The way I see it is you’re the Simon says machine and the computer is the player. It is expecting the sudo prompt. Asking me is more like do you want XXX Y/n:
Basically it’s broken right now. You can try and fix it and it will either work (yay) or not (so just like now) you have nothing to lose. Worst case you tried something new and learned things!!!
You could potentially modify a game to work with those cards. Making cards able to change state or add extra states (that would usually be extra cards) to a single screen. I like your idea. Maybe the idea would not be a retro fitting but a ground up new mechanics for the mage?