Google adventure
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:36 pm
I just discovered that there's an old-fashioned text adventure embedded in the Google search engine...if you know where to look. Yes folks, it's another Google easter egg.
First off, you'll need a browser running on a desktop computer and that browser must have a developer console. Browsers on mobile phones don't seem to have a developer console and I wasn't able to try it on a Mac. Perhaps someone could try it on Safari. Once you've got your browser open, here's how to run it.
Go to the Google home page and search for "adventure game" or "text adventure".
If using Google Chrome, right click on a blank space in the search results, choose Inspect from the shortcut menu and click the Console tab.
If using Firefox, make sure the menu bar is visible and choose Tools > Web Developer > Web Console.
(Incidentally, I couldn't get it working in Internet Explorer, but I only had an old version (version 9).)
When the script asks "Would you like to play a game?", enter "yes" and the game starts.
The two versions play slightly differently. In the Chrome version, some gobbledegook messes up the display and you have to press Enter twice at the end of each command, but you get some graphics along the way. In the Firefox version, the gobbledegook is separated from the text and you only have to press Enter once, but you don't get any graphics. I think this version is nicer, but try playing both.
Although I've entered this topic under "The modern era", the adventure itself is really old school. It has a one-word parser, making it really easy to play. The puzzles are okay, but you can really only GET and USE things. The only redeeming factor of this game is its novelty value.
I'll submit a map and solution in the next day or two. It doesn't have a name or an author, so I'll be calling it "Google adventure".
First off, you'll need a browser running on a desktop computer and that browser must have a developer console. Browsers on mobile phones don't seem to have a developer console and I wasn't able to try it on a Mac. Perhaps someone could try it on Safari. Once you've got your browser open, here's how to run it.
Go to the Google home page and search for "adventure game" or "text adventure".
If using Google Chrome, right click on a blank space in the search results, choose Inspect from the shortcut menu and click the Console tab.
If using Firefox, make sure the menu bar is visible and choose Tools > Web Developer > Web Console.
(Incidentally, I couldn't get it working in Internet Explorer, but I only had an old version (version 9).)
When the script asks "Would you like to play a game?", enter "yes" and the game starts.
The two versions play slightly differently. In the Chrome version, some gobbledegook messes up the display and you have to press Enter twice at the end of each command, but you get some graphics along the way. In the Firefox version, the gobbledegook is separated from the text and you only have to press Enter once, but you don't get any graphics. I think this version is nicer, but try playing both.
Although I've entered this topic under "The modern era", the adventure itself is really old school. It has a one-word parser, making it really easy to play. The puzzles are okay, but you can really only GET and USE things. The only redeeming factor of this game is its novelty value.
I'll submit a map and solution in the next day or two. It doesn't have a name or an author, so I'll be calling it "Google adventure".