Art of Memory
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Using Video Games for Memory Palaces

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I was searching around online and found an interesting blog post called Mnemotechnics And Ultima Underworld II. (The author’s blog is here.)

The author of the blog post uses a video game as a virtual memory palace to store some of his personal memories:

You knew this from the beginning but my keep is no physical palace. It’s a Memory Palace, a mental construct used before computers or even printing. Mine is based on the first floor of Lord British’s castle from Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds, a game that was the peak of the Western RPG before Morrowind. In UUII, you play the Avatar, a hero trapped in a castle whilst an enemy invades his world, and who must explore the maze of the basements to find the way out. Consider this, then, a retrospective about the sadly-defunct Ultima series, a discussion of an archaic psychological technique used by mystics since the dawn of time but curiously in abeyance during the modern era, and a pyx about the potential for the things we call games to become more than the structural limitations of engine design.

One of the most interesting items for me is in the comments: using a level editor to create memory journeys. Wikipedia has a list of level editors that might be useful.

I’ve never played UUII, but I did play Ultima IV many years ago. It was very simple by today’s standards but highly enjoyable back then.

If you haven’t used a mind palace before, it’s a mnemonic technique that allows you to store vast amounts of information in your memory. Check out our memory palace tutorial to learn more.

Memory Palace Guide

Learn more about how to use memory palaces.

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Comments

Nicker
Nicker

Funny you should mention this. My friend was reminiscing about playing the sims, I was thinking about creating sims neighbourhood and using them as loci.

Cole
Cole

Great idea!

Melanie
Melanie

My sister used the towns and roads from her Pokemon game as loci

Kabanda
Kabanda

I agree! I play video games quite a bit and have found many of them follow a pre-determined path. I've played them so much, it's easy to lock it in. In fact, I remember maps from Nintendo's Golden Eye. :)

janissary
janissary

that idea has already crossed my mind. i am planing to use the sims to create my foreign language town (as dominic described in his book how to develop a perfect memory). do you think it'going to work?

Josh Cohen
Josh Cohen

Give it a try with a couple hundred words and see how it goes...

Thomas Wong
Thomas Wong

This a great idea. I have been pondering the posibility of using a repeating scrolling landscape that you are familiar with. Using such a landscape seemed logical as it becomes highly familiar. Hadn't considered using map editors though. Interesting.

Levon
Levon

Use minecraft mofos

Stephen Stockard
Stephen Stockard

I spent a lot of time on the game counterstrike during my teens. Now that I'm starting to develop my first memory palaces one of the first couple of places I thought of as very familiar to use were the maps de_dust and de_dust2. I have used these two to create 34 and 50 step journeys, respectively. I used both for my work to remember a complex procedure in operation of a nuclear reactor plant on an aircraft carrier. After less than an hour of studying the procedures I can recall every step in any order simply by mentally walking through the de_dust map.

muhammad
muhammad

i am unable to make any idea out of using loci method so for , i need help how to use it for learning english literatue history and peoms by heart

muhammad
muhammad

i need tips how to use loci method for learning history of english litertaure, it is not making any sense to me so for