explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3213: Dental Formulas

2026-03-02T09:31:41Z

Malgond:

First![[User:AmethystSky14|AmethystSky14]] ([[User talk:AmethystSky14|talk]]) 21:43, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

The top left drawing is a tooth. [[User:Xkdvd|Xkdvd]] ([[User talk:Xkdvd|talk]]) 22:04, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

This confused me for a long time (partly due to the mammal/mammol thing) - I took them to be dentists. I'm now inferring that the counts are typical of a species rather than descriptive of an individual patient. Maybe the write up could make that more clear in case someone else as dumb as me passes by [[Special:Contributions/2A00:23EE:10C8:110F:D992:D45:1C7A:DF02|2A00:23EE:10C8:110F:D992:D45:1C7A:DF02]] guest
:"in case someone as dumb as me passes by" - that would be everyone, see ''<nowiki>Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.</nowiki>'' [[Special:Contributions/64.201.132.210|64.201.132.210]] 22:21, 27 February 2026 (UTC)
:Yes, dental formulas are based on typical, not individual, dentition. In cases where it frequently varies (like humans with their unreliable wisdom teeth) you sometimes see a range. [[Special:Contributions/70.40.90.209|70.40.90.209]] 02:29, 28 February 2026 (UTC)

Because I'm sure someone else will be wondering, based on a very cursory search, the formula on the board appears to be permanent teeth for felines. At the very least, Wikipedia's entry on Dentition lists this formula for cats, lions, and tigers. Perhaps an actual expert will come along and shed further light on this. [[Special:Contributions/97.116.61.145|97.116.61.145]] 22:52, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

Some British sources still use a baseline dot (full stop/period) as the multiplication symbol and a midline dot (interpunct) as the decimal point. These sources could write 3.2·1 = 6·3. Scary. Even ''The Lancet'' uses the interpunct as a decimal point (though its style guides do not specify a multiplication symbol, so presumably '×' should be used when juxtaposition isn't an option, e.g. for scientific notation). Most British schools still teach it this way as well, where the dot product is always a baseline dot. (This convention also used in some other European countries, which use the comma as the decimal separator and the period as the thousands separator. But it's confusing, because 〈x,y〉or even (x,y) is also used to represent the inner product of x and y. It's really a mess.) [[User:EebstertheGreat|EebstertheGreat]] ([[User talk:EebstertheGreat|talk]]) 04:36, 28 February 2026 (UTC)
:I didn't know it was called the interpunct but that was how I was taught to write decimal points at my UK school in the early sixties and how I still write them by hand.--[[Special:Contributions/2A00:23CC:D248:8901:30F4:4052:A4F7:386E|2A00:23CC:D248:8901:30F4:4052:A4F7:386E]] 09:36, 28 February 2026 (UTC)
:And some countries use interpuncts for multiplying scalars, baseline dots (interchangeably with spaces, but never both in a single number) for thousands, and commas as decimal symbol. There are languages that even include group separation ''after'' the latter, with a 4-digit final group iff the last digit is the 10-3''n''-1s place (e. g. "3 863 387,274 479 0001" instead of "3 863 387,274 479 000 1"), even with several exceptions (e. g. rules like "4-digit numbers do not require formatting, '''unless they are in a table with longer numbers in the same column'''"). [[Special:Contributions/2001:4C4E:1C00:EB00:D063:D715:3937:44C6|2001:4C4E:1C00:EB00:D063:D715:3937:44C6]] 11:42, 1 March 2026 (UTC)

An unrelated note, I'm just curious, does any beast have more than 1 canine? or is the second number limited to the set {0, 1}? -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 09:31, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

Talk:3185: Sauropods

2025-12-27T23:00:19Z

Malgond:

I was going to put in the first draft of an explanation, but that would have meant sticking my neck out... ;) [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208|92.23.2.208]] 01:24, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

I also wanted to try explaining, by it's scary, I feel spineless [[Special:Contributions/62.56.149.220|62.56.149.220]] 01:33, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
:Here, I did it for you. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 15:22, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

The title text is referencing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiders_Georg Spiders Georg]. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 01:37, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
: i came here to yell "spiders georg!" but i see you have beat me to it - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 01:40, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

The extremely short, punctuationless title text definitely evokes the spirit of early xkcd title texts like “disgusting” or “just thought you should know” [[User:KelOfTheStars!|KelOfTheStars!]] ([[User talk:KelOfTheStars!|talk]]) 02:51, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, I don't think there's been a title text this short and punchy in a while [[User:R128|R128]] ([[User talk:R128|talk]]) 10:30, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

i just discovered that paleology is ''not'' the study of fossils and such, by trying to check if "paleontological" was a mashup of paleological and ontological; nope, paleology is the study of antiquities, paleontology the study of fossils - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 05:34, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

merry christmas, i guess? [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 12:58, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
:Its red and green :) --[[User:Darth Vader|Darth Vader]] ([[User talk:Darth Vader|talk]]) 12:21, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

I feel a reference to xenomorphs (aliens), where the queen was larger and had different anathomy -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 22:59, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

== Messor ibericus ==

Would ''Messor ibericus'' be an exception to "Also, while queens are often larger specimens than their workers or drones, they always share the same general anatomy."? The Queen is a different species from most of the males (''Messor structor''), and the worker population is a hybrid of the two.

However, they are both basically ant-shaped, so any non-entomologist may very well say they share the same general anatomy. This [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02807-0 article] has a side by side picture for comparison. {{unsigned ip|168.149.142.233|18:48, 26 December 2025}}

Talk:3185: Sauropods

2025-12-27T22:59:58Z

Malgond:

I was going to put in the first draft of an explanation, but that would have meant sticking my neck out... ;) [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.208|92.23.2.208]] 01:24, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

I also wanted to try explaining, by it's scary, I feel spineless [[Special:Contributions/62.56.149.220|62.56.149.220]] 01:33, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
:Here, I did it for you. [[User:RadiantRainwing|RadiantRainwing]] ([[User talk:RadiantRainwing|talk]]) 15:22, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

The title text is referencing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiders_Georg Spiders Georg]. [[User:DanielLC|DanielLC]] ([[User talk:DanielLC|talk]]) 01:37, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
: i came here to yell "spiders georg!" but i see you have beat me to it - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 01:40, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

The extremely short, punctuationless title text definitely evokes the spirit of early xkcd title texts like “disgusting” or “just thought you should know” [[User:KelOfTheStars!|KelOfTheStars!]] ([[User talk:KelOfTheStars!|talk]]) 02:51, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
:Yeah, I don't think there's been a title text this short and punchy in a while [[User:R128|R128]] ([[User talk:R128|talk]]) 10:30, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

i just discovered that paleology is ''not'' the study of fossils and such, by trying to check if "paleontological" was a mashup of paleological and ontological; nope, paleology is the study of antiquities, paleontology the study of fossils - [[User:Vaedez|Vaedez]] ([[User talk:Vaedez|talk]]) 05:34, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

merry christmas, i guess? [[user:lett‪herebedarklight|raeb]] 12:58, 25 December 2025 (UTC)
:Its red and green :) --[[User:Darth Vader|Darth Vader]] ([[User talk:Darth Vader|talk]]) 12:21, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

:I feel a reference to xenomorphs (aliens), where the queen was larger and had different anathomy -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 22:59, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

== Messor ibericus ==

Would ''Messor ibericus'' be an exception to "Also, while queens are often larger specimens than their workers or drones, they always share the same general anatomy."? The Queen is a different species from most of the males (''Messor structor''), and the worker population is a hybrid of the two.

However, they are both basically ant-shaped, so any non-entomologist may very well say they share the same general anatomy. This [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02807-0 article] has a side by side picture for comparison. {{unsigned ip|168.149.142.233|18:48, 26 December 2025}}

Talk:3049: Incoming Asteroid

2025-02-11T23:28:18Z

Malgond:

Asteroids are surprisingly destructive even at small sizes - I remember reading somewhere that the Armageddon movie asteroid was supposed to be "the size of Arlington, Texas", but that it sounded too small so they changed it to "the size of Texas" which is a drastic size increase and also proportionally far more deadly. For scale, Arlington is 250 square km and Texas is 700 000 square km. The Chixulub asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was between 10 and 15 km across. If it was a perfect circle, it would have an area of between 79 and 176 sq km. Arlington would be 18 km across, still within "species" range, and Texas would be 944 km across, clearly in "new moon" territory. But it _sounds_ much cooler! [[User:Zakator|Zakator]] ([[User talk:Zakator|talk]]) 22:32, 10 February 2025 (UTC)
:And that's for asteroids with normal speed (for asteroid, which is still kinda fast). The level of danger asteroid means is proportional to kinetic energy, meaning proportional to mass and SQUARE of speed, so if it's faster, it gets to extinction level even when small ... -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 23:29, 10 February 2025 (UTC)
:: "for asteroids with normal speed" - which is generally orbital velocity. If much faster, it would have left the solar system by now. If much slower, it has fallen into the Sun already. All objects (even Teslas) at a given distance soon have similar velocities. --[[User:PRR|PRR]] ([[User talk:PRR|talk]]) 00:04, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
::: It could be going at ''a'' speed (similar to Earth, give or take, for the sake of being on an Earth-incident orbit) and yet have such different effects. If basically following the Earth (or leading it), it'll be relatively gentle, at least before you start considering the Earth's (and the asteroid's, in the event it's significantly large) gravity well pulling it. Well, 'gentle' in comparison to one doing the 'same speed' but in the anti-orbit, for a full head-on impact. Course, that's why we need to think of velocities, and in particular the relative ones. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.37|172.71.241.37]] 01:31, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
:::Considering just two-body physics... Escape speed for the Sun at the distance of Earth's orbit is 42 km/s, so that's the upper limit anything is likely to be going (otherwise it's just got one shot at us). That would be something falling towards the Sun from a very large distance. If the asteroid is moving in the opposite direction as Earth, that gets added to Earth's orbital speed of 30 km/s, for a total of 72 km/s. On the other hand, Earth has an escape speed of 11 km/s at the surface, so that's the lower bound for an impact. A 6.5x factor on speed is about a 40x factor on impact energy. Which, I'm not sure exactly how that would scale devastation, but ... I'll take the low end for anything big, thanks. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.111.22|172.70.111.22]] 14:18, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
::::The upper limit is actually someting in the range of 500-600 km/s - for an interstellar object... That'd be an astronomically huge bad luck! Or should we consider an intergalactic rogue planet... -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 23:28, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

The 1m danger makes me think of the meteor impact that was caught on a home security camera last July in Prince Edward Island. But the Sky & Telescope article https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/hear-the-first-ever-recording-of-a-meteorite-slamming-into-the-ground/ says that it would have been only a 6-7 cm across. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 00:42, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

The sizes in the explanation are out of sync with the image. Has Randall updated it, or may it be location dependent? ~~Guest~~ 07:12, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
:I saw the comic before any explanation was put up and it was the same as it is now, all exactly powers of 10. But the labels aren't exactly at those spots, so people are probably estimating the exact point where the labels are at, though my interpretation would be that Randall meant for the labels to be attached to ranges rather than points. [[User:Tharkon|Tharkon]] ([[User talk:Tharkon|talk]]) 11:45, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
::Same here, all powers of 10. I don't think it makes any sense at all to guess at where on the axis the labels are meant to be when the labels themselves give an explicit number. The labels should probably be the ranges, eg "1cm to 10cm", "10cm to 1m" and so on.[[User:Mazz0|Mazz0]] ([[User talk:Mazz0|talk]]) 14:00, 11 February 2025 (UTC)
:::There are small markers between the labeled spots, so it's not unreasonable to estimate which marker the ellipsis points to. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 14:41, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

"Good news everyone! We were supposed to make a delivery to the planet Tweenis 12 but it's been completely destroyed!" [[Special:Contributions/162.158.94.203|162.158.94.203]] 11:24, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

It's not the first comic comparing our reaction to different scales of cosmic events, even though the asteroid "happiness level" does not peak like the supernova chart: https://xkcd.com/2878/ {{unsigned ip|172.69.195.172|21:14, 11 February 2025}}
:Indeed. This one peaks ''twice'', if taken at face value. ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.71.241.145|172.71.241.145]] 21:32, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Category:Stilts

2023-05-26T23:36:00Z

Malgond:

Several xkcd comics feature people walking on {{w|stilts}} or mention such activity.

Category:Stilts

2023-05-26T23:35:27Z

Malgond:

Several xkcd comics feature people walking on {{w|stilts}}.

2765: Escape Speed/Tables

2023-05-26T23:33:33Z

Malgond: /* All Objects with Explanations */

__TOC__

Here the long tables needed for the explanation of the interactive comic [[2765: Escape Speed]] could be moved.

=Table of planets=
{{incomplete|
'''This is a different attempt to list and explain all the planets and other objects that have gravity and can be landed upon and explored'''.

The description and explanations may be incomplete or incorrect. Please help improve them. Try to keep separate the ''description'' (i.e. how the planet looks and what general features it has) and ''explanation'' (i.e. what the name and look represent, what they refer to both in the real and fictional worlds and what xkcd comics may have been a source or an inspiration. Please describe the planets only, not the objects that can be found on them.
}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name <code>code-name</code>
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet''' <code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin''' <code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet''' <code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet''' <code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki''' <code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship''' <code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field''' <code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn''' <code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| The planet resembles Saturn with its rings, however it is translucent: a soccer ball can bee seen inside. One of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| '''Andal''' <code>platform-planet</code>
| (12048, 14048)
| To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top.
| This is a small partly rocky and partly grassy planet with a strange T-shaped tower.
| A reference to ''{{w|Animorphs}}'' book series featuring fictional sapient species of [https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Andalite Andalites]. Two such (or similar) creatures can be found on the planet. In the original books, the planet the Andalites come from is unnamed.
|-
| '''Projection of Earth''' <code>earth-map</code>
| (-15808, 22192)
| To get there by follow the sign on the hollow planet or launch from the Earth map monument on Origin.
| The planet is shaped like a huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth. The player's spaceship can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land. Some straights between islands are to narrow for the ship to pass, especially in the {{w|Southeast Asia}} area. Some {{w|mediterranean seas}} are also inaccessible.
| Probably a reference to [[977: Map Projections]] or, more generally, to the Randall's obsession about [[:Category:Maps|maps]].
|-
| '''Voyager 1''' <code>voyager-1</code>
| (1606, -14282)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spiral landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2''' <code>voyager-2</code>
| (10682, -5172)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spider landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 2}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''SafetySat''' <code>safetysat</code>
| (17024, 1024)
| To get here, launch from the cell tower on Origin.
| A cube satellite with an absurd set of assorted objects on board.
| This is a reference to [[1992: SafetySat]].
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton''' <code>space-shuttle</code>
| (-30200, 14576)
| To get here, launch from the Shuttle Skeleton landmark on Origin or in the northwestern direction from Alaska on the Projection of Earth.
| The planet looks like an outline of the space shuttle with a strange skeleton inside.
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]].
|-
| '''Giant Spider''' <code>spider</code>
| (26982, -8714)
| To get here, launch from the spider landmark on Origin.
| The object is a giant spider floating in space with eight people standing on top of his legs.
| [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] is a recurring theme on xkcd.
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star''' <code>diffraction</code>
| (-19944, 11240)
| To get here, launch from the back of the left "hand" of the Shuttle Skeleton or the north of Alaska.
| The object is a star with very long spikes.
| This is a reference to [[2762: Diffraction Spikes]].
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth''' <code>earth-roche</code> ''and'' <code>normal-moon</code>
| (-9952, -3952)
| To get there, launch from the like-shaped statue on Origin.
| This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard.
|
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet''' <code>dark-matter</code>
| (-2892, 2640)
| To get here, launch from the goal on the half of the field with just one person on it on Spacetime Soccer Field.
| This is a small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times.
|
{{w|Dark matter}} is a hypothetical form of {{w|matter}} sought by {{w|Astrophysics|astrophycists}} as a possible cause of behavior of {{w|Galaxy|galaxies}}, which cannot be explained by the current theory of {{w|gravity}} and observations. The anomalies would be explained if there was extra {{w|mass}} in the galaxies, which is not observed, but is theorized as dark matter presence. The dark matter is named this way not because it has some dark color, but because it supposedly does not interact (or interacts very weakly) with {{w|electromagnetic field}}, therefore does not emit {{w|light}} and can't be seen.

This is also a reference to [[2186: Dark Matter]]
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet''' <code>gravity-qwantz</code>
| (20000, 11000)
| To get here, launch from the dinosaur on Origin or from the Andalites on Andal.
| It's a big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times.
|
This is a reference to the 1993 {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|''Jurassic Park''}} film and the related {{w|Jurassic Park|media franchise}}. It contains images of dinosaurs taken from the [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaurs] web comic, which, similarly to xkcd, uses a random string of letters for its domain name: <code>quantz.com</code>. It also reflects Randal's avid interest in [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]]. This is an exact copy of the Dinosaur Planet from [[2712: Gravity]].
|-
| '''Comet 67P''' <code>67p</code>
| (18048, -11152)
| To get here, launch from the duck next to the 'Caution: long vertical drop' sign on Origin.
| This is a small, potato-shaped body, modelled after the {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}} comet.
|
This is a reference to the 2004–2016 {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} spacecraft mission, which was the first to place a lander ({{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}}) on a comet core. The mission was also commemorated in [[1446: Landing]] and the spacecraft are mentioned in [[1402: Harpoons]] and [[1740: Rosetta]].
|-
| '''What If? Planet''' <code>gravity-earth</code>
| (22000, 34000)
| To get here, launch from the two people explaining where Boston is on Origin, the left of Stonehenge on the Round Planet, or the left rim of the Guitar Ship.
| This is a huge, round planet with many bodies of water. The planet contains several scenes from ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' and [[2712: Gravity]]. Megan and Cueball are floating inside a small space in the center of the planet.
| This is an almost exact copy of the Earth planet from [[2712: Gravity]], however a few scenes and all text were removed.
|-
| '''Subway Planet''' <code>subway-planet</code> ''and'' <code>black-hole-3</code>
| (-46000, -24000)
| To can get there take off from the "secret glade" item next to the the bush where someone says "Shhh" on Origin.
|
This is a huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from [[1196: Subways]]. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washington, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.
|
This is a key planet to solve the puzzle in the game, and contains several out of many in-game references to {{w|Boston}} (in many meanings of the name) and the {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}, which currently is located in {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts}}, but was founded in 1861 in Boston.

Obviously, it's also a reference to [[1196: Subways]]
|-
| '''Boston Planet''' <code>mbta</code>
| (-42000, 8000)
| To get here, launch from the back of the Shuttle Skeleton.
|
This is a big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names.
|
This is the other key planet to the game puzzle. It is apparently the round part ripped off the Subway Planet, but drawn not to scale. The tunnels inside the planet roughly correspond to the Boston part of the scheme in [[1196: Subways]], but with few additions (e.g. Union Sq, Mattapan). The codename comes from the abbreviation of {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}.
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere''' ''from'' <code>ring-1</code> ''to'' <code>ring-36</code>
|
| To get here, launch from anywhere and keep avoiding planets until you hit it.
|
Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a thick enormous ring called Crystal Sphere. Both the interior and exterior edges of the Sphere are almost smooth, but have a few dents. There's a wide navigable crack leading out of the Sphere, which sides are rugged and riddled with broken planks, similarily to the Boston hole in the Subwau Planet. The gravity increases significantly as the spaceship goes through the crack, it gradually feels the pull from the parts of the sphere it has left. It is not possible to leave the Sphere without the hyperdrive, however having collected all the engine upgrades inside the Sphere one can barely reach the outer surface, but moving along is very difficult. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it.
|
The Crystal Sphere may be a reference to {{w|The Crystal Spheres}}, a short story by {{w|science fiction}} author {{w|David Brin}}, which suggests that each star with habitable planets in the universe is surrounded by a crystal sphere that can be broken only from the inside and is otherwise completely impenetrable.

It may also be a reference to {{w|celestial spheres}}, an early concept trying to explain apparent movement of planets and stars.
|-
| '''Star Destroyer''' ''from'' <code>star-destroyer-a</code> ''to'' <code>star-destroyer-i</code>
| (18192, -130000)
| To get here, launch from the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|
This is a gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship. Below it, down a stream of torpedoes fired from a turred, there's a much smaller starhip.
|
This is a reference to {{w|Star Destroyer}}s and the {{w|Tantive IV|CR90 Corellian corvette}}, spaceships from the fictional ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe.

The whole scene is copied from [[1608: Hoverboard]], with the only difference being that {{w|Darth Vader}}'s dialogue was changed from referencing {{w|Steven Universe}} to {{w|The Murderbot Diaries}}.
|-
| '''Click and Drag Planet''' <code>clickdrag-nw</code>, <code>clickdrag-ne</code>, <code>clickdrag-sw</code>, ''and'' <code>clickdrag-se</code>
| (-31808, 111808)
| To get here, launch from the bow or stern of the Star Destroyer tangentially to the Crystal Sphere to orbit it and keep the stars in the background moving horizontally on the screen until you see a dot around the spaceship guiding you.
|
The planet is huge, larger than any other in the game world, but smaller than the Star Destroyer. It is located outside the Crystal Sphere roughly opposite the Star Destroyer. It is mostly round, with many landscape features and scenes partly copied from [[1110: Click and Drag]], but arrayed in a circular, instead of linear shape. What's missing in comparison to the Click and Drag comic, is a few of the scenes, some textual content like dialogues (leaving persons intact), the underground parts, upper parts of the very high objects, and objects high above the surface.
|
|}

=Tables and Lists of Objects=

==Collectables==

===Plain list of collectables===
This is a quick list for those who want to check if they found everything.

The ''You found...'' sections directly show the names that appear in the player's list of found items. Some upgrades are also items and appear on the list, in such cases the names are the '''bolded''' parts of messages.

* '''Starting Planet'''
** You found...
*** a rock with neat stripes
*** a cool bug
*** a pretty leaf
** Messages
*** Wheeee!

* '''Origin'''
** You found...
*** a secret glade
*** a holographic Charizard business card
*** a 5G seagull
*** a DVD of The Core (2003)
*** a normal-looking leaf
*** a marsh wren
*** an orb wren
*** a single grain of salt
*** 11 squares packed into a larger square
*** a tumbleweed
** Upgrades
*** Nice flying! (Your tanks recharge faster now.)
** Messages
*** You found a tiny meteorite!
*** Welcome to liminal space
*** The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
*** Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!

*'''Hollow Planet'''
** Upgrades
*** You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)
*** You found '''a sixth Lagrange point'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** You found '''a glass of heavy water''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Star Destroyer'''
** You found...
*** an unread email (The message adds: "Better leave it unread.")
*** a glass slipper with a glass foot in it
*** a lymphocyte
*** a forged resume
*** a serif
*** a Bursa of Fabricius
*** a cluster of data points
*** a premium subscription to food (The message has: "food.net")
*** two goats and a new car
*** an out-of-control trolley
*** a helium-238 nucleus
*** the Death Star plans
** Upgrades
*** You found '''a perpetual motion fidget spinner'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
*** You found '''a vintage Juicero juicer'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
** Messages
*** Hmmm.

* '''Click and Drag Planet'''
** You found...
*** an ant the size of Rhode Island
*** a pin with 17 angels dancing on it
** Upgrades
*** The vehicle below gives you a boost (Your launch speed has increased.)
*** We should turn back (Your engine gets a bit more powerful.)
*** You found '''an expert at underwater ropes'''. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** You found '''a trisected angle'''! (Your launch speed has greatly increased.)

* '''Subway Planet'''
** You found...
*** a relativistic bowling ball
*** a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
*** a handful of quantum foam
*** a normal-sized apple
***'''a brightly-lit billboard''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)

** Upgrades
*** You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
*** There is no parking in the white zone (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You feel accomplished (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''a hot dog''' (Your launch speed has increased.)
*** You found '''a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero!''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** You found '''a beige electron'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''$30 in Yahoo'''! cash! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''a friendly cat'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
** Messages
*** Transfer here for Mornington Crescent
** Tokens
*** MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected. (Blue, red, green, and orange lines activated.)

* '''Boston Planet'''
** You found...
*** a strangely heavy subway token
** Tokens
*** Blue line deactivated!
*** Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive!
* '''Projection of Earth'''
** You found...
*** the Heart of the Ocean (The message adds: "It was drifting around in space.")
*** a whale shark
*** some microbial life
*** some tin from the Pantai Remis mine
*** a sparkling gem
*** a piece of pumice (The message says: "You found a piece of pumice floating in space!")
** Upgrades
*** You found '''the Principality of Sealand'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''a Rhode Island the size of an ant'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found an icosahedral d10 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
** Tokens
*** Red line deactivated!

* '''What If? Planet'''
** You found...
*** an eye in the sky
*** a stick
*** an asterisk (The message adds: "it doesn’t seem to refer to anything.")
*** a sterile neutrino
*** a secret leaf
*** a pair of squirrel goggles
*** a large hadron
*** a smooth green snake
** Upgrades
*** You found '''a sunken treasure''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** The Yellowstone Super What? (Your launch speed has increased.)
*** Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''a steam calliope'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''a DNA base pair'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Uzumaki'''
** You found...
*** a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
*** a scroll lock key
*** a primordial black hole
*** a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
*** an ink cartridge
*** a podcast episode
*** a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
*** a friendly bee
*** a spiral-cut diamond
*** a burrito
** Upgrades
*** You found '''a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation''' (Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.)
*** You found '''a single caffeine molecule'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
** Messages
*** Exit Only
*** You're going the wrong way!

* '''Round Planet'''
** You found...
*** a swatch pop-out wristwatch
** Upgrades
*** You found '''a sensible cheese platter''' (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now)
*** ''[no message]'' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Jurassic Park Planet'''
** You found...
*** a tiny pteranodon
*** a baby hedgehog
*** a tattered knapsack containing about $194,00 in $20 bills
** Upgrades
*** Today is a good day I think for space exploration (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)

* '''Andal'''
** Upgrades
*** You found '''two Andalites, one canonical'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** What a nice place for a ship to sit! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
*** You found '''a friend''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** You found '''baby shoes (and baby)'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Comet 67P'''
** Upgrades
*** Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
*** You found '''a broken smoke machine''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** Anyone for Scrabble later? (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''The Long Now Foundation's''' nickel paperweight containing an '''archive of every''' published '''Animorphs book'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)

* '''Guitar Ship'''
** You found...
*** a guitar pick
** Tokens
*** Orange line deactivated!

* '''Saturn'''
** You found...
*** a really cool data point
** Upgrades
*** You found '''a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''a block of scandium'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Roche Lobe Earth'''
** You found...
*** a curious Humboldt squid
*** a bathyscaphe (The message says: "You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!")
*** a wayward Roomba full of moondust
** Tokens
*** Green line deactivated!

* '''Giant Spider'''
** You found...
*** a spider-silk scarf
** Upgrades
*** You found '''a friendly jumping spider''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Dark Matter Planet'''
** Upgrades
*** You found '''a delicate music box'''. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)

* '''Shuttle Skeleton'''
** You found...
*** a piece of space shuttle food
** Upgrades
*** A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)

* '''Diffraction Spikes Star'''
** You found...
*** a hydrogen ion
*** a piece of coronium (iron) (The message says; "You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.")

* '''SafetySat'''
** You found...
*** a first of its kind
** Upgrades
*** ''[no message]'' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** The more refined oil had a dinner engagement (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)

* '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
** Upgrades
*** GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** You found '''the 3 million point line''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
*** You found '''a sunspot'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)

* '''Voyager 1'''
** Upgrades
*** You found '''Voyager 1'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)

* '''Voyager 2'''
** Upgrades
*** You found '''Voyager 2'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)

* '''Crystal Sphere'''
** You found...
*** a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (The message adds: "(note: hopefully you are not named 'katherine' or 'Brandon')!")
*** the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram
** Upgrades
*** A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
*** You found '''the gold crown Archimedes stole'''! (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)

* '''Crack in the Crystal Sphere'''
** Upgrades
*** There is a way out (Your launch speed has increased.)
** Messages
*** Right lane must turn right
*** Left lane must turn left

* '''Open Space Outside the Crystal Sphere'''
** Upgrades
*** It is very lonely out here (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)
*** You found '''a needle in a haystack''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
*** From here you can view the source of it all. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)

===Sortable table of collectables===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! rowspan="2"|Planet
! colspan="4"|Collectable items
|-
! You found...
! Upgrades
! Messages
! Subway tokens
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''
|
* a rock with neat stripes
* a cool bug
* a pretty leaf
|
|
* Wheeee!
|
|-
| '''Origin'''
|
* a secret glade
* a holographic Charizard business card
* a 5G seagull
* a DVD of The Core (2003)
* a normal-looking leaf
* a marsh wren
* an orb wren
* a single grain of salt
* 11 squares packed into a larger square
* a tumbleweed
|
* Nice flying! (Your tanks recharge faster now.)
|
* You found a tiny meteorite!
* Welcome to liminal space
* The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
* Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!
|
|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''
|
|
* You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a sixth Lagrange point'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a glass of heavy water''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Star Destroyer'''
|
* an unread email
* a glass slipper with a glass foot in it
* a lymphocyte
* a forged resume
* a serif
* a Bursa of Fabricius
* a cluster of data points
* a premium subscription to food
* two goats and a new car
* an out-of-control trolley
* a helium-238 nucleus
* the Death Star plans
|
* You found '''a perpetual motion fidget spinner'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found '''a vintage Juicero juicer'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
* Hmmm.
|
|-
| '''Click and Drag Planet'''
|
* an ant the size of Rhode Island
* a pin with 17 angels dancing on it
|
* The vehicle below gives you a boost (Your launch speed has increased.)
* We should turn back (Your engine gets a bit more powerful.)
* You found '''an expert at underwater ropes'''. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a trisected angle'''! (Your launch speed has greatly increased.)
|
|
|-
| '''Subway Planet'''
|
* a relativistic bowling ball
* a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
* a handful of quantum foam
* a normal-sized apple
|
* You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* There is no parking in the white zone (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You feel accomplished (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a brightly-lit billboard''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a hot dog''' (Your launch speed has increased.)
* You found '''a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a beige electron'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''$30 in Yahoo'''! cash! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a friendly cat'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
* Transfer here for Mornington Crescent
|
* MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected. (Blue, red, green, and orange lines activated.)
|-
| '''Boston Planet'''
|
* a strangely heavy subway token
|
|
|
* Blue line deactivated!
* Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive!
|-
| '''Projection of Earth'''
|
* the Heart of the Ocean
* a whale shark
* some microbial life
* some tin from the Pantai Remis mine
* a sparkling gem
* a piece of pumice
|
* You found '''the Principality of Sealand'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a Rhode Island the size of an ant'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found an icosahedral d10 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
* Red line deactivated!
|-
| '''What If? Planet'''
|
* an eye in the sky
* a stick
* an asterisk
* a sterile neutrino
* a secret leaf
* a pair of squirrel goggles
* a large hadron
* a smooth green snake
|
* You found '''a sunken treasure''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The Yellowstone Super What? (Your launch speed has increased.)
* Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0 (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a steam calliope'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a DNA base pair'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''
|
* a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
* a scroll lock key
* a primordial black hole
* a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
* an ink cartridge
* a podcast episode
* a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
* a friendly bee
* a spiral-cut diamond
* a burrito
|
* You found '''a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation''' (Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.)
* You found '''a single caffeine molecule'''! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
|
* Exit Only
* You're going the wrong way!
|
|-
| '''Round Planet'''
|
* a swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
* You found '''a sensible cheese platter''' (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now)
* ''[no message]'' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet'''
|
* a tiny pteranodon
* a baby hedgehog
* a tattered knapsack containing about $194,00 in $20 bills
|
* Today is a good day I think for space exploration (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
|
|
|-
| '''Andal'''
|
|
* You found '''two Andalites, one canonical'''! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* What a nice place for a ship to sit! (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found '''a friend''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''baby shoes (and baby''')! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Comet 67P'''
|
|
* Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. (Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.)
* You found '''a broken smoke machine''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* Anyone for Scrabble later? (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''The Long Now Foundation's''' nickel paperweight containing an '''archive of every''' published '''Animorphs book'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
|
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''
|
* a guitar pick
|
|
|
* Orange line deactivated!
|-
| '''Saturn'''
|
* a really cool data point
|
* You found '''a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''a block of scandium'''! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth'''
|
* a curious Humboldt squid
* a bathyscaphe
* a wayward Roomba full of moondust
|
|
|
* Green line deactivated!
|-
| '''Giant Spider'''
|
* a spider-silk scarf
|
* You found '''a friendly jumping spider''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet'''
|
|
* You found '''a delicate music box'''. (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
|
|
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton'''
|
* a piece of space shuttle food
|
* A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star'''
|
* a hydrogen ion
* a piece of coronium (iron)
|
|
|
|-
| '''SafetySat'''
|
* a first of its kind
|
* ''[no message]'' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* The more refined oil had a dinner engagement (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
|
|
* GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* You found '''the 3 million point line''' (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
* You found '''a sunspot'''! (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
|
|-
| '''Voyager 1'''
|
|
* You found '''Voyager 1'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2'''
|
|
* You found '''Voyager 2'''! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere'''
|
* a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name
* the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram
|
* A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
* You found '''the gold crown Archimedes stole'''! (Your engine thrust has increased significantly.)
|
|
|-
| '''Crack in the Crystal Sphere'''
|
|
* There is a way out (Your launch speed has increased.)
|
* Right lane must turn right
* Left lane must turn left
|
|-
| '''Open Space Outside the Crystal Sphere'''
|
|
* It is very lonely out here (Your tanks recharge much faster now.)
* You found '''a needle in a haystack''' (Your engine gets a little more powerful.)
* From here you can view the source of it all. (Your thrusters are more efficient now.)
|
|}

==All Objects with Explanations==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are {{w|List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among}} the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's {{w|escape velocity}}. They have also executed two {{w|gravity assist}} maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| {{w|5G}} is a modern emerging standard for {{w|cellular networks}} promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable {{w|Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem}} – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the {{w|Gateway Arch}} located in {{w|St. Louis}}, {{w|Missouri}}. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect {{w|Eero Saarinen}}, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the {{w|American frontier}} and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| {{w|Wren}}s are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| {{w|Tumbleweed}} is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| {{w|Marsh wren}} is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song ''{{w|More Than a Feeling}}'' by the {{w|Boston_(band)|Boston}} rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| {{w|Meteorite}}s are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a {{w|meteoroid}} or a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}} instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular {{w|Charizard|character}} from the {{w|Pokémon}} media franchise. {{w|Holography|Holographic}} {{w|business card}}s are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The {{w|Oberth effect}} is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| A {{w|DVD}} is a digital {{w|optical disc}} format used most commonly for distributing {{w|film}}s, in his case the 2003 American {{w|The Core|science fiction disaster film}}. As the title suggest, it is inconveniently located at the core of the Origin planet.

