dino

I was inspired by a great video of someone using a light sensor and a servo to play chrome://dino, so I decided that it must be pretty easy to make a software version of it!

The script starts the game and then repeatedly takes a screen shot a certain distance ahead of the dino. The screen shot is taken just above the path, so should be a single colour if there are no obstacles coming up. The script then counts the unique colours, and jumps if there is more than one.

Requirements

• Written in AppleScript, so only works on Mac. (I found that AppleScript was the only thing that could open chrome://dino to begin with. I didn’t originally intend on writing it all in AppleScript!)
• The script sends keystrokes and takes screen captures, so needs Accessibility and Screen Recording permissions.
• Uses ImageMagick to calculate on-screen content.

Limitations

• Assumes height of browser Chrome, which is probably only accurate if you have the Bookmarks Bar enabled.
• The capture location (based on window percentage) is probably very brittle.
• Manages to deal with birds, but may need to duck as well.
• Currently has no hope of working when it gets faster.
• Arbitrarily runs for 30 seconds and sends spaces to any active window. Should detect game over.

Why?

Why the hell not?