Lose/Lose game deletes files as you play

by Justin McElroy { Sep 30th 2009 at 7:43PM }

Why just waste time playing video games when you could simultaneously be deleting random files off your computer? It's an unasked question that's been answered by Zach Gage and his game Lose/Lose, a top-down shooter that generates aliens based on files in your computer; files that are permanently deleted when said aliens are killed.

As you can see for yourself, it's a wonderful idea, but it's a shame our title suggestion wasn't used: "Play It In The Library." Pity.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Tags: lose-lose, loselose, zach-gage

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Cody @ Sep 30th 2009 7:45PM

Man, I want to play but I don't like losing...

Mr. Manly ESC Mcbeefington Ferguson The Second @ Sep 30th 2009 8:54PM

Strange game,the only winning move is not to play.

Giroro @ Sep 30th 2009 9:45PM

You can also win by tricking someone you hate into playing.

finnith @ Sep 30th 2009 10:20PM

This is how all antivirus software should work.

Easo @ Sep 30th 2009 10:31PM

Talk about obscure reverences, Good job.

benhc911 @ Oct 2nd 2009 10:34PM

It`s crazy how much talk there is of losing, and games on this page... but no one seems to be mentioning The Game... because I just lost it =[

green11420 @ Sep 30th 2009 7:45PM

That's hilarious.

Akamaru @ Sep 30th 2009 10:08PM

best part is if you visit the website, there is a high scores list and near the top are names like Guest and bestbuy

doc j @ Sep 30th 2009 7:46PM

For the anarchists out there, this game loads on the public kiosks in many airports.

Phizzy @ Sep 30th 2009 7:46PM

Won't this get picked up as a virus?

aacman007 @ Sep 30th 2009 7:50PM

It technically is, but it's just like getting AIDS.

If you fuck someone without knowing they have it, that's an unfortunate accident, though still stupid if you didn't use protection. But if you do know, you're gambling greatly, and there's about a 100% chance you'll lose, so you're even more retarded.

Jose @ Sep 30th 2009 8:03PM

Maybe they're not R-word.org, maybe they just like video games (or getting laid) that much!

jantep @ Sep 30th 2009 9:01PM

It's not a computer virus as it doesn't copy its self

Avatar @ Sep 30th 2009 9:28PM

It actually doesn't count as any of the bad things (ie. virus, malware, spyware, or adware) because all of them do what they do without the user's knowledge or permission. By playing the game, you're giving it permission, so you're just a moron for using it.

Phizzy @ Oct 1st 2009 3:04PM

Definitions aside, I was wondering if virus scanners would pick this up as malware, surely an application deleting files at random should be seen as bad, right?

Beforez @ Nov 5th 2009 5:19AM

It is.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10391185-245.html?tag=mncol;title

ALBGunner04 @ Sep 30th 2009 7:48PM

I am too fucking scared to even try it, but I'd love to see the outcome of my system after I lose lol

whylekat @ Sep 30th 2009 9:33PM

Doesn't winning = losing? Soo you wanna win.. I think.

SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Sep 30th 2009 7:48PM

wow that's a really cool concept. don't think i'm man enough to play it though lol. i'm in college and if i lost one of those files, i'd be screwed.

RKN @ Sep 30th 2009 7:48PM

Did anyone ever play that game "Inner Space", released way back in 1995? That game would have you blast away files on your hard drive, each level would be made up of a folder and you collect the files in that folder for credits or blast them away.

The larger your hard drive, the longer the game would take to beat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation:_Inner_Space

Back when I played it when I was 9, you would also blast away viruses in the game, I had thought that I had actually destroyed real viruses that were on my PC. : )

RKN @ Sep 30th 2009 7:50PM

I need to play that game again, I played it way back on a 4gb HDD with few files, let me try to beat that game with a 640gb HDD now! : )

Josh @ Sep 30th 2009 7:51PM

Haha, that's pretty cool.

But this game, Lose/Lose, is pretty um... how should I say it... fucking bullshit.

Seriously, this is going to fuck so many people over. Poor ethics, Zach Gage.

Josh @ Sep 30th 2009 7:54PM

Though visiting the linked site gives me some more insight into the "art game" aspects of this project, I still think releasing this game publicly is going to inadvertently piss off and depress a number people.

sonicspike41 @ Sep 30th 2009 7:57PM

"to inadvertently piss off and depress a number people."