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, {{w|shell theorem}}, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
{{w|Lagrange point}}s are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
{{w|Heavy water}} is a form of water that contains only {{w|deuterium}} (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common {{w|Hydrogen|hydrogen-1}} atoms. It is approximately 10% {{w|Density|denser}} than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from {{w|Outer space|space}} (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episode V ''{{w|The Empire Strikes Back}}''. In the original context the starships were attacking {{w|Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT}} four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|

|-
| rowspan="16" valign="top" | '''Uzumaki'''
| Item + Upgrade
| On the outside of the spiral
| a single caffeine molecule
''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
{{w|Caffeine}} is a chemical substance present in many plants including {{w|coffee bean}}s. Beverages containing it have a refreshing effect on people, reducing fatigue and increasing performance. It may be pun implying that after collecting this item, the spaceship is similarly "recharged" as a person after a cup of {{w|coffee}}, however a single {{w|molecule}} would not make a big difference.
|-
| Message
| The entrance to the spiral
| ''Exit Only''
| In real world doors or gates are sometimes marked ''Exit Only'' to facilitate optimal movement of people or vehicles in an area or within a building, especially in an emergency. However, for such one-way passage to be useful, the structure must have some other entry points. The spiral has only one entry point.
|-
| Item
| Within the spiral
| a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito
| {{w|Junji Ito}} is the author of {{w|Uzumaki}}, which inspired the spiral planet. He specializes in {{w|Japanese horror}} genre, therefore a postcard with his original artwork on it might be perceived as "unnerving".
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a podcast episode
| A {{w|podcast}} is a primarily a {{w|digital audio}} (now more commonly also a {{w|video}}) show or presentation similar to a {{w|radio program}}, but instead of being {{w|Broadcasting|broadcast}} at a predetermined time, is made available for {{w|download}} and later review at leisure. Being digital data, a podcast is intangible, therefore finding a podcast episode just lying around is a bit absurd missing some recording medium. On the other hand a digital video found on the Origin planet is recorded on a DVD (see above).
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a friendly bee
|
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| an ink cartridge
| An ink cartridge is a container filled with {{w|ink}}, packaged for direct use in a device that dispenses the ink for drawing, writing, printing etc. It may refer to a cartridge for an old-fashioned {{w|fountain pen}} or an {{w|ink cartridge}} for a modern {{w|Inkjet printing|inkjet printer}}.
|-
| Landscape
| Further within the spiral
|
A free-roaming Roomba

:'''Roomba''': WHIRRR
| {{w|Roomba}} is a line of {{w|robotic vacuum cleaner}}s popular in the {{w|hacker culture|hacker community}}. Roombas are a [[:Category:Roomba|common theme]] on xkcd, but this is likely a direct reference to [[1558: Vet]].
|-
| Message
| Just above Roomba
| ''You're going the wrong way!' ''
| Probably a reference to the ''Exit Only'' message above.
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a spiral-cut diamond
| Raw {{w|diamond}}s are {{w|Diamond cut|cut}} to form {{w|Gemstone|gems}} used in {{w|jewellery}}. To expose the natural beauty of the mineral, the cut has to create symmetrical flat surfaces (facets) at specific angles to each other so {{w|White#White_light|white light}} {{w|refraction|refracts}} and {{w|Reflection (physics)|reflects}} within the finished gem, possibly multiple times, also {{w|Dispersion (optics)|dipersing}} on its way back to the viewer's eye, creating a brilliant look. Cutting a diamond in a spiral shape would be likely counter-productive and very difficult because of the material's {{w|brittleness}}.

It is a self-reference to the spiral "planet" the item is located on.
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz
|
A {{w|Broadcasting|broadcast}} {{w|radio receiver}} (often called simply ''radio'') is an electronic device for receiving and listening to {{w|radio program|radio programming}} and has to be {{w|Tuner (radio)|tuned}} to a particular {{w|frequency}} to listen to the desired program. Frequency is measured in the unit of {{w|hertz}} or its {{w|Metric prefix|multiplies}}, in this example in megahertz. 1.618 MHz is located in the part of {{w|High frequency|HF}} (high frequency) range of the {{w|electromagnetic spectrum}} assigned (in the USA {{w|Frequency plan|band plan}}) to broadcasting, however not aligned to actual station assignments; the closest assignment is 1.620 MHz (1620 kHz) for {{w|WDHP}} station in {{w|Frederiksted, U.S. Virgin Islands}}. Due to inaccuracies involved with tuning and the 10 kHz {{w|channel spacing}} of American {{w|AM broadcasting|AM radio broadcasting}}, setting a real radio receiver to exactly 1618 kHz will allow listening to the mentioned station, as well as a few others which have nearby frequencies allocated, maybe with some distortion.

This is a pun referring to the {{w|golden ratio}}, being an {{w|irrational number}} of approximately 1.618 and to the {{w|golden spiral}}.
|-
| People
| Further within the spiral
|
:'''Beret Guy''': I like spirals!
|
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a burrito
| {{w|Burrito}} is a {{w|Mexican cuisine|Mexican}} and {{w|Tex-Mex}} cuisine dish consisting of various ingredients tightly wrapped in a {{w|flour tortilla|wheat tortilla}}. This is a rather nonsense joke; a possible connection to Uzumaki is that wrapping the tortilla creates a spiral cross section.
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side
|
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a scroll lock key
|
{{w|Scroll Lock}} is a key on {{w|IBM Personal Computer|IBM}}-compatible {{w|computer keyboard}}s, often accompanied with a status light. It was originally intended for changing the function of {{w|arrow keys}} between moving the {{w|Cursor (user interface)|cursor}} around the screen (Scroll Lock off) and {{w|scrolling}} the contents of the screen (Scroll Lock on). Later, different systems and applications repurposed the key for other functions, such as pausing and resuming automatic scrolling of copious textual output, or for other obscure purposes such as {{w|debugging}} or the ''{{w|Magic SysRq key}}'' on {{w|Linux}}. As such, the key has almost fallen out of use in modern computing, prompting manufacturers of small computers such as {{w|laptop}}s or small {{w|Form factor (design)|form factor}} keyboards to make it smaller, move it to a non-standard place in the {{w|keyboard layout}} or drop it altogether. Most laptops missing the Scroll Lock key on their keyboards implement some key combination which acts as if Scroll Lock was pressed, allowing advanced users to use the mentioned obscure functions anyway.

Placing this item quite deep in the spiral is a pun referring to difficulty in finding a Scroll Lock key or the equivalent combination on some modern computers. A few xkcd comics refer to the key: [[978: Citogenesis]], [[1465: xkcd Phone 2]], [[1854: Refresh Types]] and [[2206: Mavis Beacon]].
|-
| Item
| Further within the spiral
| a primordial black hole
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the center of the spiral
| a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation
''Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Guitar Ship'''
| Item
| Just over the dome on the back of the guitar
| a guitar pick
| A {{w|guitar pick}} is a small flat tool for playing a {{w|guitar}}.
|-
| Token
| Close to guitar's neck
| ''Orange line deactivated!''
|

|-
| rowspan="4" valign="top" | '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
| Upgrade
| Within one of the goals
| ''GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Within the other goal
| ''GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| On the surface of the planet between goals
| a sunspot
''Your launch speed has increased.''
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At the center spot on one of the soccer field
| the 3 million point line
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="3" valign="top" | '''Saturn'''
| Item
| At the equator, below the rings
| a really cool data point
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At the south pole
| a block of scandium
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere
| a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|

|-
| rowspan="6" valign="top" | '''Andal'''
| Upgrade
| At the top of the T-shaped tower
| ''What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the T-shaped tower
| Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the animals
| two Andalites, one canonical
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the grass close to some hills
| baby shoes (and baby)
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| In the grassy area between two hilly regions
|
Cueball and Megan facing each other
:'''Megan''': The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to Megan
| a friend
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Projection of Earth'''
| Item + Upgrade
| The North Sea
| the Principality of Sealand
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| Northern Atlantic Ocean
| the Heart of the Ocean
| The whole message says: ''You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.''
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to Rhode Island
| a Rhode Island the size of an ant
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Token
| Next to Boston, Massachusetts
| ''Red line deactivated!''
|
|-
| Item
| By the Alexander Island of Antarctica
| some microbial life
|
|-
| Item
| Off the West African coastline
| a whale shark
|
|-
| Item
| On the western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca
| some tin from the pantai remis mine
|
|-
| Item
| Next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia
| a sparkling gem
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Off the southern Australian coast
| an icosahedral d10
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| Near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia
| a piece of pumice
| The whole message says: ''You found a piece of pumice floating in space!''

|-
| valign="top" | '''Voyager 1'''
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the dish antenna
| Voyager 1
''Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.''
|

|-
| valign="top" | '''Voyager 2'''
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the dish antenna
| Voyager 2
''Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.''
|

|-
| rowspan="3" valign="top" | '''SafetySat'''
| Item
| In front of laser pointers
| a first of its kind
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Next to software-defined radio
| ''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Next to crude oil tank
| ''The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Shuttle Skeleton'''
| Item
| At the tip of the ship's bow
| a piece of space shuttle food
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Next to the left-hand engine
| ''A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Giant Spider'''
| Item
| Next to the tip of the spider's abdomen
| a spider-silk scarf
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the spider's mouth
| a friendly jumping spider
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|

|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | '''Diffraction Spikes Star'''
| Item
| At the tip of a long spike
| a hydrogen ion
|
|-
| Item
| At the tip of a short spike
| a piece of coronium (iron)
| The whole message says: ''You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.''

|-
| rowspan="4" valign="top" | '''Roche Lobe Earth'''
| Item
| Off the California coastline
| a curious humboldt squid
|
|-
| Item
| Off the Japan coast
| a bathyscaphe
| The whole message says: ''You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!''
|-
| Token
| Near Boston
| ''Green line deactivated!''
|
|-
| Item
| On the far side of the Moon
| a wayward Roomba full of moondust
|

|-
| valign="top" | '''Dark Matter Planet'''
| Item + Upgrade
| A little above the surface to the left of Ponytail
| a delicate music box
''Your engine is a little more powerful now.''
|

|-
| rowspan="6" valign="top" | '''Jurassic Park Planet'''
| People
| On the surface
| A person with a hat facing a couple
:'''dr John Hammond''': Welcome... to Jurassic Park.
|
|-
| Upgrade
| To the right of the people close to a dinosaur's mouth
| ''But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Further to the right between two dinosaurs
| ''Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| Still further to the right
| a tiny pteranodon
|
|-
| Item
| Still further to the right, low above the grass
| a baby hedgehog
|
|-
| Item
| Below surface down from the middle of empty grassy area between two dinosaurs to the left of the people
| a tattered knapsack containing about $194,00 in $20 bills
|

|-
| rowspan="7" valign="top" | '''Comet 67P'''
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the large bulge
| Remains of a crashed spacecraft
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Just above the crashed spacecraft
| The Long Now Foundation's archive of every Animorphs book
''You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.'
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the bulge
| A small three-legged spacecraft.
:'''Spacecraft''': BEEP BOOP
|
|-
| Landscape
| On the bulge
| Cueball standing next to some apparatus
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Next to the apparatus
| a broken smoke machine
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| To the right of the bulge
| ''Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Further to the right, next to a signpost
| ''Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|

|-
| rowspan="40" valign="top" | '''Subway Planet'''
| Landscape
| Many places
| '''Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead! Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!''
|
This warns the player about a black hole present inside the planet in the center of Washington, D.C. area.
Once the player gets close and is pulled onto the surface of the black hole, it is not possible to launch off of it without the Hyperdrive.
The only way to get unstuck is pressing the Home button.

It's a reference to the {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Upgrade
| At a large opening in the planet's surface
| ''You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
|-
| People
| On the right side of the large opening in the planet
| Megan and Cueball standing on the edge. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.
:'''Cueball''': Where's Boston?
:'''Megan''': I think M.I.T. kids took it.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the entrance to a triple-wide tunnel leading down to NYC
| a hot dog
''Your launch speed has increased.''
|
|-
| People
| On the surface to the right of the tunnels leading to NYC
| Cueball and Danish walking.
:'''Cueball''': Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:'''Danish''': They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:'''Cueball''': But Morgantown is tiny. It can't possibly have a subway, can it?
:'''Danish''': Not exactly...
|
|-
| People
| On the surface above Santo Domingo
| Hairy and White Hat.
:'''Hairy''': A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| At the entrance to a tunnel leading to Santo Domingo / Monterrey area
| a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| People
| On the surface to the right of the Mexico City
|
:'''Ponytail''': Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!
|
|-
| People
| Further to the right
| Ponytail and Cueball. Cueball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.
:'''Ponytail''': Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.
|
|-
| People
| Further to the right
| Ponytail and Megan walking.
:'''Ponytail''': My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!
|
|-
| People
| On the surface next to San Francisco
| Cueball and Megan standing on the opposite sides of a tunnel entrance.
:'''Cueball''': If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:'''Megan''': But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:'''Cueball''': Yeah, it's down there somewhere.
|
|-
| People
| Between San Francisco and Vancouver
| Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance.
:'''Ponytail''': Vancouver!
|
|-
| People
| Vancouver
| Cueball and Ponytail looking up.
:'''Cueball''': Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.
|
|-
| People
| Down in the tunnels in Montreal
|
:'''Knit Cap''': Bienvenue à Montréal!
|
|-
| People
| At the bottom of the large hole in the planet's surface
| Blondie and Megan.
:'''Blondie''': I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.
|
|-
| Item
| In a short dead-end tunnel near the right side of the hole
| a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)
|
|-
| Item
| In a short dead-end tunnel down in NYC
| a handful of quantum foam
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Down in the tunnels of New York City
| a brightly-lit billboard
''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Item
| Down in NYC
| a normal-sized apple
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In the tunnel leading from New York City to Washington, D.C.
| a friendly cat
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| Down in Mexico
| Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below, looking down
:'''Megan''': You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.
|
|-
| People
| Monterrey
| Megan looking at her phone
<code>xkcd.com/1196</code>
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| In a short dead-end tunnel near Miami
| a beige electron
''Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Item
| In a short dead-end tunnel in Toronto
| a relativistic bowling ball
|
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Further down in Toronto
| $30 in Yahoo
''You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| Down in San Francisco
| ''The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| Down in Los Angeles
| A rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside.
:'''Megan''': Welcome to CalTech!
:'''Hairbun''': The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:'''Cueball''': Figures.
|
|-
| People
| Left and down from the CalTech chamber
| Science Girl standing in the tunnel.
:'''Science Girl''': Stop! This line goes to D.C.! Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.
| This is a more elaborate version of the warning plastered all over the inside of the planet. See the first entry on the Subway Planet above.
|-
| Upgrade
| In a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia
| ''There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
|-
| Upgrade
| In a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia
| ''You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.''
|
|-
| People
| Down in Philadelphia
| Cueball sitting on a slope.
:'''Cueball''': Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.
|
|-
| Message
| In a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole
| ''Transfer here for Mornington Crescent''
|
|-
| Landscape
| In the center of Washington, D.C.
| The Air and Space Museum's black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button.
|
This object does not behave like a real {{w|black hole}} as anything getting close enough (below the {{w|Schwarzschild radius}}) will never emerge from it again.
In the game, however, one can land on the surface of it and launch off it, provided that the engine thrust has been greatly increased by the Hyperdrive.
The object behaves like a dense, spherical solid having a large mass and hence exerting significant gravitational force, more like a {{w|super-Earth}}.
|-
| Landscape
| In the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown
| A sign with an arrow, saying ''WV''
| ''WV'' is a common abbreviation for the U.S. state of {{w|West Virginia}} in which {{w|Morgantown, West Virginia|Morgantown}} lies.
|-
| People
| In Morgantown
| Cueball sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface
:'''Cueball''': Welcome to Morgantown!
|
|-
| Token
| In Morgantown
| ''MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.''
|
|-
| Landscape
| Along the tunnels from Morgantown up to the surface near Mexico
| A grey line with a circle at Morgantown end and an arrow at the other end
| This line appears only after the Cloaking Device is deactivated and points to the Boston planet.
|-
| People
| In the tunnel leading from Morgantown to Atlanta
| Megan standing at a subway station at a strange angle to the surface
:'''Megan''': Welcome to Morgantown!
|
|-
| People
| Further along the tunnel from Morgantown to Atlanta
| Megan sitting
:'''Megan''': I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!
|
|-
| People
| At the joint of the tunnels leading to Morgantown and Washington, D.C.
| Cueball sitting on the edge, his elbow on his thigh, and his chin resting on his hand.
:'''Cueball ''': Where does that line go?
|

|-
| rowspan="14" valign="top" | '''Boston Planet'''
| People
| Next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"
|
:'''Cueball''': There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.
|
|-
| Token
| Over the blue line entrance
| ''Blue line deactivated!''
|
|-
| People
| On the other side of the entrance of the blue line
| White Hat with his arms stretched facing Ponytail
:'''White Hat''': Welcome to Wonderland!
|
|-
| People
| Next to the entrance of the red line, labelled "Braintree"
| Cueball and Megan
:'''Cueball''': Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.
|
{{w|Braintree, Massachusetts}} is a real-world town in the {{w|Greater Boston}} area, where the {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority|MBTA}} {{w|MBTA subway|subway}}
{{w|Red_Line_(MBTA)|red line}} terminal {{w|Braintree station (MBTA)|station}} is located.
The funny-sounding name of the town has inspired Randall to create two fictional station names following the same pattern of animal organ + plant form: Skinflower and Bonevine.
These names also appear on the map in [[1196: Subways]].
|-
| People
| Next to the entrance of the green line, labelled "Riverside"
|
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.
|
|-
| People
| Next to the other entrance of the green line, labelled "Boston College"
| Megan and Ponytail talking.
:'''Megan''': Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:'''Ponytail''': And on some playlists.
:'''Megan''': And of course it's right here!
|
|-
| People
| Next to another entrance of the green line, labelled "Medford/Tufts"
|
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.
|
|-
| People
| Down the blue line tunnel
|
:'''Cueball''': The red line token? It's in Boston.
| rowspan = "4" valign = "center" |
Cueball states the fact that there are many places named Boston or alluding to Boston in the game and the remaining subway tokens
(besides the blue line one, which was needed to get into the blue line tunnel in order to read Cueball's hints)
are located in or near such places. To find where the other tokens are, sort the table by the '''Type''' column and look up entries named "Token".
|-
| People
| Further down the blue line tunnel
|
:'''Cueball''': The green line token is in Boston, too.
|-
| People
| Still further down the blue line tunnel
|
:'''Cueball''': The orange line token is also in Boston.
|-
| People
| Near the intersection of the blue and orange lines tunnels
|
:'''Cueball''': There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.
|-
| People
| In the red line tunnel, down from Braintree.
| Megan and Cueball walking.
:'''Cueball''': You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"
|
This is a reference to {{w|Quincy, Massachusetts}}, a city through which the {{w|MBTA subway|Boston subway}} {{w|Red_Line_(MBTA)|red line}} goes.
Four stations are located within the city limits: {{w|North Quincy station|North Quincy}}, {{w|Wollaston station|Wollaston}},
{{w|Quincy Center station|Quincy Center}} and {{w|Quincy Adams station|Quincy Adams}}. The word "quinchy" is a rather obscene slang expression, look it up in Urban Dictionary.
|-
| People
| In the red line tunnel, next to a place labelled "MIT".
|
:'''Megan ''': The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.
|
|-
| Upgrade
| In the red line tunnel, next to a place labelled "MIT".
| ''Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive!''
|


|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" |
|
|
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|

|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

Category:Stilts

2023-05-26T23:32:35Z

Malgond: Created blank page

2669: Things You Should Not Do

2023-05-26T23:32:07Z

Malgond: added Category:Stilts using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 2669
| date = September 7, 2022
| title = Things You Should Not Do
| image = things_you_should_not_do.png
| titletext = Now I'm tempted to start telling people that I secretly don't actually know how to do any physics calculations, and so all the answers in What If are based on me actually trying to do the thing and then reporting what happened, but phrased as if it's hypothetical.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic references various questions submitted by people and used in the [[what if? (blog)|''what if?'' blog]] and the ''[[What If? (book)|What If?]]'' and ''[[What If? 2]]'' books. In particular, promoting [[Randall]]'s new book, ''What if? 2'' (released 6 days after the date of this comic publication). This comic has a list of things not to do, an extension of a previous list, and is purportedly things Randall discovered as he was doing research for his book. A visit to the [https://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/ What If? archive] shows the titles, publishing date, and a thumbnail for each article. Many of the acts described under the "new" section of the list are depicted in these thumbnails (see table below); others are references to examples or hypotheticals explored within the articles. The entries are all in order of their appearance in the book.

The title text says that Randall is tempted to tell people that all the things in the book were things that he actually tried to do, not that he calculated the solutions for their problems. Many of the questions and answers in his new book are impossible to attempt in real life.{{citation needed}}

===Table of things you should not do===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Number !! Entry !! ''What If? 2'' section referenced !! Explanation
|-
! colspan="4" | From existing list
|-
|156,812
|Eat Tide Pods
|N/A
|{{w|Consumption of Tide Pods|Tide Pod}}s are a brand of laundry detergent sold in small packets ("pods") of water-soluble gel. Many children have tried to eat them, thinking them to be candy, and have had to go to the hospital to treat poisoning. In 2017 and 2018, a satirical "challenge" originated around eating Tide Pods.
|-
|156,813
|Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm
|N/A
|Taller objects are more likely to be struck by lightning, so walking on stilts outdoors would increase the risk of death by electrocution. It would also presumably risk falling and injuring oneself that way, since the ground becomes wet in a rainstorm.
|-
|156,814
|Set off fireworks at a gas station
|N/A
|This has the risk of potentially causing an explosion in the gas station, from the sparks of the fireworks.
|-
|156,815
|Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand
|N/A
|This probably runs the risk of the cat attempting to eat your hand, instead of a cat treat.
|-
! colspan="4" | New!
|-
|156,816
|Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it
|Geyser
|Geysers shoot steam and hot water upward. If a person were to lean over the geyser and look down during an eruption, they would be struck in the face by this hot liquid and gas mixture and severely injured or killed. This is a reference to the question from ''What-If? 2'' (called, appropriately enough, "Geyser"), in which it is asked what might happen to a person if they stood on top of the Old Faithful geyser as it erupted.
|-
|156,817
|Fly a hot-air balloon over a firing range
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/81/ Catch!]
|A hot air balloon could present an irresistible target to the people firing their weapons at the range. The balloon could be shot and you could fall to your death. Shooting bullets up and over the designated backstop and berm is also a public danger to anyone past downrange.
|-
|156,818
|Peel away the earth's crust
|Lose Weight the Slow and Incredibly Difficult Way
|This is a reference to an entry in the new book, and an image of what it would look like is shown in [[2575: What If? 2]], where a potato peeler is used to remove the crust of the Earth. Several *What If* blog posts also result in massive damage to the earth's crust, including what happened to Texas [https://what-if.xkcd.com/153/ here].

This is a reference to a chapter from the new book, which refers to removing the Earth's mass to lose weight.
|-
|156,819
|Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/84/ Paint the Earth]
|This would be difficult and require more paint than humanity has ever produced.
|-
|156,820
|Remove someone's bones without asking
|Short Answers #2
|A reference to a short answer question in ''What If? 2''.
|-
|156,821
|Spend 100% of your government's budget on mobile game in-app purchases
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/108/ Expensive Shoebox]
|A reference to one of the examples listed in the answer.
|-
|156,822
|Fill a lava lamp with actual lava
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/122/ Lava Lamp]
|A {{w|lava lamp}} is a glass lamp, which contains a wax mixture inside, and heats so that the wax rises and falls. Putting actual lava inside a regular lava lamp would most likely cause the lamp to melt and the glass to shatter, not to mention handling lava is very dangerous.{{citation needed}} However, in this entry, Randall says it would be fairly easy to find a material that would be able to handle the heat of the lava and thus this would be rather anticlimactic.
|-
|156,823
|Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic (''sic'') fever
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/98/ Blood Alcohol]
|Drinking someone else's blood is a bad idea unless you are a vampire. If someone has a {{w|viral hemorrhagic fever}}, it is much worse, as they have a very serious and likely deadly disease which can be transmitted by sharing bodily fluids, such as blood. Drinking blood is the theme of this answer.
|-
|156,824
|Eat meat from rabid animals
|Short Answers #4
|Eating meat from rabid animals could give you {{w|rabies}}, a virus which is nearly always fatal if not treated prior to the appearance of initial symptoms. Pathogen contamination in cooked foods can persist on the surface of ''e.g.'' tongs, chopsticks, or a fork used to grill, which is why the USDA doesn't generally allow kitchen utensils to touch raw or ready to eat foods at all. Exceptions for utensils which touch only raw or partially cooked foods, such as grill spatulas and the like, are often allowed and can be negotiated on a case-by-case basis when they would otherwise be prohibited. The rabies virus permeates essentially all nerve tissue before symptoms appear.
|-
|156,825
|Perform your own laser eye surgery
|Eyeball
|Refers to an answer in the book regarding seeing your own eyeball as well as the end of [https://what-if.xkcd.com/82/ this answer]
|-
|156,826
|Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs
|Read All the Laws
|While issuing false statements to government regulators is a violation of both California and Federal law, for which prison sentences can reach ten years and fines can reach ten thousand dollars plus any compensatory damages, as per [https://california.public.law/codes/ca_penal_code_section_132 California Penal Code § 132] and [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001 18 U.S. Code § 1001], there is some question about whether any competent regulatory authority would ever take such an assertion seriously, and whether they would be liable for greater damages for doing so than the potential liability of the original culprit involved. Actually doing this, even to county level regulators, could result in a series of events very disadvantageous to you, your farm, and your employees. However, declaring that you're producing Pokémon eggs to your local municipality is probably harmless, and likely to brighten the day of your local regulators.{{cn}} Furthermore, as mentioned in ''What If? 2'', [https://california.public.law/codes/ca_food_and_agric_code_section_27637 California Food and Agricultural Code § 27637] bars anyone from making false or misleading statements about eggs, and Poké Balls could be considered a type of egg.
|-
|156,827
|Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab
|[https://what-if.xkcd.com/147/ Niagara Straw]
|An oblique reference to the image near the end of this answer.
|-
|156,828
|Pump ammonia into your abdomen
|Ammonia Tube
|{{w|Ammonia}} is an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPA_list_of_extremely_hazardous_substances extremely hazardous substance] and pumping it into your abdomen would result in a painful death due to ammonia toxicity. As the book mentions, however, at the very least some of it would be neutralized with your stomach acid.
|-
|156,829
|Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the Sun
|Sunscreen
|Despite its name, sunscreen only protects against some types of radiation from the sun. No amount is going to be adequate protection if you are right inside the sun.{{Actual citation needed}} Also, sunscreen, being a gel, would evaporate when exposed to vacuum. When exposed to the plasma of the coronal surface or the Sun's interior, it would quickly ionize along with anything inside it, becoming plasma like the rest of the Sun.
|}

==Transcript==

:[Caption:]
:Updates to my "Things You Should Not Do" list, based on what I learned writing ''What If? 2''
:(out 9/13, xkcd.com/whatif2)

:[The rest of the text appears in a box.]

:<big>Things You Should Not Do</big> 
:(part 3647 of ????)

:[A numbered list, the first four items in a lighter grey]

:<nowiki>#156,812 Eat Tide pods</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,813 Walk on stilts in a thunderstorm</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,814 Set off fireworks at a gas station</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,815 Feed your cat treats that are the exact shape and texture of a human hand</nowiki>

:[A horizontal divider with the text "''New!''" in the middle in black. The remaining items on the list are also in black.]

:<nowiki>#156,816 Lean over a geyser vent and try to look down into it</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,817 Fly a hot air balloon over a firing range</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,818 Peel away the Earth's crust</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,819 Try to paint the Sahara Desert by hand</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,820 Remove someone's bones without asking</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,821 Spend 100% of your governments budget on mobile game in-app purchases</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,822 Fill a lava lamp with actual lava</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,823 Drink the blood of someone with a viral hemorraghic fever</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,824 Eat meat from rabid animals</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,825 Perform your own laser eye surgery</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,826 Tell California poultry regulators that your farm is selling Pokemon eggs</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,827 Funnel the entire flow of Niagara Falls into the open window of a physics lab</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,828 Pump ammonia into your abdomen</nowiki>
:<nowiki>#156,829 Suspend yourself inside a 10-meter ball of sunscreen and fall into the sun</nowiki>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Pokémon]]
[[Category:Cats]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
[[Category:Stilts]]

2603: Childhood Toys

2023-05-26T23:30:23Z

Malgond: added Category:Stilts using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 2603
| date = April 6, 2022
| title = Childhood Toys
| image = childhood_toys.png
| titletext = The rope keeps breaking, I'm covered in bruises and scrapes, and I've barely reached the end of my driveway, but I don't care--I'm determined to become the first person to commute to work by tetherball.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic shows various objects, ranked by how practical they would be for long-distance transportation. The objects are described as childhood toys.

The "Practical" panel shows objects designed for convenient transportation, namely {{w|bicycles}} and {{w|Motorized_scooter|electric scooters}}. Most people know how to ride a bicycle, and can easily go several miles on it. Scooters (shown in the comic panel) are also relatively easy to use, and may have a motor allowing them to be used for significant distances — the one shown has the appearance of one with a battery unit rather than being 'leg-propelled', and is named as such in the list for which it has been depicted. These are not considered "toys" at adult size as they are widely used for transport, but children's bikes and scooters (particularly unpowered scooters) not used for transport would generally be considered toys. The practicality of bicycles and e-scooters tends to depend more on local infrastructure and amenities (i.e., the presence of a safe cycle route and the destination being within a sensible distance) than on the equipment itself. Bicycles can carry {{w|Cargo bicycle|substantial loads}}. In some countries e-scooters are legally restricted or prohibited on public roads which may make commuting on them unviable.

The "Less Practical" panel has objects designed for transportation, but which may be harder to use than the first panel. {{w|Skateboards}} and {{w|roller skates}}, while designed for transportation, don't work great over long distances or when carrying objects, and {{w|Big Wheel (tricycle)|Big Wheels}} and {{w|unicycles}} (shown in the panel) are simply less practical bikes.

In the "Impractical" panel are objects that are designed for transportation, but are ''very much not'' designed for convenience, especially over long distances. {{w|Stilts}} are long poles that one stands on to extend their legs; while they increase the user's stride length, it takes quite a bit of practice to use them, especially if they're very long. A {{w|jump rope}} is a rope that the user swings around their body while they jump over it whenever the rope passes below their feet; it doesn't actually provide any transportation by itself, the user is simply hopping to their destination, which is a very tiring way to travel (but very good exercise if you can do it). A {{w|toy wagon|wagon}} has no propulsion of its own, it has to be pulled by the user; parents sometimes use it to transport their children short distances (such as to a playground). Larger wagons are used commercially. A {{w|Pogo stick}} is a pole with a spring at the bottom and a platform for standing on, which can be used to bounce; while fun for bouncing a few yards (as shown in the panel), like the jump rope it would be tiring for long distances.

The "Very Impractical" panel has objects that may be used for transportation, but to an ''incredibly'' limited degree. {{w|Slip_%27N_Slide|Slip 'N Slides}} (shown in the panel) only work (effectively) downhill, and only where they are placed down. {{w|Trampolines}} and {{w|Tire swing|Tire swings}} could let you go somewhere, but you'd need to set up multiple in a row leading to your destination beforehand. {{w|Hot Wheels}} cars could be put onto the bottom of shoes to create ''extremely'' ill-advised{{citation needed}} improvised rollerskates, but the car on its own has effectively no merit for transportation.

The title text refers to {{w|tetherball}}, a game found in many playgrounds where a ball is attached to a pole by a long rope. This is also very impractical, as the rope just winds around a stationary pole. It's possible that he is swinging from the rope and letting go (which would explain the bruises and scrapes, as well as the torn rope), but there is no ''remotely'' practical way to use this to commute.{{citation needed}} Nevertheless, if you were able to swing quickly enough and cut the rope at exactly the right moment, you might be able to achieve a short commute to a nearby target. This method may have been inspired by NASA [https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/space/spinlaunch-to-test-suborbital-accelerator-launcher-with-nasa.html purchasing a launch] via the [https://www.spinlaunch.com/ SpinLaunch] rocket system the same week as the comic appeared.

==Transcript==
:[Title:] Childhood Toys
:[Subtitle:] By Practicality for Commuting

:[Caption of the first box:] Practical
*Bicycle
*Electric Scooter
:[Cueball, wearing a helmet, drives by on an electric scooter, passing another Cueball and Hairbun, who is holding a briefcase.]
:Scooter Cueball: Hi, boss!

:[Caption of the second box:] Less Practical
*Skateboard
*Roller Skates
*Big Wheel
*Unicycle
:[Ponytail rides by White Hat on a unicycle.]
:Ponytail: Good Morning!

:[Caption of the third box:] Impractical
*Stilts
*Jump Rope
*Wagon
*Pogo Stick
:[Cueball bounces past Megan on a pogo stick.]
:Pogo Stick: Boing boing
:Cueball: How's it going?

:[Caption of the fourth box:] Very Impractical
*Trampoline
*Tire Swing
*Hot Wheels
*Slip 'N Slide
:[Cueball slides past Hairy(?) on a Slip 'N Slide.]
:Cueball: Wheeeee
:Cueball: Hi Boss!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Stilts]]

1663: Garden

2023-05-26T23:29:47Z

Malgond: added Category:Stilts using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 1663
| date = April 4, 2016
| title = Garden
| image = garden.png 
| titletext = Relax.
}}
<div class="toclimit-3">{{TOC}}</div>
*'''Note:''' this is an interactive comic. Go to {{xkcd|1663|xkcd}} to try it out.
**Also '''note''' that a few weeks after the comic was released a change was made so growth only seems to appear when the gardens is actively running in a browser window!
**(This is opposed to what happened during the first few weeks after release!)

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Fill out the [[#Items in the garden|tables]] with images of all the possible items. General explanations/comment are missing as well as link to screenshots of gardens where each item "grows".}}

This was the seventh [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comic]] released by [[Randall]]. The previous fools comic was
[[1506: xkcloud]] from Wednesday April 1st 2015. The next [[1818:_Rayleigh_Scattering#No_April_Fools.27_Day_comic_in_2017|did not come out in 2017]], but first in 2018 when [[1975: Right Click]] was released on Sunday April 1st 2018.

This comics represents the April fools' comic of 2016, and it is [[Randall|Randall's]] celebration of {{w|April Fools' Day}} Friday, April 1, 2016. It represents the third time in a row that user input changes the April Fools' comic. Although in the last two [[1350: Lorenz]] and [[1506: xkcloud]] it was written (or drawn) input that became part of the comics. This time the user input is like a game, as the user actively adds, moves and deletes items, and new items appear based on these actions. In this way it actually more resembles the game comic [[1608: Hoverboard]], than the previous April Fools' comics.

Due to technical problems (or to make fools of his fans, see more about the [[#April Fools' header text|header text]] below) the comic did not go live until Sunday evening (after midnight, so technically on Monday April 4th) so there was no Friday release the week before, see [[#Monday 4th of April release|more details below]].

The comic begins with a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f1/Garden_Loading_collage.png loading screen] with a revolving tree and the text "loading..." This is because the first time a computer loads this dynamic comic it can take a while.

Once it is loaded it displays "your '''Garden'''", being a barren landscape, with a small pond to the left, some rocks at the far left and right, and a single lamp shining light yellow light on most of the ground. This is what is shown at the top of the explanation here. But if you leave the lights on and wait (or "relax", as the reader is told to do by the title text), then plants and other items will start to appear.

The reason it is correct to call it "your garden" is that every time this comic is loaded from scratch, a new garden will be created with a unique url-address. By [[#Saving garden with url|saving this link]] (making a bookmark for it), the user will be able to return to their garden again and again. As the garden only develops very slowly this is important. (If users wish to share their garden they can do it in the table on the page for '''[[1663: Garden/Users gardens|Users gardens]]''').

[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/78/1663_garden_Three_colors_over_everything_not_very_interesting.png Plants appear] one at a time, and sometimes it takes a long time. Only a few of the plants actually grow. For instance there are some large trees that begins as [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/27/1663_garden_Fast_growing_tree_-_leafless.png a large trunk] and from there [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/67/1663_garden_Fast_growing_tree_-_lots_of_leaves.png grows branches and leaves]. This can sometimes happen quite fast. Most other plants just appear, the only other exception being one type of flowers. All plants, except the cactus, clearly sway in the breeze.

Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1663_garden_Pruned_garden_with_birds_deer_gate_cactus_turtles_snake_gate.png animals] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/de/1663_garden_Three_lamps_two_along_ground_with_pillars_not_in_blue_world_and_symmetric_gates.png building-like structures] such as [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/15/1663_garden_Megan_Monolith_Animals_and_more.png a monolith and birdbaths] appear, together with lots of other items like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ad/1663_garden_Office_space_with_star_plant_balloon_with_bird_and_grass_on_Cueball.png office furniture] with [http://xkcd.com/1663/#98dc3452-fcf2-11e5-8010-42010a8e0008 balloons swaying in the wind] or even one of the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_red_and_red_First_thing_Mars_rover.png Mars rovers] which so [[:Category:Mars rovers|often have been featured]] in xkcd.

