Google Chrome's 'Unable to connect to the Internet' page has a hidden endless runner game

Game can be played offline while you wait for connection

Christopher Hooton
Friday 26 September 2014 15:49 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Google has attempted to inject a little mindless joy into the pain of being disconnected from the internet, concealing an endless runner game into its latest Chrome build starring its error page dinosaur.

The game works when you're offline, meaning there is at least something to distract you while you reset the router and await precious internet.

The game is activated by hitting the space bar, turning the error page into a very basic desert plain covered with cacti that Chrome's T-Rex must hurdle.

Here's how the page used to look:

Here's the new one:

And here's what happens when you hit space:

You can rank up points on the game with mini-celebrations for every hundred you attain, although everything resets when you refresh (by which point you've hopefully regained connection, or found a better use of your time).

Websites and developers are slowly realising that error pages needn't be dead space, as evidenced by the wide array of weird and wonderful 404 pages now out there.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in