach the stage where they are capable of sending objects into space they encounter the implements used. machines in high orbits above the planet, containing technologies so advanced they seem to be magic.
these machines are what enforces the limits. they were placed there by the New to watch over the Old
the player enters in a unique segment of this cyclic history
their own origin is unexplained, but it could be assumed for all intents and purposes that they are who-they-really-are, a human being who is exploring a world using human technology

==== I like their names. ====
the Old and the New? me too. i'm thinking about it like it's a loose metaphor for humanity
the New left the planet for something better out in space
but they left some on the planet with machines to watch over them. keeping their origin safe
maybe they are sentimental, or maybe they want a source of themselves that is untainted by the change they've created. one that can take another shot if the New discover their path is the wrong path
the stuff from before stays basically the same though. the Old sent up satellites every time they reached a Space Age. then they were destroyed, but the satellites stayed up there

the Old had a few golden ages. where they pushed the technological boundary but purposefully not far enough to be destroyed. at the end of one of those golden ages they put together everything needed to escape. they developed tech just far enough to be able to attack the machines of the New
they put everything in place and then one day coordinated a world-wide attack
launching missiles at each of the machines, which they had been carefully tracking for years leading up to this day
they knew that the machines would probably be quick enough to send down death upon them before being hit, but there goal wasn't to escape themselves. they only wanted to free the next generation, or the next generation able to reach space
so their attack did fail, but one of the missiles got through. it smashed directly into one of the New Machines at the same time retaliatory fires were raging across the civilization on the planet below. after the explosion the machine remained, but with a visible chink in it's external surface
i'm going to put that chink into one of the machines of the new in the game for the player to find
to show that the machines aren't completely indestructable
one thing i'll let the player eventually decide is whether to free the Old

there is a ton of space junk up there because the Old send more up every time they reach a Space Age
but I could spend my whole life designing each piece of junk up there. adding components and writing software for each satellite. so i need to generate an arbitrary amount of the junked / filler satellites procedurally
that's easy for the structure and most aspects of the satellites because I can just make a couple of base components and then stick them together randomly. like solar panels and radars and cameras and etc
but it's hard for the software inside of the satellites. because they have those fully programmable computers. you would expect that the software would vary a lot between the satellites, because they come from different ages and were made by different factions within the Old
it's waaaay too difficult (pretty much impossible as far as I can think) to procedurally generate unique software for this
but i thought of an excuse not to
the latest generation of the Old to reach the Space Age, the one that is currently on the planet's surface when the player gets caught up in things, has a unique problem
there is so much stuff up in orbit from past efforts that Kessler Syndrome is in effect
Kessler Syndrome is a real thing in our world. There's a certain critical level of space debris. if you add any more debris after that point you cause a cascading chain reaction. where the stuff up there smashes together and makes more high velocity bits and eventually all of the low orbits are giant meatgrinders
and it effectively shuts down access to space for all of humanity for hundreds of years
that is about to occur for the Old
so they were smart and didn't send up new stuff
instead they wrote what is effectively a virus: SatOS
it takes over any satellite it can and puts it under centralized control
so the Old can use the satellites of past generations for their own use. recycling and getting around Kessler Syndrome
so now I can procedurally generate as many satellites as I want and just slap SatOS on them and be internally consistent with the story
and then there will be just a few pieces of space junk that have unique programming because they are integral to the story in their strangeness

[poe]

This is awesome

[SoulSharer]

wtf is going on in here guys?

...

guys??

Must... resist... analyzing...

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This is awesome

Thanks

wtf is going on in here guys?

...

guys??

Must... resist... analyzing...

Ask me questions if you're confused! I'd be happy to answer them.

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The New and the Old, The High and the Low.

The wise, mature machines of the New stay in orbit for millennia, watching quietly over the lives of their many charges. Those Old below are impulsive and rash.

Uncomprehendingly moving about under adolescent motivations, the Old are constantly at odds. We join their story in an epoch of immense divide. One small group holds the knowledge and power, the other the greater heart and stronger desire. Technology on high, life down low.

The High, in their arrogance, underestimate the Low. Awash in the offal cast off in the rush for becoming new, the Low find the resources necessary to make a counterclaim for the resources of their world. A growing band amongst them chooses to fight back rather than accept the status quo.

Finding their position threatened, the progressive High throw themselves deeper into their rush for technological development. But unbeknownst to them, the future does not just hold the promise of machines for greater control.

The New inhabit the future, and the Old, the past.


Out of dramatic space-land, here is what is going on. I have a summer ahead of me to devote to this project. I am building the space machines of the Old. For the numerous and beaten-down Low will be satellites made of refuse. Whatever junk I can find in my small rural hometown will go into their construction. Bits from old farm machinery and consumer electronics thrown in the trash. With the computerization of that hardware I will launch them into this fictional context that I am creating.

For the advanced but outnumbered High will be a few beautifully crafted (with luck) satellites and other devices destined for orbit. Milled out of high-grade metals and gifted substantial computing, sensing, and communication resources these machines will represent the other side of what I am capable of creating. Born of mathematics and physics rather than gut and intuition.

Upon my return to where I am currently, at the end of the summer, I will shift my focus to the code that will scoop the world of the New and the Old out of my head and into the net, where it can be explored by other people. While at first the physical satellites will exist and operate around me, I hope in time to open their possession to others with interest in my silliness. The machines of the High will go at great cost, in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. The machines of the Old will leave for free, in the form of the engineering designs and source code needed to make them real out of materials on hand.

The goal is to mirror the virtual world of the New and the Old, and the High and the Low, in our world. It is a thinly veiled attempt to comment on the themes I have found interesting in my experience in engineering and on the Internet.