Google adventure

[Garry]

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".

[Alastair]

An interesting find, unless you were told I can't imagine how you found it.

For the record, with SeaMonkey I had better success using the "Chrome method" rather than the "Firefox" one, despite SeaMonkey having a Mozilla browser. (It probably goes without saying that I also had to disable both NoScript and uBlock Origin to get it to work.)

[Garry]

One of the blokes at work found it in an article on lifehacker and it's mentioned in a Wikipedia article on Google's easter eggs. A search for "Google Easter eggs" may find some other references.

[Gunness]

Sounds fun but I can't get it to work - neither in FF nor in Chrome. I have tried searching for adventure game and text adventure in both browsers, but the console doesn't ask me if I want to play a game.

[Garry]

Did you search from the Google home page? It won't work with another search engine like Yahoo or Bing. Are you sure you're displaying the developer's console? Other than that, I can't think what to try.

[Gunness]

Yes, Google.com (though it redirects me to our localized version - maybe that's the culprit). Looking in the dev console, and there's nothing happening. Oh well...

[Alastair]

Yes, Google.com (though it redirects me to our localized version - maybe that's the culprit). Looking in the dev console, and there's nothing happening. Oh well...

It works with www.google.co.uk, perhaps it's restricted to the English language Google sites.

[Gunness]

Well, I'mm find somewhere to test it when I'm in the U.S.

[Dethmunk]

I know this was posted a looooonnnnng time ago... but I can confirm it still works! LOL. How the hell did anyone find that? Kudos to them and Google for leaving it in there.