When your whole life is tuned in to the world wide web, nothing’s more irritating than the internet cutting out. The barrage of notifications advising you that you’ve lost connection, paired with blank screen after blank screen, is enough to send you over the edge. We have, however, come up with one teeny tiny good point about the internet letting you down that helps to soften the blow. We are, of course, talking about the Chrome Dino.
If you’ve taken up residence under a rock over the past few years, or have simply never realised that the cute little dinosaur illustration can actually move, then let us enlighten you. When the Chrome browser can no longer connect to the internet, users are presented with an endless runner game featuring a cute little T-Rex dinosaur. You may not at first glance know that the dinosaur is a game, but when you hit the space bar suddenly the T-Rex jumps, the floor starts moving, and off you go. Once you’re off, the controls are simple – hit the space bar to jump over the cacti, or the down arrow to duck under flying obstacles.
Google Chrome turns 10
Now, with the Google Chrome browser celebrating its 10th birthday, Google has released a few more little tidbits of information around the inception of its famous little dino friend, as well as how popular it has now become. Chrome designer Sebastien Gabriel let slip that the dinosaur theme was a play on the ‘prehistoric ages’ of Wi-Fi-less internet – dark old days when people weren’t able to be constantly connected to the web via every device on their person.
Now that we are, however, it’s given people across the world more and more opportunity to engage with this game. Edward Jung, a Chrome UX engineer, said that 270 million games are played each month, covering both desktop and mobile devices. Most of these games occur in countries and markets that suffer with expensive or unreliable data – India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico were some of those name dropped.
So, how do we play?!
Now we’ve got you all hyped up and excited, willing your internet provider to lose service for the first time ever. But don’t fret, the wait is, in fact, over. If you want to try playing the Chrome dino game for yourself then you don’t have to wait for your internet to fail you – you can just open chrome://dino in your web browser. Just like magic, you’ll be transported to a window where you can get a dinosaur jumping and ducking till your heart’s content.
Play soon to make the most of the dinosaur game’s 4th birthday celebration version; keep an eye out for a few cheeky birthday cakes and balloons mixed in with the usual obstacles. You’re just one space bar click away from endless fun. Just don’t let your boss catch you.
