Arcade-Learning-Environment

The Arcade Learning Environment (ALE) -- a platform for AI research.

See http://www.arcadelearningenvironment.org for details.

On mac, follow below to get it started:

• cd $Arcade-Learning-Environment
• build the binaries: cp makefile.mac Makefile
• create a roms directory in ALE:: mkdir roms
• Download ROMS from internet, e.g., here, unzip it.
• You have a hierarcy of files like this:

    HARMONY CART ROMS
      1977-1992 NTSC VERSIONs ..
      Garfield.txt
      ROMS SORTED BY ALBHABET
        A-G
          3-D Tic-Tac-Toe.bin
          Acid Drop (PAL).bin
          ...
          Alien.bin
          ... 

• copy a sample ROM file to our $Arcade-Learning-Environment/ROMS cp ~/Downloads/Roms/HARMONY\ CART\ ROMS/ROMS\ SORTED\ BY\ ALBHABET/A-G/Alien.bin ./roms/alien.bin. Note the target rom file name is hard coded.
• Find other supported games and the corresponding rom names here.
• Run ALE:

./ale -player_agent random_agent ./roms/alien.bin
A.L.E: Arcade Learning Environment (version 0.4)
[Powered by Stella]
Use -help for help screen.
Game console created:
  ROM file:  ./roms/alien.bin
  Cart Name: Alien (1982) (20th Century Fox)
  Cart MD5:  f1a0a23e6464d954e3a9579c4ccd01c8
  Display Format:  AUTO-DETECT ==> NTSC
  ROM Size:        4096
  Bankswitch Type: AUTO-DETECT ==> 4K

Running ROM file...
Random Seed: Time
Game will be controlled by an internal agent.
Episode 1 ended, score: 70
Episode 2 ended, score: 100
Episode 3 ended, score: 110
Episode 4 ended, score: 90

• To display the game screen, install libsdl: brew install sdl sdl_gfx sdl_image
• Set USE_SDL=1 in the ALE makefile. See the last page of ALE manual] for details.
• Re-build make clean; make
• ./ale -player_agent random_agent -display_screen true roms/alien.bin to run with screen on.