On top of all this, several known characters may appear in different poses including [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] (for instance with a sword, see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6b/1663_garden_Megan_with_sword%2C_trees_octopuses_with_Cueball_bunny_ducklings.png here]), [[Ponytail]] (see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/eb/1663_garden_Ponytail_and_two_Cueballs_cat_pillar_and_trunk_sE.png here]) and [[Beret Guy]] from the torso and up (see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9b/1663_garden_Three_colors_more_separate_Beret_Guy_in_shrubbery_and_Octopus_on_office_desk.png here]). Megan and also Cueball can both be seen [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/06/1663_garden_Giant_planter_on_pillars_and_both_Cueball_and_Megan_with_black_hat.png with a black hat], but it is one that "grows" on top of their heads after they first appear. However, Cueball with a black hat automatically turns into [[Black Hat]], so he can also be said to be in this comic. There is also an unknown character, a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0c/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_First_thing_stilts.png girl on stilts] with black hair in a ponytail who like plants and balloons [http://xkcd.com/1663/#e774b4b8-fcd4-11e5-8001-42010a8e0017 sways in the wind]. A possible origin of this girl could be the What If article [https://whatif.xkcd.com/97/ Burning Pollen]. The article involves a character with seasonal allergies that is trying unsuccessfully to avoid their allergen (pollen) with giant stilts.

All the [[#Items in the garden|items that can appear]] in the garden are listed below in several tables. During the first week new items kept appearing, but after the eighth day (April 12th), no new items have appeared. Also the growth rate (and thus the fun of this comic) has decreased with time (maybe due to the enormous amount of gardens that the server has to keep track of?) .

Every so often the image will refresh. You can change the number of lamps, their position, direction, beam width and the color temperature which always begins somewhere between white and yellow, but can change all the way from red to blue (See this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b8/Garden_Three_Lamp_screen_shot.png example] with one lamp selected and three colors of light). Other colors than those four may appear where two lamps' cones of different colored light overlap.

The color of light [[#Effect of light|affects the growth]] with a strong correlation for what appears in the garden depending on the [[#Colors of light|color of light]], and this is not only split between red, yellow and blue, but rather [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4a/1663_garden_Numbered_color_scale_1-17.png 10 different colors].

Early on it became clear that pure red light results in a desert theme with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/98/1663_garden_Desert_with_red_light_only.png cacti and turtles] and pure blue light gives an aquatic theme with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/23/1663_garden_Octopus_garden_with_Cueball_hand_up_and_a_black_hat_octopus.png lots of octopuses] that may also wear a black hat. For the most interesting gardens the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/15/1663_garden_Megan_Monolith_Animals_and_more.png light colors should be mixed]; see more below under [[#Effect of light|Effect of light]].

If this comic is scientifically accurate, that correlation will be based on {{w|photosynthetically active radiation}}.

Some users manage to create fantastic gardens (by using lots of time on them, pruning them at the right time and changing the light and lamp position to get what they strive for). Especially one user have created a series of amazing gardens that is posted on another [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=600 xkcd forum]. Here is a collection of screenshots with some of [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Blitz_Girls_amazing_gardens|Blitz Girls amazing gardens]]!

The title text "Relax" can be debated. Is it to let the users know they should just sit back and relax as the garden grows.? Or should they relax and don't worry so much about how it works (not working here on explain xkcd though!)? Or is he teasing the users by giving them a garden that they need to tend to, and then telling them to relax? And also giving them many more colors than lamps... Given that this comic was supposed to come out on April 1st, there is a good chance that it is, also, to tease the users. There are actually [[#Trivia|two other title texts]] as well.

===Extra Garden pages===
*Since this comic is so complicated extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page (which is already of considerable size).
*These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also linked in the relevant sections below:
**[[1663: Garden/Images]]. The images of items that can appear in the comic.
***This page is linked in the section below with table for ''[[#Items in the garden|Items in the garden]]''.
**[[1663: Garden/Screen-shots]]. Since there are no permalink, then in order to save a particular moment of a garden a screen shot is needed. These can be posted here.
***This page is linked in the section below about for ''[[#Saving images|Saving images]]''.
**[[1663: Garden/Users gardens]]. A place for users of explain xkcd to post links to their own garden, and also for experimental gardens.!
***This page is linked in the section below about for ''[[#Saving garden with url|Saving garden with url]]''.

==Transcript==
:[After a '''loading image''' with a rotating tree in the middle and the text "Loading..." with the three dots appearing one at a time, and then disappear when all three have been there the image shown above in the explanation will appear:]

:['''Description of the image above''': A piece of bare landscape is shown. At the edges there are some rocks or stones raising the level from the general level through the center of the panel. Above the middle, a little more than halfway to the top of the panel, is a light bulb sitting inside a lamp that reminds of the desk lamp from the movie Luxo Jr. The lamp shines a yellow light down on the landscape in a broad cone that jus reaches the first rock to the left, but not those to the right. The lamp just hovers in the air. In the top right corner are two gray icons. The top one has a black frame and shows an image of a lamp, tilted left as opposed to the straight position of the lamp in the image. There is a + sign below in the left corner. The second icon without a frame has a large white cross in the middle.]

:[This turns out to be a '''web applet''' and using the "+ lamp" icon two more lamps can be added getting up to three. They are all adjustable both regarding position, direction, color of light and beam width. When selecting a lamp a red circle appear around it with a small circle on top that can be used to control the light color from blue to the left to red to the right. In front is a red arrow that can turn the lamp and it can also be used to change the beam width by pulling it away from the lamp or pushing it back. The lamps can be moved by just clicking on it and moving it. The other icon with a X can be used to remove the lamps (and later any object that appear in the garden). When any object is selected there is a red circle around it. When this is done the gray cross icon becomes red and can the be used to delete the selected item. When no item is selected (either because it is deleted, or by clicking in a part of the screen with no items), then the cross icon turns gray again. When all three lamps are on, then the "+ lamp" icon is faded out.]

:['''If you wait''' (or relax, as in the title text), then a plant will grow or animals, humans and other items may appear. This could be birds, snakes, octopuses or turtles, Megan or Cueball or a birdbath, a monolith or a tall gate just as a few examples. Most of the items appear in one go, but at least the largest trees grow up with a big stem first and then adds parts later with leaves or empty branches. Also one item may appear on top of another item and for instance birds may fly in the air.]

:[There is but two words in the entire comic, which appears when you grow a sign:]
:Sign: Sale

==Functionality==
===Saving garden with url===
*There is no [[1350#Permalink|permalink button]] as in the last two years' April Fools' comics.
*The URL is different for every garden that is loaded, but stays the same. It links to a server-side copy of the scene, which then changes depending on what the users does with their gardens.
**Sharing a URL will connect a new browser to the same garden session, but only the original browser will be allowed to edit.
**The user can always return to change the garden with the link, but only from the same browser on the same computer.
**This means that a specific moment in a gardens life has to be [[#Saving images|saved as an image]] for future references.
*The garden itself will thus continue to develop further from the time when the url was copied, and events will happen from now on even though the garden is not opened in any browser.
**If the user doesn't keep it, it will become infested with weeds.
**So most likely the garden is serverside, as all browsers are allowed to see the development of this garden, but users following the url are not allowed to edit anything.
*Here is an example garden [http://www.xkcd.com/1663/#0d11a2c8-fa8f-11e5-8001-42010a8e000e linked by ID] versus the same garden:
**In the original [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7f/1663_garden_tree_turtle_birdbath.png screenshot from April 4th] from when the url was created
**In a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7c/1663_garden_Flying_birds_deer_gate_with_cactus_turtles_snake_etc.png screenshot from April 5th] the day after.
**Here [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1663_garden_Pruned_garden_with_birds_deer_gate_cactus_turtles_snake_gate.png example] after the user pruned the garden in the examples.
**Other [[1663: Garden/Users gardens|user gardens]] can be found on the link.
*Starting two browser windows or tabs pointing to the same URL will allow you to edit from either window.
**linden.xkcd.com holds all the data; the UUID just corresponds to your access key, held in your browser's local storage.

====Saving images====
*Since the [[#Saving garden with url|urls are changing]], the only way to save a particular garden is to save an image of the current garden.
**Alternatively, by deleting all lamps (or changing them to laser beams or turning them upwards) then no new growth will occur -- but then the garden will no longer develop.
*In Edge, Firefox and Chrome, the image plus light cones but minus lamps and icons elements, can be saved by right clicking in the image. (Not possible in Internet Explorer)
**They do not always save in the same way as some browsers saves the part of the background without any light cones as white, and other save it as no background, in which case it may render black, basically hiding any black items outside the light.
***For those images it depends on which viewer is used to see the image, if everything can be seen or only that in the light cones.
****See examples of how it looks with black background in these two color maps collections using [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/50/1663_garden_Single_colors.png a single lamp] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/90/1663_garden_Three_colors.png three lamps].
****See more details about how these [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Color_maps|color maps]] have been made.
****See also (at least) two examples of saved images as the are here on explain xkcd [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Saved_image_from_xkcd|here]].
*An image of the whole screen can be captured by pressing the PrtScn (Print Screen) key on the keyboard and then pasting the content into a blank image in an image-editing program.
**An even better solution is to use a tool like {{w|Snipping Tool}} which can take the part of the screen that are relevant. This is how most of the [[1663: Garden/Screen-shots|screen shots]] for this explanation has been acquired.
**In both ways, the lamps and icons can also be displayed, which is not an option with saved images.

===Lamps===
*Additional lamps, up to a total of three lamps, can be added by clicking the black plus lamp icon along the right of the window.
*Lamps can be removed by clicking to select a lamp, then clicking the red X icon along the right of the window, or pressing the Delete or Backspace key on the keyboard. All lights can be deleted.
*The position of the lamp can be moved by clicking and dragging the lamp within the scene.
*The angle and area of the light cone emitted by the lamp can be changed by [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/09/Garden_Red_Lamp_screen_shot.png clicking to select the lamp and to reveal the red control triangle]. Rotating the control triangle around the lamp will change the aim of the lamp to point in the direction of the triangle, dragging the control triangle towards the lamp will [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cc/1663_garden_One_color_Light_blue.png widen the beam], and dragging the control triangle towards away from the lamp will [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1663_garden_Pruned_garden_with_birds_deer_gate_cactus_turtles_snake_gate.png narrow the beam].
*The color emitted by the lamp can be changed by clicking the lamp to reveal the colored control dot, and by rotating the dot around the lamp. The small color control circle changes color to match the color of the lamps beam of light. new lights default to a center position, emitting a pale green. '''rotating the control right''' changes the color to yellow, orange, and finally red, and '''rotating the control left''' changes the color to white, then blue.

===Colors of light===
*The color control moves in a smooth gradient between colors, along the spectrum without any set positions.
*Small changes in the color can have an effect on the garden, even though there is no clear change in the color.
*[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/50/1663_garden_Single_colors.png As many as nine colors] can be identified from the emitted light of a single lamp, and many more colors are evident when [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/90/1663_garden_Three_colors.png two or three lamps overlap].
*There is reason to believe that even half the change will create different gardens, i.e. there can be at least one more position between those nine settings that will change the effect, giving eight more settings for a total of 17 "different" colors. An experiment with such '''17 settings''' for just [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#One_lamp_one_color|One lamp with one color]].
*Several unique elements only seem to appear using the eight half-colors. Both the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_red_and_red_First_thing_Mars_rover.png Mars rover] and the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1b/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_First_thing_stilts_right.png Stilts girl] might be missed.
*Colors can thus be indicated from these 17 divisions: 
**Below is a table with these 17 division shown and what to expect.
**This may change over time, but was as it about a week after release.
***If updating, please make a note that this may have only applied during the first week(s) and add new feature without deleting.
**There has been an [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#One_lamp_one_color|experiment made]] with these 17 colors, see that for more details.
***The color names links to these experimental gardens, that will never be changed after the initiation.
***But there are reasons to believe that two gardens made identical may develop quite differently, as it seems some gardens have very limited growth in spite of the same light. Some of these gardens may be of that persuasion.
****This was proven when 34 more gardens using the 17 colors where started in a [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Second_experiment|similar experiment]].
*The debugger reveals that each light has a "temp" property which ranges from 0 (red) to 1 (blue). The default setting is 0.5.
**The RGB color corresponding to "temp" is determined by this function in linden.js:
::<tt>function u(t){return.32>t?[1,.5+.5*t/.32,.5]:.64>t?[1,1,.5+.5*(t-.32)/.32]:[.75+.25*(1-t)/.36,.75+.25*(1-t)/.36,1]}</tt>
[[File:1663 garden Numbered color scale 1-17.png]] 
{| class="wikitable"
! #
! Color
! Description of items etc
|-
| 1
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#f65c4906-fcf1-11e5-8001-42010a8e0016 Blue]
| '''Pure blue'''! Aquatic theme with octopus (some with black hat), Cueball checking for rain with hand up. Less growth after the first week and octopus only over the pond (see [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Growth_speed_vs_blue_light|growth speed vs blue light]]).
|-
| 2
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#d5b7fed6-fd94-11e5-8001-42010a8e000a Blue -> light blue]
| Octopus over pond and boats in pond, Cueball hands up and down (the latter possibly with black hat), {{w|Cairn}}s of '''stones''' and {{w|obelisk}}.
|-
| 3
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#3afb7988-fcf2-11e5-8001-42010a8e0019 Light blue]
| Cueball hands down (but can be with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/64/1663_garden_Color_03_8d.png hand up] as well), Cairns of '''stones''', obelisk, wading bird and boats.
|-
| 4
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#303c341c-fd95-11e5-8001-42010a8e0016 Light blue -> blue white]
| Obelisk, flower base and stems and balloon string with normal and huge balloons, Cueball hands up (and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a5/1663_garden_Color_04_2_8d.png also down] with {{w|column}} and wadding bird), fish, shark fins and boats.
|-
| 5
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#98dc3452-fcf2-11e5-8010-42010a8e0008 Blue white]
| Office landscape with desks and chairs, table, column, obelisk, pots with star plant or other flowers base and stems, Beret Guy in pond, Cueball hands up and down, balloon string with normal and huge balloons drifting far left and right on their strings in the wind. [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ac/1663_garden_Color_05_8d.png Also wadding bird], boats and shark fin
|-
| 6
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#5a45a1f8-fd95-11e5-8001-42010a8e000e Blue white -> white]
| Both kinds of Cueball, Ponytail, Beret Guy, both types of cats, office desk, table, standing bird, wading bird, heron, owl, shark fin, bunny boat, flowers base and stems, balloon string with normal and huge balloons. Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/36/1663_garden_Color_06_2_8d.png fish] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1663_garden_Color_06_8d.png flying fish].
|-
| 7
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#ba6b4ac2-fcf2-11e5-8001-42010a8e0019 White]
| Balloon string with normal and huge balloons (here '''three in one garden'''), Megan hand up, cats, bunnies, shark fin, fish, Beret Guy, flowers base and stems and trees. [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c7/1663_garden_Color_07_8d.png Also] platform in tree, beehive base, Ponytail, water bird and flying fish and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/82/1663_garden_Color_07_2_8d.png Heron].
|-
| 8
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#8874be6a-fd95-11e5-8001-42010a8e0016 White -> light yellow]
| Megan hands up, {{w|shrub}}s, flowers base stems, '''hilt''' and '''some blooms''', trees, bunnies, fish, shark fin, water bird, owl, bunnies. [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2a/1663_garden_Color_08_2_8d.png Also] birdbath and stilt girl.
|-
| 9
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#db338968-fcf2-11e5-8001-42010a8e0016 Light yellow]
| '''Starting color'''. Megan hands down and with sword on platform, trees, shrub, flowers base and stems, grass, platform in tree, birdbath, ducks, wading bird, pots, with star plants, tall platform. [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c3/1663_garden_Color_09_8d.png Also] deer, stilt girl, fish and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1f/1663_garden_Color_09_2_8d.png shark fin].
|-
| 10
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#b28f8522-fd95-11e5-8001-42010a8e0013 Light yellow -> Yellow]
| Girl on stilts, Megan with swords on platform, trees, flowers base and stems, grass, reeds in pond, platform in trees, tall platforms, deer, snake, pots
|-
| 11
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#efccf292-fcf2-11e5-8010-42010a8e0003 Yellow]
| Sale signs, tall platform, snakes, armadillo, flowers base and stems, reeds in pond. Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/ce/1663_garden_Color_11_2_8d.png deer].
|-
| 12
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#de4fd3b0-fd95-11e5-8001-42010a8e0011 Yellow -> Orange]
| Sale signs, snakes, turtles, tulips and wavy plants. Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bb/1663_garden_Color_12_2_8d.png tall platform] and armadillo.
|-
| 13
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#0d6bca62-fcf3-11e5-8019-42010a8e0005 Orange]
| Wavy plants, turtles, [[#Linsang_-_cat_like_animal|linsang]], flying birds and flying Megan (and thus also bird risers and their roots). Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/98/1663_garden_Color_13_8d.png armadillos].
|-
| 14
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#578b80bc-fd96-11e5-8001-42010a8e000a Orange -> orange red]
| Snakes, turtles, linsang, armadillo, tulips wavy plants, flying birds and flying Megan (and thus also bird risers and their roots).
|-
| 15
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#28b238b0-fcf3-11e5-8001-42010a8e0018 Orange red]
| Desert landscape with turtles, cactus sale, signs, lamp post poles without lamps, platform on cactus resulting in inverted pyramids. Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d4/1663_garden_Color_15_2_8d.png linsang].
|-
| 16
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#ad7ca596-fd96-11e5-8020-42010a8e0006 Orange red -> red]
| Desert landscape with Mars rover, turtles, cactus sale, signs, lamp post poles without lamps but no platforms. Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e3/1663_garden_Color_16_2_8d.png linsang].
|-
| 17
| [http://xkcd.com/1663/#46cc4e08-fcf3-11e5-8001-42010a8e0013 Red]
| '''Pure red'''! Desert landscape with turtles and cactus only.
|}

===Effect of light===
*How much the color affects the growth took some time to find out but already from the start it was clear that there definitely was a correlation
*For instance areas under lights set to the the outer position or the starting position was very different.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/23/1663_garden_Octopus_garden_with_Cueball_hand_up_and_a_black_hat_octopus.png Pure blue light] (left most) develop into a boring aquatic theme with only lots of octopuses (maybe with a black hat) and the Cueball holding a hand out to check for rain.
***The appearance of pure blue gardens have changed with time so octopuses now only appear over the pond [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1663_garden_One_color_Blue_9d.png like this].
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/70/1663_garden_One_color_red_9d.png Pure red light] (far right) develop into a boring desert theme with only cactus and turtles.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9c/1663_garden_One_color_Light_yellow_9d.png Light yellow] or [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2e/1663_garden_Color_09_3d.png starting light] grows lots of plants like trees, grass and scrubs and several animals like ducks, deer, fish and wadding bird and also birdbath, stilt girl and both standing Megan and sword Megan.
*Soon after the release of the comic some research into a single lamp with unchaining light, that covering the whole light range split into 17 divisions was undertaken.
*[[File:1663 garden Numbered color scale 1-17.png]]
**See these gardens [[1663:_Garden/Users_gardens#Locked_gardens_only_for_explanation_use|locked for explanation use only]] and also see more about the 17 split in the color range [[#Colors of light|above]].
*Mixed light seems to be able to do the same, but it is unclear if what grows only depends on the final mixed color, or if it is a mix of what would grow under those two colors.
**There are some indications that it is not a clear mix as pure blue together with pure red, does not seem to produce neither Octopuses or desert theme.
**If there are any items that can only grow under a mix of light this has not been proven. Most objects that can grow directly from the ground, has been observed in the experimental single color gardens mentioned above.
**But there may be items that needs to grow on top of other objects, and these may require a change of color from what the base needs. And thus they will not appear under one color light. Possible examples of these items could be:
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f3/Garden_Desk_lamp.png Desk lamp] (needing some kind of platform forming in another color range like the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ee/Garden_Tall_platform.png tall platform], yellow or the small [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/11/Garden_Platform_1.png platform], orange).
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/88/Garden_Giant_Planter.png Giant Planter] (needing for instance a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c4/Garden_PlatformColumn_3.png platform column], light blue light]
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e0/Garden_lamp-topper.png Lamp pole tops] (needing [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/81/Garden_Lamppost_1.png lamp poles] forming under orange light)
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a4/Garden_Flower_bloom_1.png Flower blooms] (any type) (needing [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d1/Garden_Flower_segment_1.png flower segments], several colors)
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7e/Garden_Actual_flying_fish_1.png Actual flying fish] (needing bird raiser, orange light)
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5d/Garden_Saucer.png Flying saucer] (needing bird raiser, orange light)
*What happens when using only one color (other than the two outer points red and blue and the starting light yellow color) has been explored in great depth in no less than two different [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#One_lamp_one_color|One lamp one color]] experiments with [[1663:_Garden/Users_gardens#Locked_gardens_only_for_explanation_use|51 gardens]] created using 17 different color settings.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/27/1663_garden_One_color_Between_blue_and_light_blue_6d.png Blue light] (just right of pure blue) creates a landscape with stones forming cairns, together with monoliths, both kinds of Cueballs (with black hat on the standing one) and still octopuses.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1663_garden_One_color_Light_blue_9d.png Light blue light] (just a little farther from pure blue than above), the octopuses disappear, but the rest remains the same, although boats and wadding bird now appear in the water, and still both [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a6/1663_garden_Color_03_5d.png Cueballs] can occur. Going just slightly further away [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e4/1663_garden_Color_04_2_5d.png fish and columns] start to appear.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d1/1663_garden_One_color_White_Blue_12h.png Blue white light] grow a sort of office theme, with desks, balloons and Cueballs. Moving towards white light [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d0/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Blue_White_and_White_5d.png Ponytail appears] with less office items together with cats (and now no Beret Guys in the pond but [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/df/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Blue_White_and_White_8d.png lots of animals]).
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f7/1663_garden_One_color_White_9d.png White light] gives a forest of balloons with Megan holding her hands up.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3e/1663_garden_One_color_Yellow_2d.png Yellow light] (somewhat right of the starting color) produce sale signs and snakes.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_and_orange_red_8d.png Orange light] produce flying bird and flying Megans and on the ground snakes, turtles, linsangs and armadillos, plus tulips and wavy plants.
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/02/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_red_and_red_8d.png Orange red light] (just left of red) produce lamp posts (without the top), in addition to the same desert theme as red with cactus and turtles. If it is very close to red the Mars rover appears (as in the example above). If it is a little longer from red, the platforms can form, which can then act as a catalyst for growth and create [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/58/1663_garden_One_color_Orange_red_9d.png large towers] on top of cactus's.
*Nothing seems to be able to grow under several conditions:
**If no lamps are pointing towards the ground for instance because:
***All [http://xkcd.com/1663/#21374f9e-fbbd-11e5-8001-42010a8e0015 lamps are deleted].
***The [http://xkcd.com/1663/#4896b678-fbbe-11e5-8001-42010a8e0011 beam is laser thin.]
***The lamps points towards the sky without [http://www.xkcd.com/1663/#6a6a7be0-fbbe-11e5-800d-42010a8e0008 touching the ground.]
***The lamps are [http://xkcd.com/1663/#c75991f6-fbbe-11e5-8001-42010a8e0011 below the ground pointing down]. (In this case the one over the pond was not far enough down and a single water plant has formed anyway.)
****On the other hand if the lamps are below the ground but pointing up it can result in growth well enough as shown in this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7c/1663_garden_Different_light_from_below_the_ground.png example] and this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3a/1663_garden_Yellow_light_from_below_the_ground.png example].
**It was believed that if the lamps where very close to the ground pointing straight down there would be no growth.
***However this can be because only a very small area is illuminated
****In this [http://www.xkcd.com/1663/#9733dff4-fbbe-11e5-8001-42010a8e0012 example] there are turtles under the red light in the pond, plants under the yellow and octopus, column and Cueball under the blue (from the time that columns could appear under pure blue light).
****Similar in this [http://xkcd.com/1663/#357a48d8-fbbf-11e5-8019-42010a8e0006 example] there are octopus (in the pond), deer/plants and a cactus from even lower lamps.
****Of course the lamp has to be so high as not to be underground as mentioned above.
**Also if lamps point towards the ground there can still only grow something from the ground [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3e/1663_garden_Two_light_on_small_area_nothing_outside_the_light.png where the light touches]. The growth can move outside the light cones up in the air, but the base has to be within an area with light.
**Similar with items that can grow new things on top of them like tree trunks or platforms, this will only happen if light shines on the relevant places.
***For instance the tall tree trunks can easily grow outside a light cone. Then leaves and branches will [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e9/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_3d.png only grow below] the point where the light hits
****Similar with platform, that [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3e/1663_garden_One_color_Yellow_2d.png grows partially outside] the light cone. More items will only appear where this lamp still hits the platform.
***One exemption to the rule mentioned here seems to be the bird raisers. The bird raisers are used to hold anything that flies up in the air. And the bird raiser it self needs to grow from either another bird riser or from a bird riser root (which in the end holds all bird raisers). This root has to have light on the ground to grow and thus have light on it self. But from the top of the bird raisers growing from such a root, items are able to grow even if the tip pf the bird raiser is not in the light.
****Thus flying items can appear to grow where there has [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_and_orange_red_8d.png never been light]!
****See much more about this under the description of bird raisers in the [[#Helper_structures|table below]].
**Of course lights can be moved and changed without destroying what has already grown there (or so it seems). So a tended garden cannot be used to determine this.
***This is why some [[1663:_Garden/Users_gardens#Locked_gardens_only_for_explanation_use|locked gardens]] have been set up where there will be no changes ever.
***Examples from above has mainly been taken from screen shots of these locked gardens.

===Grown items===
*Grown items may be highlighted by clicking on them. Selected grown items will be highlighted with a red circle, and appear slightly lighter then other items.
*Grown items may be "pruned" by the red X icon along the right of the window, or pressing the Delete key on the keyboard.
*Some items (such as the large tree) can be deleted in minor parts by selecting a branch or smaller set of leaves without deleting the entire tree.
*See the images (with links to xkcd) of all 250 items that can appear, here below in the [[#Items_in_the_garden|tables]].

===Growth development===
*'''After a few weeks''' growth not only seems to appear when the garden is actively running in a browser window (maybe only in the original users browser?)
*There continued to appear new items that was not available on the release day.
**This lasted about a week (maybe 8 days).
**For instance many new items and animals like the columns and the owls started to appear after a few days.
**Also tulips and lightning poles did not appear at first.
***A last burst of new animals occurred about a week after release (either 11th or 12th of April). This burst included the following animals:
***Herons, Wadding birds, Sharks fins, jumping fish and flying fish plus actual flying fish (flying without water), armadillos and no less than 12 different linsangs (see [[1663:_Garden#Linsang_-_cat_like_animal|Linsang - cat like animal]]).
*But it also seems to change what might appear, so that the result of a particular color will change dramatically, not only by adding new, but also by not growing what used to be.
**A clear example of this is that for the first half week pure blue light resulted in lots of octopuses all along the ground and also Cueballs cheeking for rain.
**Later also columns appeared.
***But after a week the growth rate under blue light almost stopped, and it seems that octopuses now only grow over the pond to the left, and much less Cueball and no columns under that color.
**See details here: [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Growth_speed_vs_blue_light|Growth speed vs blue light]].

===Debug mode===
{{notice|Anyone who can explain what the debug mode is, how it works, why it is there and why there is difference between the linden and the normal xkcd?}}
*By changing the url address it is possible to get into a debug mode.
**This may not work from for internet explorer, but seems to work from Firefox and chrome.
*Normal mode: http://xkcd.com/1663/#ID
**[http://xkcd.com/1663/#98dc3452-fcf2-11e5-8010-42010a8e0008 Normal mode example].
*Debug mode works from this address http://xkcd.com/1663/?debug#ID
*http://linden.xkcd.com/?debug#ID does not work anymore.
**[http://linden.xkcd.com/?debug#98dc3452-fcf2-11e5-8010-42010a8e0008 Linden debug mode].
**In this mode each item can clearly be seen as the image is framed, and thus invisible lifter images for flying things can be seen.
***See this [http://linden.xkcd.com/?debug#d12a0932-faaa-11e5-8012-42010a8e0006 example].
**This last mode can be used to find the names of the [[1663:_Garden/Images#Images|images of each item]] in a garden.
***See this section on [[1663:_Garden/Images#How_to_find_new_links|How to find new links]].
***By preventing the browser from loading specific images (''e.g.'' with an ad blocker), all instances can be pruned temporarily.
*On the forum, [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=600#p3959056 yan provides some jQuery] which can be entered in the javascript console to add an interactive sidebar listing the objects in the garden.

===Limitations===
*The beam produced by each lamp is normally restricted to spread between 0° (which results in no growth) and 95°. The "create new light" button chooses a random angle between 45° and 90°.
*Attempting to view several gardens simultaneously may cause some to hang on the "loading" image, likely due to the server refusing additional connections. The maximum number which can load successfully is usually six, but may be as low as three.

===Bugs===
*There have been several bugs mentioned already after the first day. Please include any spotted here:
**Also some problems that may now be fixed.
*May not run on some tablets or smart phones (i.e. touch-screen only devices).
*There are some browser versions of Chrome and Firefox where it doesn't run.
*The lamps may be invisible for a few seconds after loading.
*The whole page refreshes at random intervals. This has been patched.
**It still does on April 5th.
**Sometimes (in some browsers?) the garden is reloaded when refreshing.
***This may though be because of the url which is a [[#Saving garden with url|link to a given garden]].
***See examples of this [[1663: Garden/Users gardens|here]].
***Seems to be dependent on the browser type.
*Some lamps jumped back to their starting position after a few minutes, without the whole page reloading.
*For a few hours after its apparition, the loading didn't seem to stop for some people, making them think that the rotating tree was the whole joke, with people expected to "relax" while looking at it.
*Occasionally invisible objects are added. They can be deleted, and they have bounding boxes in the [[#Debug mode|debugger]]: [http://linden.xkcd.com/?debug#d12a0932-faaa-11e5-8012-42010a8e0006 Example].
*Doesn't work over https, you have to use http instead.
*It is possible to save the image in Chrome and in Firefox, but not in Explorer.
**It is possible to save the visible portion of the image (in any browser) by pressing the Print-Screen key to perform a screen capture.
**But in Chrome the image is black where there is no light.
**In Firefox everything is visible, wth the light cones (in color) shown.
*Appears to have a memory leak at least in some Windows/Firefox versions, as keeping the page open for a long time will cause Windows to kill Firefox for insufficient memory.
**On the forum, Weeks tries to summon davean! [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=320#p3951923]
*Does not work in many Linux versions.
*Tree trunks will sometimes grow endlessly without leaves depending on the lights hitting them.
*If you are dragging a light, the arrow, or the color slider when a refresh happens, the refresh will enter an infinite loop.
**This seems to cause corruption of the garden because refreshing the whole page will result in a loop that never loads the page.
**Clearing your local data for xkcd.com solves the issue but also makes you unable to edit your garden.
*On April 6, gardens viewed from [http://xkcd.com/1663/#7877bdfc-fc03-11e5-8001-42010a8e000c http://xkcd.com/1663/] links began to include double-size objects, while they appeared <s>normally</s> with different objects enlarged when viewed from [http://linden.xkcd.com/#7877bdfc-fc03-11e5-8001-42010a8e000c http://linden.xkcd.com/].
**Apparently some of the server's art files were <s>misdirected to the larger versions</s> replaced with new large images. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160407054439/http://linden.xkcd.com/art/rover.png] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-rover.png]
**New giant objects are still placed according to their original sizes. [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=320#p3951908]
**This was suddenly fixed on April 7, possibly inducing browser memory issues at that time. [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=360#p3952207]
***However, some giant images remained cached (where?) for a long time. [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=400#p3952527]
*Although there are six bee images, they have not been reported in any gardens[[File:Garden_Bee_1.png]]

==Trivia==
*There are three different title text in this comic, as there are also one over each of the two icons.
**This is special as with some of the newest "game like comics" there are [[:Category:No title text|no title text]]!
**The normal one "Relax" is mentioned above in the main explanation.
**The other two are explanations for what the two icons in the top right corner does and appear when the cursor hovers over them.
***They are ''Create new light'' explaining that this icon introduces new lamps and
***''Remove selected (delete key)'', which explain that this icon can be used to remove (delete) selected items like lamps, plants or items. It also explains that the delete key can be used instead of the icon.

===Linsang - cat like animal===
*In the second week of release no less than 12 [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/38/Garden_Linsang_1.png images] of the animal called {{w|linsang}} appeared [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1663_garden_My_first_linsang_cat_like_creature_in_SC.png in the garden].
**See all of them [[1663:_Garden/Images#Images|here]].
*This animal was referenced in ''[[Thing Explainer]]'' in ''Tree of life'' where the animal is drawn in the ''cat-shaped'' section with the following caption:
::'''Almost cat'''
::This animal looks like a cat with a long neck. It's the closest thing to a cat that's not actually in the cat family.
::*Next to the section another one is drawn in front of Cueball (obvsiously it's Randall).
::*The linsang says "Mrowl?" and Cueball says "I wan't one!"
*Randall has in an interview discussed these [http://www.wsj.com/articles/randall-munroe-creator-of-xkcd-on-google-search-tricks-and-cat-like-creature-videos-1447945313 Cat-Like-Creatures] and in is quoted for saying
::Q: '''An animal I’m obsessed with is:'''
::A: The linsang, which looks almost like a cat but has this weird long neck. I find them both unnerving and adorable. I found some footage of one running; it’s like watching a cat video from a parallel universe.
::*The linsang is related to the animal {{w|Genet (animal)|genet}}, and here are two videos/photos of a genet running:
::**[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRdJSVlPrGo Genet on a rhino]
::**[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehq3ssg7zwk Genet on other things]

===Monday 4th of April release===
*Due to technical problems (or to make [[#April Fools' header text|fools of his fans?]]) the comic did not go live until Sunday evening (after midnight, so technically first on '''Monday April 4th''').
**There was thus no Friday release in the week before
**So the Wednesday comic [[1662: Jack and Jill]] got a lot more attention than it would usually have had.
*This comic thus turned in to the Monday release instead, as no other comic was released later that Monday, as this would have taken attention away from this very special comic.
**But it was called the ''April 1st comic'' and later the ''Friday comic'' in the [[#April Fools' header text|header text]] displayed at the top of xkcd to explain why there was no Friday comic.
***A header text continued to stay a the top but changed two more times until the release past midnight Sunday in the US. It was even past midnight {{w|Pacific Time}}, but not yet on Hawaii.
**There were thus only two comics released in the week before this Monday, which may be the first time since xkcd went live on {{xkcd||xkcd.com}} in 2006.

