Google Text Adventure Easter Egg is a Blast From the Distant Past. Mid Atlantic Consulting APP review today.

Google Text Adventure Easter Egg is a Blast From the Distant Past

October 01, 2018 by RSS Feed

Way back in the day (I’m talking ’70’s, early ’80’s) there weren’t many computer games that existed and even fewer that anyone had access to. However, if you were lucky enough to have access to a “mini computer”, and even luckier to have extended access, then you could get lost in a text-based adventure game.

These games generally were accessed by typing the name of the program, Adventure, into your ASR33 teletype console and then by using text commands you could move around the space, find objects, pick up objects, and use objects to find more objects (such as keys to open doors to find treasure).

There were no graphics, just bare-bones descriptions and lots of imagination. Oh, and also strategies for not looping in circles (leave breadcrumbs of objects you didn’t think you needed) and figuring out where you were and what the space looked like (drawing maps).

Those days are long gone (for better for worse) and now not only do all computer/phone games have graphics but the graphics are quickly getting to a level of quality and sophistication that gets them ever closer to being indistinguishable from reality.

But I digress. While there are some excellent text adventure games on both Android and iOS (I’m looking at you “A Dark Room” and “Lifeline”) Google has made one available via your browser if you know how to find it. It’s simply called Text Adventure. Here’s the secret; open a compatible browser (Chrome or Firefox. From Chrome click View/Developer/JavaScript Console. From Firefox click Tools/Web Developer/Web Console).

Once the console opens you’ll get some warnings not to copy and pasted anything into the console and then you’re asked if you would like to play a game. Type “yes” and you’re on your way. You’ll see a list of the commands available (north, south, east, west, up, down, grab, why, inventory, use, help, exits, map, and friends) and the initial setting for the adventure:

A strange tingle trickles across your skin. You feel lightheaded and sit down. Feeling better you stand up again and notice your reflection in a window. You are still the same big blue G you’ve always been and you can’t help but smile. But wait! Where are your friends red o, yellow o, blue g, green l, and the always quirky red e?

You see a statue of a metal man peeking out of a building. A park is just across the street. Possible exits: north.

Enjoy!

Text Adventure requires a compatible browser.