Dinosaur Game

The player ducking under a Pteranodon; this can be done by pressing the ↓ key.

When the Chrome browser is offline, and a user tries to navigate to a web page, the browser notifies the user that they are not connected to the Internet. An illustration of the "Lonely T-Rex" dinosaur is shown at the top, designed by Sebastien Gabriel.[2] Tapping the dinosaur in Android or iOS, or pressing space or ↑ on desktop, launches the game. The game can also be accessed by typing chrome://dino or chrome://network-error/-106 into the URL bar.[3]

During gameplay, a running dinosaur moves from left to right across a desert landscape, and the player avoids oncoming obstacles, including cacti and Pteranodons, by jumping or ducking. Pressing space or ↑ will jump, and ↓ will duck (mobile users can only jump). As gameplay progresses, the speed of play increases until the user hits an obstacle, prompting an instant game over.

Nighttime graphics in the game; note the star in the center and moon at the far right.

The game begins with differently-sized cacti obstacles, and once the player reaches around 500 points, pterodactyls flying at different heights also appear. At 600 points, the game switches from dark gray graphics on a white background to pale gray graphics on a black or blue background, representing a shift from day to night, with daytime sky graphics also becoming nighttime sky graphics.[lower-alpha 1] Reaching a score of 700 points will switch the color scheme back; the colors will then switch back and forth with point milestones of about each 100 subsequent points.[4][5][6] The game was designed to reach its maximum score after approximately 17 million years of playtime, in reference to how long the Tyrannosaurus rex existed before it went extinct.[7][8]

If an administrator disables the dinosaur game, an error message appears when attempting to play the game, featuring a picture of a meteor heading towards the dinosaur.[9]

The game over header and restart button after the player runs into a cactus; note that the T-Rex's eyes bulge.

When the Chrome browser cannot access the internet, it displays the dinosaur, which blinks. By pressing the screen, on mobile devices, or space bar, on keyboard devices, the dinosaur then begins to move.[10][11] The New York Times suggested this may have been designed "as a gift from a programmer sympathizing with the lack of internet access."[3]

During development, the game was given the codename of "Project Bolan", in reference to the lead singer Marc Bolan of the 1970s band T. Rex. The game was released in September 2014 but failed on performance for older devices. The game's code was re-written and re-released in December 2014. Four years later, the game celebrated its fourth birthday with themed decoration.[8]

For Google Chrome's 10th birthday, an Easter egg was added to the game: during September 2018, a birthday cake could appear in the desert. When eaten, a birthday hat would appear on the dinosaur.[12] In November 2018, Google introduced a feature to save player scores.[13] The game's code is available on the Chromium site.[6]

An "in-depth" Easter egg was also added to the game for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, simulating various Olympic activities.[14]

In August 2020, MSCHF and 100 Thieves partnered to create a modified version of the game called Dino Swords. Dino Swords features a small arsenal of weapons and time-slowing pills. When mismanaged, the weapons can backfire and harm the dinosaur.[15]

The base game received widespread recognition, with the creators revealing that 270 million games are played monthly.[16]

• List of Google Easter eggs