===April Fools' header text===
*There is some debate as to whether this comic is an April Fools' comic or not.
**Was instead the April fools' joke the text written above the comic in the header of xkcd?
**There is reason to believe this was [[#April Fools' comic|not the case]] based on among other thing these [[xkcd Header text]], see also [[xkcd_Header_text#2016-04-01_-_April_1st_comic_-_technical_difficulties|here]].
*Below it a list of the different header text displayed from Friday until the comic was just released.
**The header text continued to change regularly [[#Header text after release|after release]] in regard to this comic at least until next Friday (April 8th).
**Here below is the different header text with info on when it appeared.
***Links are given when possible to a [[1663:_Garden/Screen-shots#Screen-shots_of_header_text|screen shots]] on the word ''message'' and to a webarchive in another link when both are available.
*On Friday, April 1st, 2016, the xkcd website changed to a new [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/81/1663_garden_April_1st_comic_is_currently_experiencing_technical_difficulties.png message] where the standard message "XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday." usually is. (This [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/69/1663_garden_Commercial_header_text_before_April_1st_problems.png message] had, however, up to this point and for a long time been a [http://web.archive.org/web/20160401175527/https://www.xkcd.com/ commercial] for ''[[Thing Explainer]]''). But now it [http://web.archive.org/web/20160401204749/https://xkcd.com/ began displaying] this instead:
::The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.
::Please stand by!
*Early Saturday April 2nd the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e0/1663_garden_Calendar_systems_in_which_Saturday_is_April_1st.png message] was [http://web.archive.org/web/20160402050932/http://xkcd.com updated]:
::The xkcd April 1st comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties.
::Status update: Please stand by.
::Status update: This is fine. Everything is fine.
::Status update: Everything is on fire.
::Status update: Searching for calendar systems in which Saturday is April 1st.
*Later on Saturday the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/06/1663_garden_Delayed_until_Sunday_night.png message] was again [http://web.archive.org/web/20160402175822/http://www.xkcd.com changed] to:
::The Friday xkcd comic is currently experiencing technical difficulties
::[Editor's note: Everything is on fire] and has been delayed until Sunday night.
*The comic did not come out until past midnight in the entire North America (coming out just before midnight in Hawaii).
*It was finally released very early on Monday April 4th, and the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/53/Garden_Loading_screen_shot.png message] then [http://web.archive.org/web/20160404123555/http://xkcd.com/ returned] to the [[xkcd_Header_text#2016-04-04_-_Return_to_standard_as_Garden_came_up|old standard text]] for xkcd for a short while:
::xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

===Header text after release===
*During April 4th, after the release the [[xkcd_Header_text#2016-04-04_-_Protip_on_Garden|xkcd Header text changed]] from the old standard to display a [[:Category:Protip|Protip]]:
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.
*And then later on April 4th, the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a2/1663_garden_Protip_and_url_hint.png message] was again [http://web.archive.org/web/20160404185353/http://www.xkcd.com/#5dbfbb82-fc20-11e5-8001-42010a8e000d changed] to:
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.
::You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.
*When the next comic came out, the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/61/1663_garden_Note_if_seeing_todays_comic.png message] then [http://web.archive.org/web/20160408105110/http://xkcd.com/1663/#4b04323a-fddc-11e5-8001-42010a8e0016 changed], (also for the [http://web.archive.org/web/20160406194653/http://xkcd.com/1664/ new comic]) to
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.
::You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.
::Note: If you're seeing today's comic in place of your garden, change the URL from xkcd.com/#<your code> to xkcd.com/1663/#<your code>.
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20160408145017/http://xkcd.com/ After] the Friday comic came out on April 8th, the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c5/1663_garden_Back_to_pro_tips_only_after_Friday_comic.png message] then [http://web.archive.org/web/20160408195958/http://xkcd.com/ changed] back to
::'''Protip:''' If you don't like how your garden is growing, you can click to prune it.
::You can copy the URL to share your garden. From other browsers, it will be view-only.
*The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c6/1663_garden_Still_pro_tip_on_Friday_22nd_comic.png message stayed] like the one above at least until Friday April 22th before that Friday's comic [http://web.archive.org/web/20160422102754/http://xkcd.com/ was released]. But either at the time of release or at least on Saturday the day after the release the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1663_garden_Back_to_normal_text_after_Friday_22nd_comic.png message returned] to [http://web.archive.org/web/20160423103108/http://xkcd.com/ the original].
::XKCD updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
:*The pro tip, however, remained as [http://web.archive.org/web/20160425022201/https://www.xkcd.com/1663/ the header text] when displaying the {{xkcd|1663|Garden comic}}.

===April Fools' comic===
*This comic '''was indeed supposed to be''' the Friday 1st of April, April Fools' comic!
**This statement is based on several things, which can can be deduced from the above header text and the subsequent issues with the many [[#Bugs|bugs in this comic]].
*It is clear that this comic did actually come out as promised, at least as promised in the third message about release on Sunday night.
**It is also clear that it is regarded as the Friday comic, even in the last update before the release, which was two days after April 1st.
*It is also clear that this was a very complex comic, and it is realistic that Randall did have problems with making it work.
**On day two there still seemed to be several minor bugs, which seemed to improve over time so Randall was still working on it after release.
***But then new bugs appeared when the next comic was released.
*Both of the last two April Fools' comics, [[1350: Lorenz]] and [[1506: xkcloud]], have had no real meaning or joke in the comic. The jokes appeared from user input, and here it comes from waiting.
**This makes people who spend too much time on these comics ''April Fools''' (or if they rather wish to be called a ''nerds'' than fools, then they can claim to have been a victim of [[356: Nerd Sniping|nerd sniping]]).
**So, even if Randall ''did'' play a joke on people who [[Talk:1662: Jack and Jill#What happened to Friday's comic|eagerly awaited the comic]], then he did deliver as promised a spectacular comic Sunday night.
*There are several reasons to believe that Randall would have preferred the comic to get out on Friday April 1st.
**Apart from it being a time consuming comic that in it self is April Fools' comic material, then by getting it out Friday this special comic, which he obviously have used a lot of time to prepare, would have had one more day as the first comic.
**Getting it out before a weekend would have let many more users spend time looking at their garden. Now many would not spend enough time to appreciate the comic, as it came out right when the new work week began.
***And it is a very complicated comic that just to get to understand how to really use it could take a days time even for someone with time.
***And this is not talking about how the comic works, but just how to use the program, i.e. the whole [[#Functionality|functionality]] of the comic is way more complex than even a game like [[1608: Hoverboard]].
**And before next weekend two more comics were released taking some of the focus away from this one too soon, and also before the next weekend.
***Of course die hard fans will not forget this one, but many xkcd fans may only come by in the weekend etc. and such a hard to come by comic like this, that demands patience and that you return does not profit from being bumped down to number three as it would be next Friday.
*Randall lives of his fans goodwill and to deliberately make a pun on them like this would probably not seem like a good business proposal, apart from the fact that the comic now gets less attention than by coming out before the weekend.

==Items in the garden==
*Below in the section are several tables displaying all the known images of items that may grow (appear) in the garden.
**They have been sorted based on type like characters, animals (by type), plants (by type), platforms, others and helper structures.
**In time each item will have a link to a screen shot where they appear.
**Also explanations for each item can be written in these tables
*For colors reference refer (also) to the numbers in this image: 
*[[File:1663 garden Numbered color scale 1-17.png]]
**The color under which a given item may grow should be noted.
***Particularly if they can grow under just one color if light (maybe a range, but with only one lamp lit as one specific color).
***But almost more important if some items needs more than one color
****Especially if the items base, the base on which they have to grow, needs another color than they do, as seems to be the case with flower blooms and the lamp to go at the top of the lamp poles.
*All the images can be seen without the table here: [[1663: Garden/Images|Images of items]].
===Characters===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! [[Cueball]] [[File:Garden Man 1a.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-man-1a.png Man 1a] 
[[File:Garden Man 2a.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-man-2a.png Man 2a]
|
*Here are the two different images of Cueball.
*The first Cueball just stands with his hands down.
**In this position he always looks left.
**Some items can grow on his head, most obviously [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/27/1663_garden_One_color_Between_blue_and_light_blue_6d.png the hat], turning him into [[Black Hat]]. But also animals like the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/92/1663_garden_Blitz_Girls_UFO_and_birds_garden.png water bird], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/32/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Blue_White_and_White_6d.png standing bird or cats] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d4/1663_garden_Crazy_cat_peoples_garden.png owls] can perch on his head.
**He never seems to appears in pure blue light, and also only appears when the light is turned left of white.
*The second Cueball has one hand out.
**In this position he always looks right.
**He is the only character that appears under pure blue light (color 1).
**It seems like he cannot wear the hat or anything else on his head.
**Instead he can hold object on his hand, like a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1e/1663_garden_S_shaped_empty_balloon_string_left.png balloon string] (later [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0e/1663_garden_Office_space_with_two_herons_in_lake_and_huge_balloon_on_long_string.png with balloon] or the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c2/1663_garden_Blitz_Girls_strong_Megan_garden.png huge balloon]), the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e5/1663_garden_Blitz_Girls_Armadillo_tower.png small platform] or some of the smaller animals like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/32/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Blue_White_and_White_6d.png the bird], the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/09/1663_garden_Cueball_holds_a_Turtle_in_front_of_Megan_looking_like_a_cap_on_her.png turtle], or [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d4/1663_garden_Crazy_cat_peoples_garden.png cat and owls].
*There is a third version of Cueball with both hands up.
|
*Standing Cueball with color [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/92/1663_garden_One_color_Between_blue_and_light_blue_2d.png 2 blue], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c9/1663_garden_One_color_Light_blue_12h.png 3 light blue], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e4/1663_garden_Color_04_2_5d.png 4 light blue] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b2/1663_garden_One_color_Blue_white_2d.png 5 Blue white]
*Hand out Cueball with color [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bf/1663_garden_One_color_Blue_6d.png 1 blue], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/92/1663_garden_One_color_Between_blue_and_light_blue_2d.png 2 blue], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a6/1663_garden_Color_03_5d.png 3 light blue], [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5e/1663_garden_One_color_Between_light_blue_and_Blue_White_6d.png 4 light blue] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d1/1663_garden_One_color_White_Blue_12h.png 5 Blue white]
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c9/1663_garden_One_color_Light_blue_12h.png Standing]
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e5/1663_garden_One_color_Blue_18h.png Hand out] 
|-
! [[Megan]] [[File:Garden Woman 1a.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-woman-1a.png Woman 1a] [[File:Garden Handfig 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-handfig-1.png Handfig 1] 
[[File:Garden Handfig 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-handfig-2.png Handfig 2] [[File:Garden Sword fig.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-sword-fig.png Sword fig] [[File:Garden Flying fig.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flying-fig.png Flying fig]
|
*Here are the images of Megan.
**Megan with sword seems to only occur on top of a platform or a piece of furniture.
***She seem to not be willing to pull out the sword when just standing on the ground.
***This means that she can only occur under a one color setting if that setting can also produce a platform. This is the case though see the color column.
|
*Standing (Yellow 9 standard)
*Hands up (L and R) (White 7)
*Sword ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9c/1663_garden_One_color_Light_yellow_9d.png Yellow 9 standard] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6d/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_2d.png Yellow 10])
*Flying (Orange 15)
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cb/1663_garden_One_color_Light_yellow_12h.png Standing ] 
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/99/1663_garden_One_color_White_12h.png Hands up] 
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6b/1663_garden_Megan_with_sword%2C_trees_octopuses_with_Cueball_bunny_ducklings.png Sword-tree platform] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cb/1663_garden_Megan_with_sword_and_owl_on_gate.png Sword-gate] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1663_garden_My_first_linsang_cat_like_creature_in_SC.png Sword-desk] 
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/87/1663_garden_One_color_Orange_d7.png Flying]
|-
! [[Beret Guy]] [[File:Garden Beret shrub.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-beret-shrub.png Beret shrub]
|
*Here is the image of Beret Guy.
| White 7 or mix of yellow and blue
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/99/1663_garden_One_color_White_12h.png In lake] 
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/24/1663_garden_Shark_finn_and_Beret_Guy_in_same_bird_bath_fish_boat_heron_and_more.png In birdbath] 
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9b/1663_garden_Three_colors_more_separate_Beret_Guy_in_shrubbery_and_Octopus_on_office_desk.png In shrub]
|-
! [[Ponytail]] [[File:Garden Fig 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-fig-1.png Fig 1]
|
*Here are the images of Ponytail.
*She is also shown with a long stick, which she bends.
| Bendy-stick Ponytail occurs in Yellow 9.
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/eb/1663_garden_Ponytail_and_two_Cueballs_cat_pillar_and_trunk_sE.png Example]
|-
! Stilt girl [[File:Garden Stilt walker.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-stiltwalker.png Stilt walker]
|
*Here is the image of the girl on stilts.
| Light yellow 10
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1b/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_First_thing_stilts_right.png Example]
|}

===Animals===
====Mammals====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Armadillo [[File:Garden Armadillo L.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-armadillo-l.png Armadillo L] 
[[File:Garden Armadillo R.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-armadillo-r.png Armadillo R]
|
*Here are the images of Armadillo.
| Color: Combination of 17 and 9, 15
| [ Example]
|-
! Cats [[File:Garden Cat Balanced.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cat-balanced.png Cat Balanced] 
[[File:Garden Cat Ground.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cat-ground.png Cat Ground]
|
*Here are the images of cats.
**Look similar to the cats in the mobile game ''Neko Atsume''.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Deer [[File:Garden Deer 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-deer-1.png Deer 1] 
[[File:Garden Deer 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-deer-2.png Deer 2]
|
*Here are the images of Deer.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Bunny [[File:Garden Important bun.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-important-bun.png Important bun]
|
*Here is the image of the Bunny.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Linsang [[File:Garden Linsang 1.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-1.png Linsang 1] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 2.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-2.png Linsang 2] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 3.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-3.png Linsang 3] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 4.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-4.png Linsang 4] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 5.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-5.png Linsang 5] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 6.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-6.png Linsang 6] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 7.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-7.png Linsang 7] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 8.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-8.png Linsang 8] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 9.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-9.png Linsang 9] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 10.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-10.png Linsang 10] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 11.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-11.png Linsang 11] 
[[File:Garden Linsang 12.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-linsang-12.png Linsang 12]
|
*Here are the images of linsangs.
**See more about [[#Linsang - cat like animal|Linsang - cat like animal]] in the trivia section.
| Color?
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/68/1663_Garden_Ophiocordyceps_linsang.png Linsang infected by fungus]
|}

====Birds====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Flying birds [[File:Garden Bird 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bird-1.png Bird 1] 
[[File:Garden Bird 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bird-2.png Bird 2] 
[[File:Garden Bird 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bird-3.png Bird 3] 
[[File:Garden Bird 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bird-4.png Bird 4] 
[[File:Garden Bird 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bird-5.png Bird 5]
|
*Here are the images of flying birds.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Standing bird [[File:Garden Bird standing.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bird-standing.png Bird standing]
|
*Here are the images of Standing bird.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Duck [[File:Garden Duck 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-duck-1.png Duck 1]
|
*Here is the image of the duck.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Heron [[File:Garden Heron L.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-heron-l.png Heron L] 
[[File:Garden Heron R.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-heron-r.png Heron R]
|
*Here are the images of Herons.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Owl [[File:Garden Owl.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-owl.png Owl]
|
*Here is the image of the Owl.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Wading bird [[File:Garden Wading bird L.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-wading-bird-l.png Wading bird L] 
[[File:Garden Wading bird R.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-wading-bird-r.png Wading bird R]
|
*Here are the images of wading birds.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Water bird [[File:Garden Water bird 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-waterbird-1.png Water bird 1] 
[[File:Garden Water bird 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-waterbird-2.png Water bird 2]
|
*Here are the images of water bird.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|}

====From the sea====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Fish [[File:Garden Fish 1.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-fish-1.png Fish 1] 
[[File:Garden Fish 2.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-fish-2.png Fish 2]
|
*Here are the images of Fish.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Flying fish [[File:Flying fish 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flying-fish-1.png Flying fish 1] 
[[File:Flying fish 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flying-fish-2.png Flying fish 2] 
[[File:Garden Actual flying fish 1.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-actual-flying-fish-1.png Actual flying fish 1] 
[[File:Garden Actual flying fish 2.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-actual-flying-fish-2.png Actual flying fish 2]
|
*Here are the images of Flying fish.
| Color?
| [http://forums.xkcd.com/download/file.php?id=51476&mode=view Flying fish in Megan's hair] [http://forums.xkcd.com/download/file.php?id=51543&mode=view Flying fish and UGO]
|-
! Octopus [[File:Garden Octopus.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-octopus.png Octopus] 
[[File:Garden Octopus hat capable.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-octopus-hat-capable.png Octopus hat capable]
|
*Here are the images of Octopuses.
| Color: Blue (Only On the Pond)
| [ Example]
|-
! Sharks [[File:Garden Shark fin L.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-shark-fin-l.png Shark fin L] 
[[File:Garden Shark fin R.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-shark-fin-r.png Shark fin R]
|
*Here is the image of the shark fins.
| Color?
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6e/1663_Garden_Megan_there%27s_a_shark_in_the_water.png Shark in birdbath]
|-
! Tentacle [[File:Garden Tentacle 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tentacle-1.png Tentacle 1] 
[[File:Garden Tentacle 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tentacle-2.png Tentacle 2] 
[[File:Garden Tentacle 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tentacle-3.png Tentacle 3] 
[[File:Garden Tentacle 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tentacle-4.png Tentacle 4] 
[[File:Garden Tentacle 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tentacle-5.png Tentacle 5] 
[[File:Garden Tentacle 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tentacle-6.png Tentacle 6]
|
*Here are the images of tentacles.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|}

====Reptiles====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Snake [[File:Garden Snake 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-snake-1.png Snake 1] 
[[File:Garden Snake 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-snake-2.png Snake 2]
|
*Here are the images of snakes.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Turtle [[File:Garden Turtle 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-turtle-1.png Turtle 1] 
[[File:Garden Turtle 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-turtle-2.png Turtle 2]
|
*Here are the images of turtles.
| Color reddish? Orange 15
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6c/1663_Garden_octopus_turtle_capable.png Octopus turtle capable]
|}

====Insects====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Bees [[File:Garden Bee 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bee-1.png Bee 1] 
[[File:Garden Bee 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bee-2.png Bee 2] 
[[File:Garden Bee 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bee-3.png Bee 3] 
[[File:Garden Bee 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bee-4.png Bee 4] 
[[File:Garden Bee 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bee-5.png Bee 5] 
[[File:Garden Bee 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bee-6.png Bee 6]
|
*Here are the images of bees.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Beehive 
[[File:Garden Beehive-base.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-beehive-base.png Beehive-base] 
[[File:Garden Beehive entrance a.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-beehive-entrance-a.png Beehive entrance a] 
[[File:Beehive section.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-beehive-section.png Beehive section]
|
*Here are the images that construct the beehive.
| Color?
| [http://forums.xkcd.com/download/file.php?id=51487&mode=view BlitzGirl's beehive]
|}

===Plants===
====Trees====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Tall trunks [[File:Garden Tall trunk 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-talltrunk-1.png Tall trunk 1] 
[[File:Garden Tall trunk 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-talltrunk-2.png Tall trunk 2] 
[[File:Garden Tall trunk 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-talltrunk-3.png Tall trunk 3] 
[[File:Garden Tall trunk 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-talltrunk-4.png Tall trunk 4]
|
*Here are the images of tall trunks.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Trunks [[File:Garden Trunk 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-1.png Trunk 1] 
[[File:Garden Trunk 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-2.png Trunk 2] 
[[File:Garden Trunk 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-3.png Trunk 3] 
[[File:Garden Trunk 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-4.png Trunk 4] 
[[File:Garden Trunk 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-5.png Trunk 5] 
[[File:Garden Trunk 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-6.png Trunk 6] 
[[File:Garden Trunk 7.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-7.png Trunk 7] 
[[File:Garden Trunk 8.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-trunk-8.png Trunk 8]
|
*Here are the images of smaller trunks.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Branches [[File:Garden Branch 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-1.png Branch 1] 
[[File:Garden Branch 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-2.png Branch 2] 
[[File:Garden Branch 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-3.png Branch 3] 
[[File:Garden Branch 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-4.png Branch 4] 
[[File:Garden Branch 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-5.png Branch 5] 
[[File:Garden Branch 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-6.png Branch 6] 
[[File:Garden Branch 7.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-7.png Branch 7] 
[[File:Garden Branch 8.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-8.png Branch 8] 
[[File:Garden Branch 9.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-9.png Branch 9] 
[[File:Garden Branch 10.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-10.png Branch 10] 
[[File:Garden Branch 11.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-11.png Branch 11] 
[[File:Garden Branch 12.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-12.png Branch 12] 
[[File:Garden Branch 13.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-13.png Branch 13] 
[[File:Garden Branch 14.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-14.png Branch 14] 
[[File:Garden Branch 15.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-15.png Branch 15] 
[[File:Garden Branch 16.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-16.png Branch 16] 
[[File:Garden Branch 17.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-17.png Branch 17] 
[[File:Garden Branch 18.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-18.png Branch 18] 
[[File:Garden Branch 19.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-19.png Branch 19] 
[[File:Garden Branch 20.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-20.png Branch 20] 
[[File:Garden Branch 21.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-21.png Branch 21] 
[[File:Garden Branch 22.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-22.png Branch 22] 
[[File:Garden Branch 23.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-23.png Branch 23] 
[[File:Garden Branch 24.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-branch-24.png Branch 24]
|
*Here are the images of branches.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Leaves [[File:Garden Leaves 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-1.png Leaves 1] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-2.png Leaves 2] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-3.png Leaves 3] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-4.png Leaves 4] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-5.png Leaves 5] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-6.png Leaves 6] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 7.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-7.png Leaves 7] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 8.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-8.png Leaves 8] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 9.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-9.png Leaves 9] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 10.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-10.png Leaves 10] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 11.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-11.png Leaves 11] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 12.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-12.png Leaves 12] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 13.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-13.png Leaves 13] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 14.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-14.png Leaves 14] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 15.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-15.png Leaves 15] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 16.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-16.png Leaves 16] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 17.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-17.png Leaves 17] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 18.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-18.png Leaves 18] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 19.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-19.png Leaves 19] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 20.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-20.png Leaves 20] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 21.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-21.png Leaves 21] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 22.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-22.png Leaves 22] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 23.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-23.png Leaves 23] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 24.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-24.png Leaves 24] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 25.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-25.png Leaves 25] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 26.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-26.png Leaves 26] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 27.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-27.png Leaves 27] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 28.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-28.png Leaves 28] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 29.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-29.png Leaves 29] 
[[File:Garden Leaves 30.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-leaves-30.png Leaves 30]
|
*Here are the images of leaves.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|}

====Flowers====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Blooms [[File:Garden Flower bloom 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-bloom1.png Flower bloom 1] 
[[File:Garden Flower bloom 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-bloom2.png Flower bloom 2] 
[[File:Garden Flower bloom 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-bloom3.png Flower bloom 3] 
[[File:Garden Flower bloom 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-bloom4.png Flower bloom 4] 
[[File:Garden Flower bloom 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-bloom5.png Flower bloom 5] 
[[File:Garden Flower bloom 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-bloom6.png Flower bloom 6] 
[[File:Garden Flower bloom 7.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-bloom7.png Flower bloom 7]
|
*Here are the images of blooms.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Hilt [[File:Garden Flower hilt 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-hilt1.png Flower hilt 1] 
[[File:Garden Flower hilt 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-hilt2.png Flower hilt 2]
|
*Here are the images of hilt.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Stem segments [[File:Garden Flower base.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-base.png Flower base] 
[[File:Garden Flower segment 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment1.png Flower segment 1] 
[[File:Garden Flower segment 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment2.png Flower segment 2] 
[[File:Garden Flower segment 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment3.png Flower segment 3] 
[[File:Garden Flower segment 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment4.png Flower segment 4] 
[[File:Flower segment 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment5.png Flower segment 5] 
[[File:Flower segment 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment6.png Flower segment 6] 
[[File:Flower segment 7.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment7.png Flower segment 7] 
[[File:Flower segment 8.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment8.png Flower segment 8] 
[[File:Flower segment 9.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment9.png Flower segment 9] 
[[File:Flower segment 10.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment10.png Flower segment 10] 
[[File:Flower segment 11.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment11.png Flower segment 11] 
[[File:Flower segment 12.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-flower-segment12.png Flower segment 12]
|
*Here is the image of the base and segments of the flower stems.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Star plant [[File:Garden Star Plant.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-starplant.png Star Plant]
|
*Here are the images the star plant.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Tulips [[File:Garden Tulip 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tulip-1.png Tulip 1] 
[[File:Garden Tulip 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tulip-2.png Tulip 2]
|
*Here are the images of Tulips.
| Orange 15
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/03/1663_Garden_tulip_Megan.png Tulip Megan]
|}

====Other plants====
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Cactus [[File:Garden Cactus 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cactus-1.png Cactus 1] 
[[File:Garden Cactus 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cactus-2.png Cactus 2]
|
*Here are the images of cactus.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Grass [[File:Garden Grass 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-1.png Grass 1] 
[[File:Garden Grass 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-2.png Grass 2] 
[[File:Garden Grass 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-3.png Grass 3] 
[[File:Garden Grass 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-4.png Grass 4] 
[[File:Garden Grass 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-5.png Grass 5] 
[[File:Garden Grass 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-6.png Grass 6] 
[[File:Garden Grass 7.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-7.png Grass 7] 
[[File:Garden Grass 8.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-8.png Grass 8] 
[[File:Garden Grass 9.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-grass-9.png Grass 9]
|
*Here are the images of grass.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Reeds [[File:Garden Reeds 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-1.png Reeds 1] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-2.png Reeds 2] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-3.png Reeds 3] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-4.png Reeds 4] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-5.png Reeds 5] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-6.png Reeds 6] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 8.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-8.png Reeds 8] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 9.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-9.png Reeds 9] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 10.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-10.png Reeds 10] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 11.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-11.png Reeds 11] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 12.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-12.png Reeds 12] 
[[File:Garden Reeds 13.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-reeds-13.png Reeds 13]
|
*Here are the images of reeds.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Shrub [[File:Garden Shrub 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-1.png Shrub 1] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-2.png Shrub 2] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-3.png Shrub 3] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-4.png Shrub 4] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-5.png Shrub 5] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 6.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-6.png Shrub 6] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 7.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-7.png Shrub 7] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 8.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-8.png Shrub 8] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 9.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-9.png Shrub 9] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 10.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-10.png Shrub 10] 
[[File:Garden Shrub 11.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-shrub-11.png Shrub 11]
|
*Here are the images of shrubs.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Wavy plant [[File:Garden Wavy plant 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-wavyplant-1.png Wavy plant 1] 
[[File:Garden Wavy plant 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-wavyplant-2.png Wavy plant 2] 
[[File:Garden Wavy plant 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-wavyplant-3.png Wavy plant 3] 
[[File:Garden Wavy plant 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-wavyplant-4.png Wavy plant 4]
|
*Here are the images of wavy plants.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|}

===Platforms===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Tree platform [[File:Garden Left platform.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-left-platform.png Left platform] [[File:Garden Right platform.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-right-platform.png Right platform]
|
*Here are the images of platforms in trees.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Platform [[File:Garden Platform 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-platform-1.png Platform 1]
|
*Here is the image of the basic platform.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Platform Column [[File:Garden PlatformColumn 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-platform-column-1.png PlatformColumn 1] 
[[File:Garden PlatformColumn 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-platform-column-2.png PlatformColumn 2] 
[[File:Garden PlatformColumn 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-platform-column-3.png PlatformColumn 3]
|
*Here are the images of platform columns.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Stone Platform [[File:Garden Stone Platform 1 Wide.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-stone-platform-1wide.png Stone Platform 1 Wide] 
[[File:Garden Stone Platform 3 Wide.png]]  [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-stone-platform-3wide.png Stone Platform 3 Wide] 
[[File:Garden Stone Platform 5 Wide.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-stone-platform-5wide.png Stone Platform 5 Wide]
|
*Here are the images of stone platforms.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Tall platform [[File:Garden Tall platform.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-tall-platform.png Tall platform]
|
*Here is the image of the tall platform.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|}

===Other items===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Balloon [[File:Garden Balloon.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-balloon.png Balloon] 
[[File:Garden Balloon Huge.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-balloon-huge.png Balloon Huge] 
[[File:Garden Balloon Segment.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-balloon-segment.png Balloon Segment] 
[[File:Balloon segment short.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-balloon-segment-short.png Balloon segment short]
|
*Here are the images of balloons and their strings.
| Color?
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/34/1663_garden_S_shaped_empty_balloon_string_right.png S-shaped balloon string]
|-
! Birdbath [[File:Garden Birdbath.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-birdbath.png Birdbath]
|
*Here is the image of the birdbath.
| Color?
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a1/1663_garden_Purple_garden_with_Heron.png Birdbath legged deer]
|-
! Boat [[File:Garden Boat 1 L.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-boat-1-l.png Boat 1 L] 
[[File:Garden Boat 1 R.png]] [http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-boat-1-r.png Boat 1 R]
|
*Here are the images of boats.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Cairn stones [[File:Garden Cairn Base 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-base-1.png Cairn Base 1] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Base 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-base-2.png Cairn Base 2] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Base 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-base-3.png Cairn Base 3] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Base 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-base-4.png Cairn Base 4] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Base 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-base-5.png Cairn Base 5] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Mid 1.png]]  [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-mid-1.png Cairn Mid 1] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Mid 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-mid-2.png Cairn Mid 2] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Mid 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-mid-3.png Cairn Mid 3] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Mid 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-mid-4.png Cairn Mid 4] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Mid 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-mid-5.png Cairn Mid 5] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Top 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-top-1.png Cairn Top 1] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Top 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-top-2.png Cairn Top 2] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Top 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-top-3.png Cairn Top 3] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Top 4.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-top-4.png Cairn Top 4] 
[[File:Garden Cairn Top 5.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-cairn-top-5.png Cairn Top 5]
|
*Here is the image of the stones used to form cairns.
| Color?
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/23/1663_Garden_An_Engineer_cairns.png Gigantic rock pile]
|-
! Furniture [[File:Garden Desk 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-desk-1.png Desk 1] 
[[File:Garden Desk lamp.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-desk-lamp.png Desk lamp] 
[[File:Garden Table 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-table-1.png Table 1]
|
*Here are the images of furniture for the office and other places.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Giant Planter [[File:Garden Giant Planter.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-giant-planter.png Giant Planter]
|
*Here is the image of the giant Planter.
| Color?
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1a/1663_garden_Underground_light_gives_large_tub_on_top_of_pillar_then_filled_with_trees.png Giant planter with trees]
|-
! Hat [[File:Garden Hat 1a.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-hat-1a.png Hat 1a]
|
*Here is the image of the black hat.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Lamppost [[File:Garden Lamp crossbar left.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-lamp-crossbar-left.png Lamp crossbar left] 
[[File:Garden Lamp crossbar right.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-lamp-crossbar-right.png Lamp crossbar right] 
[[File:Garden Lamppost 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-lamppost-1.png Lamppost 1] 
[[File:Garden lamp-topper.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-lamp-topper.png lamp-topper]
|
*Here are the images that may form the complete lamppost.
*The lamp post looks exactly like the one in [[665: Prudence]], and that is the one from {{w|Narnia}} which actually grew up in the forest when Narnia was created in the chronologically first book {{w|The Magician's Nephew}} when Aslan created Narnia.

| Color?
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7a/1663_garden_Blitz_Girls_lamp_posts_and_flowers_garden.png Example with lamp] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/81/1663_garden_Lamp_post_poles_and_mars_rover.png Example with crossbar]
|-
! Obelisk [[File:Garden Obelisk.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-obelisk.png Obelisk]
|
*Here is the image of the obelisk.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Pot [[File:Garden Pot 1.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-pot-1.png Pot 1] 
[[File:Garden Pot 2.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-pot-2.png Pot 2] 
[[File:Garden Pot 3.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-pot-3.png Pot 3]
|
*Here are the images of pots.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Rover [[File:Garden Rover.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-rover.png Rover]
|
*Here is the image of the Mars rover.
| Color 16
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_red_and_red_First_thing_Mars_rover.png Mars rover]
|-
! Sale sign [[File:Garden Sale sign.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-sale-sign.png Sale sign]
|
*Here is the image of the sale sign.
| Color?
| [ Example]
|-
! Saucer [[File:Garden Saucer.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-saucer.png Saucer]
|
*Here is the image of the flying saucer.
| Color?
| [http://forums.xkcd.com/download/file.php?id=51432&mode=view BlitzGirl's UFO garden]
|}

===Helper structures===
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |
! To see/hide images click here:
! Description of images
! Relevant colors
! Link to screen-shots
|-
! Bird riser [[File:Garden Bird riser.png]], [[File:Garden Bird riser with background.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-bird-riser.png Bird riser], and with background 
[[File:Garden Bird riser root.png]] [[File:Garden Bird riser root with frame.png]][http://linden.xkcd.com/art/2x-bird-riser-root.png Bird riser root], and with frame 
|
*Here are the images of the bird riser and it's root.
**They only seem to appear in the orange color range.
**The riser is invisible (white) and would have to have a background to be seen (both versions are shown to the left). This will never be the case in the garden as the raiser does not show up in front of other black items.
***However, the risers can be seen using the [[#Debug_mode|debug mode]], and this is used as the example to the right.
***Also using the debug mode on this [http://www.xkcd.com/1663/#1e853af8-055f-11e6-8001-42010a8e000f garden] the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e0/1663_garden_Color_13_2_5d_debug_with_count.png number of items can be counted] as shown in the link.
****From this link it is clear that there are three bird risers attached to two of the seven bird riser roots.
****Here only single bird risers are displayed, but they can be connected see below.
**The root can often be seen on the ground, but it can be hidden behind other objects.
***Also the root has the first short part of a bird riser above the root, which is invisible (by any means). The bird riser takes hold at the top of this invisible part. That it is there can best be seen by putting a frame around the image of the root, to see that it is twice as high as the root itself. Such an image is also shown to the left. (But the end can also be seen in the debug mode images).
*The riser are used to make items fly in the air.
**I.e. the five types of flying birds, the saucer, flying Megan and the two "actual flying fish", can attach them selves to the end of a bird riser.
**Whereas the risers need to have a root to begin, then more risers can attach to the end already existing risers, thus getting much higher up in the air than one riser (all the way up!).
**Risers can have any angles to each others, even going further down, which can explain birds and other flying objects touching the ground (even making an object be situated partially beneath the ground, like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cf/1663_garden_One_color_Orange_6d.png this flying Megan] from this [http://xkcd.com/1663/#0d6bca62-fcf3-11e5-8019-42010a8e0005 garden] or maybe even outside the frame, see last example below).
**As opposed to anything else the light that creates a bird (or other flying item) does not need to touch the actually bird, but rather the place from where the bird riser is rooted.
***This indicates that the birds etc. can grow from light touching the base of the risers rather than the tip.
****Since many bird risers can grow in layers above the first riser it is clear that the bird riser does not appear with a bird on them in one go!
***There are many examples with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/48/1663_garden_One_color_Orange_9d.png birds] or [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_and_orange_red_8d.png flying Megan] "growing" outside the light, where no light ever was, as seen from some of the [[1663:_Garden/Users_gardens#Locked_gardens_only_for_explanation_use|locked experimental gardens]].
*When selecting a bird riser root all bird risers and all flying things connected to these will also be selected (and deleted if the root is deleted).
**Here are two examples from the same [http://xkcd.com/1663/#578b80bc-fd96-11e5-8001-42010a8e000a garden] where two different roots have been selected:
***In this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b9/1663_garden_14_Between_orange_and_orange_red_15d_selected_bird_riser_root.png example] the selected root is hidden by the tulip in the red circle. Seven birds are selected both right and left of this root. (Two of them on top of each other).
***In this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/27/1663_garden_14_Between_orange_and_orange_red_15d_selected_bird_riser_root_Megan.png example] the root in the red circle is completely hidden by turtles etc. It connects to three birds and one flying Megan, showing that it is the bird riser roots that also connect to her.
**In this next example [http://xkcd.com/1663/#59246c86-fcce-11e5-8001-42010a8e0010 garden] the links between a root and four birds are displayed in detail.
***The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1663_garden_SF_final.png first image] is just the normal garden view screen-shot (lamps deleted). 10 birds can be seen; there are six birds over the lamp post; two near the ground under the high platform; one near the right crown of the tree; and one to the left that looks like it is a part of the linsang. Several bird riser roots (at least five) can be seen on the ground from the middle of the platform and right past the cat (two under it) and then at the sign.
***In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/8d/1663_garden_SF_final_selected.png second image] the root at the foot of the Sale sign has been selected. Four birds have been selected, spread out over the entire section with birds, including the lowest, the highest, the left most and one over the lamp post.
***In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1663_garden_SF_final_debug.png third image] debug mode has been used. All the long purple lines (of equal length) indicate bird risers.
***In the last [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/35/1663_garden_SF_final_debug_drawing.png fourth image] the links between the root and the four birds have been indicated. A zero (0) has been written under the root. Then 1 indicates the single bird riser that goes to the right bird over the lamp post. Bird riser 2, 3 and 4 connect to each other from the root up to the highest bird right of the crown. Then bird riser 5 goes from that to the bird near the linsang left of the tree, and finally bird riser 6 and 7 goes straight back and down to the lowest bird near the ground.
****Several bird risers seems to go beneath the ground!
**That bird risers can go beneath the ground has already been show with flying Megan partly under ground.
***In this last example it is made clear that birds can then appear either under ground (or under the top of other structures blocking their view) or even totally outside the frame (as indicated above the bird risers seem to be able to sprout items outside the cones of light, as long as they grow in the light them selves).
***The proof for this comes in this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/16/1663_garden_Color_13_5d_debug_with_count.png example] with the debug version of this [http://www.xkcd.com/1663/#fa1b5c92-055e-11e6-8001-42010a8e000f garden] showing the count:
****At the time of [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1663_garden_Color_13_5d.png these images] there where only 8 visible birds
****But the count lists 20 birds, indicating that no less than 12 birds are hidden from view!
| Color [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/48/1663_garden_One_color_Orange_9d.png 13 Orange] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4f/1663_garden_One_color_Between_orange_and_orange_red_8d.png 14 Orange].
| [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e7/1663_garden_Color_13_2_5d_debug_bird_risers.png Bird riser debug] 
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5e/1663_garden_Color_14_3d.png Root]
|-
! Null [[File:Garden Null.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-null.png Null] [[File:Garden Null continue.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-null-continue-air.png Null continue] 
[[File:Garden Null continue air.png]], [[File:Garden Null continue air with background.png]] [http://xkcd.com/1663/art/2x-null-continue-air.png Null continue air], and with background 
|
*Here are the images of ''null''. They cannot normally be seen, the air version even have to have a background to be seen (both versions are shown). They are used for ??.
| Color
| [ Example]
|}

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:April fools' comics]] 
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]] 
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Sharks]] 
[[Category:Mars rovers]]
[[Category:Protip]]
[[Category:Buns]]

[[Category:Chronicles of Narnia]]
[[Category:Stilts]]

1608: Hoverboard

2023-05-26T23:28:57Z

Malgond: added Category:Stilts using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 1608
| date = November 24, 2015
| title = Hoverboard
| image = hoverboard.png

}}
{{TOC}}
*To experience the interactivity of the game, visit the {{xkcd|1608|original comic}}.
==Explanation==
The "comic" is actually a {{w|browser game}} made to celebrate the release of [[Randall|Randall's]] new book, ''[[Thing Explainer]]'', which was released on the same day as this comic: Tuesday, November 24, 2015. The comic thus appeared on a Tuesday, replacing that week's normal Wednesday release to coincide with the release day. The [[xkcd Header text]] also [[xkcd_Header_text#2015-11-24_-_Thing_Explainer_is_out_today|changed that day]] to shout out that the book was released on that day. This is a platforming minigame, in which you collect coins while riding on a hoverboard.

