Shinobi training

The shinobi/training dataset contains behavioral-only at-home gameplay of Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Sega, 1993) for four CNeuroMod participants (sub-01, sub-02, sub-04, sub-06). It is a companion to the shinobi neuroimaging dataset and is stored as the shinobi/training submodule.

Overview

Before any in-scanner session, participants trained at home on the same three levels as the scanning phase with no imposed regimen — they chose freely which level to play and how often to schedule a session. As an introduction, every participant first played Level-1 at least once: it gradually introduces the core mechanics (moving right, jumping, attacking and avoiding enemies) at an accessible difficulty. Beyond that, the data is intentionally heterogeneous across participants and well suited to studying learning trajectories or individual play styles, on its own or in conjunction with the scanning data.

Game environment

Participants used the same setup as the scanning phase: the CNeuroMod fiber-optic MRI controller described in Harel et al. (2023), running on a console emulator via OpenAI’s gym-retro. Because the game is fully deterministic, only player inputs were recorded, allowing exact reconstruction of each play from the .bk2 files.

Session structure

A training session is an unrestricted collection of .bk2 replays — one file per repetition (a single play of a level from start to completion or loss). There is no fixed session length or level order; participants scheduled sessions freely and chose which level to play each repetition.

Per-subject summary

Subject

Sessions

Reps (Level-1)

Success (Level-1)

Duration (Level-1)

Reps (Level-4)

Success (Level-4)

Duration (Level-4)

Reps (Level-5)

Success (Level-5)

Duration (Level-5)

Reps (Total)

Success (Total)

Duration (Total)

sub-01

53

164

0.616

07:31:27

108

0.361

03:01:36

116

0.741

05:00:33

388

0.582

15:33:36

sub-02

110

263

0.802

12:56:27

288

0.188

10:39:10

51

0.314

02:58:27

602

0.467

26:34:04

sub-04

24

57

0.702

03:56:13

98

0.378

05:33:00

57

0.456

03:13:23

212

0.486

12:42:37

sub-06

15

34

0.500

02:26:04

54

0.093

02:33:39

36

0.250

01:54:04

124

0.250

06:53:46

Total

202

518

0.712

26:50:11

548

0.246

21:47:25

260

0.527

13:06:27

1326

0.483

61:44:04

Reps = total plays of the level; Success = fraction of repetitions that ended in level completion; durations in h:m:s.