xkcd: Escape Speed

73 points by benley 3 years ago | 23 comments

mikecoles 3 years ago |

On my, under-powered, desktop, the tab crashed. Has anyone made/extracted a map yet?

Found these items before my tab crashed: a pretty leaf, a secret glade, a holographic Charizard business card, 11 squares packed into a larger square, an orb wren, a tumbleweed, a marsh wren, a DVD of The Core (2003), a broken smoke machine, The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing , an archive of every published Animorphs book, a sunken treasure, an asterisk, a satisfying set of waves, a secret leaf, a stick, a sterile neutrino, a pair of squirrel goggles, a steam calliope, a dna base pair, an eye in the sky

It was a fun excursion.

prometheon1 3 years ago | |

You found a lot more than me! Mine are:

-a cool bug

-a pretty leaf

-a rock with neat stripes

-a friendly jumping spider

-a hot dog

-a normal-sized apple

EDIT: ok this was fun:

- The Long Now Foundation's archive of every Animorphs book

- a broken smoke machine

- a first of its kind

- two Andalites, one canonical

- a friend

- baby shoes (and baby)

- a baby hedgehog

- a tiny pteranodon

- a piece of coronium (iron)

- a hydrogen ion

- a piece of pumice

- a sparkling gem

- some tin from the pantai remis mine

- a whale shark

- the Principality of Sealand

- some microbial life

mlok 3 years ago | | |

This is what I got (after 2 days) :

You've found:

    a cool bug
    a pretty leaf
    a secret glade
    a DVD of The Core (2003)
    a glass of heavy water
    a sixth lagrange point
    a 5G seagull
    a sensible cheese platter
    a swatch pop-out wristwatch
    a relativistic bowling ball
    $30 in Yahoo
    a brightly-lit billboard
    a hot dog
    a normal-sized apple
    a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero
    the gold crown Archimedes stole
    a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name
    a smooth green snake
    an eye in the sky
    a dna base pair
    a steam calliope
    a sterile neutrino
    a secret leaf
    a stick
    a large hadron
    an asterisk
    a sunken treasure
    a strangely heavy subway token
    a podcast episode
    a friendly bee
    a spiral-cut diamond
    a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
    a burrito
    a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
    a scroll lock key
    a primordial black hole
    a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation
    a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
    a single caffeine molecule
    two Andalites, one canonical
    baby shoes (and baby)
    a friend
    an icosahedral d10
    a piece of pumice
    the Principality of Sealand
    a whale shark
    a sparkling gem
    some tin from the pantai remis mine
    a rock with neat stripes
    an orb wren
    a marsh wren
    a single grain of salt
    a holographic Charizard business card
    Voyager 1
    a wayward Roomba full of moondust
    a curious humboldt squid
    a bathyscaphe
    a delicate music box
    a spider-silk scarf
    a friendly jumping spider
    a friendly cat
    a first of its kind
    a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching
    a really cool data point
    a block of scandium
    a beige electron
    11 squares packed into a larger square
    a piece of space shuttle food
    the 3 million point line
    a sunspot
    Voyager 2
    a baby hedgehog
    a tiny pteranodon
    a guitar pick
    a pair of squirrel goggles
    some microbial life
    a hydrogen ion
    a piece of coronium (iron)
    a broken smoke machine
    The Long Now Foundation's archive of every Animorphs book
    the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram

(And reached the ends)

Arrath 3 years ago |

Well this is fun. There's a lot out there once you figure out how to get off of Origin.

Pxtl 3 years ago |

I played too much of this. Got enough upgrades that I could fly out of the chasm without cheating using the cracks and collision bugs.

https://rot13.com/

Tbg bhg gb gur rkgrevbe fhesnpr... gurer'f whfg grkg bhg gurer gung fnlf "GUR RAQ GUR RAQ GUR RAQ". Qbrfa'g frrz gb or nalguvat ryfr bhg gurer.

edit: there's more after that.

kathysgeek 3 years ago |

I played for quite a while and found a dozen different worlds. Hitting the outer ring at speed usually ends up trapped but one time it followed a crack to the outside. This was a high gravity area and it could only scoot along the surface. Eventually there was a drop off and while plummeting chrome crashed. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

FalconSensei 3 years ago |

I would just love to have a map, even if it only shows places you already discovered. I guess my sense of direction is too bad and I just got too lost to keep playing after getting off of origin

BugsJustFindMe 3 years ago |

It doesn't work for me in Brave on macOS. Holding the up arrow just flickers the thruster and the ship doesn't go anywhere. I had to switch to Safari to get it to work.

benley 3 years ago | |

We're looking into this, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to fix. You probably ought to use Safari/Firefox/Chrome for now, sorry.