The title refers to a {{w|hoverboard}} (which resembles a hovering skateboard without wheels) which has been most [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ZdMOMUgXE prominently featured] in the movie {{w|Back to the Future Part II}}. {{w|Marty McFly}} traveled to the future in this second installment, more precisely to [https://www.facebook.com/October212015BTTF 2015-10-21], and this comic was released just over one month later 2015-11-24. Hoverboards are just one of many things predicted in Back to the Future Part II that [http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33785285 have] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HI137m7XA4 come] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLwNGBB_Yb0 to] [http://www.wired.com/2016/03/hendo-2-hoverboard/ pass] before reaching the date from the movie, but are more uncommon in our world, along with other inventions like [http://www.terrafugia.com/ flying] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-1pXbW5wVg cars] and [http://www.soundandvision.com/content/wear-your-music-thinkgeeks-soundtrack-shirt#jo8J1DassbWxlptj.97 musical clothing]. Randall is known to have had [[:Category:Electric skateboard|electric skateboards]], which is also thematically related, although another type of hoverboard would be mentioned just five weeks later in [[1623: 2016 Conversation Guide]].

Given Randall's enjoyment of movies and time travel it is very likely that this game is also a tribute to the {{w|Back to the Future}} movies. But the release day of the game has been used to promote his new book (as is clear with the text in the start screen of the game), and this explains why it was not released on the Back to the Future date. Apart from the date of release and the text about the book, the game does not seem to have any direct relation to the book; there are, however, several scenes in the game that could be seen as [[#Reference to Thing Explainer|references to ''Thing Explainer'']]. Instead the main part of the game is all the references to several movies and other stuff that has often been featured in xkcd as well as many of the other comics.

===The game feature===
The game features an {{w|animated}} [[Cueball]] riding on a hoverboard which can take [[#Animation|several different positions]]. The controls are the left, up, and right arrows, as written on the start screen until you begin the game, after which the text disappears. There are alternatives as explained in the [[#Controls|Controls]] section. The player can jump repeatedly mid-jump to reach increasing heights, and can move left and right both while jumping and descending (see more under controls).

The player begins in a line-drawing maze (called the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a9/All_play_area_hanging_all_coins.PNG Play Area]) with 17 gold coins located throughout and a "deposit" terminal. The ostensible goal of the game is to collect as many coins as possible and return them to the deposit in the fastest possible time, which returns [[#Messages in Play Area|text messages]] describing the result. Players consumed with obtaining the best possible time result for collecting the coins may not realize there is anything more to the game.

The best way to enjoy this comic is to {{xkcd|1608|play the game!}} If you didn't do that already, '''reading anything below or the [https://xkcd.com/1608/info.0.json official transcript]''' will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic, and maybe making some interesting discoveries yourself! So:

<big><big>'''!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!'''</big></big>

Beyond the maze on either side (just far enough that players who remain within the maze will not see) are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/8b/1680_Play_Area_Full_Size_Coins_Hoverboard_and_View.png tall walls seemingly designed to contain the player]. However, the walls have a finite height and, combined with the ability to double-jump, the player can leave the purported "play area" either to the sides or above the initial maze. This returns a flashing red [[#Messages in Play Area|error message]]: "'''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/Return_to_the_play_area.PNG Return to the Play Area]'''".

But if the player overcomes the desire to comply and return to the play area and disregards this message, they can take hoverboard Cueball outside beyond the tall walls surrounding the initial play area. And here they will discover an entire world that can be explored left and right (and above), including numerous points of interest and {{w|Easter egg (media)|Easter eggs}} similar in style to comic [[1110: Click and Drag]]. There are also many more [[#Coins|coins]] to collect, 169 coins all in all, so 152 more than those from the play area.

Although this game is reminiscent of Click and Drag, this was the first time an actual game, where the user moves an object in front of the drawing, has been released on xkcd. In previous "games" this has not been the case. In Click and Drag the user only moves the drawing into the view section. And in for instance the two previous [[:Category:April fools' comics|April fools' comics]], [[1350: Lorenz]] and [[1506: xkcloud]], the user does not move anything, but only supplies choices, text and drawings. However, already on the next {{w|April Fools' Day}} a new game, [[1663: Garden]], was released where the users also actively moved items around on the screen and could make items disappear (like taking coins in this game.). The ability to infinitely doubles jump allows us to reach beyond just the ground.

===The main themes===
There are many themes and references throughout the game, but the two main themes are '''{{w|Star Wars}}''' and '''{{w|The Lord of the Rings}}'''. Below there is a [[#List of details and references|table]] listing all references to both of these movies and much more. For instance, there are 19 references to SW and 6 to LOTR.

The largest part of the game is located on the '''right side''' of the play area and is mainly a world dominated by references to ''Star Wars''. Most noticeable is a recreation of [https://youtu.be/yHfLyMAHrQE?t=112 the opening scene] in the {{w|Star Wars (film)|first film}}, where {{w|Princess Leia|Princess Leia's}} space ship ''{{w|Tantive IV}}'', also known as ''[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/82/1608_1015x1078y_Entire_Rebel_Blockade_Runner_zoom_out.png The Rebel Blockade Runner]'', is flying over [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/33/1608_1015x1073y_Ponytail_in_the_dunes_zoom_out.png the desert] planet {{w|Tatooine}}. Here it is followed by the {{w|Star Destroyer}}, ''[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Devastator Devastator]''. The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/04/1608_1015x1078y_Entire_Rebbel_Blockade_Runner_zoom_out_to_torpedoes_and_ground.png desert ground with these two space ships] above is the first you find to the right. Although in the game they are located inside the atmosphere, not as in the movie out in space, a fact that is [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1049x1090y_Atmosphere_worry_and_car_room_at_bottom_of_hull.png commented on] by [[Megan]] who looks out from an opening in the bottom of the Destroyer's hull.
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?

Both ships are high above the ground, but there are three [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/76/1608_1014x1076y_Entire_wires_from_ground_to_Runner.png wires from the ground] that connect (and thus guide you) up to ''The Runner'' and from there [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/87/1608_1023x1085y_Entire_torpedoes_rain_from_Runner_to_Destroyer.png 100+ torpedoes], which are fired [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f1/1608_1018x1079y_Top_rear_end_of_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png down on the Runner] coming [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5f/1608_1034x1091y_Torpedo_canon_below_Destroyer.png from the Destroyer] above, gives away the location of the Destroyer itself. The Destroyer is so high up in the air, that you would not be likely to find it by chance without these leads (or at least some of the several other hints from people on the ground [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f2/1608_1010x1073y_Cliff_with_rock_and_cactus.png looking up and reacting] or like [[White Hat]] looking from the tip of the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/1608_0995x1079y_Entire_Washington_monument_extra_zoom_out.png Washington Monument] and reacting [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6f/1608_0995x1083y_Tip_of_Washington_monument.png by saying]: "Uh, what the heck is ''that?!''.").

One of the main points (The Joke) of the entire game is the extreme size of [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cd/1608_Entire_Star_Destroyer.png such a Destroyer]. It takes up more space than the rest of the game (and most of the coins are located there). Inside the Destroyer there are many, many rooms, long corridors and deep shafts, even a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/58/1608_Entire_Cave.png huge cave] with trees and animals. At [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c7/1608_Vader_twice_and_emperor_on_and_near_bridge.png the bridge] we meet both {{w|Darth Vader}} and the Emperor himself, {{w|Palpatine}}. There are many other jokes related both to Star Wars and other movies and xkcd comics inside the Destroyer. For instance, Darth Vader discusses {{w|Steven Universe}}, bringing up Rose Quartz and Steven himself ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/39/1608_1031x1095y_Steven_Universe_family_and_ice_cream_prediction.png who can be found with the Crystal Gems] in a different part of the Destroyer).
:Darth Vader: But Steven's ''mother'' is a Crystal Gem...
There are also interesting things and references along the ground beneath the Destroyer, some of these are also Star Wars related like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c9/1608_1038x1073y_Wedding_and_picnic.png the wedding scene] where {{w|Jabba the Hutt}} is mentioned.

To the '''left side''' is an entirely different world, although much smaller (shorter) than the one to the right. Here the main theme is ''The Lord of the Rings'' mainly with the presence of a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6a/Entire_Volcano_zoom_out.png volcano] where for instance [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/77/1608_0952x1087y_Ring_of_power_and_lave_floor_at_the_right_crater_top.png Megan tries to throw] in {{w|One Ring|''rings'' of power}}, as in [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXpF3SUFaDw the scene] from the {{w|The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King|last LOTR film}} where {{w|Frodo Baggins|Frodo}} fails and {{w|Gollum}} attacks inside the volcano {{w|Mount Doom}}, thus making it clear that the volcano in the xkcd game represents Mt. Doom. Frodo, {{w|Sauron}}, and {{w|Gandalf}} are all mentioned in the game. The first two by name in the text. Two {{w|Eagle (Middle-earth)|great eagles}} are [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cb/1608_0956x1088y_Eagles_over_right_crater_top.png talking about Frodo] and {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien}}, Sauron's name is [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/66/1608_0964x1078y_Megan_reading_for_children_about_Saurons_ring.png read up by Megan from a book], and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a5/1608_0944x1083y_Rock_with_Gandalf_in_Lava_lake.png Gandalf is drawn as a wizard figure] in the crater and also his name is used in the [[#Messages in Play Area|message]] you receive if you collect [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f7/169_coins_fastest_way.PNG all possible coins].

The two worlds do conflict though, as an {{w|X-wing fighter}} is [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/44/1608_0982x1077y_Gas_station_with_x-wing.png parked at a gas station] to the left in LOTR world, and Gandalf's famous quote ''You shall not pass!'' from his fight against the {{w|Balrog}} is modified by [[Cueball]] who is [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ad/1608_1026x1093y_Shall_not_not_pass_room_and_parachutes_at_one_of_two_ledges_at_bottom_of_hull.png ''not'' trying to block your path] to a coin inside a room in the Destroyer. This conflict could very well be a reference to the fact that {{w|Andy Serkis}} who played {{w|Gollum}} in LOTR, now plays the {{w|Supreme Leader Snoke}} in the new Star Wars movie, and [http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/6/64/Supremeleader.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/270?cb=20151223201852 his appearance] as Snoke is not that much different from Gollum's. Snoke also delivers a line in the movie (about "bringing someone to me") that reminds one of Gollum when he talks about "the ring coming to me". Randall would not have known this last part at the time that this comic was released, but he would likely be aware of Andy Serkis' involvement.

Other themes are related to other movies, like a [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/star-wars-the-force-awakens/star-trek-fans-rivalry-george-lucas-roddenberry/ naughty reference] to {{w|Star Trek}} from inside [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png the bridge] of the Rebel Blockade Runner where a long-haired woman (maybe [[Danish]] since she obviously does this to annoy Star Wars fans and [[Hairbun]] behind her, which could represent Princess Leia with her [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Princess_Leia%27s_characteristic_hairstyle.jpg special hair style]) delivers the following line taken from the Star Trek universe:
:Long haired woman: Captain's log, stardate November 24th, 2015...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

Also references to video games are seen, best shown with the maze towards the back end of the Destroyer which are an almost [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e2/1608_Comparing_Prince_of_Persia_maze_with_real_level_1.png complete depiction] of ''[http://cdn.wikimg.net/strategywiki/images/a/a2/Princeofpersia_dos_level1.png Level 1]'' of the computer game ''{{w|Prince of Persia}}'' down to the three coins being in the place of three items to take in that game, and at least two of the opposing sword fighters in the correct places as well.

The comic/game and book were released only 3 weeks before the 7th Star Wars movie ''{{w|Star Wars: The Force Awakens}}'' was released on December 14, 2015. And this movie had already been referenced by Randall 7½ weeks earlier in [[1585: Similarities]], when another movie ({{w|The Martian (film)|The Martian}}) were released. It was a reference in the title text to the new robot ''BB-8'' that are featured in the Force Awakens. That the Star Wars section is thus so much larger than the LOTR section could be a hint to the fact that it is now 12 years ago that the last of those films were released, and although {{w|the Hobbit}} has been released as {{w|The Hobbit (film series)|three films}} over the previous three Christmases it was Star Wars that dominated the Christmas a month after this comic's release.

===Reference to Thing Explainer===
Some of the scenes in this game are references to pictures in the new book that it celebrates. Here are some examples:
*The original comic that was the impetus for ''[[Thing Explainer]]'' in the first place, [[1133: Up Goer Five]], is also included in the book. These are both referenced in this game by the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e2/1608_0976x1079y_Space_capsule_with_parachutes.png space capsule] used for reentry by the astronauts that flew to the moon using the {{w|Saturn V|Saturn Five}} rocket. This capsule is floating down over the plateau before the volcano to the left.
*In ''Sky Toucher'', the last entry explaining a sky scraper, there are several references to the game, one of these being the space capsule just mentioned above. Other references:
**Ponytail throwing a paper plane out, which she also does [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/20/1608_1077x1107y_Tarkin_on_the_bridge_and_Ponytail_with_paper_plane.png below the bridge] of the Destroyer. (This is also a reference to [http://explainxkcd.com/1110 Click and Drag] where [http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/6n2w.png Cueball does the same], here even from a skyscraper).
**Cueball is setting up a kite and Ponytail is crawling up in the line. In the comic a small girl looking like Megan [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png also has a kite]. Being up in a kite is also referenced in both [[235: Kite]] and in the title text of [[1614: Kites]] (from just a few weeks after the release of this comic.)
**There is a floor in the middle of the building with trees, just like there is a cave inside the Destroyer [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1608_1053x1093y_Lake_with_tree_birds_and_puma_on_rock_at_exit_in_the_bottom_left_side_of_the_cave.png with a tree "inside"].
**Cueball is holding a fishing rod out over the side of the building letting the hook hand in the air. The same [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/58/1608_1014x1078y_Three_wires_and_reaching_up_to_anchors_in_Runner.png can be seen] under the Rebel Blockage Runner.
**Megan is using a skateboard in a strange ellipsoid-shaped room. This can be a reference both to where Megan is seen on a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/89/1608_1038x1095y_Hamsterball_and_stilts_room.png skate board inside a hamster ball] and to the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7b/1608_1078x1111y_Globe_of_Death_at_the_top_of_the_Destroyer.png globe of death] at the top of the bridge on the Destroyer.
**There is a car in the top section of the tower (long away from the parking cellar in the basement). There are two [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1049x1090y_Atmosphere_worry_and_car_room_at_bottom_of_hull.png cars inside] the Destroyer, [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d4/1608_1048x1099y_Cueball_on_hood_of_car_room_and_a_giant_step_with_coins_at_top_of_hull.png one of them] deep inside with no easy access to the outside.
**Two people are standing on a cloud, one of them (Megan) jumps out from it. This is similar to the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/92/1608_0993x1112y_Top_of_floating_rock_island_with_base_jumpers.png two base jumpers] on the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5c/1608_0994x1110y_Entire_floating_rock_island_zoom_out.png rock island].
*In the ''Red world space car'' explaining (about the {{w|Curiosity Rover}} on {{w|Mars}}) there are two references to the scenes around the Rebel Blockade Runner:
**Curiosity toasts a marshmallow over a fire as does Megan and Cueball over the exhaust pipe at [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f1/1608_1018x1079y_Top_rear_end_of_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png the rear of the Runner].
**When Curiosity is set down on Mars by the {{w|Mars Science Laboratory}} (MSL), lowered down in wires below the MSL, the wires were released once the rover was down and then it flies away. In the book Megan is hanging from one of these wires when it flies away. This is similar to [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/76/1608_1014x1076y_Entire_wires_from_ground_to_Runner.png Megan hanging in one of the anchor lines] going from the ground up to the Runner.
*In ''The USS Laws of the Land'' about the ship called {{w|USS Constitution}} (named after the {{w|United States Constitution}} which is explained in the entry just before this one), there are two references to this comic:
**There is both a giant octopus arm (marked as ''not real'') and a very large octopus under the ship. The shape of the octopus is the same as the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b5/1608_1038x1094y_Giant_octopus_in_Destroyer.png silhouette of a giant octopus] inside the Destroyer.
***Octopuses like this are often used in xkcd, and they are also included in the explanation about ''Writing sticks'' (as the source of ink for the pens), as a motive in ''Picture taker'' and in ''Tree of life''. As an example from another xkcd comic with octopuses see for instance [[435: Purity]].
**There is also a bowling alley in the hull of the ship - a reference to the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/53/1608_0987x1075y_Hamsterball_bowling.png hamster ball bowling] in the left part of the world.
***Bowling is also used two other places in the book, namely on the suspension of the longest bridge in ''Tall roads'' and an bowling alley is used for measuring length in ''How to count things''.
*Ants are used three times in the book. A zoom-in on an ant is used to indicate size in ''Earth's past'' about geological ages of the Earth, and under the ''Tree'' in that explanation there is an ant colony where one ant is much bigger than the others; an ant queen, a clear reference to the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1078x1095y_Ant_Queen_in_Destroyer.png ant queen] in the Destroyer. They are of course also in the ''Tree of life''.
*Basketball is shown twice in this comic ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a4/1608_0936x1084y_Basketball_on_the_volcano.png left of volcano] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1067x1104y_Basket_ball_on_top_of_Destroyer.png on top of Destroyer]). In the book the size of different ''Playing Fields'' is one of the stories, and it included the field for basketball (i.e. ''circle ball'').
*The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d0/1608_1046x1074y_Huge_foot.png huge foot] before the pyramid look like the foot used in the explanation for ''How to count things'' to describe the wight "one kilo" using a picture labeled ''one foot'' (i.e. not the length one foot, as the length is given in meters). A similar experience to the one in [[526: Converting to Metric]].
*The [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1084x1090y_Giant_light_bulb_room.png giant light bulb] towards the bottom rear end of the Destroyer is a reference to the entry on {{w|tungsten}} in the explanation for ''The pieces everything is made of'' (i.e. the {{w|periodic table}}). In the book a {{w|Incandescent_light_bulb|light bulb}} is shown and then an arrow points to the {{w|Incandescent_light_bulb#Filament|filament}} which is made of tungsten in the typical {{w|Thomas Edison|Edison}} light bulbs.
*In the explanation for ''Box that cleans food holders'' (Dishwasher) Ponytail yells ''Wheee!'' as she slides through a pipe inside the machine on her stomach (bottom left). This is similar to her position and movement in the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c6/1608_Entire_Corridor_peristalsis_and_colon.png colon like structure] inside the Destroyer and Cueball also sliding in this colon yells ''Wheee!''
*In the explanation for ''Bending computer'' Ponytail comes racing on her bike with a laptop on top of the handlebars. She is also seen [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cd/1608_0958x1083y_Ponytail_racing_down_the_steep_slope_on_a_bike.png racing a bike down the slope of the volcano].

===Reference to other comics===
There are also many references to other xkcd comics, like the room at the front end of the Destroyer [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a7/1608_1004x1095y_Very_front_with_playpen_balls_pit_at_top_of_hull.png ball pit] filled with '''[[:Category:Playpen balls|playpen balls]]''', and two adults playing in it, like in [[150: Grownups]]. Also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2e/1608_0980x1075y_Entire_well_zoom_out.png the well] in the left part of the world with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/82/1608_0980x1073y_Well_bottom.png a girl and a coin] at the bottom is likely a reference to the movie ''The Ring'', which has been referenced before in xkcd. Wells have also come up in xkcd in the early '''[[:Category:Well|Well series]]'''.

There have been many comics with electric skateboards as mentioned, which do not appear in this comic, but there is one example of a normal '''skateboard'''. This is [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/89/1608_1038x1095y_Hamsterball_and_stilts_room.png used by Megan] in a room in the Destroyer, while she is inside a {{w|hamster ball}}. There is also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/53/1608_0987x1075y_Hamsterball_bowling.png another hamster ball], with a kid (looking like Megan) inside. It is used in a more than human sized {{w|ten pin bowling}} game to the left. '''Hamster balls''' is another item that has been [[:Category:Hamster Ball|prominently featured]] in xkcd.

In the weeks before, and especially the weeks after there were also other comics that had a subject which could refer back to Hoverboard in some ways. Maybe these comics were either influenced by the game, or the other way around so that relevant items were added to the game because of these other comics:
*[[1600: MarketWatch]] - the {{w|Washington Monument}} (an obelisk) is part of the skyline depicted, and this monument is the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/1608_0995x1079y_Entire_Washington_monument_extra_zoom_out.png first that is encountered] in the picture when going left from the play area, plus a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/dc/1608_0994x1074y_Base_of_Washington_monument.png comment at the base] of the monument to make sure we know it is the Washington monument, and another [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6f/1608_0995x1083y_Tip_of_Washington_monument.png comment at the top] of the monument referring to the {{w|Washington_Monument#Aluminum_apex|aluminum apex}} that constitutes the very tip of the monument, which was very expensive at the time it was installed in 1884, when aluminum was a rare metal as valuable as silver. Today it would not make anyone rich from the metal alone, although the tip would be worth a lot for other historical reasons, but this is not what Cueball's comment is about.
::Cueball to Megan at the bottom: Honestly, it doesn't even look that much like Washington.
::Cueball to White Hat at the tip: Look at that- solid aluminum! We're gonna be rich!
*[[1610: Fire Ants]] - in this game there is a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1078x1095y_Ant_Queen_in_Destroyer.png giant ant queen] inside the Destroyer talking with Cueball about laying eggs.
**See also [[1641: Hot Dogs]] where Cueball has a similar style conversation, with the same ''Eww'' ending as with the ant queen:
::Cueball: What's up?
::Ant queen: The usual. Poopin' out ants.
::Cueball: Eww.
*[[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]] - this is about super volcanoes, vs. [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6a/Entire_Volcano_zoom_out.png the Volcano], Mount Doom in the game as indicated by Megan [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/77/1608_0952x1087y_Ring_of_power_and_lave_floor_at_the_right_crater_top.png throwing rings into the lava]:
::Megan at the edge of the volcano crater: One of these is probably a ring of power or whatever.
*[[1614: Kites]] - Megan is seen with a kite, and in this comics a small girl looking like Megan [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png also has a kite] to the left towards Mount Doom.
*[[1620: Christmas Settings]] - another Star Wars reference to {{w|lightsaber}} noises in the title text. Lightsabers are featured twice in this comic, with [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png Ponytail practicing] on the Rebel Blockade Runner, and with a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/20/1608_1006x1095y_Pinata_and_Cueball_with_lightsaber_at_top_of_hull.png kid about to hit a Piñata] in the Destroyer.
*[[1623: 2016 Conversation Guide]] - a direct hoverboard reference, and complaint that they are not real yet (only [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/01/1608_1048x1095y_Two_hoverboards_room.png in this game]).
*[[1630: Quadcopter]] - in this comic three quadcopters act together to abduct Cueball. Thus making them sentient, like the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7c/1608_0950x1084y_Quadcopters_over_lava_lake_right.png quadcopter who is speaking to another] over the lava lake in the Mount Doom crater to the left.
::Right quadcopter: Remember: There's no such thing as good volcano footage taken by a quadcopter that survived.
*[[1632: Palindrome]] - a reference to the famous palindrome about the Panama canal: "''A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama''", and thus also to the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0d/1608_1026x1073y_Ruins_with_Cueball_singing_of_Spiders_and_Panama.png song that Cueball sings] at the ruin to the right, where the first four lines is mashup of the palindrome and {{w|Spider-Man_(theme_song)|the Spider-Man theme song}} (see this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUtziaZlDeE video]):
::Cueball singing:
:::Spider-man
::::Spider-plan
:::Spider-canal
::::Spider-Panama
:::Gates let in
::::Spider boats
:::Flood the locks
::::Spiders float
:::''Look out!''
:::Spiders in both oceans.

*[[735: Floor]] Instead of pretending the floor is lava as in the comic, they stand by the lava pretending that it is the floor.

===Characters===
Almost all main [[:Category:Characters|characters]] in the xkcd gallery are used more than once, especially there are three characters that are used several times. Number one is of course [[Cueball]] (with close to 90 appearances) who is already shown at the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6c/1608_1000x1074y_The_Play_Area.png starting point]. He is also the first character seen when walking both [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c0/1608_1004x1074y_Cueball_outside_play_area.png right] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/dc/1608_0994x1074y_Base_of_Washington_monument.png left] (where he speaks the first line to the left).

Then follows [[Megan]] with at least 40 appearances, she is even shown twice in the same location three times, one of these three even occurs within one of the [http://xkcd.com/1608/1090:-1088+s.png small images]. She is also shown with Cueball in his first appearance to the left, and she is the first to speak a line to the right [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f2/1608_1010x1073y_Cliff_with_rock_and_cactus.png here].

Also [[Ponytail]] is well represented with 26 appearances (for instance [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2d/1608_0947x1073y_Antenna_cave_in_lair.png here)].

[[Hairy]] (with different hair styles) is used 7 times (for instance [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/54/1608_Actual_Bridge_with_Vader_and_Tarkin.png here]) and [[Hairbun]] is used 5 times (for instance [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e4/1608_1054x1099y_Corridor_peristalsis_and_two_coin_rooms_at_top_of_hull.png here)].

Two of the main characters are used twice: [[Beret Guy]] ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4f/1608_0990x1074y_If_loving_you_is_wrong_I_dont_want_to.png here] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/1608_1020x1083y_Torpedoes_two_steps_above_Runner_with_Beret_Guy.png here]) and [[White Hat]] ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6f/1608_0995x1083y_Tip_of_Washington_monument.png here] and [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d9/1608_1093x1074y_White_Hat_hiding_in_the_grass.png here]).

The only exception is that the main villain of xkcd [[Black Hat]] who is very hard to find. He is only [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/68/1608_1069x1093y_Deer_and_exit_below_lamp_coin_and_Black_Hat_in_the_bottom_right_side_of_the_cave.png shown once] in the comic where he very uncharacteristically just sits and snores at the right wall in the cave inside the Destroyer (is it really him...?). The only other hint that he is not forgotten is that his hat can be seen [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1073x1074y_Ponytail_and_bird_black_hat_on_a_stick_and_Cueball_whistling.png on a stick] under the Destroyer after the three large T-like structures. And this is not that kind of stick characters Randall usually draws. But at least we now know where Danish has hidden it from him this time (see [[405: Journal 3]]). Given that his hat is stuck there, he could also be any of the Cueballs close by…

Also [[Blondie]] seems to be only represented once, while in her reporter mode while discovering a bug before the volcano as can be seen [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png here].

There are also several characters that are not recognizable as either any of the standard xkcd characters or in any other way (see for instance a few of the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a6/1037x1073y_Wedding.png wedding guests]). But there are possibly some of the minor characters are used like [[Danish]] at the bridge in the Blockade Runner ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png here]) but this cannot be confirmed, she just looks like her and has some similarities teasing the Star Wars fan.

Several places in the comic it is clear from the size and the behavior that some of the characters are kids, see for instance the Blondie image mentioned above, where two kids looking like Megan and Hairy stand behind her, but they would in principle not be Megan or Hairy despite appearance, as these named characters are adults.

There are also many fictive people from different movies, books, and shows; for instance Darth Vader ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fa/1608_1077x1109y_Darth_Vaders_talks_about_Steven_Universe_on_the_bridge_Megan_adjust_antenna.png here]), Gandalf ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a5/1608_0944x1083y_Rock_with_Gandalf_in_Lava_lake.png here]) and Steven Universe ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/39/1608_1031x1095y_Steven_Universe_family_and_ice_cream_prediction.png here]) all three mentioned above, and some real life people: you can find {{w|Elon Musk|Elon Musk}}, who has a [[#Secret passages and hidden places|hidden lair]] under the Volcano (see [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1608_0945x1074y_Elon_Musks_cave_in_lair.png here]), and Gregor Mendel, hanging out on a Star Destroyer with a pea plant.

Furthermore, there are many animals (like [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b0/1608_1067x1094y_Gazebo_puma_deer_Cueball_with_bow_and_talk_of_Palpatine_in_the_middle_of_the_cave.png the puma and the deer]) in the cave, some even rather big like this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b5/1608_1038x1094y_Giant_octopus_in_Destroyer.png octopus] or even gigantic like this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1078x1095y_Ant_Queen_in_Destroyer.png ant queen] (all three from inside the Destroyer). There are also a couple of small Star Wars robots, one in a corridor in each space ship ([http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/df/1608_1034x1091y_Photon_canon_Tetris_piece_and_mini_robot_at_bottom_of_hull.png here from the Destroyer]).

===Extra Hoverboard pages===
Since this comic is so big and complicated extra pages have been created to include much more information than is wished for on this main page (which is already of considerable size). These pages are listed here for convenience, but they are also listed in the relevant sections below:
*[[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]] - The full transcript of the entire comic, as if you played the game can be found here. It is linked from the [[#Transcript|Transcript]] section.
*[[1608: Hoverboard/The whole image]] - A collection of different compilations of the whole Image. It is linked from the [[#Whole Image|Whole Image]] section.
*[[1608: Hoverboard/Images of secret passages]] - Images with an overview of the secret passages in the game. It is linked from the [[#Secret passages and hidden places|Secret passages and hidden places]] section.
*[[1608: Hoverboard/All image links]] It is linked from the [[#All images|All images]] section.
*[[1608: Hoverboard/Images coins]] It is linked from the [[#Coins|Coins]] section.
*[[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots]] It can be linked from several sections, but among others from the [[#Messages in Play Area|Messages in Play Area]] section.
*[[1608: Hoverboard/Images of individual scenes]] It will be linked from the [[#List of details and references|List of details and references]] section which will be using these images in the explanation.

==Transcript==
:[This transcript only covers the starting page as shown on xkcd: {{xkcd|1608}}. A full transcript of the entire comic can be found on this [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript|page]].]


:[Cueball is shown on a hoverboard in the center of the comic. Around him is a simple maze with 12 yellow coins. Another Cueball without hoverboard is shown standing on one of the platforms to the right. The bottom half of the window is black. Right of where Cueball stands is a ramp. Behind the ramp is a terminal. There is lots of space left of the maze, outside the maze. Text is only written in white below in the black area. The first part of the text is written below Cueball on hoverboard. Then there is an arrow pointing to the terminal and a label. Finally there is a line of text at the bottom of the black area.]

:[Under Cueball:]
:My new book,
:''Thing Explainer,''
:comes out today!
:To celebrate, here's
:a small game.

:[Under the arrow below the terminal.]
:Deposit
:coins here

:[At the bottom:]
:Use the arrow keys to move

:['''For the full transcript of the entire comic as it could be played see [[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript]].''']
:['''For a transcript only of the text for the scenes with text in the comic see the [[#Table with references|table]] below.''']

==Trivia==
*This interactive comic has [[:Category:No title text|no title text]]. Although there is one listed in the [http://xkcd.com/1608/info.0.json info page] on xkcd ("Return to the play area"), it's not a title text and will erroneously be shown in unofficial mobile versions of the site. This is actually the [[#Messages in Play Area|text that is shown blinking red]] at the bottom of the screen when leaving the Play Area.
* There's a leader board at [https://www.speedrun.com/xkcd_hoverboard speedrun.com]. There are two speedrun categories: "All Coins" and "17 Coins". At the beginning of 2023, the best time in "All Coins" is 19m 27s, the best time in "17 Coins" is 7s 167ms.

==Viewers==
*{{xkcd|1608|1608: Hoverboard}} (native game, use arrows)

Apart from using one of the a full maps below there are also other [[#Cheats and Exploits|cheating possibilities]] where people (or the game) have implemented ways to explore the game world more easily.

*Though you can download the full view, the easiest way to browse it is through a {{w|Zooming user interface}}:
**[http://1101b.com/xkcd1608/ Fully zoomable map w/ toggleable coins and passages]. '''[Recommended]''' - includes all of the game, zoom-able and with toggle-able passages and coins. Courtesy of [https://www.reddit.com/user/lanzaa lanzaa] on this [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxbyn86 reddit thread]
**[http://codepen.io/KyleDavidE/full/605dc87b614ff6b2bd716f4c6f640203/ Quickly hacked overview]. Missing the rock island in the sky. Courtesy of [https://www.reddit.com/user/kyledavide kyledavide] on the same [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxbyn86 reddit thread].
*Below are several examples of full pictures:
**[http://paste.click/DsPuSL Full-size-png-map]. '''Do not open this directly in the browser!''' It might take a few minutes to download. Full resolution picture of the entire game (also without coins) - courtesy of [https://www.reddit.com/user/0x90-0x90 0x90-0x90] on the same reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxbyn86 thread].
**[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/92/thumb_1608.jpg Incomplete compilation] of the entire game area (note the missing pinnacle of the Washington Monument. It also missed the floating island above the monument).
**[https://i.imgur.com/uYryxss.png Full png-map]. Simple picture of the entire game without coins - courtesy of [https://www.reddit.com/user/luke_in_the_sky luke_in_the_sky] on the same reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxbyn86 thread].
**[https://i.imgur.com/rNU9ZgN.png Full png-map green for non existing tiles]. Here's the transparent spaces in green - also courtesy of [https://www.reddit.com/user/luke_in_the_sky luke_in_the_sky] on the another [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc1245 reddit thread].
**[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/content_link/6wIRprxQ7rh3EQGEPer7zCdiaCDeXFM3m2tW9aDd3ECJu9Kgz4s5LPLjjHnJN6SR/file Black areas that you can walk through in red]. This includes the walls and ceilings or other surfaces that you can stand on or hit into. So not only the secret passages are in red.
*See also under the [[#Whole Image|Whole Image]].
**And see also the collection of different versions of [[1608: Hoverboard/The whole image|the whole image]]!

