Google’s Latest Game? A Hidden "Text Adventure" With Alligators, Ghouls and Cute Ducks

Would you like to play a game?

A user on Reddit has located a "text adventure" hidden behind the scenes of search engine Google, developed, presumably, for funsies. (That is, unless there's some kind of nefarious recruitment message at the end of it. Google's not telling people they're not evil anymore, remember?)

For those who aren’t familiar, these kinds of games describe scenarios and present you with options for your next move. To proceed, you’ll have to write out the direction you’d like to go next, or an action you’d like to take based on specific instructions.

Nifty! The game, however, seems to only take you on a text-based tour of what sounds a lot like the Google campus, which isn’t exactly the most scintillating premise imaginable. Though, you’ll get to "see" some ghouls. Plus, an alligator. Oh, and "cute ducks"!

With just a few clicks of the keyboard, you can embark on the adventure yourself, and witness first-hand how rudimentary role-playing games used to be in the early days of computer technology.

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open Google in Chrome.
2. Search for "text adventure" (but don’t include the quotation marks when you do it).
3. Click ‘CTRL+Shift+J’ on Windows and ‘Command+Option+J’ on Mac.
4. You’ll open up the JavaScript developer console and see a prompt asking: "Would you like to play a game?"
5. Follow the instructions. You’re officially playing, making such wild discoveries as... a crocodile costume.

Enjoy?

Header Image: iStock.com/rvolkan