When this got slightly popular among my university classmates, new AMD processors on Windows did not have their time counters property synchronized in Virtual Box, causing time in VMs progress at about 2x speed. So with a little setup, my character buffed up 2x faster than my mates'.

I think it was this bug: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/4545

Is there a DOS port? We can up the cycles in dosbox even more!

This is a recent and interesting video about "idle games". That is the classification of this kind of game. They were initially satirical in nature but eventually turned into sad self-satire as it "blossomed" into a real genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7khbIR-WQIw

I still chuckle about Cow Clicker, made by Ian Bogost. It went from Farmville satire to full-blown ironic game because people kept playing it, and even paying microtransactions. It says something about humanity, but I'm not sure what.

http://bogost.com/games/cow_clicker/

It says to me that we struggle for purpose as humans. We don't know what to do with ourselves beyond survival, and we sometimes make elaborate clocks, just indicating the passage of time in a way that resonates. Lots of things can act like clocks, not really shaping us or meaningfully interacting except by providing an aesthetic and an indication that we're moving forward through time. If you're watching episode 90 of a long running TV show that sticks to its formula, that's somewhat clock-like. It's similar to listening to the same album every day, or reading the same arguments on social media.

Idle games don't appeal to me, but I have my time-wasting clock-watching habits, too.

Could it be our hunter-gatherer instinct pulling our legs? Give a toddler a chocolate, and they'll just eat it. Give them a plate with the equivalent in M&Ms and they will enjoy picking them one by one. Hunter-gatherers that got bored fast probably weren't as successful as their obsessive peers.

This reminds me how primates and monkeys seem to enjoy meticulously cleaning other's fur looking for fleas.

Couldn't say, of course, but that's an interesting idea. I think you're right to look to the past for selection pressures that might explain why we are how we are. It's true that a number of tasks we'd need to do in primitive living are low on mental effort over a relatively long time. That could help explain why absent a need, we still want to do similar things.

Thanks to this link I'm now aware of Cookie Clicker and have been 'playing' it for the last couple of hours. I now have no life.

I remember downloading this for Windows, probably not long after the original copyright date of 2001. Who could have predicted how the genre of idle games would explode in the coming years? Truly a trailblazing game, whatever that may say about human beings.

Godville (https://godvillegame.com) seems inspired by it, but taken to 11.

You can play as actively as you want, but you can also close the tab and not return for years, and your character will happily quest/level up/buy/sell/eat/fish/heal/revive/change guilds/get drunk/etc. on its own. IIRC it even allows spending money if that's your thing.

It even has multiplayer duels and dungeons!

I know there's more to this game, but the name reminds me why I stopped playing a certain type of RPG when it started to feel like I was interacting with a complicated spreadsheet interface.

These days I value exploration and story far above chasing stats, and simply increase or decrease difficulty levels to accommodate how much I enjoy the battle systems.

My coworker and I used to run this on our work PCs (which were generally left on 24/7 and rarely rebooted).

It was a delightfully simple "game" and we enjoyed comparing stats.

That coworker has since passed away, and I think of this game every now and then as I reflect on our friendship.

I don't know why it's on Hacker News's front page today, but it brought a smile to my face.

I remember one of my first jobs, I was in this super boring call center job and I installed this on my computer (around 2006), it really help pass the time and I could pull my attention away at any time. Wow what a nostalgic trip, thanks for sharing!

Amazing 3d mode for such a classic game.

I got a new graphics card just to run this game properly in 3d mode, and I have not been disappointed.

Haha, this took me a second. http://progressquest.com/faq.php

> Q: Everybody on the forums is talking about 3D mode, but I can't seem to activate it. Is it all bunk?

> A: The shading around the progress bars and buttons and so on gives them sort of a 3D feel.

The forums were filled with posts like it was a real game.

There were guilds, raid nights, guild drama...and you didn't have to waste time grinding in the game.

Oh man, an oldie, but goodie! It's funny to see the browser version be like the old windows version I remember. I got really hooked on idle games back in the day. Cookie Clicker, Candy Box, and A Dark Room are all great too.

I remember being introduced to this by my friend 18 years ago.

My reaction then was "is that it?", but I couldn't stop staring at the progress bar "executing" various creatures.

procedurally generated auto-adventuring is an underappreciated feature

people listen to podcasts or watch tv in the background while working, but i’d rather have something like this constantly playing…

apart from BQ, similar modes can be found in Everything (incredible screen-saver, or a videostream to beam at a party) and in Fallout Shelter (that I only remember because it got me thinking why isn’t it more prominent)

also reminds me of that self-driving car in GTA V on twitch… those were the days

It was mentioned during the announcement of Fallout Shelter that the adventuring was inspired by Progress Quest: https://youtu.be/P14x1alnaF8?t=5955

I don't know if it's still there after all the drama but #idlerpg on freenode was pretty cool

I can't believe my battle-felon just up n' sold the eel sashimi he managed to score!