===Standalone application===
*Standalone cross-platform open source remake of hoverboard is available, with some extra features:
** Off-line play
** Arbitrary game window size
** Persistent games state on exit
** Ability to save up to 10 locations and teleport to them at will
** Explorable world map
* Links:
** [https://github.com/AMDmi3/hoverboard-sdl Project on GitHub]
** [https://github.com/AMDmi3/hoverboard-sdl/releases Downloads] (Windows binaries available)

===Metroid XK===
*Satirical crossover with the classic game Super Metroid. Explore the world as Samus in search of powerups and secrets, while encountering danger at every turn.
[[File:1608_MetroidXK.png]]
* [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=113083&start=120#p3913102 more information]
* [http://www.xeloh.com/Releases#MetroidXK download]

==Messages in Play Area==
*Different amounts of coins collected in the play area, will give different messages in yellow on the black part at the bottom of the screen when delivered to the coin collector.
*Below is a table with examples of what may be written depending on the number of coins. The time (and the amount when there is a range with similar rating) is just chosen at random (although in a realistic range). To get above 17 you of course have to leave the play area and come back again...
**In Chrome and Firefox there is not message for those above 9 coins, except 17, 42 and 169. But in Internet Explorer there is still a message for those cases: "Undefined".
**See [[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#Coin collecting messages|screen-shots]] or click on the links from the number of coins in the table below:

:{| class="wikitable"
!# coins
!Text when depositing this number of coins
"X" is the number of coins collected
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e3/0_coins.PNG 0 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got 0 coins in 1 second''' You successfully avoided all the coins.
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/00/1_coin.PNG 1 coin]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got a single coin in 1 second''' It's a start.
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/83/2_coins.PNG 2]-[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/05/4_coins.PNG 4 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got X coins in 3 seconds''' Not bad!
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fc/5_coins.PNG 5]-[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/30/9_coins.PNG 9 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got X coins in 12 seconds''' Terrific!
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/74/10_coins.PNG 10]-[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/55/16_coins.PNG 16 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got X coins in 10 seconds'''
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7e/17_coins.PNG 17 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got 17 coins in 15 seconds''' You found all the coins! Great job!
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bd/18_coins.PNG 18-41 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got X coins in 430 seconds'''
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1c/42_coins.PNG 42 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got 42 coins in 460 seconds''' No answers here.
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d8/45_coins.PNG 43-168 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got X coins in 460 seconds'''
|-
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f7/169_coins_fastest_way.PNG All 169 coins]
|style="background-color:black;"| '''You got 169 coins in 1457 seconds''' Are you Gandalf?
|}

*Once you leave the area you get a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/Return_to_the_play_area.PNG flashing warning message] in red letters at the bottom of the screen:
:{| class="wikitable"
|style="background-color:black;"| '''Return to the play area'''
|}
*This message flashes three times over 1.2 seconds (the message only disappears for about 150 ms each time)
*Then there is a pause for about 1.3 seconds and then this repeats for a total of 5 repetitions, a total of 15 flashes in just about 11.3 second seconds.
*The message will stop immediately if you re-enter the play area during this period.
*If you re-enter later it will flash once you leave again.
*For the program the play area is anything within and below the walls just outside the maze you start in.
**More precisely you first leave the play area if you pass over the middle part at the top of the walls
**Or if you make one jump from standing on top of the walls.

==Animation==
*There have before been several interactive comics and also a few with animations. But these animations have typically been something along the lines of flashing text or changing lights.
**This comic is the first with a character that is specifically changing position in animation style.
**Apart from this there are also flashing text when leaving the play-area and text that appears and disappears when handing in coins at the terminal as described above under [[#Messages in Play Area|Messages in Play Area]].
**This also happens with the text written to begin with explaining how to play the game: ''Use the arrow keys to move'' which disappears when touching the keys.
*Here are two images showing two kinds of animation of the hoverboard Cueball.
**The first image shows the eight standard animation that can easily be seen. They are
***Standing still facing right (starting position)
***Standing still facing left
***Moving left along flat ground (lifting arms)
***Moving right along flat ground (lifting arms)
***Jumping while facing left looking up with hoverboard pointing down
***Jumping while facing right looking up with hoverboard pointing down
***Falling while facing left looking down with hoverboard pointing up
***Falling while facing right looking down with hoverboard pointing up
[[File:1608 Hoverboard Cueball standard animation.png]]
*But there are several in between drawings of the hoverboard Cueball turning from left to right and even more from right to left.
**The second image shows eight in between animations (together with four from above)-
**Not all possible positions are necessarily caught in this collage here, but there is only a limited amount of them and none of them last for more than a split second.
**They have been sorted so it could look like Cueball has just turned to the right standing still, then jumping while turning right, then turning right while in jump, to finish the turn while falling.
**Image 2, 3, 5 and the last are the same used in the image of standard animations
[[File:1608 Hoverboard Cueball turning animation.png]]

==Whole Image==
[[File:1608 full tiny.png|none|frame|Whole Image zoomed very much out, without coins. The part visible at the beginning is marked red.]]
*See also a collection of different versions of [[1608: Hoverboard/The whole image|the whole image]]!

==Secret passages and hidden places==
There are many places where you can disappear behind black areas, as not all of these are solid. You might have discovered this yourself if you stayed in the play area, as the platform below the inverted parentheses is only solid at the edges. Some of these places out of the play area even hide secret passages or hidden rooms. You can reveal them by [https://explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1608:_Hoverboard#Cheats_and_Exploits activating goggles mode].

One notable hidden area is {{w|Elon Musk|Elon Musk's}} volcano lair, which is located beneath the lava in the crater of Mount Doom. It can be difficult to find your way in here without using goggles mode even if you know it is there. (For more details, see [[1608: Hoverboard/Images of secret passages|secret passages]].)

Another hidden place is the floating rock island that floats high above the {{w|Washington Monument}}, which is almost the highest point with solid ground. It is located just outside the left edge of the play area. This island is almost impossible to find by chance, as it takes around 30 seconds of repeatedly pressing the Up Arrow key to reach it from the top of the Monument. Even if you go up enough, you will almost miss it, as the Monument is not aligned to the island. (The [[#Viewers|maps]] can help you if you're having trouble finding it.)

As there are two coins on the floating rock island and four coins in the lair below the lava, it is very hard to find all the coins. There are even several coins that are hard to find because they just float in the air nowhere near any drawn things, or at least no things you can see before seeing the coin. They may hang in the air a few jumps above the ground, or in one case more than a seconds drop below the Destroyer. So getting all coins without help from a map would truly make you a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f7/169_coins_fastest_way.PNG Gandalf-like wizard]. (See more regarding [[#Coins|coins]] below.)

==Boundaries==
The larger game world is physically bounded in the left, right, and down directions, with invisible walls to each side and the ground preventing you from going any further down than the deepest depression or hidden caves. In the upward direction there is theoretically also an invisible wall, but while jumping, [[Cueball]] and his hoverboard will appear to continue upwards as long as you jump; in addition, the longer the up arrow is pressed repeatedly, the longer it will take for Cueball to fall down again once the button is released. So although there are no new things above, you can keep jumping as high as you like and will then fall proportionally longer to get back to where you started out. When the comic was first released, it could have been possible that there were some hidden unexplored parts. Shortly after it was posted, however, a [[#Viewers|map]] was created which covered the entire game.

To the far right is a platform at the top of a high pole. This platform turns out to be a nest (like a stork nest).

To the far left is a blond woman wearing her hair in a bun, looking right. She tells you about the Destroyer, should you have gone this way without finding it yet.
:Woman: In the sky, beyond the mountain, I saw a starship.

The highest straight rise into the air to something other than white is Rock Island, just left of and very high over the Washington monument. Standing on the large rock on top of the Island, you are standing almost as high up as possible. (The very top of the bridge on the Destroyer is just a tad higher.)There is a coin here one step next to the rock. This is the highest located coin in the game. Going over Rock Island's edge also represents the largest possible drop in the game.

As for the deepest parts of the image, the volcano lair and the deep well (halfway to the volcano on the left) are tied. The deepest part where you can stand, however, is in the ocean below the Destroyer where a rogue wave is talking to Cueball:
:Wave: I know rogue waves seem implausible, but we're a straightforward consequence of the equations of fluid dynamics.
:Cueball: ... But you can talk?
:Wave: The equations are really complicated.

Taking a route through all the extremes mentioned here-- the lowest, highest, leftmost and rightmost solid positions within the game-- can be done in about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

==All images==
*Coordinates for the images are given in (X, Y) coordinates with the starting point at [http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1074+s.png (1000, 1074)].
*In total there are 3440 images on xkcd that can be accessed via links of this format: http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1074+s.png [This link is for the (1000, 1074) starting point image.]
**'''Here is a page with a table of all the links to images: [[1608: Hoverboard/All image links|All image links]].'''
**'''Note:''' This is a large page which may take some time to load.
*The individual images are so small, and cut off at "random" so they do often go straight down through a person, and you can rarely see both a person and the (full) text belonging to them in the same image.
**See for instance this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a6/1037x1073y_Wedding.png wedding scene] to the right under the Destroyer, which only makes sense when these four images are put together (as they are in the link):
***[http://xkcd.com/1608/1037:-1073+s.png (1037, 1073)]
***[http://xkcd.com/1608/1037:-1074+s.png (1037, 1074)]
***[http://xkcd.com/1608/1038:-1073+s.png (1038, 1073)]
***[http://xkcd.com/1608/1038:-1074+s.png (1038, 1074)]
**It will thus not make sense to make a transcript of all individual images, but instead, only of a complete setting (or maybe a part of a setting.)
*Maximum possible number of images in the x-direction is 180.
**Going left will decrease X down to 928 (so 82 pictures left of the starting point in X-direction)
**Going right will increase X up to 1107 (so 107 pictures left of the starting point in X-direction)
*Total number of (possible) images in the y-direction is 44.
**Going down will decrease Y down to 1069 (so 5 pictures down from the starting point in Y-direction)
**Going up will increase Y up to 1112 (so 38 pictures up from the starting point in Y-direction)
***The "(possible)" is included because the number of possible active Y-images depends on the X-coordinate, as there are several non-existing images that are not just totally white (i.e. blank images), but which does not even have a number/or active link on xkcd.
***But the top active image over the floating island and over the top of the bridge section of the Destroyer all have Y coordinate 1112. There are only 20 active images at this Y-coordinate.
***The same by the way also goes for the x coordinate. Above X=1076 there are also many non existing images with not active link.
* All possible images are thus spread over a 180 x 44 grid, with a possible 7920 images. But 4480 of these images are non existing on xkcd, but you can travel through them in the game, as they are just shown as completely blank/white empty air in the game.
**If you try to load one of the completely blank images like [http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1077+s.png (1000, 1077)], three images above the starting point, you will get an error message. There are only 76 (vs 180) images at this Y-coordinate.
***Note there are several completely empty/white images that are active, but those can be loaded on xkcd like the one below the missing picture mentioned above: [http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1076+s.png (1000, 1076)].
**There are no blank images in completely black areas, like inside structures or under ground. And below Y = 1077 all 180 possible Y-images exist for all X-coordinates, from Y = 1069 to 1076.
***For instance the image below the starting point is completely black [http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1073+s.png (1000, 1073)], and so are the next three below.
***The bottom images at Y = 1069 has a white border at the bottom: [http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1069+s.png (1000, 1069)].
***All the images at Y = 1069 are the same except the one at the very right edge because at this edge there is also a white border to the right [http://xkcd.com/1608/1107:-1069+s.png (1107, 1069)] (this is not the case to the far left at [http://xkcd.com/1608/928:-1069+s.png (928, 1069)]).
***You will never see the images at Y = 1069 in the game. Actually you will neither see anything of the images with Y = 1070 or 1071. And there is nothing that is not completely black for Y = 1069 to 1072. First from Y = 1073 are there active images which includes white.
***This picture with the wave at [http://xkcd.com/1608/1022:-1073+s.png (1022, 1073)] gives the lowest point where the hoverboard Cueball can actually stand.
***Since you will sink into the water here, you are almost standing on the top of the Y = 1072 image: [http://xkcd.com/1608/1022:-1072+s.png (1022, 1072)], which is of course completely black.
***In places where you can stand in a low position on Y = 1073 images you will actually see some part of the images with Y = 1072, not that it makes any difference since they are all black.
*Here is a list of the places where there are most images at a given X coordinate:
**At X = 1078, right under the highest point of the Destroyers bridge [http://xkcd.com/1608/1078:-1112+s.png (1078, 1112)] there are 36 active images. Thus even here 8 images are missing between the bottom active image below the Destroyer and the first active near the ground level at Y=1076. (Y = 1077 to 1084 are missing).
**These missing Y coordinates are active in other places, for instance under the torpedo rain at X = 1020 where all Y images are active up until 1100 - 32 images. But since the last 12 images above this are missing it is still 4 less than under the bridge.
**Under the floating island, where there are active images at the top Y = 1112, like [http://xkcd.com/1608/990:-1112+s.png (990, 1112)], there is also the Washington monument below which goes high up, but still there are only 20 active Y images, as there are no active images between 1084 and 1109 (24 missing in between).
**Over the volcano's edges the highest images directly connecting to solid ground is found at Y = 1087. One image above this is also active making the height here going up to 1088, thus also making it 20 active Y images. The only '''not''' completely white image over the volcano at Y = 1088 is the one with the eagles [http://xkcd.com/1608/956:-1088+s.png (956, 1088)].

==Dimensions==
*It takes 1 minute 52 s to reach from the starting point to the left edge. While we do not have a definite speed for the hoverboard, we can obtain the dimensions of the map by using the Washington monument. Since it is referenced by name we can assume that the dimension is properly applied. In this case, the monument is 100 pixels tall (when viewed on my photo editor) and the actual monument is 555' meaning that 1 pixel= 5.55'. The whole map is 1920 pixels wide, for a length of 10,656' or 3247.9488m.

==List of details and references==
*On this page [[1608: Hoverboard/Images of individual scenes]], images covering all individual scenes (in full size and with coins) has been saved and uploaded to be used for reference in the [[#Table with references|table]] below from where they are linked directly.
**There are also several overviews in smaller resolution
**Almost all these images have been made using this [http://1101b.com/xkcd1608/ Fully zoomable map w/ toggleable coins and passages] which includes all of the game, zoom-able and with toggle-able passages and coins.
***Courtesy of [https://www.reddit.com/user/lanzaa lanzaa] on this [https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxbyn86 reddit thread]

===Explanation of the table===
*The contents of the comic are documented in the [[#Table with references|table]] below.
**It first goes through the entire image from left to right along the ground
***I.e. going up the volcano and down in the lair, down the well and up to the top of the Washington Monument. Only exception so far is that it here goes to the rocky island in the sky. Then it continues right along the ground, only following the wires up to the bottom of the Rebel Runner and then after going over the pyramid it ends up at the far right
**Then it goes back to the Rebel Runner, and after that follows the torpedoes up to the Star Destroyer-
**Finally it goes through the Star Destroyer from tip to rear in four sections, taking everything within each section top to bottom, before moving on to the next section.
**The table can be sorted on all columns, so the above is only valid until any sorting takes place.
*In the table are the following columns:
**Descriptions of the scene depicted in the overview links.
***If the scene is a zoomed out overview that covers the images below this scene's description has been written in '''bold text'''.
***This can be used as a guide to where in the image the scenes are located.
***That is, until any sorting begins.
**Transcript.
***Any text has only been transcribed once. If some scenes overlap, the text has only been written in the first or the one where the text is most central.
***Also any overview that has been zoomed out never has any transcript - these have been listed as (N/A)
***Scenes with no text has written (None) in the transcript.
***The use of parenthesis for those with no transcript makes it possible to sort on the transcript to get all the scenes with text to the top.
**Overview links.
***There can be more than one, even many, but the first will always be the overview.
***If there are secret passages or other situations where it will be interesting to see why the hoverboard can disappear beneath the surface (like in the ocean) then two versions of the images have been included.
***The second version is called ''Hidden passages in red'' as it has these passages changed to appear in red instead of black.
**Tile images on xkcd.
***For those images that are zoomed to 100% (i.e. not the zoomed out overviews) there is also a link to the defining image tile on xkcd.
***In cases where there are more than one interesting image tile in one scene (maybe because there is actually two or more distinct scenes), there can be one more link in the ''Other'' tile column.
**References.
***Three things are referenced many times, and each has their own column so the table can be sorted on these
****SW: Star Wars
****LOTR: The Lord of the Rings
****TE: Thing Explainer
***Other. There is also a column for "other" types of references so they can also be sorted, without drowning in the three recurring types of references.
****These have some further sorting by starting with Comics: or Movies: etc.
**Explanations is in the last column.
***So far lots of scenes still miss explanations, and some are not complete.
***Red text has been used to make this clear.
***If updating this and making a good enough explanation delete the red text.

===Table with references===
*See [[#Explanation of the table|explanation of the table]] above.
**Hint: Open the overview links in a new window and return to this one for the next image and for reading the text.
*Abbreviations:
**'''SW''': Star Wars
**'''LOTR''': The Lord of the Rings
**'''TE''': Thing Explainer
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!
!
!
! colspan="2"|Tiles (X, Y)
! colspan="4"|References
!
|-
! Description
! Transcript
! Overview links
! Defining
! Other
! S W
! L O T R
! T E
! Other
! Explanation
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|'''Everything Left of play area.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d4/1608_Everything_Left_of_play_area.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e4/1608_Everything_Left_of_play_area_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|Section of the image revealed when going left of the starting point.
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|Entire Volcano plateau.
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d5/1608_Entire_Volcano_plateau_zoom_out_extra.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3d/1608_Entire_Volcano_plateau_zoom_out_extra_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|About halfway from the Play Area to the volcanos slope, there is a steep plateau. This is the part left of this plateau.
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|Woman with white hair bun at the left end of world looking right.
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:Woman: In the sky,
:Woman: beyond the mountain,
:Woman: I saw a starship.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/63/1608_0928x1082y_At_the_end_of_all_things.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/928:-1082+s.png (928, 1082)]
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|Y
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|The woman at the left end of the world tells about the Star Destroyer in the right part of the world. There are four coins in front of her to anyone coming this far.
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|Coin and boulders.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/63/1608_0933x1083y_Coin_and_boulders.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/933:-1083+s.png (933, 1083)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/935:-1083+s.png (935, 1083)]
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|A single coin hangs in the air above the rocky ground with giant boulders.
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|'''Entire Volcano.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6a/Entire_Volcano_zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/01/1608_Entire_Volcano_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|Y
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|Comic: [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]]
|The comic released a week after this one is about a super volcano made in a science fair experiment. As can be seen there is a lair beneath the lava lake. The entrance is revealed by the other link that turns the hidden passages to red. It is for sure possible to get stuck in the lava lake, as everything becomes black in the game when going beneath the surface.
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|'''Left Volcano Top.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4e/1608_0943x1087y_Left_Volcano_Top_zoom_out.png Overview]
|Overview
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|A zoom out of the left rim of the volcanic crater.
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|Basketball on the volcano.
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:Ponytail: OK, as soon as it erupts, go for the dunk. Our sweet moves will be preserved for all eternity!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a4/1608_0936x1084y_Basketball_on_the_volcano.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/936:-1084+s.png (936, 1084)]
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|This is a reference to {{w|Pompeii}} a Roman town-city near modern Naples, which has become famous when it was discovered that it had been preserved in the ash when it was mostly destroyed and buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft.) of volcanic ash in the eruption of {{w|Mount Vesuvius}} in AD 79. When it was {{w|Pompeii#Rediscovery|found again}} it turned out that people had been surprised by the ash, and thus buried alive. During the excavation, plaster was used to fill in the voids in the ash layers that once held human bodies. This allowed one to see the exact position the person was in when they died. This is what Ponytail wishes for her and Megan, when the volcano they are standing on erupts, a rather morbid wish. She wants their sweet basketball moves to be preserved for eternity. In ''Playing Fields'' in TE basketball is mentioned. It is also played on top of the Destroyer close to the bridge. In this case the coin is on top of the basket, but too large to go into the hoop.
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|Old man walking up the volcano.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5d/1608_0937x1085y_Old_man_walking_up_the_volcano.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/937:-1085+s.png (937, 1085)]
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|Is it an old man who just walks up a mountain, or a young man using a walking stick? It makes quite a difference to how this scene is viewed.
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|Duck at the left crater top.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/41/1608_0940x1087y_Duck_at_the_left_crater_top.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/940:-1087+s.png (940, 1087)]
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|A duck is sitting at the top of the crater. There are several birds in this comic. Another duck looking the other way is found on top of the flag pole near the base of the Washington Monument.
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|Megan’s treasure hoard.
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:Megan: Gooooold!
:Megan: Goold!
:Bags: $ $
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/43/1608_0941x1084y_Megans_treassure_hoarde.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/941:-1084+s.png (941, 1084)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/941:-1083+s.png (941, 1083)]
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|In the side of the crater there is a small cave where Megan has found a treasury hoard and she is celebrating all the gold she has found, including two coins.
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|'''Entire Lava lake.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b1/1608_0946x1083y_Entire_Lava_lake_zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/09/1608_0946x1083y_Entire_Lava_lake_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f4/1608_0942x1081y_Lava_lake_left.png Zoom in left part] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/82/1608_0942x1081y_Lava_lake_left_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/02/1608_0943x1083y_Left_Lava_lake_zoom_out.png Entire left part] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1608_0943x1083y_Left_Lava_lake_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d6/1608_0946x1080y_Lava_lake_Upper_shaft_red.png Shaft in lake in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/94/1608_0947x1081y_Lava_lake_center.png Zoom in central part] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/25/1608_0947x1081y_Lava_lake_center_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f7/1608_0949x1083y_Right_Lava_lake_zoom_out.png Entire Right part] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/ba/1608_0949x1083y_Right_Lava_lake_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3f/1608_0944x1076y_Lava_lake_very_bottom_of_shaft_and_shaft_in_lair.png Shaft into lair below] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c0/1608_0944x1076y_Lava_lake_very_bottom_of_shaft_and_shaft_in_lair_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|These images only cover the part beneath the surface where there is actually still lava, as can be seen in the images where ''Hidden passages in red''. Only the top of the lair below is shown here. From the hidden passage it is here possible to see how to enter this lair. In the images that shows the hidden part the two loose boulders that float (or are outcrops) in the right part of the lake can be seen as well as the two other holes in the lava lakes floor, which all explain why it is easy to get stuck in the lake once you go below the surface and move around. Since everything is black, you do not even know if the game still works and many people may have given up, maybe reloading after not being able to get on with the game. There is no place in the lake where you can get really stuck, as long as you just push upwards while changing direction from left to right, you are bound to get out sooner or later.
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|Rock with Gandalf in Lava lake.
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:Megan: If you breathe out through you nose a little as you jump in, it can keep you from getting lava in you nasal passages.
:Cueball: Artex!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a5/1608_0944x1083y_Rock_with_Gandalf_in_Lava_lake.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fa/1608_0944x1083y_Rock_with_Gandalf_in_Lava_lake_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/944:-1083+s.png (944, 1083)]
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|Y
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|Film: {{w|The Neverending Story}}
|The wizard on the rock represents Gandalf from LOTR. What Megan tells Cueball works fine with water, not so much with lava. The horse Artax (pronounced Artex in the film) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y688upqmRXo drowns in the swamp of sadness] while Atreyu tries to save it and yells its name. Drowning in a swamp sucks, but doing so in lava will make death swifter. Both situations, however, indicate that you can actually go into the lava. If playing for the first time and becoming uncertain what would happen if the hoverboard touched the lava, the player might actually not even try to go into the lava, thus for certain would miss finding the lair beneath the lava.
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|Quadcopters over lava lake right.
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:Right quadcopter: Remember: There's no such thing as good volcano footage taken by a quadcopter that survived.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7c/1608_0950x1084y_Quadcopters_over_lava_lake_right.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b2/1608_0950x1084y_Quadcopters_over_lava_lake_right_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/950:-1084+s.png (950, 1084)]
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|Comics: [[1630: Quadcopter]] and in general those about [[:Category:Robots|Robots]] and [[:Category:Artificial Intelligence|AI]]
|The comic was released shortly after this one, and is about AI quadcopters that abduct Cueball. One of these {{w|quadcopters}} tells the other that no one will think much of their volcano footage if they actually survive. I.e. they have to get too close to the bubbling surface to survive before they actually obtain the footage wished for. It sounds like it tries to instill courage in them to perform this deadly task. There is a coin below the left copter. Drones has become a [[:Category:Drones|recurrent subject]] xkcd.
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|'''Entire Lava lair.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/69/1608_0946x1075y_Entire_Lava_lair_zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e0/1608_0946x1075y_Entire_Lava_lair_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|The three rooms of the volcanic lair (and the entrance haft in the image with hidden passages in red).
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|Trending on twitter cave in lair and Lava lake bottom shaft.
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:Cueball: What news of the world above? Please, tell me- what's hot and viral? ''What's trending on Twitter?!!''
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6e/1608_0944x1079y_Trending_on_twitter_cave_in_lair_and_Lava_lake_bottom_shaft.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2a/1608_0944x1079y_Trending_on_twitter_cave_in_lair_and_Lava_lake_bottom_shaft_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/944:-1079+s.png (944, 1079)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/945:-1079+s.png (945, 1079)]
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|Comics with [[:Category:Social networking|Social networking]]
|Cueball has been stuck below the lava for some times without access to the internet, and he now craves news from the world above. But it is not really news stories he craves but only the hot and viral videos and what is trending on {{w|Twitter}}. To be addicted to social networks and viral videos is probably a real infliction and it is a pain for Cueball to not be able to get on-line. Two coins are behind him.
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|Elon Musk’s cave in lair.
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:Left Cueball: I always assumed Elon Musk's volcano lair would be like... Tropical. And ...Well, ''pleasant''.
:Elon Musk in the high chair: Back to your desks, swine!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1608_0945x1074y_Elon_Musks_cave_in_lair.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/945:-1074+s.png (945, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/946:-1074+s.png (946, 1074)]
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|Comics with [[:Category:Comics featuring Elon Musk|Elon Musk]]
|It turns out that this is {{w|Elon Musk's}} lair. Having a secret lair with a hidden entrance is an often uses trope in films. Often it would be the villain (like in a {{w|James Bond}} film) that has such a place, but also heroes, like {{w|Batman}}, uses such hiding places. The joke here is that Cueball has assumed that Elon Musk, a very rich and enterprising man, that could be one of these megalomaniacs that might end up being a super villain, would have a bit more class over his secret lair. It also turns out that Elon sits in the cave and shouts at his workers to get back to work, even calling them names. There is also a coin here.
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|Ground symbol in lair.
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:Ponytail: So ''this'' is where it is.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2d/1608_0947x1073y_Antenna_cave_in_lair.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/947:-1073+s.png (947, 1073)]
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|The antenna looking item hanging from the ceiling is the embodiment of the {{w|Ground_%28electricity%29#Electronics|Earth ground symbol}} commonly used in circuit diagrams for electronics. So this is where the Earth is grounded in "real life" and finally Ponytail has found it. To protect themselves i their long search for this Ponytail and Megan seem to be wearing {{w|Antistatic_wrist_strap|antistatic wrist straps}}. This may also be a reference to the Circuit Diagram comic in which a ground is labeled as "bury deep, but not too deep"
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|'''Right Volcano Top'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/70/1608_0953x1087y_Right_Volcano_Top_zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b8/1608_0953x1087y_Right_Volcano_Top_zoom_out_extra.png Extra zoom out] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1608_0953x1087y_Right_Volcano_Top_zoom_out_extra_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|A zoom out of the right rim of the volcanic crater. In the extra zoom out the eagles can be seen as well, they are high enough to be missed entirely when moving along the crater surface.
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|Ring of power and lave floor at the right crater top.
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:Megan: One of these is probably a ring of power or whatever.
:Girl with hair bun: Let's play a game where the lava is the floor of a house.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/77/1608_0952x1087y_Ring_of_power_and_lave_floor_at_the_right_crater_top.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/952:-1087+s.png (952, 1087)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/953:-1087+s.png (953, 1087)]
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|Megan tells Cueball that one of the many rings she throws into the crater is probably a {{w|One Ring|''ring'' of power}}, a reference to [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXpF3SUFaDw the scene] from the {{w|The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King|last LOTR film}} where {{w|Frodo Baggins|Frodo}} fails and {{w|Gollum}} attacks inside the volcano {{w|Mount Doom}}, thus making it clear that the volcano in the game represents this volcano. From her last comment, ''or whatever'', it seems she doesn't care too much, which make it clear, from the LOTR universe, that neither of these rings in the one ring. It would not have be this easy throwing them into the lava if it had been. There seems to be 16 rings, which is less than the other rings that are ruled by the one ring, the 9 for the humans, the 7 for the dwarfs and the 3 for the elves (19 plus the one ring 20 rings in total).

The two girls are playing a dangerous game, the exact opposite of the normal version of the children’s game {{w|Hot lava (game)|Hot lava}}, where they pretend the floor in the house is made out of lava, and that you die if you touch it. However, in this version of the game they pretend to play that the lava is the floor in a house, and they may then just walk out into the lava pool, where they would die.
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|Megan sliding down slope on snow sleigh.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/15/1608_0956x1085y_Megan_sliding_down_slope_on_snow_sleigh.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/956:-1085+s.png (956, 1085)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/956:-1086+s.png (956, 1086)]
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|Megan is sliding fast down the crater side. She will hit a jump near the coin, and would probably fly a considerable distance given the speed she seems to have.
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|Eagles over right crater top.
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:Left eagle: Tolkien said Frodo left the cloak somewhere over here.
:Right eagle: Can't ''he'' just fix it?
:Left eagle: He doesn't want to rewrite that chapter.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cb/1608_0956x1088y_Eagles_over_right_crater_top.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/956:-1088+s.png (956, 1088)]
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|Frodo's mithril cloak was taken from him at Cirith Ungol, which, along with other items, was recovered by Gandalf and returned to him at Minas Tirith. Some readers have been confused by this turn of events however, due to it not being present in some versions of the movie adaptation. Two of the {{w|Eagle (Middle-earth)|great eagles}} from LOTR flies above the right crater top. In this situation the eagles are being used to find {{w|Frodo|Frodo's}} cloak, with one eagle complaining that "he", meaning {{w|J. R. R. Tolkien}} the author of LOTR, should just fix the issue without the eagles. This is a reference to the eagles use in LOTR as a {{w|Deus ex machina|deus ex machina}} and the [http://periannath.com/feature/why-doesnt-frodo-just-ride-an-eagle-to-mount-doom/ supposed plot hole] of the eagles not [http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Eagles#Flying_the_Ring_to_Mount_Doom flying the ring to mordor]. However, this was of course not possible before Sauron and his ringwraiths were defeated.
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|Ponytail racing down the steep slope on a bike.
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:Ponytail: 114 mph!
:Ponytail: Suck it, previous downhill volcano record-holder!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cd/1608_0958x1083y_Ponytail_racing_down_the_steep_slope_on_a_bike.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/958:-1083+s.png (958, 1083)]
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|Ponytail is trying to break the world record for downhill race on a bike on a volcano. The {{w|Cycling_records#History_of_downhill_records|record}} at the time of this comic was from 2002 and was 107 mph (172 km/h) easily beaten by the 114 mph (183 km/h) that Ponytail reaches as she mocks the previous record holder. There were two different records, one for prototype bike by {{w|Éric Barone}} (the 107 mph (172 km/h)) and one for serial production bicycle (102.5 mph (164.95 km/h) set in 2011 by {{w|Markus Stöckl}}). She beat them both and it looks like a very ordinary bike she rides. The all-time record for downhill racing is not using the ashy slopes on volcanos but from racing on snow, and here the record is not in danger from Ponytail as it is a staggering 138 mph (222 km/h) again with a lesser record for serial produced bikes of 130 mph (210 km/h). She will soon hit a rock outcrop so hopefully she has very good brakes...
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|Tell my wife why you left me there, and Megan and Cueball with a device
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:Right Cueball: If I don't make it back...
:Right Cueball: ...Tell my wife...
:Right Cueball: ...Where I am...
:Right Cueball: ...And why you left me there…
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/ce/1608_0960x1081y_Tell_my_wife_why_you_left_me_there.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/960:-1081+s.png (960, 1081)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/961:-1081+s.png (961, 1081)]
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|''If I don't make it back'' is a common [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IfIDoNotReturn trope] in films and books used when the speaker is about to make a noble sacrifice. The speaker will then usually tell the other to go tell his wife that he died bravely or that his friends should remember him. There is even a [https://vimeo.com/58319575 song] with the same title by {{w|Tracy Lawrence}}. In Cueball's case, both him and his companion are attempting to scale a dangerous mountain and neither are inclined to sacrifice their own lives for the other. Cueball appears to be struggling, climbing on all fours while his friend is standing. Subverting the trope, he attempts to guilt trip his friend into helping him.

Also here are Megan with some kind of device and Cueball on top of a large boulder. Maybe they are investigating the environment on the volcanic slope. Cueball has just discovered the coin hanging above them.
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|It becomes a V7 if the volcano erupts and Ponytail and Cueball on the slope
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:Megan: This is currently a V2, but it becomes a V7 if the volcano erupts.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1608_0962x1080y_It_becomes_a_V7_if_the_volcano_erupts.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/962:-1080+s.png (962, 1080)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/963:-1079+s.png (963, 1079)]
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|Megan and Cueball climb a very steep part of the mountain slope. In {{w|bouldering}}, the relative difficulty of a bouldering problem is graded using the {{w|Grade (bouldering)|V scale}}. She exclaims that at the moment the climb is only a V2, but if the volcano erupts this would increase to V7. The joke is that the shaking ground and the lava resulting from the eruption would obviously make it harder to complete the bouldering problem without getting killed. In reality, passing environmental conditions do not affect the grade that a bouldering problem receives.
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|Megan reading for children about Sauron’s ring.
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:Megan: ”The time has come” the Walrus said, and put on a Sauron's ring…
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/66/1608_0964x1078y_Megan_reading_for_children_about_Saurons_ring.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/964:-1078+s.png (964, 1078)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/964:-1079+s.png (964, 1079)]
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|Y
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|The line "”The time has come” the Walrus said, to talk of many things" is from the poem {{w|The Walrus and the Carpenter}} by {{w|Lewis Carroll}}'s book {{w|Through the Looking-Glass}}, the sequel to {{w|Alice's Adventures in Wonderland}}. {{w|Sauron}} is the main enemy in LOTR, the one who has made the ring, and now needs it to gain his powers back. In this mixed poem the second line is changed but follows the same rhyme scheme. But although ''rings'' would have rhymed with ''things'', it of course have to ''ring'' as the {{w|walrus}} can only put the {{w|One Ring|one ring of power}} on, while uttering the now much more ominous sounding phrase ''The time has come''. Megan is reading this poem/story at the base of the volcano Mount Doom where the ring was created and later destroyed. Like Frodo, Sauron is one of the characters from LOTR who is only mentioned, not shown, in the comic.
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|Vaping Earth.
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:Cueball: The Earth is vaping.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bd/1608_0969x1077y_Vaping_Earth.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/969:-1077+s.png (969, 1077)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/968:-1077+s.png (968, 1077)]
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|{{w|Vaping}} is a term used instead of smoking for the use of electronic cigarettes. There is even a game called the {{w|Vaping game}} for blowing extra large clouds of vapor out while using these substitutes for cigarettes. Cueball remarks that here it is the Earth that does so, due to the volcanic activity of the nearby volcano.
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|'''Left of play area to Kite.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a9/1608_Left_of_play_area_to_Kite.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/80/1608_Left_of_play_area_to_Kite_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|This is the area from below the volcano's slope and towards the play area. There are several hidden places and pools that can be seen in the second image link.
|-
|Kite and weird bug.
|
:Mom: Check out this one weird bug, discovered by a local mom.
:Girl: Oh my God, mom, stop saying everything like that.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a4/1608_0970x1077y_Kite_and_weird_bug_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/970:-1077+s.png (970, 1077)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/972:-1077+s.png (972, 1077)]
|
|
|Y
|Comic [[1614: Kites]] and in general the [[:Category:Kites|kite category]]. Also the [[:Category:Clickbait|Clickbait category]]
|The comic was released only two weeks after this game, and although it is clearly a girl in this comic, she looks like Megan who sets up the kite in the next comic. There is also a kite in ''Sky Toucher'' in TE and kites is a recurring theme in xkcd.

The mother that discovers the bug is [[Blondie]]. She talks like she is one of the {{w|clickbait}} headlines used for getting people to click in on the link generally aimed at generating online advertising revenue, which fits nicely with her recurring theme of as a news anchor. Her daughter is tired of this, especially as it seems like the mother speaks like that all the time. The girl may be embarrassed by this, especially if she is with a friend rather than a brother. Maybe the mother has been reading too many clickbait news on-line? As noted in the other references ''clickbait'' is a recurring theme in xkcd. The mother is near a small lake, so it is likely that there is plenty of insects and other bugs. It is possible to sink into the lake as can be seen in the second image with the hidden parts shown in red.
|-
|Space capsule with parachutes.
|
:Bird thinking: I don't remember laying these but ''wow'' they're already flying. Gonna be awesome when they hatch.

