An MIT biotechnology researcher has been able to run the iconic computer game Condemn using real gut bacteria. Lauren Ramlan didn't make the game run with a digital simulation of bacteria, she instead turned real bacteria into pixels to show the 30-year FPS. as reported by Rock paper shotgun.
Specifically, Ramlan created a display inside a cell wall made entirely of E. coli bacteria. The 32×48 1-bit display may not win any resolution awards, but who cares, right? Is Condemn running on bacteria. The researcher dosed the bacteria with fluorescent proteins so that they lit up like digital pixels.
There are a couple of caveats here. First of all, bacteria aren't actually running the game, since we haven't figured out that whole “injecting biological matter with digital code” thing yet. Instead, the bacteria combine to act as a tiny monitor showing gameplay of the beloved shooter.
Additionally, there is the issue of frame rate, which is always an important metric when considering FPS games. To be frank, the frame rate is atrocious, probably due to the fact that Bacteria was never intended to display 3D video games. The bacteria take 70 minutes to illuminate a frame of the game and another eight hours to return to their initial state. This translates to almost nine hours per frame, meaning it would take around 600 years to play from start to finish. That's even worse than Cyberpunk 2077 at launch.
So while this won't present the smoothest gaming experience, it's still a pretty clever idea. Furthermore, he further proves the theory that Condemn can work with almost anything. We have seen the game running on pregnancy tests, rat brain neurons and even within other titles, such as the sequel Bane II and Minecraft. Condemn It is the great equalizer. May it continue to surprise us for the next 30 years.
