The cute animal villagers largely enjoy a blissful experience, but a new AI hack has the town feeling that Tom Nook--the raccoon who basically controls the local economy based on bells as currency--is a tyrant who needs to go down. Software engineer Josh Fonseca created this Animal Crossing hack (via Ars Technica), and he explained at length how he pulled it off in the accompanying YouTube video.
But discovering the addresses was only half the problem. When you talk to a villager in Animal Crossing, the game normally displays dialogue instantly. Calling an AI model over the Internet takes several seconds. Willison examined the code and found Fonseca's solution: a watch_dialogue() function that polls memory 10 times per second. When it detects a conversation starting, it immediately writes placeholder text: three dots with hidden pause commands between them, followed by a "Press A to continue" prompt.
It's officially Animal Crocsing season, as the Crocs x Animal Crossing collection is now live and ready to order. Like its other collaborations, Crocs has taken the essence of the Animal Crossing games and applied them to its signature clogs, resulting in a colorful pair of shoes. If you'd like to grab a pair, Crocs is offering its Animal Crossing clogs in both adult women and kids sizes, with pricing varying between the two--$55 for kids, $85 for adults.
Amazon is offering a significant discount on the K.K.'s Concert at the Plaza Lego set, bringing the price down to $34.81 from its original retail of $80, saving buyers over $45. This makes it the only kit currently available at such a substantial discount in the Animal Crossing lineup. With just a limited time for this price drop, it’s a captivating offer for both Lego and Animal Crossing fans.