:Cueball: Yes! My phone has a signal.
:Voice from inside: How many new likes did we get during reentry?
:Cueball: I'm checking!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e2/1608_0976x1079y_Space_capsule_with_parachutes.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/976:-1079+s.png (976, 1079)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/976:-1080+s.png (976, 1080)]
|
|
|Y
|Comic : [[1133: Up Goer Five]]
|The book TE was based on the comic ''Up Goer Five'' which was about the rocket that took this space capsule to the moon. When it lands it uses three large parachutes to slow down after the main brake-down during reentry. On top of these sits a bird looking like a hen. It is a hen that can think, but it is still not very clever. It believes that this is three eggs, and is amazed that they are already flying before they hatch, which is of course ridiculous, but they do float in the air...

The astronauts inside (two at least, but there should be three if it was one of the moon landing missions) has just been waiting to get close enough to Earth again that they can get a signal on their smart phones. Cueball is even opening the hatch during descend to increase this chance, which would be highly dangerous. Also normally they would land in water (which will though not be the case this time). The reason he does this is that they wish to know how many more likes they (and their mission) has received during the reentry. This would have been relevant if the moon landings had taken place today. There where no social media or internet back in 1969. This is similar to the Cueball who is trapped in the lava lair without connection to Twitter.
|-
|Girl running to other girl and small forest.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/30/1608_0978x1077y_Girl_running_to_other_girl_and_small_forrest.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/978:-1077+s.png (978, 1077)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/976:-1077+s.png (976, 1077)]
|
|
|
|
|Just two young girls playing near a forest of low trees. But with the space capsule above the forest.
|-
|Entire well - zoom out.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2e/1608_0980x1075y_Entire_well_zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/06/1608_0980x1075y_Entire_well_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|Comics in the [[:Category:Well|Well series]].
|There are many similarities in this well to the well series. Someone is looking into a well that has the same general appearance and there is a person inside which turned out to be the case in [[568: Well 2]]. People throw coins into it and there is a coin at the bottom in the game (although above the water.)
|-
|Well top.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/70/1608_0980x1077y_Well_top.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/980:-1077+s.png (980, 1077)]
|
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|
|Cueball looks into the deep well.
|-
|Well bottom.
|
:Girl: I'm not a ghost. I just like wells.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/82/1608_0980x1073y_Well_bottom.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/aa/1608_0980x1073y_Well_bottom_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/980:-1073+s.png (980, 1073)]
|
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|At the bottom of the well in the water (see also the hidden passages image) is a girl. Above to the left of her is a coin. Maybe thrown in by Cueball at the top. Ghost living in wells is a common theme, for instance there is a Japanese movie {{w|Banchō Sarayashiki}} whose [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0202946/releaseinfo English title] is ''Ghost in the Well''. So this is why this real girl explains that she is actually not a ghost, she just like wells and thus likes to sit in the cold water at the bottom of wells. This could be very dangerous, and she will probably have a hard time getting up. It is also a very deep well, so falling into this well might very well be lethal. There are also many stories (in this case also real stories like the one about {{w|Jessica McClure}}) about kids that fall into wells, some of them surviving being stuck for several days in the wells. Also in movies this story is often used, for instance in {{w|Batman Begins}} the young Bruce Wayne falls down a dry well and is attacked by a swarm of bats, subsequently developing a fear of bats.
|-
|Entire gas station with birds above
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b3/1608_0982x1079y_Gas_station_with_birds_above_with_coin_on_string.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/83/1608_0982x1079y_Gas_station_with_birds_above_without_coin_on_string.png Without coin]
|Overview
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|The two birds with a coin between them flying above the gas station is way too high up, to be discovered when just moving normally over the gas station, even jumping once up from the highest spot. This is thus one of several coins that are easily missed. There are more explanation this scene where these two individual scenes are described.
|-
|Gas station with x-wing.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/44/1608_0982x1077y_Gas_station_with_x-wing.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/982:-1077+s.png (982, 1077)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/983:-1077+s.png (983, 1077)]
|Y
|
|
|
|Megan has managed to land her {{w|x-wing}} fighter from the rebel fleet in Star Wars right next to a standard gas station. And she has planned to fill her space ship up. That it could run on petrol for cars seems highly unlikely. The question is if she has already filled it up and is heading back with the handle to the gas stander, or if she has just discovered that the hose is not long enough to reach all the way under the wing to the fighter. It will have taken considerable skills to land this close to the station without hitting the cover over the stander. Ponytail is sitting in the shop with a coin. This is the first coin to be discovered when going left from the play-area. There is a long stretch without coins to begin with. The coins on the rock island in the sky it on this stretch, but so far above that most people would miss them altogether. There is also a coin with two birds straight above the right wing on the X-wing. But about three jumps up, so it is easy to miss. To get into the shop you need to go over the stander and back. Why Cueball have crawled up in the roof is not clear. But maybe he is enjoying the view over the cliff that is to the right of the station. There is a stop sign to the left, but there seems to be no road that way. Maybe that is why you should stop...
|-
|Birds with coin.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7e/1608_0982x1079y_Birds_with_coin.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9e/1608_0982x1079y_Birds_without_coin.png Without coin]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/982:-1079+s.png (982, 1079)]
|
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|
|Film: {{w|Monty Python and the Holy Grail}}
|In the film it is discussed if two swallows could carry a coconut between them on a string as the two birds do with the coin here. First when the coin has been taken, can the string between the birds be seen (see the other image). The birds are three jumps above the X-wing below, and this coin is thus easily missed by the players. In the film the horses are simulated with the sound of two coconuts shells being hit together. Someone asks how they happened to be in England and there is discussion about migratory birds like {{w|swallows}} and the possibility that they have brought the coconuts along with them. But the consensus is that they cannot do this by themselves the coconut being to heavy, but then it is suggested that two swallows could carry it on a string between them. Later in the film someone is seen actually tying two birds together to a coconut. In this comic, we now know how the coins have been transported through the image...
|-
|Our kingdom from a cliff.
|
:Cueball: Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
:Girl: What's with the shadowy place over there?
:Cueball: That is beyond our borders.
:Girl: No, I mean what object casts a shadow over a whole region?
:Cueball: Oh, that's god. He lives over there.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a0/1608_0986x1076y_Our_kingdom_from_a_cliff.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/986:-1076+s.png (986, 1076)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/986:-1075+s.png (986, 1075)]
|
|
|
|Film: {{w|The Lion King}} and comic: [[1504: Opportunity]] as well as [[:Category:The Lion King|The Lion King category]]
|Cueballs lines is from The Lion King and has been used directly before in the comic Opportunity. Randall has made several references to the film in xkcd, and it is obvious that he was very affected by this film that came out when he was just the right age.

Cueball is talking to a child version of Ponytail, whose mother may be the one climbing up the cliff side below. The first three lines of the quote goes as in the film, but then it turns out that the girl is properly referring to the Star Destroyer that would be clearly visible from this cliff as it covers almost the entire right part of this world from just beyond the play-area. (They do not look high enough to see the rock island in the sky, and it would also not cast shadow over an entire region.) As it is not certain players coming here have already been to the right to see the Destroyer it is not necessarily clear that the reply from Cueball should apply to the Destroyer. But if it does then it would be the Emperor Palpatine that he reefers to as God. The emperor is on board the Destroyer near the bridge at the very top rear end of the space ship and has God like powers. It could however also just be a general reference to the {{w|God}} and thus be inferred as if God cast a shadow over an entire region (country). Maybe just in general as if he has a place in the sky that cast a shadow (like sitting on a cloud). Alternatively it could be the people who believe too much in any God, that can be viewed as living under a shadow, as they will not try to see any reality if it does not fit with their religious beliefs.
|-
|Hamster ball bowling.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/53/1608_0987x1075y_Hamsterball_bowling.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/987:-1075+s.png (987, 1075)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/989:-1074+s.png (989, 1074)]
|
|
|Y
|Comics: [[:Category:Hamster Ball|Hamster Ball category]]
|There have been several xkcd comics with human sized hamster balls, and there is even one more in this comic up in the Destroyer. In this scene it is two young girls that use the hamster ball as a bowling ball in a human sized {{w|ten pin bowling}} game. Hopefully the little girl with the hair bun behind the pins get away in time if it is a strike. It is the first time hamster ball and bowling has been matched, but in TE there are bowling alleys both on the ship ''The USS Laws of the Land'' and on the suspension of the longest bridge in ''Tall roads'' and such an alley is also used for measuring length in ''How to count things''. One of the many large trees that are found in the drawing is standing alone in this scene. Most other places there are more than one tree together.
|-
|If loving you is wrong I don’t want to and Beret Guy following insects
|
:Cueball: If loving you is wrong, I don't want to.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4f/1608_0990x1074y_If_loving_you_is_wrong_I_dont_want_to.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/990:-1074+s.png (990, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/991:-1074+s.png (991, 1074)]
|
|
|
|Song (or quote): {{w|(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right}}
|A reference to either the [http://krexy.com/if-loving-you-is-wrong general love quote] or maybe more likely to the song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvJj7SN9EWI performed most notably] by {{w|Luther Ingram}}. Recently (2014), there has also been a TV series produced called {{w|If Loving You Is Wrong (TV series)|If Loving You Is Wrong}}.

The quote is very romantic, because the speaker is stating that if it is wrong to love a specific person, the speaker chooses to be in love and does not wish to be right. However, Cueball twist the quote quite a lot, saying instead that if it is wrong to love Ponytail then he does not want to love her at all - taking all romance out of the statement.

Also in this scene is one of only two instances where Beret Guy appears. Typical of his past appearances, he seems to be occupied by following a small flying insect through the tall grass.
|-
|'''Entire Washington monument'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/1608_0995x1079y_Entire_Washington_monument_extra_zoom_out.png Overview]
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_0995x1079y_Entire_Washington_monument_extra_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7a/1608_0995x1078y_Middle_of_Washington_monument_zoom_out.png Central hidden passage] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6d/1608_0995x1078y_Middle_of_Washington_monument_zoom_out_red.png Hidden passages in red]

|Overview
|
|
|
|
|Comic: [[1600: MarketWatch]]
|The tallest man made structure on the ground in this game is the {{w|Washington Monument}} which recently before the release of this comic was refereed to in the mentioned comic. As can be seen in the hidden passages images there are two secret passages, one at the bottom (see this scene for more) and one in the middle of the monument. The one in the central part of the monument is actually quite large, and as can be seen in the images zooming in on the central part there is also a fault line in the monument at the base of this hidden passage. But it doesn't really lead to anywhere interesting. The fault line could be a reference to the {{w|Washington_Monument#2011_earthquake_damage|earthquake damage}} from 2011 where several stones cracked.
|-
|Base of Washington monument with Cueball and Megan
|
:Cueball: Honestly, it doesn't even look that much like Washington.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/dc/1608_0994x1074y_Base_of_Washington_monument.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/16/1608_0994x1074y_Base_of_Washington_monument_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/994:-1074+s.png (994, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/995:-1074+s.png (995, 1074)]
|
|
|
|
|At the base of the Washington Monument Megan and Cueball is looking up at it, and Cueball complains that it doesn't even look like {{w|Washington, D.C.|Washington}}. By "Washington" he could be referring to the city of Washington DC or to the real Washington monument, but he is probably referring to the first US President George Washington, since monuments often depict (look like) the person they are dedicated to but the real Washington monument is not meant to look like Washington himself. Cueball seems to have expected all presidential monuments to include a statue of the honored president and is confused and disappointed when the monument fails to meet his expectations. Of course since this is the only Washington based building in the game it is true that the place doesn't look like the city. If he refers to the monument then it can be questioned if this is because the monument is not an exact replica (in proportions and/or scale). In any case it is clearly meant as an indicator that this is supposed to look like the monument, and with the tips apex being made of aluminum (see that scene) as on the real monument, there can be no doubt what is referenced. It is possible to get to the left side of the monument without going up to see the tip, if the player immediately understands the sign with the white arrow that points to a hidden passage through the base of the monument, as can be seen in the second image with the hidden passages shown in red.

To the left of the monument there is a flag pole with a blown out flag. It is all black, but it should be the {{w|Flag of the United States|the Stars and Stripes}} as there are fifty flag poles with the US flag (one for each [[1653: United States Map|state]]) surrounding the monument in a circle. On top of the pole there sits a duck looking left. Towards the end of the world to the left on top of the left volcanic rim there also sits a similar duck looking right.
|-
|Tip of Washington monument with Cueball and White Hat
|
:Cueball: Look at that- Solid aluminum!
:Cueball: We´re gonna be rich!
:White Hat: Uh, what the heck is ''that?!''
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6f/1608_0995x1083y_Tip_of_Washington_monument.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/995:-1083+s.png (995, 1083)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/995:-1084+s.png (995, 1084)]
|
|
|
|
|The tip of the monument is actually {{w|Washington_Monument#Aluminum_apex|made of solid aluminum}} and at the time this {{w|aluminum}} apex was installed it was a rare metal as valuable as {{w|silver}}, but today it is maybe about 1/300 as valuable as silver. So Cueball and White Hat will not become rich based on the metal value. Of course if they did steal the tip of such a famous monument, they might actually be able to sell it to a scrupulous collector at a value comparable to if was just a lump of silver of that weight.

White Hat looking over his shoulder spots the Star Destroyer and thus help guide a player that has started going left towards the Destroyer to the right. How they have managed the climb, getting the ropes over the tip, or how Cueball intends to get down with the tip is left to the readers imagination...
|-
|'''Entire floating rock island.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5c/1608_0994x1110y_Entire_floating_rock_island_zoom_out.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|Film: {{w|Avatar (2009 film)|Avatar}}
|This floating rock island may be a reference to the film Avatar where floating rocks is part of the scenery of the fictive moon {{w|Fictional_universe_of_Avatar#Astronomy_and_geology|Pandora}}. The rock in the game is very hard to find by chance, it is kind of unobtainable, which may be a further reference to the film since the reason the rocks do float is a combination of a weak gravity, a strong magnetic field and a mineral whose {{w|Superconductivity|superconductive properties}} allow it to float in magnetic fields. Of course the levitating Hallelujah Mountains in the film contain significant quantities of the mineral which is called {{w|Unobtanium}}. Only thing pointing towards it is the Washington Monument and even if you go up from there, pushing the up arrow continuously for more than half a minute you may almost miss it, as only the far right girl would move through the view. And with two coins around this island it is important to find it in order to get all coins. Apart from the coins and the surprise there is little of interest here, and not even any spoken text.

To the right just beneath the rear end of the Destroyer there is a small lump of earth that has floated up from the ground, hovering over the corresponding hole in the ground. Maybe this is caused by the same force that have created this floating island.
|-
|Top left of floating rock island with coin.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f5/1608_0989x1112y_Top_of_floating_rock_island_with_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/990:-1112+s.png (990, 1112)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/990:-1111+s.png (990, 1111)]
|
|
|
|
|The large rock on top of the floating island is one of only two places where there is anything at a coordinate of Y=1112. On top of the globe of Death over the bridge of the destroyer, there are three images at the top of this that enters 1112. And there [http://xkcd.com/1608/1078:-1112+s.png the very top] is just slightly higher up. But there is no coin there, so the coin that would be in the tile used for main reference here that holds the coin is the highest location for any coin in the game, as the Globe of Death has its coin in its center below the top.
|-
|Top right of floating rock island with base jumpers.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/92/1608_0993x1112y_Top_of_floating_rock_island_with_base_jumpers.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/994:-1111+s.png (994, 1111)]
|
|
|
|Y
|
|In ''Sky Toucher'' in TE two people jump of a cloud, like the base jumpers Megan and Ponytail does here from the floating rock, but at least these two girls do have parachutes on (as opposed to the cloud jumpers in TE). How they got here is a good question, but of course they could have flown here in for instance the X-wing from below at the gas station.
|-
|Bottom of floating rock island with coin.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e1/1608_0992x1109y_Bottom_middle_of_floating_rock_island_with_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/992:-1109+s.png (992, 1109)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/993:-1109+s.png (993, 1109)]
|
|
|
|
|At the bottom of the island several small and large boulders can be seen hanging only loosely on to the bottom. At the center the largest rock can be seen, but even this is slipping a little as can be seen by the small white speck high over the very bottom of this boulder. Right of this is the other coin that belongs to this hidden place in the sky.
|-
|'''Entire Play Area - zoom out.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7b/1608_1001x1074y_Entire_Play_Area_Zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/8b/1680_Play_Area_Full_Size_Coins_Hoverboard_and_View.png With starting view]
|Overview
|
|
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|
|
|The entire play area with the walls and their outer foundation. See also the insert with the starting view shown in red in the second image link and see more about the buildup of scenes from the individual image tiles using the [[#Play Area used as example|play area down below]]. It is easy to see how a player of the game, with no knowledge of Randall's way of thinking, may not even think about exploring outside this area, even if they do try to go outside the maze. Because it is possible to jump around in the maze without discovering that you can actually fly rather than just jump. If you only jump once you cannot see the too op the walls. On top of this there is the large [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/Return_to_the_play_area.PNG red warning letters] telling you to go back if you try to leave the confines of the wall.
|-
|The Play Area.
|
:My new book,
:''Thing Explainer,''
:comes out today!
:To celebrate, here's
:a small game.

:Deposit coins here
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6c/1608_1000x1074y_The_Play_Area.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/30/1608_1000x1074y_The_Play_Area_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1074+s.png (1000, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1075+s.png (1000, 1075)]
|
|
|Y
|
|This is the starting area where the game begins. There is even some extra text telling you to ''Use arrow keys to move'' but as soon as you do, this text disappears, just like the [[#Messages in Play Area|message you can receive]] below in the view depending on your action in this area. The text below the starting point of the hoverboard Cueball that you control, explains that the game is released on this day to celebrate the release of Randall's new book [[Thing Explainer]] and thus directly references the book. And also explains why this comic has been made, and furthermore why it was released on a Tuesday rather than the usual Wednesday release, which was then skipped this week. It also explains that if you collect coins you can deposit them at the terminal, and when you do it list the score (number of coins and the time used) and rates your achievement. By noting that [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7e/17_coins.PNG you got all the coins] if you collect all 17 coins in the play area maze, then it is one more trick to try to make you stay inside the walls of the maze. There is only one small feature that can be spotted from within the maze that breaks the symmetry and may give away the clue of the game. And that is the small stone that lies on the ground to the left. Because why should it be there, if this was just a platform/maze game. The walls cannot be seen if you stay in or just around the outer wall of the maze. But if you go to them you may think this is the end. Another detail about the game to be learned already here is that there can be "solid" black parts of the surroundings which are not solid at all. This can be seen in the image showing the hidden passages in red. Here it can be seen that the ledge beneath the two inverted parenthesis " )( " is not solid, and that you can fall or jump up through this section. This could forewarn you of the hidden passages, especially to the lair beneath the volcano which are the only real hidden place based on hidden passages, but also for those in the Washington Monument and in the cotton trap in the Destroyer and the glitch floor also on the Destroyer.
|-
|'''Everything Right of Washington monument.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/66/1608_Everything_Right_of_washington_monument.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
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|
|Most of the details in the image is found to the right of the play-area, mainly in the form of the rooms in the Destroyer. On the ground only a few artifacts are large enough to be seen in this zoomed out version. The three T's and the forest, and then of course the pyramid. Interestingly enough there are almost more to be seen inside the Destroyer with the two large rooms (the cave and the Glitch floor room) both being large enough to [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bf/1608_Entire_Cave_With_entire_pyramid_for_scale.png accommodate the entire pyramid].
|-
|Cueball outside play area.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c0/1608_1004x1074y_Cueball_outside_play_area.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1004:-1074+s.png (1004, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1003:-1074+s.png (1003, 1074)]
|
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|Typically reading direction would lead a player to this location first after escaping the play area. Is this is indeed the case then the grass and after that Cueball is the first hint that something more is going to happen in this game. Apart from the Cueball standing inside the play area, this is the closest person to the play area. He is just standing there doing nothing, so it is still not clear how big this is going to be.
|-
|Megan points at Runner after forest.
|
:Megan: Wow.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/53/1608_1008x1074y_Megan_points_at_Runner_after_forest.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1008:-1074+s.png (1008, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1006:-1074+s.png (1006, 1074)]
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|The small forest with two large trees and several small ones is the first really interesting to show up if exiting the play area to the right for the first time and finally a person actually speaking shows up (although Cueball at the base of the Washington Monument to the right would be closer). Megan is not saying much, but she is clearly reacting to something. It could be to one or both the space ships above her. Since the Destroyer is already on top of her, as the front end of that ship is just short of being above the right wall of the play area, then it could also be the Rebel Runner she is pointing out. No matter what, following her arm going up and right it is likely that the runner will enter the view, but it is possible to miss it, in which case there would be a long way up to the Destroyer. Megan and Cueball is standing on the edge of a cliff, offering them an excellent view. Stepping down on the plateau below the cliff takes the player close to the lowest possible level to be at in the game. There are no tiles with any white below that level (1073). But the lowest point is first in the Ocean.
|-
|Cliff with rock and cactus.
|
:(None, or rather the text has been written in the previous scene)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f2/1608_1010x1073y_Cliff_with_rock_and_cactus.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c4/1608_1010x1073y_Cliff_with_rock_and_cactus_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1010:-1073+s.png (1010, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1008:-1073+s.png (1008, 1073)]
|
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|After the grassy ground and the forest above the cliff to the left this marks the beginning of a long stretch of barren land ending in a dessert before reaching the ocean. Here a cactus and two large boulders display this inhospitable terrain. It seems like something is sitting on top of the smaller boulder, this could be a lizard, but it is too small to be certain. But that it is not part of the rock can be seen in the other image showing the parts of the image that you can walk through in red. And this small "lizard" is obviously sitting on top of the boulder.
|-
|Entire wires from ground to Runner.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/76/1608_1014x1076y_Entire_wires_from_ground_to_Runner.png Overview]
|Overview
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|Here is the first direct link from the ground to the Destroyer. This specific link takes the player from the ground level up along one of the three wires to the bottom of the hull of the Rebel Runner. If you went straight for the runner without going further right, the first coin you would find to the right would be one of the three at the runner. Else the first coin to the right (along the ground) would be in the dunes before Ponytail to the right.As can be seen the three wires are held by people and are then attached with anchors to the hull. Megan is climbing up the last of the three wires. See more in the specific scenes.
|-
|Three wires and people holding on on the ground
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c9/1608_1013x1073y_Three_wires_and_people_holding_on.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1013:-1073+s.png (1013, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1011:-1073+s.png (1011, 1073)]
|
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|Three pairs of people are trying to hold on the three wires going straight up. Cueball and Megan holds on leaning left on the left wire, another Cueball and Hairy hold on to each side of the middle wire and finally yet a Cueball holds on to the last, while a small girl with a hair bun steps on the end of the wire, like she would be able to walk it like a tightrope. This should not be physically possible as the ropes do not seem to be attached to the ground, at least not the one to the left. But there can be no doubt that the drawing shows her standing with both feet on the rope. She is thus not helping Cueball. From here it is not yet known to the player that it is the Rebel Runner they have caught (with anchors) above, but when this becomes clear it will also be clear that they have no chance of holding on to the space ship. But here it seems they are doing a great job. The ground is barren between these wires and a {{w|tumbleweed}} is blowing along to make this even more clear. This part of a plant was also mentioned in a toast in [[1645: Toasts]].
|-
|Three wires Megan hanging on that reaches up to three anchors in the bottom hull of the Runner.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/58/1608_1014x1078y_Three_wires_and_reaching_up_to_anchors_in_Runner.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1015:-1076+s.png (1015, 1076)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1014:-1078+s.png (1014, 1078)]
|
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|Y
|
|Megan tries to climb up the last of the wires going from the ground, and it turns out that it leads up to the bottom of the hull of the Rebel Runner. Not to a really good spot in her wires case, as there seems to be nothing to help her get inside the runner from there. The other two wires comes up to a cannon close to an entrance, where Cueball is fishing birds with a crumb of bread or a cracker on the end of the hook. (The bird fishing scene is also depicted when going through the Runner [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png down below]). All three wires ends in anchors that are here used the reverse way of a normal anchor, with the anchor attached to the ship instead of to the bottom of the sea (or at least the ground below an air ship). In ''Red world space car'' in TE, Megan is also seen hanging on to a rope like this.
|-
|Ponytail in the dunes - zoom out.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/33/1608_1015x1073y_Ponytail_in_the_dunes_zoom_out.png Overview]
|Overview
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|Y
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|
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|Ponytail is standing in the dunes of the desert that continues after the barren landscape to the left of the desert. Here a zoom out of the entire desert with the first three coins along the ground to the right. The Rebel Runner flying above this dune landscape is a reference to the desert planet {{w|Tatooine}} where the opening scene is taking place.
|-
|Ponytail in the dunes.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c4/1608_1015x1073y_Ponytail_in_the_dunes.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1015:-1073+s.png (1015, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1016:-1073+s.png (1016, 1073)]
|
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|Ponytail is standing in the desert on top of a small dune, as these get increasingly higher further right into the desert. The coin to the left of her at the tip of a dune is the first along the ground when going right. It is soon followed by a second one at the base of the largest dune in desert.
|-
|The largest dune.
|
:(None - the text is written in the scene centered on the ocean)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0a/1608_1017x1073y_The_largest_dune.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1017:-1073+s.png (1017, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1018:-1073+s.png (1018, 1073)]
|
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|The largest dune in the desert, also shown partly in the scene with Ponytail, also has a coin at the other base. After this there is only one smaller dune and then the desert stops at the shore of a small sea or ocean.
|-
|Entire ocean.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0e/1608_1022x1073y_Entire_ocean.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0c/1608_1022x1073y_Entire_ocean_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|The sea/ocean consist of a rather large body of water with a tall wave in the center. It is quite deep as can be seen in the other image with the water shown in red. Where the sea is deepest, is also the point that is the lowest hoverboard Cueball can get in the entire image. It is the closest that anything other than completely black comes to the level with Y=1072.
|-
|Megan rates the Sea.
|
:Megan: This is an OK sea.
:Megan:★★⯪☆☆
:[a rating of 2.5 stars].
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/99/1608_1019x1073y_Megan_rates_the_Sea.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c8/1608_1019x1073y_Megan_rates_the_Sea_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1019:-1073+s.png (1019, 1073)]
|
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|It is very unusually to rate a sea, like you would a film or book, or a restaurant or museum. But today it is also common to rate anything you have used on-line like an internet shop or a company you have used. So this may be a jab at all the people that rate everything in stars. According to [[1098: Star Ratings]] 2½ stars as an online star ratings means that the sea is a crap sea, so this indicates that Megan's rating should not be viewed as such, since she also exclaims that it is an OK sea, as in a acceptable. All in all another joke about online behavior, like the reference to Twitter and likes in the volcanic lair and the space shuttle respectively.
|-
|Rouge wave.
|
:Wave: I know rogue waves seem implausible, but we're a straightforward consequence of the equations of fluid dynamics.
:Cueball: ...But you can talk?
:Wave: The equations are really complicated.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/11/1608_1022x1073y_Rouge_wave.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bf/1608_1022x1073y_Rouge_wave_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1022:-1073+s.png (1022, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1023:-1073+s.png (1023, 1073)]
|
|
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|Comic: [[1315: Questions for God]]
|{{w|Fluid dynamics}} is a complex subdiscipline of {{w|fluid mechanics}} that deals with fluid flow. Although it is not their main target they can also be used for {{w|surface waves}} which would be like the {{w|rogue wave}} in this scene. This kind of waves is also known as freak waves, monster waves etc. They are large and spontaneous surface waves that occur far out in open water, and can be extremely dangerous. But as the wave describes to Cueball these big waves can be predicted from the equations in fluid dynamics. Of course Cueball is less afraid of the wave (even though it is {{w|Rogue (vagrant)|rouge}}), than he is fascinated by the fact that it speaks. The wave just replies that the equations are really complicated. That this is the case was for instance part of [[1315: Questions for God]] where a famous quote regarding turbulent motion of fluids is mentioned. {{w|Turbulence}} is also described by fluid dynamics, so they are part of the equations and the {{w|Horace_Lamb#Career| quote}} by {{w|Horace Lamb}} was: "I am an old man now, and when I die and go to heaven there are two matters on which I hope for enlightenment. One is {{w|quantum electrodynamics}}, and the other is the turbulent motion of fluids. And about the former I am rather optimistic." He turned out to be correct as nowadays we have a much clearer understanding of QED, while our understanding of turbulence has improved little. {{w|Richard Feynman}}, who was himself largely responsible for explaining QED, famously {{w|Turbulence|described turbulence}} as "the most important unsolved problem of classical physics". So who knows if these formulas could describe a talking wave? A coin crowns the wave.
|-
|Ruins with Cueball singing of Spiders and Panama.
|
:Cueball singing:
::Spider-man
:::Spider-plan
::Spider-canal
:::Spider-Panama
::Gates let in
:::Spider boats
::Flood the locks
:::Spiders float
::''Look out!''
::Spiders in both oceans.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0d/1608_1026x1073y_Ruins_with_Cueball_singing_of_Spiders_and_Panama.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1026:-1073+s.png (1026, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1027:-1073+s.png (1027, 1073)]
|
|
|
|Comic: [[1632: Palindrome]] and the [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders category]]
|The palindrome comic was released shortly after this and used a palindrome about the {{w|Panama canal}} which is the first four lines with ''Spider-'' changed with "A" the first three times and then with nothing before Panama as in ''"A Man, A Plan, A Canal: Panama''. The song is inspired by the {{w|Spider-Man (theme song)|Spider-Man theme song}} (see this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUtziaZlDeE video]), but takes it in a rather different direction. Spiders have been a recurring theme and as the rest of the song tells that the spiders have now breached through the Panama canal using spider-boats and by flooding the gates (in the canal) so now there are spiders in both oceans. If they came from the {{w|Atlantic ocean}} to the {{w|Pacific ocean}} or the other way around is not clear, but there are now spiders on both sides of the {{w|Central America|Central American}} strip of land. If the line ''Spiders float'' refer to actually floating spiders or just because they float on their boat is unclear. But we are forewarned about these spreading spiders with a '''''Look out!''''' (another lyric from the Spider-Man theme song). This threat continues the theme of the [[:Category:Red Spiders|Red Spiders]] especially those from [[126: Red Spiders Cometh]].

There is a coin inside the ruin beneath Cueball who sits on top of the ruin and both sings the song and plays the guitar. Megan just stands inside the ruin at ground level and listens. It is not difficult to get to the coin, but there is only entrance into the little coin room between the ledge under Cueball and the ceiling of the lower room. But it is possible to walk directly in their from the left. Maybe the ruin is in this state of affair because the spiders have crossed the ocean just to the left, the shore of this can be seen at the edge of the scene. But there is no indication of any spiders anywhere else in the comic, in spite of the many animals throughout the comic.
|-
|Ponytail flying.
|
:Ponytails arms: Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap Flap
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3b/1608_1029x1073y_Ponytail_flying.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1029:-1073+s.png (1029, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1030:-1073+s.png (1030, 1073)]
|
|
|
|
|Ponytail manages to fly by just flapping her arms violently, a feat that is of course not possible. It keeps he above the coin on the ground, so the player can get to it first... In the Destroyer another Ponytail seems to be [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/76/1608_1053x1091y_Ponytail_flying_up_a_shaft_towards_a_coin.png flying straight up in a shaft] towards a coin this time without using her arms as wings. So her flying is a small theme in the game. (It is not close to being directly above the Ponytail on the ground as the Ponytail in the Destroyer is just past the pyramid on the ground).
|-
|Entire forest - zoom out.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3a/1608_1032x1074y_Entire_forest_zoom_out.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
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|
|This is the largest collection of such tall trees, and if all smaller trees are counted probably also the largest collection of trees in general. In the left part of the world there is a scene with lots of trees, but they are all smaller than even the two medium-sized trees besides the five really large. the last tree to the right somehow belongs more to the wedding scene just right of it, but there are smaller trees all the way up to it, making it part of this forest. Drawing trees like this is often used in xkcd and in particularly also allot in ''click and drag''.
|-
|Left part of forest.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/56/1608_1032x1074y_Left_part_of_forest.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1032:-1074+s.png (1032, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1033:-1074+s.png (1033, 1074)]
|
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|The left part of the forest has the largest trees and also the two coins, one in the fork of the first big trees and another some way above the first substantial tree to the left. It is just high enough that it will be missed by just sliding along the ground, and even when jumping to get the other coin it will still not necessarily enter into the viewing frame, so it can be considered one of the slightly hidden coins in the game.
|-
|Right part of forest.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/37/1608_1034x1073y_Right_part_of_forest.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1034:-1073+s.png (1034, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1035:-1073+s.png (1035, 1073)]
|
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|The right part of the forest has the last two trees in the clump of four large ones, and then small to tiny trees continue the "forest" until the final tree, just beyond which the wedding takes place, and this tree also seems to be part of that scene.
|-
|Wedding and picnic.
|
:Priest: And if any here can give cause why these two should not be wed,
:Priest: The Great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c9/1608_1038x1073y_Wedding_and_picnic.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1038:-1073+s.png (1038, 1073)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1040:-1074+s.png (1040, 1074)]
|Y
|
|
|
|Megan, in a black wedding dress, and Cueball, with a tie, is married by a female priest in front of a crowd of five sitting in chairs in front of them. In the crowd there are yet another Cueball, Hairy and Ponytail, but the last two are not the familiar versions in xkcd: one has a cap on backwards and then a person (M/W?) with black. Just before a {{w|wedding}} it is sometimes customary to ask if any in the crowd could give a cause why these two people should not be wed. What is not customary is to threaten those who do have any objections that they would then have to plead these in front of the great gangster boss from Star Wars, {{w|Jabba the Hutt}}. In case he has condoned this wedding, you may end up pleading for him to kill you mercifully if you did object anyway. The normal form of the priest's question goes more [http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/marriage.pdf like this]: "If any of you can show just cause why they may not lawfully be married, speak now; or else for ever hold your peace." (See the top of page 4 of the pdf file in the link (page 424) and a discussion about this sentences use [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=635317 in real life]).

Beyond the wedding, another Megan is sitting on a large boulder facing the wedding, and behind her a third Cueball is having a picnic with a second Ponytail. The question here is if Megan looks at the wedding or turns her back to the picnic. Depending if the player went right along the ground to begins with and saw the wedding first or went through the Destroyer and came back the other way and saw the picnic first the players preconceptions on this questions may be completely different. In either case it still looks like Megan would have liked to be with Cueball (either the one in the tie or the one at the picnic. Of course with characters drawn "randomly" in many places she may bot even belong to either scene. Standing on the rock with Megan hoverboard Cueball cannot see either of the scenes, but standing between Megan and either scene, she can be seen together with either of the relevant Cueball and another girl. In the first case with the wedding, she might have wished she had the courage to speak up in spite of the Jabba threat. In the other case she may feel rejected by the happy picnic couple and has turned her back to them. Poor Megan. Ponytail and Cueball seems to enjoy their picnic lunch in the open air though.
|-
|Cemetery.
|
:Megan: They're inscribed with our family motto, ”Cur ego committitur dictar latinae,” which means ”Why did I just start speaking Latin?”
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7b/1608_1042x1074y_Cemetary.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1042:-1074+s.png (1042, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1043:-1074+s.png (1043, 1074)]
|
|
|
|
|It is so common to have your motto translated in to the dead language {{w|Latin}} that there even is an entire category for {{w|Category:Latin mottos|Latin mottos}} on Wikipedia. Since no one really speaks the language anymore, and only few learn it well enough to just read any sentence, by doing so you actually hide this motto that you probably would like to tell people about. The only Latin that has entered popular usage are generally idioms, like {{w|Carpe diem}} (seize the day), etc. (et cetera, meaning "and the rest"). However, most of the time, like the one Megan is explaining to her friend, it would make much more sense to just write it in your native language (English in this case); but then of course there would be no need for a motto, where you ask yourself why you are speaking Latin. In this way, the joke is quite self-referential. There is also a cemetery in Click and Drag.

