Dinosaur Game (aka T-Rex Game, aka Dino Runner, aka Project Bolan) is a game that is embedded in the Google Chrome browser. Rex appears if you don't have an internet connection. I think everyone has seen this pixel theropod at least once and thought it was just a picture. 

The game is a primitive runner. The player is given control of a T-Rex, which runs from left to right, gradually increasing its speed and mathematically refuting Dr. Grant's theory that Paleozoic comrades were such dummies that they did not perceive stationary objects.


Rexik perfectly sees obstacles in the form of pixel bushes and cacti, which an ancient instinct tells you to jump over to get points. The longer your Rexic stays alive, the more points you can earn. Quite a primitive logic.

At first, I thought that obstacles have a certain cycle that can be learned. For example: first there is a single bush, then a large cactus, then a double cactus, then a single bush again… But, apparently, the game is built on randomness. No matter how many races I did, the sequence of obstacles was different each time.

Over time, pterosaurs flying towards us were also added to the game. They appear at about 400 points when the player has already mastered the controls, understood the rules and caught the rhythm. Flying lizards are a kind of complication of the gameplay, because they introduce an additional function of movement — ducking. If previously the player's task was only to jump over obstacles, now he must also duck, because the pterodactyl can fly both high and low.

After the pterodactyls, the developers filed a conditional shift of the day. When 700 points are reached, the color scheme changes from white to black, which means nightfall. Dial another 700, and the day will come again.

In September 2018, a cake was also added to the game, which you could pick up and get a birthday hat — this is a cute Easter egg for the 10th anniversary of Google Chrome.

I also want to separately praise the authors of the game for the beep that sounds every time a player scores 100 points. This allows the gamer not to squint out of the corner of his eye at the corner of the screen where the glasses are indicated, but to focus on the gameplay and count the points in his mind. From the point of view of game design, it's a smart move.

The game about Rex was invented by Google programmer Sebastian Gabriel, and the endless runner saw its first light in 2014. Initially, the game was called Project Bolan — in honor of the lead singer of the T. Rex band Marc Bolan, but then the game was renamed to the much more digestible Dinosaur Game.

The idea was to keep bored people who were left without access to the network busy. 


The developers say that it will take 17 million years to complete the game, which fully justifies the phrase "endless runner", which they themselves use.

We made it last for about 17 million years. The real T-Rex lived on Earth for the same amount of time. But we believe that your "gap" will not stand it.,
Google Chrome UX Engineer Edward Jung

Here we can assume that we are still talking about in-game time, and not about real time. But it is quite difficult to calculate it, since the time in the game is tied to points, and points are tied to the character's speed, which is constantly growing (remember that the day changes every 700 points). That is, it turns out that time in the game accelerates in direct proportion to the speed of the dinosaur.

Despite Jung's assurances, I found several videos on YouTube with the ending of the game, which opens when 99,999 points are reached. However, they are all slightly different. And here one of two things: either the videos are fake, or the developers have edited the ending with patches. In one version, a heart appears with the inscription Game Over, in the other — a mocking inscription "Congratulations, you have passed the first level!". There is also a version that after collecting 99,999 points, the game will continue, but new points will no longer be awarded to you.

The site will help you try your hand and reaction - https://dinorunner.com/