I have been haunted by Mow Ringworld for 25 years.
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I have been haunted by Mow Ringworld for 25 years. You all know it, bargain basement CD based shovelware, marked down to $10, $5, 50c... 'free bird frightener!'.
The game we all saw, but never bought. Last week on a whim I bought an unopened copy on eBay. I resurrected my indigo iMac to play.
And I need to say this clearly before the internet decides I'm joking.
Mow Ringworld is one of the best games ever made.
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And I need to say this clearly before the internet decides I'm joking.
Mow Ringworld is one of the best games ever made.
At first it plays just like you or I remember it looking. You pilot an absurdly overbuilt mower around the inner surface of a ringworld.
The UI is gentle, the progress bars give a dopamine kick, the music is soft and meditative, and the sound of the mower gives surprising insight to its reliability.
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At first it plays just like you or I remember it looking. You pilot an absurdly overbuilt mower around the inner surface of a ringworld.
The UI is gentle, the progress bars give a dopamine kick, the music is soft and meditative, and the sound of the mower gives surprising insight to its reliability.
And the star at the centre burns brightly in ATI Rage 128 flat yellow. No enemies, no timers, no stakes, just fill progress bars and feel relief.
It's meditative, boring even. the kind of thing you'd tab away from to check ICQ.
Then you finish the first loop.
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And the star at the centre burns brightly in ATI Rage 128 flat yellow. No enemies, no timers, no stakes, just fill progress bars and feel relief.
It's meditative, boring even. the kind of thing you'd tab away from to check ICQ.
Then you finish the first loop.
The grass has grown back, but *different*.
It begins to resist. Not mechanically, but *behaviourally*. It grows around you, changes shape, reacts.
Your mower's AI (in that dry slightly apologetic STTNG text) flags anomalies.
The grass communicates with absence, refusal, and coordinated growth.
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The grass has grown back, but *different*.
It begins to resist. Not mechanically, but *behaviourally*. It grows around you, changes shape, reacts.
Your mower's AI (in that dry slightly apologetic STTNG text) flags anomalies.
The grass communicates with absence, refusal, and coordinated growth.
There is no one moment where the game demands you're a coloniser, and must stop.
It doesn't need to.
You suddenly realise you already are. You came with the tools and declared the land empty because it didn't speak your language yet.
Aand now it does.
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There is no one moment where the game demands you're a coloniser, and must stop.
It doesn't need to.
You suddenly realise you already are. You came with the tools and declared the land empty because it didn't speak your language yet.
Aand now it does.
As the game progresses, the grass gains technology - but crucially, only in response to you. no directed conquest, empire or war. Just adaptation.
You mow more, it grows more. Faster, it evolves faster. You upgrade and it organises.
You stop and it spreads to the universe.
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As the game progresses, the grass gains technology - but crucially, only in response to you. no directed conquest, empire or war. Just adaptation.
You mow more, it grows more. Faster, it evolves faster. You upgrade and it organises.
You stop and it spreads to the universe.
The game never offers *you* a good ending.
But the game isn't about you.
The final act is no boss fight or epic final win over lawn. It's a reckoning.
The grass achieves spaceflight, launches starships - becomes warp capable to *leave you behind*.
To deny you the satisfaction of control.
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The game never offers *you* a good ending.
But the game isn't about you.
The final act is no boss fight or epic final win over lawn. It's a reckoning.
The grass achieves spaceflight, launches starships - becomes warp capable to *leave you behind*.
To deny you the satisfaction of control.
The mower's AI has one final line displayed in green Chicago text on a black background in all endings, and it resonated.
"Maintenance incomplete. Ownership unresolved".
I stared at my screen for a long time after that.
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The mower's AI has one final line displayed in green Chicago text on a black background in all endings, and it resonated.
"Maintenance incomplete. Ownership unresolved".
I stared at my screen for a long time after that.
In 2003, Mow Ringworld looked like a joke, a screensaver with delusions of grandeur. You could have just as much fun pretending you piloted flying toasters.
In 2025, it feels uncomfortably precise.
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In 2003, Mow Ringworld looked like a joke, a screensaver with delusions of grandeur. You could have just as much fun pretending you piloted flying toasters.
In 2025, it feels uncomfortably precise.
- Resource extractive systems designed as upkeep.
- Neutral labour enforcing power
- The lie of infinite resources
- The arrogance of thinking adaptation and advancement is a benefit in lieu of consent.No cutscenes, no voice acting, not even an exclamation point in the whole damned game.
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- Resource extractive systems designed as upkeep.
- Neutral labour enforcing power
- The lie of infinite resources
- The arrogance of thinking adaptation and advancement is a benefit in lieu of consent.No cutscenes, no voice acting, not even an exclamation point in the whole damned game.
Best of all, it trusts you to notice.
If you don't, it lets you keep mowing anyway until you have to.
Mow Ringworld walked so Disco Elysium could run.
✭✭✭✭✭
Mow Ringworld
my 2003 game of the year, retroactively. -
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