The Wi-Fi at the coffee shop I work out of most mornings is, like most public internet hotspots, patchy and prone to temporarily ‘drop out’.
We’ve already seen how Google plans to make intermittent connectivity issues less of a hindrance through cache page loading malarkey.
Helpful as this may be the latest Canary builds of Google Chrome comes with a little extra sweetener. Hidden within the browser’s new-look ‘Network Error’ page is a cute, endless running game. It even features the ‘lonely t-rex’ character used to illustrate the browser’s error pages.
This button-mashing game certainly helps me channel my frustration pass the time while I wait for the network to solve itself. If you use Chrome Canary on Windows or Mac (or run Chromium from trunk on Linux) here’s how you can try it.
How to Play The Endless T-Rex Runner Game in Chrome
Turn off your Wi-Fi connection (or use the developer tools in Chrome to simulate this). Then, open a new tab and load up a website. You’ll see the standard (though redesigned) Network Error page, topped by the lonely T-Rex glyph created by Google designer Sebastien Gabriel.
Typically at this point you’d close the tab and tut loudly, gesturing for the nearest barista to go and reboot the router. Instead, tap the space bar on your keyboard.
The lonely T-Rex at the top of the page will suddenly bounce. A stretch of land will appear before him. And then…he’ll start running.
Like other endless runner games the goal is simple: run as far as you can, for as long as you can, until you crash. You’ll need to keep mashing the space bar on your keyboard to help the T-Rex clear the conveyor belt of variously spaced, differently sized cacti.
Every 100 points marker is punctuated by a screeching high score blip.
As hidden novelties go, this is a welcome one. A fun way to fill in idle time.
