People in isolation are only just discovering the Google Chrome dinosaur game

With the coronavirus pandemic putting many parts of the world into lockdown, more and more people are passing time and trying to stave away boredom by spending hours on their phones, laptops, and tablets.

However, with more and more people working from home/streaming their living room workouts, our wifi connections are well and truly being put to the test.

But what do we do when our connection goes down? Well, most of us Google Chrome users will see that little dinosaur telling us there is no connection, and rather than run to turn the router off for ten seconds, most of us will hit the spacebar and play a cheeky game of Chrome Dino (yes, apparently that is the actual name of this game).

[[imagecaption|| Credit: Google Chrome (Screenshot)]]

This little Easter Egg for Chrome users features a T-rex who has found himself lost in the desert, and players must use the spacebar and down arrow keys to help the Dino avoid cacti and birds.

I'm sure 99% of us are aware of Chrome Dino - which was released back in 2014 - but with so many people now in self-isolation, the game has once again become a talking point online, with people only just discovering it exists.

A Twitter user by the name of Sara (@sara_ycho) tweeted out earlier this week: "In my boredom I discovered that the no Internet connection dinosaur on Google chrome is actually a game! Please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't know this?!"

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/sara_ycho/status/1243151504154013696]]

Another Twitter user wrote earlier today: "Did you know that google Chrome allows you to play game for free on home page especially when your out of data lol [sic]".

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/AlHaill_RSA/status/1243397588788768777]]

Other people took to Twitter to reveal how they are using their valuable free time trying to break their high scores:

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/clintonjerom/status/1242532166522875904]]

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/J4ckTheStripper/status/1243473334400155650]]

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/bugcandies/status/1242878566569840642]]

(FYI, my high score is 2818.)

Per Eyerys.com, according to Chrome designer Sebastien Gabriel, the game is a joke on the "prehistoric ages" before wifi, he said:

"It’s a play on going back to the 'prehistoric age' when you had no Wi‑Fi. The cacti and desert setting were part of the first iteration of the 'you-are-offline' page, while the visual style is a nod to our tradition of pixel-art style in Chrome’s error illustrations."

Is this the first time you've heard about the game? If not, let us know your high score in the comments section...