Arrath 3 years ago | | |

FWIW on Chrome/Windows it took me a refresh of the page to get everything to properly load or render, it was a blank starscape until then.

E: I managed to crash the tab while bumping along the 'border' of the playable zone!

Error code: SBOX_FATAL_MEMORY_EXCEEDED

Doing so lost all my found items :(

gala8y 3 years ago |

"Welcome back. We saved your progress." after F5 is hideous, when you are stuck inside gravity well of some large planet.

benley 3 years ago | |

Click the home button in the lower right of the frame, it will reset your position!

gala8y 3 years ago | | |

Yeah, thx, I got it. I just thought that this 'hidious' feature was actually funny when I first tried to reset the game.

willcipriano 3 years ago |

How do you get off origin?

https://rot13.com/ - for spoilers.

fifilura 3 years ago | |

Nppryrengr jura lbh ner ng gur pber bs bevtva. Lbh ragre gur pber guebhtu gur ebyyre pbnfgre, be orarngu gur Fg Ybhvf nep.

Pxtl 3 years ago | |

Vaivfvoyr jnyy haqre gur ebyyre pbnfgre, tvirf n cvcryvar geubhtu bevtva gb gur bgure fvqr. Sybbe vg gb gur bgure fvqr naq lbh trg rfpncr irybpvgl.

mhink 3 years ago | |

vairfgvtngr gur nepu pnershyyl.

It took me a little while to realize. :)

willcipriano 3 years ago | | |

Didn't go far enough. I was creeping along the surface looking for a pickup because it said something about finding a warp drive.

sargstuff 3 years ago |

Is an 'escape speed' even possible without a square girlfriend?

Pxtl 3 years ago |

Found 78 items so far. Then it crashed and I lost all my progress.

sliken 3 years ago | |

Mine crashed, lost none of my found items, but lost all the efficiency, tank size, and thrust improvements. To make it worse they were still missing from the world so I couldn't find them again.

Pxtl 3 years ago | | |

Ick. I think the save game functionality is a bit buggy. I wish they'd just have an option to base64 the whole state (findings, upgrades, location, facing, and velocity) into a URL parameter so you could just save the game as a shareable URL.

Pxtl 3 years ago |

Seems to work best in Firefox.

a cool bug a pretty leaf a secret glade a DVD of The Core (2003) a glass of heavy water a sixth lagrange point a 5G seagull a sensible cheese platter a swatch pop-out wristwatch a relativistic bowling ball $30 in Yahoo a brightly-lit billboard a hot dog a normal-sized apple a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero the gold crown Archimedes stole a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name a smooth green snake an eye in the sky a dna base pair a steam calliope a sterile neutrino a secret leaf a stick a large hadron an asterisk a sunken treasure a strangely heavy subway token a podcast episode a friendly bee a spiral-cut diamond a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz a burrito a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side a scroll lock key a primordial black hole a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito a single caffeine molecule two Andalites, one canonical baby shoes (and baby) a friend an icosahedral d10 a piece of pumice the Principality of Sealand a whale shark a sparkling gem some tin from the pantai remis mine a rock with neat stripes an orb wren a marsh wren a single grain of salt a holographic Charizard business card Voyager 1 a wayward Roomba full of moondust a curious humboldt squid a bathyscaphe a delicate music box a spider-silk scarf a friendly jumping spider a friendly cat a first of its kind a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching a really cool data point a block of scandium a beige electron 11 squares packed into a larger square a piece of space shuttle food the 3 million point line a sunspot Voyager 2 a baby hedgehog a tiny pteranodon a guitar pick a pair of squirrel goggles some microbial life a hydrogen ion a piece of coronium (iron) a broken smoke machine The Long Now Foundation's archive of every Animorphs book the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram