There's A Whole Video Game Hidden In Google Search
Some video games go to such ridiculous lengths with their Easter eggs that finding them becomes little games of their own. Like playing Red Light, Green Light with mannequins in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3, playing Pong in Mortal Kombat II, or illegal duck racing in Shenmue II. But it turns out that video games aren't the only ones who get a be a Russian nesting doll of fun. Now, Google can lead you into a weird and wonderful world, and all you have to do is type some words in their search bar. And for once, we're not talking about porn.
Google loves to hide little treats for the tech-savvy users in their code, like the well-known tiny dinosaur running game that appears when you can't connect to WiFi in order to distract you from elbow-dropping your laptop out of sheer frustration. But recently, Reddit user u/attempt_number_1 found another, even more elaborate old-school video game Easter egg squirreled away in Google's code. But how do you find it? How do you find anything this day and age? You just have to Google it.
When you type "text adventure" into Google, it'll show a list of old-school text-based adventure games, or MUDs, which is how your ancestors used to play RPGs before Windows invented color. But what you probably didn't know is that the search page itself is a text adventure game. If you open up the page's Java console by hitting Ctrl+Shift+J (or Cmd+Option+J if you're on a Mac), between the scary red text threatening to eat your internet you'll see a simple question: "Would you like to play a game?" Saying yes will start a Google adventure that puts you in the body of the big blue G, on a quest to find "your friends red o, yellow o, blue g, green l," and "the always quirky red e." Which raises so many questions. Are the Google letters sentient? Can they see the filth we're typing in the bar under them? Also, what's with that passive-aggressive dig at e? Sounds like there's some relationship drama between those characters.
What follows is a pretty expansive and tricky puzzler that involves wandering around a Google campus, donning alligator costumes, and a whole lot of quacking. Finishing the game will take you the better part of a half hour, which is quite a long time for something some intern had to put together without expecting anyone to find it. Even better, unlike many other Google Easter eggs, this one doesn't appear to have any actual marketing for Google in it. Though when you finish the game, it does congratulate you by telling you to "get back to work," which is definitely on brand.
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