[HN Gopher] Play snake in the URL address bar
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       Play snake in the URL address bar
        
       Author : macote
       Score  : 183 points
       Date   : 2025-09-28 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (demian.ferrei.ro)
 (TXT) w3m dump (demian.ferrei.ro)
        
       | iamjackg wrote:
       | I was pleasantly surprised by how responsive it was, and
       | overjoyed when I clicked back and immediately came back to HN: no
       | messy history. Genius idea!
        
         | dhsysusbsjsi wrote:
         | reading the source it looks like for some browsers that rate
         | limit url updates, it has to use a different way that nukes
         | your back button ability.
        
         | mjmas wrote:
         | history.pushState vs history.replaceState
        
       | Velocifyer wrote:
       | This is cool
        
       | pards wrote:
       | Such a unique, innovative idea. Well played.
        
       | foresterre wrote:
       | For those that missed it initially, and didn't quite got how it
       | works the first time, there is a small cyan question mark at the
       | top left, which states:
       | 
       | > Use the arrow keys or WASD to control the snake on the URL.
       | Click here if you can't see the page URL or if it looks messed up
       | with some weird slashes
       | 
       | Additionally: you need a browser window where you're address bar
       | is long enough to see the world ;).
       | 
       | Love the concept, it works quite well!
        
       | arguflow wrote:
       | Harder than I expected, the extra blank dots all around the snake
       | are kind of distracting, how does it look when they aren't on the
       | page?
        
       | akarki15 wrote:
       | This is why i come to hackernews. :) made my day
        
       | mr_tox wrote:
       | next time doom please :)
        
       | zikero wrote:
       | this is the most cursed thing i've seen
        
       | kwar13 wrote:
       | What a neat little idea lol. It's using the Braille patterns to
       | update the URL with the dots. Love it.
       | 
       | https://github.com/epidemian/snake/blob/master/snake.js
        
       | 650 wrote:
       | Very cool, would love to see source code. For what its worth no
       | AI was able to replicate this.
        
         | dorfsmay wrote:
         | There's a link to "code" at the bottom of the page.
        
       | charcircuit wrote:
       | >demian.ferrei.ro/snake#|%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%
       | A0%88%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%A0%A4%E2%A0%A4%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96
       | %91%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96%91%E2%96%9
       | 1%E2%96%91|[score:0]
       | 
       | This is too confusing to play on firefox.
        
         | BoppreH wrote:
         | Worked just fine on version 143.
        
           | bmicraft wrote:
           | Not for me on Android (same version)
        
       | ai_viewz wrote:
       | nice i enjoyed it
        
       | roggenbuck wrote:
       | This is really creative! Very well done. Surprisingly fast too.
        
       | MontyCarloHall wrote:
       | This is awesome. My only issue is that the character used for
       | whitespace looks janky in my browser, like a bunch of non-
       | monospaced squares. A potential remedy: because Unicode contains
       | all 256 possible 4x2 Braille patterns, why not use [d12345678] as
       | the background and carve out the snake/food as negative space,
       | e.g.
       | 
       | [d12345678][d12345678][d124578][d124578][d124578][d124578][d12457
       | 8][d14678][d1345678][d12345678][d1234678][d12345678][d12345678][d
       | 12345678]
       | 
       | This would ensure uniform spacing and is just as legible.
        
       | samixg wrote:
       | it took me a while to understand how to play it, but holy shit
       | this is impressive! nice work
        
       | alistairSH wrote:
       | I just see the address? Safari on iOS.
        
         | ashu1461 wrote:
         | See closely there should be snake in the bar as well, which
         | responds if you use the arrows.
        
       | Franciscouzo wrote:
       | I made a similar thing some time ago, but with the favicon.
       | 
       | https://franciscouzo.github.io/favisnake/
        
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       (page generated 2025-09-28 23:00 UTC)