In spite of its lack of an internet connection, the dino game has become one of the most played and cherished games played online. The game is a throwback to a time before dinosaurs and technology were commonplace on Earth. Pixel art in the game is based on the error graphics in Google Chrome, which feature a dinosaur whenever a connection is lost. The developers of the game aimed to provide players with something entertaining to do while they waited for their internet to return. Additionally, they aimed for maximum accessibility by making the game as easy to understand and play on any browser or device.
The titular T-Rex dinosaur is one of the most famous and well-known prehistoric animals. Marc Bolan, lead singer of the 1970s rock band T-Rex, is also mentioned in connection with the T-Rex. Game designers and programmers are huge Bolan fans, thus they dubbed the game "Project Bolan" while they were working on it. Running over a desert landscape, the T-Rex dinosaur brings to mind the prehistoric setting where these animals once thrived. The basic and vintage look of the desert is in keeping with the game's overall concept.
The goal of the game is to stay alive for as long as you can while avoiding all the hazards that pop up. Cacti and pterodactyls, two more extinct animals that coexisted with dinosaurs, are among the challenges. To get over the immobile cactus, use the spacebar or the up arrow key to hop over them. You can dodge the flying pterodactyls by dodging under them with the down arrow key. The dinosaur can hop and duck on mobile devices by pressing and holding the screen. The lack of further controls and features makes the game simple to pick up and play.
As the player goes through the dinosaur game, the difficulty level rises. Over time, the dinosaur's speed and the frequency of obstacles both rise, making it more difficult to respond and evade them. Additionally, every 700 points, the game's background color changes from light to dark as part of the day-night cycle. Because it changes the contrast and visibility of the obstacles, this makes the game more interesting and challenging. There are no save places or levels in the game, so starting a new game means starting over from the beginning. Playing the game and getting a high score—which is shown in the upper right corner of the screen—is the only way to win. The player's distance run, measured in meters, determines their score. Even skilled players will have a hard time reaching the game's maximum score of 99999 meters. The game will return to its starting point of zero meters after this score is obtained.
This game debuted in September 2014 as a hidden feature in Google Chrome 39. A secret feature or joke called an easter egg can be unlocked by inputting a code or doing a certain action. For this particular easter egg, you may either see a dinosaur icon or type "chrome://dino" into your browser's address bar to access it even when you don't have an internet connection. Sites that state "There is no Internet connection" or "Unable to connect to the Internet" are the ones that display the icon. To begin playing, the user just needs to press the spacebar or touch the icon. Playing the game in full screen mode is also possible when connected to the internet; just type "chrome://dino" into the URL bar. The game is compatible with all devices and browsers that run Google Chrome, so you may play it on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS are just a few of the operating systems that this game is compatible with. There are a number of websites that host the game, so you may also play it online.
Alan Bettes, Edward Jung, and Sebastien Gabriel were all developers on Google Chrome, and they worked together to make the game. They work as part of the Chrome UX (user experience) team, which is in charge of making Google Chrome better and more user-friendly. They saw that many users were bored and irritated when their internet connection went off, so they came up with the idea of the game.