People who don't read all the constant warnings maybe.

Not sure if he put another warning in-game or not, but I should hope so. That way no one could argue that they were sent it by a friend who didn't include the readme or a link to the site.

Eric @ Sep 30th 2009 8:07PM

Inner Space! That was a great game and the first thing I thought of when I saw this.

Josh @ Sep 30th 2009 8:27PM

Yeah, but I can imagine people not believing the warnings. It's just a game, how could it actually destroy my PC? etc.

Geist @ Sep 30th 2009 9:31PM

Then it's their fault they're stupid. It's like posting signs about "Do not jump into the bear pen" and then people jump into the bear pen. You know who's fault it was? Not the zoo.

draco @ Sep 30th 2009 10:17PM

Inner Space was amazing, I played it on my 125mb drive back in the day :)

you can find it in abandonware sites. give it a shot, it was actually a really good game, although unlike lose/lose you never actually destroyed real files, just replicas.

Bjork @ Sep 30th 2009 10:34PM

@Geist
Yeah, but like Sonic said, it's just a game. You remember that game that tells you to stick to the path and go directly to grandma's house? What happens if you do just that? When you get to Grandma, they tell you that you LOSE the game!

Besides, it's just a game, completely different from jumping into a bear pen (which I'd totally do if I was in a game).

xbit @ Oct 1st 2009 8:27AM

Thanks RKN! I came to this thread to ask if anyone remembered that game or what it was called. Good work. :)

I loved Inner Space.

Sarge @ Oct 1st 2009 11:29AM

The version I have / had doesn't work on NTFS-formatted drives. So you could probably play on a FAT16/32 drive. Wonder if you can pick up, say, a flash drive or something.

And yeah, I played that back on my Pentium 166 with a 2GB hard drive. Great concept, and great execution. It was a lot of fun.

Marius @ Sep 30th 2009 7:48PM

So tempted, must resist

aristokrat @ Oct 1st 2009 2:15AM

I am kind of interested in this now that I've found out that it's for Mac. Maybe I'll give it a go next time I have to re-install one of my computers. Figure a fresh install is worth trashing to see what the fallout of a program like this is. If only I could figure out how to save a screenshot from the game right before it crashed.

(01) @ Oct 1st 2009 8:30PM

I'll resist...until my last day of work.

charlie b. @ Sep 30th 2009 7:52PM

all right! time for some work-time fun!

ColossalHat @ Sep 30th 2009 7:53PM

What this guy has developed is malware by all definitions, even if it is disguised as a game. I hope nobody ever gets the idea to sneak this into a big budget game.

Sly (Now equipped with DS!) @ Sep 30th 2009 8:24PM

at least it's malware that you use on purpose. there's no way someone could use this without knowing what it does.

Aguiluz @ Sep 30th 2009 8:42PM

I'm going to report this to AVG as a trojan.

Aguiluz @ Sep 30th 2009 8:44PM

Bah, pack it. It's for MacOS.

Cornelius @ Oct 1st 2009 10:15AM

It's not really disguised. There are warnings all over the site and the game itself.

I'm tempted to load this into a virtual machine just to see how well i do before it borks windows.

sonicspike41 @ Sep 30th 2009 7:53PM

Is it just me, or does the download point to a .zip file that only contains a Mac version of the game? All I saw in the archive was a .app file that in Windows shows up as a folder.

Special Agent Steve @ Sep 30th 2009 8:00PM

Is it just me or do you not like all the porn on your computer?

sonicspike41 @ Sep 30th 2009 8:04PM

I was going to play "see how long you can avoid the aliens, then watch the program delete itself when your ship blows up".

Also, I'd never let my porn get deleted. It's so special I put it in a folder named Joystiq.

Special Agent Steve @ Sep 30th 2009 9:06PM

Nice. I did the same with mine but it's under a folder called:
Spreadsheets 2008.

Hunnter @ Sep 30th 2009 9:29PM

sonicspike41 @ Sep 30th 2009 8:04PM
I only wish that WAS the point of the game.
Survive as long as you can and resist temptation to shoot any ships.
Longer you survive, larger your score.

EXTREME MODE
I guess to fit in with the whole Lose/Lose thing, the higher your score, it will create a file with bits created from a your score to the power of itself.
Even a score of 10 creates a huge number, and a huge file of course.
Score goes up by 1 every 2 seconds.

Maybe this could be the sequel, Lose/Lose/Lose