A Real Fish Plays A Videogame Live

The red betta fish known as Grayson Hooper has been playing a version of the first popular Pokémon videogame for nearly six days now, and he's not due to stop anytime soon.

What keeps Grayson going may be the fact that over 44,000 people have recently clicked their way to the "Fish Plays Pokémon" Twitch online streaming channel just to watch him play a computer version of the classic Pokémon Red in real time.

It could also be that Grayson is completely unaware of what he is doing.

Patrick Facheris and Catherine Moresco, the inventors of Fish Plays Pokémon, say that they set up the idea in about 24 hours of hacking and coding as a project for HackNY - a program through New York University and Columbia that aims to help facilitate and "federate the next generation of hackers for the innovative community."

And Fish Plays Pokémon is simple enough. Grayson, a red Siamese fighting fish, lives in a small-but-clean tank by himself. A camera complete with motion tracking software follows his every move, and each corner of the tank has been chosen to represent a different part of the traditional Game Boy controls.

In this way, even while he's minding his own business, Grayson is unwittingly guiding a pixilated character through the complex Pokémon world.

Watching Grayson can be frustratingly slow. In my short time watching the Twitch stream, Grayson managed to bump into the same table about 20 times. Eventually, the fish directed the character up some stairs - straight into another dead end.

Shockingly, according to the owners, Grayson's random swimming HAS managed to progress the game in a "million monkeys on typewriters" kind of luck.

"Last time I checked, Grayson had acquired his first Pokémon, a charmanderr named AAAABBK and defeated his first opponent, the rival's squirtle!" Facheris recently posted on the Twitch page.

Grayson sometimes is seen floating at the top of the tank, just below the water's surface or at the bottom of the tank, but his owners tell viewers not to worry. "He just sleeps sometimes."

When fish are ill, they tend to lose their ability to maintain buoyancy, floating to the top of a tank. However, when this occurs they also tend to not stay righted, tilting to one side or another. Grayson, on the other hand, appears perfectly steady.

Still, if you're worried about Grayson's health, his owners assure us that he will be moving in a few weeks to a more comfortable home, complete with a nighttime lamp for the fish's late night fans.