Bryan Cantrill • 5/25/2026

A portentous reunion

The author recounts attending their 30th college reunion, noting a pervasive anxiety among peers about AI's impact on the future, especially for their young adult children. Amidst this, they share a nostalgic story about creating a two-player Tetris game called BattleTris in 1993, using a null-modem cable for networking. The game, inspired by Wesleyan Tetris, allowed players to buy weapons to sabotage opponents. It became a hit with suitemates and later served as a final project for a software engineering class in 1994. The article blends personal history with tech nostalgia and current AI concerns.

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#artificial intelligence #llm #game development