The Latin in the motto is not correct, but close, and it could both be Randall's accidental errors or purposeful errors (as there are probably many "private" mottoes out there that are not completely correct. The original sentence:

'''Cur''' - why. '''Ego''' - I. '''Committitur''' - can be translated as "start", but is incorrectly conjugated; in view of the proper translation, a more acceptable word would be "commisi". '''Dictar''' - likely a misspelling of "dictare", an acceptable translation of "to speak". '''Latinae''' - Latin, but in the wrong case; a more correct translation would probably be "Latinam". A possible translation of this sentence is therefore "Why did I start to speak Latin?". The word ''just'' is completely missing, and could have been included by using ''modo''. However, Megan could have added it to make it more "natural" in English. In this way, the family motto given here is a slightly misused satirical statement on Latin family mottoes.
|-
|Huge foot.
|
:Cueball: It says ”Yo, future dirtbags! Check out my huge foot!”
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d0/1608_1046x1074y_Huge_foot.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1046:-1074+s.png (1046, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1047:-1074+s.png (1047, 1074)]
|
|
|Y
|
|In ''How to count things'' in TE there is also a drawing of a huge foot, used to count mass, not length... The two Cueballs check out an inscription at the foot ([[559: No Pun Intended|pun intended]]) of a monument. Typically old relics from the past has been demolished, and if only part of a human body is displayed (at least when it is not just a {{w|Bust (sculpture)|bust}} supposed to only have head and shoulders), then it is often assumed that the rest of the statue has been lost. Just like the missing arms of the ancient Greek statue {{w|Venus de Milo}}. These arms was there originally. But as it turns out as Cueball reads the transcription someone in the past just wished to show the future his huge foot. Suggesting that this is either actual size, or just that he was very proud of at least one of his feet. He also mock anyone reading the inscription by calling them the derogating word [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dirtbag dirtbags]. This is a recent word so if this was an ancient monument it would be highly unlikely that it said that. Of course it could be Cueballs translation of what is actually written, or as this is not necessarily old, it is not just part of the original monument but the entire unbroken statue of a foot, then it could be a contemporary artist who made it. However it is just in front of the pyramid to the right, and in front of the real pyramid {{w|Pyramid of Khafre}} the {{w|Great Sphinx of Giza}}, also much larger than life size lies. (It has lost it's nose by the way). So this could be the games version of such a large statue in front of a pyramid.

As from the scene to the left of this giant foot, the inscription that Cueball reads is probably in Latin, in which case it could have read something along the lines of: ''Io, de futuro sacculo terra! Reprehendo sicco meus ingens radices!'' (which could be translated back to ''Io, for the future of the bag, earth Check out my huge foot!'', since there was no words for ''Yo dirtbags'' in Latin.

This is likely to be a reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem ''{{w|Ozymandias}}'', which starts:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
[..."]
|-
|Entire Pyramid.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1050x1075y_Pyramid_Entire_zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bf/1608_Entire_Cave_With_entire_pyramid_for_scale.png Size scale of Destroyer]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|
|A smooth pyramid with Ponytail in front of the left side and a coin at the tip. It is large but not compared to the Destroyer above it. To illustrate the other image shows that the pyramid could comfortably be placed inside the cave in the Destroyer. There is also a pyramid in Click and Drag.
|-
|Pyramid protip.
|
:Ponytail: Protip:
:Ponytail: Don't stop climbing just because you reach the top.
:Ponytail: ☑ Show tips on startup
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/50/1608_1048x1074y_Pyramid_protip.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1048:-1074+s.png (1048, 1074)]
|
|
|
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|Comics: [[:Category:Protip|Protip category]]
|Ponytail greets the player as (if) they approach the pyramid from the left. She points up the side of the pyramid and gives a protip (a feature often used in xkcd). The tip is yet another indication that the Destroyer is above (the tip) of the pyramid. She tells the player to keep "climbing" after the top (that is not usually possible, but the hoverboard can keep on flying). By doing so the player may reach up to the entrance leading into the spiral corridor (although it will be difficult to keep the same incline as the pyramid on the way up). Ponytails last remark about showing tips on startup makes her sound like she is some kind of program, that can give you interesting hints and tips every time you start the program. If you do not wish this, you can just leave the [http://help.formulatrix.com/rock-maker/3.4/Content/Resources/Images/RM%203.0.3/StartUp%20Tips.png check box unchecked]. This is the last scene with spoken words (or other text) along the right ground, although it is only halfway from the play area to the right end of this world.
|-
|Pyramid tip.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f6/1608_1050x1076y_Pyramid_tip.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1051:-1076+s.png (1051, 1076)]
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|At the very tip of the pyramid there is a coin. This is the highest point in the right part of the world, that is directly connected with the ground through a fixed structure (i.e. not a wire). In most of the left part of the world even the ground level is higher, and the Washington Monument is much taller. The next coins is five scenes longer to the right as nothing much happens on the remaining stretch along the ground towards the end of the right part of the world from here.
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|Pyramid Right bottom.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c5/1608_1053x1074y_Pyramid_Right_bottom.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1053:-1074+s.png (1053, 1074)]
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|As opposed to the left side of the pyramid with a protip, there is nothing on the right side of the pyramid, even the ground is completely featureless, and actually continuous to be so for a while as can be seen in the next two scenes. It is the longest stretch along the ground with no features of interest and also almost completely flat ground. Even the third scene from here is still without characters although there at least is some ground features. For certain the entertainment of the right side is up above in the Destroyer.
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|Flat and bare ground.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/19/1608_1056x1074y_Flat_and_bare_ground.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1056:-1074+s.png (1056, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1057:-1074+s.png (1057, 1074)]
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|The first of several "boring" scenes without much feature. This though, even without much plant life probably takes the prize as thee most featureless scene in the game.
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|Flat grassy ground.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1059x1074y_Flat_grassy_ground.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1059:-1074+s.png (1059, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1060:-1074+s.png (1060, 1074)]
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|The second in a row of several "boring" scenes without much feature. This though have a little more grass than the previous scene...
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|Small cliff or hill.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/99/1608_1063x1075y_Small_cliff_or_hill.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1063:-1075+s.png (1063, 1075)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1062:-1074+s.png (1062, 1074)]
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|Almost as boring as the previous two scenes, but at least there is a little cliff.
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|The three T's.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/15/1608_1066x1075y_The_three_Ts.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1066:-1075+s.png (1066, 1075)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1067:-1075+s.png (1067, 1075)]
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|Computer games
These three T's with Megan on top of the first, looks similar to scenes from many {{w|Platform game|platform computer games}}, like for instance [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlatformGame this example] from {{w|Mario Bros.}}.
|-
|Coin over grass hole.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/71/1608_1071x1074y_Coin_over_grass_hole.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b6/1608_1071x1074y_Coin_over_grass_hole_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1071:-1074+s.png (1071, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1072:-1074+s.png (1072, 1074)]
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|The fourth "boring" scene in a row at least have a coin. The grass is rather tall in this location and there are also two small hills to the left, and behind the coin another small bump to the right. The coin is located over a small hole that is filled with grass, so when the player takes the coin hoverboard Cueball will [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/58/Grasshole_under_coin.PNG sink to his waist].
|-
|Ponytail and bird black hat on a stick and Cueball whistling.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1073x1074y_Ponytail_and_bird_black_hat_on_a_stick_and_Cueball_whistling.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1073:-1074+s.png (1073, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1074:-1074+s.png (1074, 1074)]
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|Ponytail is walking towards a small cliff with a flying bird following behind her. She approaches a black hat on a stick, looking like Black Hats hat. He usually never leaves without it, so it seems a little strange to find i hanging there. It is actually quite hard to find any Black Hat's in the comic, but above in the Destroyer, just slightly to the left of this hat the only instance of Black Hat in the game sits and snores in the Cave. So he is not only represented by this hat. A kid looking like Cueball stand to the right below the cliff. He seems to be either singing or whistling.
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|Small stone pile.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/04/1608_1078x1074y_Small_stone_pile.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1078:-1074+s.png (1078, 1074)]
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|After a small step down in the terrain height the only feature of this fifth boring scene is a small stone pile that seems to be made of 5-6 small stones with different size not ordered after size, so it looks like it could easily fall over. The pile is solid, so the player need to jump to get past it and hoverboard Cueball can stand on top of it.
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|Two birds and coin above them.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/33/1608_1081x1074y_Two_birds_and_coin_above_them.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1081:-1074+s.png (1081, 1074)]
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|Once again two birds are seen together, this time they are not (as over the gas station to the left) tied together with string. But also here there is a coin, and just like there it is hidden. Not so much as over the gas station, as here the birds can be seen from the ground, but the coin can only be seen by jumping once. Walking along the ground would let the birds enter into the view but not the coin right above them.
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|Pedestal.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bf/1608_1086x1074y_Pedestal.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1086:-1074+s.png (1086, 1074)]
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|Once again a very boring scene (6th) but at least there is a small pedestal to the right. In it self not very interesting, but if the player drops straight down out of the rear entry of the Destroyer above, hoverboard Cueball will land on this pedestal.
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|Medusa and floating earth.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e5/1608_1088x1074y_Medusa_and_floating_earth.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1088:-1074+s.png (1088, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1090:-1075+s.png (1090, 1075)]
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|The first character in four scenes is no one else but {{w|Medusa}} coming towards the player (if going right) arms outstretched and what appears to ne about 10 snakes jutting out of her head which Medusa is known for. The snakes are venomous and people who gaze upon her face would be turned to stone. So not so nice to come by and it for sure relates to the coming end of the world, at least of this worlds right end.

The floating earth to the right may be of similar origin as the floating rock island above the Washington Monument, maybe the same forces are at work. Seems like it has just been torn up from the hoke in the ground below it, like it is now floating up. If the player drops straight down from the very end of the Destroyer up above, hoverboard Cueball will land on this floating earth. Anything right of the start of the hole is no longer under the Destroyer, which anything else right of the play area until this hole has been. Could be the Destroyer's influence that creates this hole? (But not just because it passes over, because then the earth should be floating up all the way behind it).
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|White Hat hiding in the grass.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d9/1608_1093x1074y_White_Hat_hiding_in_the_grass.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1093:-1074+s.png (1093, 1074)]
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|Another flat scenery but at least White Hat is hiding in the grass to the right, only his head showing above the high grass, so her must be either sitting or even lying down propped up on his arms. This is one of only two scenes with White Hat throughout the game.
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|Lollipop plant and coin.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/09/1608_1095x1075y_Lollipop_plant_and_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1095:-1075+s.png (1095, 1075)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1094:-1074+s.png (1094, 1074)]
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|The seventh boring scene is lit up by a coin that hangs in the air slightly before the only feature of the scene, which appears to be a plant, with a strange lollipop shape.
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|Drifting Cueball.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9d/1608_1098x1074y_Drifting_Cueball.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1098:-1074+s.png (1098, 1074)]
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|Another completely flat grassy landscape but with a strangely elongated Cueball drifting in the wind. Characters flying is depicted in two scenes where Ponytail flies, but she does this of her own will. Here is seems like Cueball is just drifting with the wind towards the end of the world, which is only two scenes away, and he is the last character along the ground towards the end. This is in some way reminiscent of Click and Drag, where the Cueball floating with the balloon to begin with, can also be seen at the very right end of the world. But then again here it more seems like Cueball doesn't have a choice, and he also seems to be out of shape. The shape he is in, and the relation to the end of the world could be a (loose) reference to the sixth and seventh day in [[1245: 10-Day Forecast]].
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|Just grass.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/30/1608_1103x1074y_Just_grass.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1103:-1074+s.png (1103, 1074)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1104:-1074+s.png (1104, 1074)]
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|The eight boring scene since the pyramid, with a rolling hill of grass, but only the 2nd most boring, as the most boring scene was the first scene after the pyramid because that one did not even have grass.
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|Storks nest at right end of the world with 10 coins.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/ce/1608_1107x1075y_Storks_nest_at_right_end_of_the_world_with_10_coins.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1107:-1075+s.png (1107, 1075)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1107:-1074+s.png (1107, 1074)]
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|This is the right end of the world, marked by a high pole raising up from a foundation, and on the top of the pole there is a large {{w|White stork|stork}} nest with three eggs in it. Maybe it is not a stork nest (though it looks like a {{w|White_stork#Conservation|man-made nest platform}} for storks), but an eagle nest, though they do not usually use mad made structures for their nest as do storks. But if it was an eagles nest, it could be for those two that are flying over the right tip of the volcano crater in the far of left part of the world.

With ten coins on top of the three eggs in the nest this is the place with the highest coin density in the game, but not most coins over a single image tile as that price goes to the starting tile with 11 coins. There are also 17 coins in the play area scene, but they are not as closely gathered as here, where all 10 coins are almost as close together as possible, and all of them in the same [http://xkcd.com/1608/1107:-1076+s.png completely white image tile] right above the tile with the nest and eggs.
|-
|'''Entire Rebel Blockade Runner'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/82/1608_1015x1078y_Entire_Rebel_Blockade_Runner_zoom_out.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fd/1608_1015x1078y_Entire_Rebbel_Blockade_Runner_and_wires_zoom_out.png Also with wires] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/04/1608_1015x1078y_Entire_Rebbel_Blockade_Runner_zoom_out_to_torpedoes_and_ground.png Also with torpedoes]
|Overview
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|Y
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|An overview of the entire Rebel Blockade Runner ''{{w|Tantive IV}}'' from the opening scene of the original Star Wars movie. It has four rooms (one blown open), a small cannon room that cannot be entered by the hoverboard and two corridors. The rear is the large engines. There are three coins. There is a clear symmetry along the center, as the two cannons and the two parabolic antennas are placed symmetrical on the top and bottom hull, and also the curves of the hull is symmetric. In the second image link the way to find the runner from the ground via the wires can be seen (six coins). And in the third the way to find the Destroyer above via the torpedoes can be seen (14 coins). The Destroyer is thus not hidden, like for instance the Floating Rock Island or the Hidden Lair beneath the lava lake, and there are many less direct indications that there is a runner from all the people who comment on them or even directly or indirectly point the way to the Destroyer. The Runner is supposed to be 150 m long.
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|Bridge on the Rebel Blockade Runner.
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:First scene:
:Long haired woman: Captain's log, stardate November 24th, 2015...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!
:Second scene:
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.
:Box: Shirts
:Third scene:
:Box: Bullets
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1012:-1078+s.png (1012, 1078)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1013:-1078+s.png (1013, 1078)]
|Y
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|Y
|Film: The {{w|Star Trek}} universe
|The bridge of the Rebel Blockade Runner is crammed with interesting scenes. First on the bridge itself a long haired woman (the captain) is mocking both Star Wars and Star Trek fans alike by using the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcRX0Gw1aaw opening line] from the Star Trek series about stating the {{w|stardate}} for the captains log on board the first space ship ever shown in the Star Wars franchise. Hairbun behind her (it could be {{w|Princess Leia}} who also has buns but above each ear) is clearly distressed by this ”mistake”. This could either be because she is a Star Wars fan that dislike Star Trek or because the stardate used is the real date, November 24, 2015, on which the comic was released (as well as the book ''Thing Explainer'') instead of using the normal convention for stardates with a four or five digit number plus a decimal like 1513.1. Given that the long haired woman has the appearance of [[Danish]], this may be intentionally rather than a mistake. There is another reference to the Star Trek universe in the scene where the torpedoes are fired from the Destroyer above, so no less than two Trek infiltrations in the opening scene of Star Wars.

Beneath the bridge there is a smaller room where Ponytail and Megan spoofs [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69NCLxwLEY Luke's Lightsaber Training] from the original Star Wars movie where {{w|Luke Skywalker}} practices under {{w|Ben Kenobi}}'s guidance while {{w|Han Solo}} comes with snide remarks. Ponytail (in Luke's place) holds a {{w|lightsaber}} above which floats a sphere which represents the small remote controlled {{w|Jedi}} training device from that scene. Megan both guides like Ben and comments like Han. She holds some kind of cannon that she obviously loads with T-shirts from the box behind her. As she tells Ponytail, a true Jedi trains with a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgCz7C6jEIk t-shirt cannon]. Han Solo's quote begins like it but ends quite differently: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOuCbDkKIs4 Good against remotes is one thing good against the living it's something else]. He would also prefer a {{w|Blaster (Star Wars)|blaster}} as he explains: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V268Qk6-xsw Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side kid]. There is a coin behind Ponytail.

Above the bridge there is a hatch open where hoverboard Cueball may enter and a Cueball is standing behind the hatch looking down along the hull.

There are cannons both above and below the hull, the one on top has a coin in front of the barrel. There is a similar cannon with a coin in front on top of the Destroyer. Beneath this cannon is a tiny room where another Cueball is pouring several small bullets from a bucket into a black box labeled bullets (for the cannon). From this room there is a small shaft down to the main corridor in the Runner. But this shaft is too slim for hoverboard Cueball to pass up through it, or rather for the board to get in. Cueball can pass into the hole but the board holds him back from reaching up in the small room. The cannon below has two of the anchors from the wires going to the ground attached around its barrel. The third anchor is stuck in the bottom hull further down the hull. It is unclear how this last has become attached to the hull!

In the corridor that runs away from the bridge a small robot on wheels drive towards left. Similar types of robots are often seen in the Star Wars universe and there is also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5f/1608_1034x1091y_Torpedo_canon_below_Destroyer.png another robot] looking like two of these on top of each other in the Destroyer above where the torpedoes connecting them ends up. Further down the corridor Ponytail is walking to the right while singing indicated with two notes.

Above the cannon at the bottom of the hull on a ledge with an entry to the ship is a third Cueball holding a fishing rod out over the ledge so the hook hangs in the air. Maybe he is fishing for either of the two birds that are flying around the line. What appears to be a loaf of bread or [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/58/1608_1014x1078y_Three_wires_and_reaching_up_to_anchors_in_Runner.png a cracker is attached to the hook] at the end of the line. A similar scene is also found in TE in ''Sky Toucher''.
|-
|Death Star Plans in the Rebel Blockade Runner.
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:First scene:
:First Cueball: The Death Star plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Second Cueball: Darn.
:Second Cueball: See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them.
:Second Cueball: But since we didn’t find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy.
:Second Cueball: That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.
:Second scene:
:Third Cueball: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Fourth Cueball: Yup
:Third Cueball: Wow, Rude.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fa/1608_1017x1078y_Death_Star_Plans_in_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1017:-1078+s.png (1017, 1078)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1016:-1079+s.png (1016, 1079)]
|Y
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|The reference to the Death Star plans are from [https://youtu.be/yHfLyMAHrQE?t=340 the opening scene] in the first Star Wars movie. The sentence uttered by First Cueball is said by a Storm Trooper to Darth Vader. The [http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/quotes?qt=qt0440708 rest of the quote] is not quite like in the comic. Rather is goes like this:
:Darth Vader: [addressing the Tantive IV's captain, whom he is interrogating] Where are those transmissions you intercepted? WHAT have you DONE with those plans?
:Captain Antilles: We intercepted no transmissions... This is a consular ship... We're on a diplomatic mission...
:Darth Vader: [shouting] If this is a consular ship, WHERE is the ambassador?
:Darth Vader: Commander, tear this ship apart until you find those plans! And bring me all passengers, I want them ALIVE!
The comic jokes with the way Darth Vader seems to assume that if the plans had been found on the computer, then no one else would have had access to them. The second Cueball, although not Vader, represents a superior that have absolutely no idea about how computers work, in spite of his insistence that he actually do. If the data has once been intercepted they could have been shared or copied to several other computers or devices or even been printed. By finding them in the main computer they would only make sure that they were indeed intercepted, but not be certain that they have not been delivered to the rebel base.

The other two Cueballs on top of the ship stand over a hole in the hull going into a small room above and left of the large room. It seems that the fourth Cueball has made this hole directly from the outside (i.e. it is not caused by an exploding torpedo from the Destroyer above). Because he confirms when the third Cueball asks if he just came down to make the hole without permission. The third Cueball thinks this is rude. This is, of course, hilarious as if a space pirate or any other attacker of a space ship would ask permission before attacking. And also the idea that he might get permission for asking is likewise crazy. To call this rude is also a weird way to look at such an attack. {{w|C3PO}} uses [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWoG9tKf1lA this as reply] to a comment made to him by a similar droid in the second movie.
|-
|Top rear end of the Rebel Blockade Runner.
|
:First scene:
:First Cueball: That thing is ''huge. Imperial''-class?
:Second Cueball: Yeah. Maybe a MK-1. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.
:Second scene:
:Third Cueball's bow: Twang
:Torpedo: Boom
:Third scene:
:Fourth Cueball: Why are they still firing?
:Fifth Cueball: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing.
:Fifth Cueball: It's definitely a pain sometimes.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f1/1608_1018x1079y_Top_rear_end_of_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1018:-1079+s.png (1018, 1079)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1019:-1080+s.png (1019, 1080)]
|Y
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|Y
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|In this overview of the top rear of the hull of the Runner, there are four scenes with two persons in each, with no less than six Cueballs. Beginning with the scene to the far left the two first Cueballs discuss what type of Star Destroyer is shooting at their ship from above them. They are clearly tilting their head far back to look up. The first Cueball comments on how huge it is and asks if it is an {{w|Star_Destroyer#Imperial_class|''Imperial'' class}} Destroyer. "''Imperial'' class" is the designation of the Destroyer ''[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Devastator Devastator]'' that followed the Rebel Runner ''Tantive IV'' in the opening scene. There is also an more than 10 times as large version called a {{w|Star_Destroyer#Super_Star_Destroyer|Super Star Destroyer}}, which were featured in the two sequels in the original trilogy. But even the original Star Destroyers were improved during the movies, so when the improved Destroyers came out they became known as ([http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_II-class_Star_Destroyer Mark II], Mk-II or plainly II, and the original (as Devastator) became known as [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_I-class_Star_Destroyer Mk-1]. The second Cueball agrees with the first and suggest that it is an Mk-1 and thus makes it even more clear that this scene is actually the opening scene of the original Star Wars movie. But then again, he continues, it depends weather this is the {{w|Star Wars expanded universe|expanded universe}} (now known as ''Star Wars Legends'') where all authorized media (books etc.) released based on the Star Wars franchise should be counted in, or if it is only the movies sanctioned directly by George Lucas (and now Disney). What he says is that in all those work there could be so many other types os ships mentioned, that he could mistake for an Mk-1, that in that universe he would not be certain at all. But in the "official" universe he would claim that it was an Mk-1 ''Imperial'' class Star Destroyer.

In the next scene Ponytail and a third Cueball fights a ridicules fight with bows and arrows against the Destroyers 100+ torpedoes raining down from above. Ten of these can be seen falling, one hits the ship and one has just exploded in a big ''boom'', to be compared with the feeble ''twang'' made by Cueballs bow when he fires the arrow. When later discovering how far there is up to the bottom of the Destroyer it only becomes even more silly.

In the third scene two more Cueballs (four and five) look up at the torpedoes falling down in an arch over their heads. The fourth Cueball asks why they still keep firing. And the fifth Cueball tries to explain. A {{w|Gun turret|turret}} is generally a weapon mount that houses the crew and a projectile-firing weapon and lets the weapon be aimed and fired in a given cone of fire. So it is this crew, that are the turret operators. There is also such [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png an operator] on the Rebel Runner below the top cannon (or turret), in the scene with the bridge. The reason they keep fighting is given that they just do their own thing and that is annoying. This indicates that these two Cueballs do no longer think that the Destroyer needs to fire anymore on the Runner, and thus also indicates that they are part of the crew from the Destroyer send down to take over the Runner. Thus it is annoying that the shooting has not stopped as it puts them in danger. If they belong to the Runner then they would not think it weird that the shooting continued. It turns out to be Megan who is the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5f/1608_1034x1091y_Torpedo_canon_below_Destroyer.png turret operator in the Destroyer]! At least they can be happy that it is regular torpedoes. (See the explanation of the scene regarding the Torpedo cannon below Destroyer).

In the final scene at the very end of the hull is the sixth Cueball together with Megan. She holds on to him as he tries to toasts a giant marshmallow on a stick by holding it in front of the exhaust pipe of the Runner. This would must likely melt the marshmallow instantaneously... In ''Red world space car'' in TE the Mars rower also toasts a marshmallow on a stick over a small fire.
|-
|Bottom rear end of the Rebel Blockade Runner.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5b/1608_1020x1078y_Bottom_rear_end_of_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1020:-1078+s.png (1020, 1078)]
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|The rear end of the Rebel Runner with the last part of the big Death Star plan room to visible to the left. Three engines are visible, with the top one being cut of (Cueball is roasting a marshmallow above the cut off - see previous scene). This is consistent with the three rows of engines as [http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/2016/04/tantive_iv_over_tatooine.png?itok=1k3g3pFH can be seen in the film], with four engines in top and bottom row and three in the middle. There is a coin behind the lowest of the engines. There appear to be {{w|truck nuts}} attached to the rear of the ship beneath the hull. These are plastic or metal accessories, typically for cars, which resemble a pair of dangling testicles/balls. They are attached under the rear bumper of the vehicle so they are visible from behind as a practical joke. Some find it is in so bad a taste that it should be banned or fined.
|-
|'''Entire torpedoes rain from Runner to Destroyer.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/87/1608_1023x1085y_Entire_torpedoes_rain_from_Runner_to_Destroyer.png Overview]
|Overview
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|An overview of the entire rain of torpedoes fired down from the Star Destroyer to the Runner. There are 100 undamaged torpedoes in the air, two that are hitting each other exploding, one that has just made contact with the hull and one that has just exploded on the hull of the Runner. A total of 104 torpedoes has thus been fired at this moment in time. The rain is not so much there for jokes but to guide the player up to the Destroyer. Only real interesting scene on the way up is Beret Guy riding a torpedo, and apart from that and the two torpedoes hitting each other and exploding, there is nothing else to see. But there are two coins to collect.
|-
|Torpedoes just above Runner with coin.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a7/1608_1019x1081y_Torpedoes_just_above_Runner_with_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1019:-1081+s.png (1019, 1081)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1020:-1081+s.png (1020, 1081)]
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|11 torpedoes just above the Runner with a coin.
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|Torpedoes two steps above Runner with Beret Guy.
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:Beret Guy: Horsey!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/21/1608_1020x1083y_Torpedoes_two_steps_above_Runner_with_Beret_Guy.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1020:-1083+s.png (1020, 1083)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1021:-1083+s.png (1021, 1083)]
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|Film: {{w|Dr. Strangelove}}
|Beret Guys only second appearance in this comic. He is flying down from the Destroyer sitting astray a torpedo riding it like it was a horse. In the film Dr. Stangelove a man is also flying down like this riding a bomb like it is a horse (a nuclear bomb in that case though). Beret Guy will likely survive due to his [[:Category:Strange powers of Beret Guy|strange powers]]. With his torpedo there are eight torpedoes in this scene
|-
|Torpedoes three steps above Runner.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a7/1608_1023x1085y_Torpedoes_three_steps_above_Runner.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1023:-1086+s.png (1023, 1086)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1024:-1086+s.png (1024, 1086)]
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|21 torpedoes are shown. This image is so large that it goes outside the "active" images, and thus the lower right part is in gray. In the game this part will be displayed as white, but there is no image below to save (but many all white images are active though!)
|-
|Torpedoes two steps below Destroyer with exploding torpedoes.
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:Torpedoes: Boom
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a8/1608_1025x1087y_Torpedoes_two_steps_below_Destroyer_with_exploding_torpedoes.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1025:-1087+s.png (1025, 1087)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1026:-1087+s.png (1026, 1087)]
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|21 torpedoes are shown, but two of them are hitting each other exploding. Where you can stand on the torpedoes, you can not stand on the "boom", but still on the black part of the exploding torpedoes. If the two exploding torpedoes are the same and if they have no means of self-propelling, then they should not hit each other under normal conditions. Only if a wind gust slowed down the one and not the other (which could of course be the case.) But else they would follow the same parabolic path from cannon to target without getting closer.
|-
|Torpedoes one step below Destroyer with coin.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2b/1608_1029x1089y_Torpedoes_one_step_below_Destroyer_with_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1029:-1089+s.png (1029, 1089)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1031:-1090+s.png (1031, 1090)]
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|19 torpedoes just below the Destroyer with a coin.
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|Torpedo cannon below Destroyer.
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:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5f/1608_1034x1091y_Torpedo_canon_below_Destroyer.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1034:-1091+s.png (1034, 1091)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1033:-1091+s.png (1033, 1091)]
|Y
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|Film: The {{w|Star Trek}} universe
|The 12 last torpedoes leads up to the cannon below the Destroyer that has fired them all towards the runner far below. In the control room (or turret room see explanation of scene where the torpedoes hits the Runner) is Megan and Cueball. She explains that she used regular torpedoes rather than the much more powerful {{w|Weapons_in_Star_Trek#Projectile_weapons|'''photon''' torpedoes}}. This may cheat some to think this is a reference to the weapon Luke Skywalker used when destroying the Death Star in the original Star Wars movie. But they were called {{w|List_of_Star_Wars_weapons#Ship-mounted|'''proton''' torpedoes}}. Photon torpedoes are a standard ship-based weapon armed with an {{w|antimatter}} warhead and one of those alone would probably take a ship like the Runner out if it was not shielded... However, they are used by the {{w|Starship Enterprise}} in the Star Trek universe. So this is the second (but more subtle) mixing of the two competing franchises connected with the torpedoes in the opening scene of Star Wars. The first being on the bridge of the Runner below. Above the control room there is a shaft up to a corridor in which a small robot of the types typically seen on spaceships in Star Wars is seen. There is a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bc/1608_1012x1078y_Bridge_on_the_Rebel_Blockade_Runner.png similar robot] down in the Runner but only half this ones height.
|-
|'''Entire Star Destroyer.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cd/1608_Entire_Star_Destroyer.png Overview]
|Overview
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|Y
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|This is the only reference to Star Wars just because of the Destroyer. Anything inside the spaceship will only be listed as SW reference if there is something in relation to SW, or at least to part of the ship itself (like using special outcrops on the ship for a special room, like the Globe of Death at the top of the bridge).
|-
|'''Entire front end.'''
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e1/1608_Entire_front_end.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/22/1608_Entire_front_end_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|This overview is shown to illustrate how far apart the rooms are even in the very front end of the Destroyer where it is slimmest. The image with hidden passages shows how deep the swimming pool is and that the hoverboard can also sink into the playpen pit. Moving just a little further right than this overview, and the Destroyer becomes wider than the zoom scale for these overviews.
|-
|Overview of the very tip of the front end.
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:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/92/1608_Zoom_out_of_the_very_front_end.png Overview]
|Overview
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|The front has both a mouth a nose and an eye with a pupil. It has just eaten a coin and can smell the one above its nose. See more on this interpretation under the ''Colon like structure'' below.
|-
|Very front with Cueball looking out at bottom of hull.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/60/1608_1002x1094y_Very_front_with_Cueball_looking_out_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1002:-1094+s.png (1002, 1094)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1003:-1094+s.png (1003, 1094)]
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|The closest entrance to the Destroyer from the starting point is guarded by Cueball. Going straight up from the right wall in the play area will take the hoverboard straight up in front of Cueball. There is a coin behind him where this first corridor turns up into a shaft.
|-
|Very front with playpen balls pit at top of hull.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a7/1608_1004x1095y_Very_front_with_playpen_balls_pit_at_top_of_hull.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/35/1608_1004x1095y_Very_front_with_playpen_balls_pit_at_top_of_hull_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1004:-1095+s.png (1004, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1005:-1095+s.png (1005, 1095)]
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|[[150: Grownups]] and the [[:Category:Playpen balls|Playpen balls Category]].
|The top part of the front of the Star Destroyer also has an entrance as does the bottom section (see above). There is a coin above the hull. This first corridor leads to a playpen pit filled with playpen balls, which is a recurring subject in xkcd. Cueball and Megan is adult sized (i.e. as big as hoverboard Cueball) and it is thus a clear reference to Grownups. There could be water down below the balls as a fish is seen jumping out over the surface. But given that there are no splashes from the balls Cueball throws in the air, it could also just be a gimmick by Randall. To have something like this in a Star Destroyer kind of ruins the mood surrounding these war machines. Something seen several times throughout the space ship.
|-
|Piñata and Cueball with lightsaber at top of hull.
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:Cueball: No, I got this.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/20/1608_1006x1095y_Pinata_and_Cueball_with_lightsaber_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1006:-1095+s.png (1006, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1007:-1095+s.png (1007, 1095)]
|Y
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|Comic: [[1620: Christmas Settings]]
|Although the original {{w|piñata}} was star shaped it is now common to use different shapes like the horse or donkey displayed in the comic. Children usually hits the piñata with a club until it breaks and falls down revealing candy or toys inside. The two Cueballs, Megan and Hairy are adults though as big as hoverboard Cueball, just like in the playpen pit. It is though not uncommon for adults to participate in hitting down a piñata. But to do it with a {{w|lightsaber}} would defeat the purpose of this game as it will go right through the piñata on contact thus spilling the contest out on the floor in the first go. The Cueball with the lightsaber can thus confidently say that he got this. But it seems like the other Cueball is trying to stop him and that Hairy, holding the club they were intended to use, puts a hand protectively on Megan. A lightsaber would be a very dangerous weapon, and should not be used lightly in a playful setting. As a side note any candy/toy in the path of the ligtsaber as it passes through the piñata will melt/burn immediately. Lightsaber noises are mentioned in the title text of the Christmas Settings comic coming out shortly after this one.
|-
|Shaft and corridor at bottom of hull.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/eb/1608_1007x1094y_Shaft_and_corridor_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1007:-1094+s.png (1007, 1094)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1008:-1094+s.png (1008, 1094)]
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|Lots of sections inside the Destroyer consist of long corridors with shafts going up and down here and there, but with no interesting features or objects. This is the first example of such a corridor, near the bottom hull of the Destroyer, showing that it is not a featureless outer hull. Apart from the ever increasing width of the Destroyer there are some steps up and down, to indicate some of the features seen in the Star Wars movie.
|-
|Swimming pool with Ponytail jumping at bottom of hull.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/ba/1608_1010x1094y_Swimming_pool_with_Ponytail_jumping_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e6/1608_1010x1094y_Swimming_pool_with_Ponytail_jumping_at_bottom_of_hull_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1010:-1094+s.png (1010, 1094)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1011:-1094+s.png (1011, 1094)]
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|Another enjoyable activity to attend to by adults is located here in the front sections of the Destroyer: A swimming pool. Don't worry about Ponytail jumping head first into the water, as can be seen in the hidden passage image it is rather deep. Cueball and Megan is already in. Supposedly there is a rung ladder up again on the side, but it cannot be seen in this slice through the Destroyer. A coin hangs in the top corner of the room. When standing with the hoverboard on the bottom of the pool it will be possible to see that there is a coin on the outside of the hull in the indentation in the hull below the pool. From the outside, however, it will not be possible to see that there is a pool above as the water is the same black (to the eye) as the solid hull.
|-
|Shaft and corridor with three coins at top of hull.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/ba/1608_1011x1096y_Shaft_and_corridor_with_three_coins_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1011:-1096+s.png (1011, 1096)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1009:-1095+s.png (1009, 1095)]
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|After leaving the piñata room going down the corridor there are two coins. One under the shaft going up and one further down the corridor. Going up the shaft there is also a coin on the outside of the top hull at the top of another of the small step where the hulls width increases faster than the steady slope that are always there. This coin is almost on top of the one in the corridor below.
|-
|Dead end shaft with rubbles at bottom of hull.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0c/1608_1015x1093y_Dead_end_shaft_with_rubbles_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1015:-1093+s.png (1015, 1093)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1016:-1093+s.png (1016, 1093)]
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|From the shaft that exits the Destroyers bottom hull there goes a corridor to the left. But only for a short while. Then there is a pile of rubble like there has either been a cave in or as if someone has been digging this tunnel and then has stopped. This is consistent with the mining company seen much further down the Destroyer. There is a coin in front of the rubble.
|-
|Zoom out of shaft and corridors with Hairy looking down a shaft at top of hull.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/34/1608_1019x1095y_Zoom_out_of_shaft_and_corridors_with_Hairy_looking_down_a_shaft_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|Overview
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|This zoom out gives an overview of a large section of the Destroyer with only a long corridor and two shafts going down from it. There is almost no features, but for Hairy standing carefully at the edge of one shaft looking down into it. So again an example of the larger areas inside the destroyer where nothing happens.
|-
|Hairy looking down a shaft at top of hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1608_1016x1095y_Hairy_looking_down_a_shaft_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1016:-1095+s.png (1016, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1013:-1096+s.png (1013, 1096)]
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|This is the shaft that came out of the piñata room. At the end of this image is the first shaft going down where Hairy is standing carefully at the edge looking down. Before that a shaft goes up to the top hull where a coin is situated on top of a small step down. At the other end of this "step" to the left there was also a coin.
|-
|Three coins room and shafts.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e6/1608_1023x1095y_Three_coins_room_and_shafts.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1023:-1095+s.png (1023, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1022:-1095+s.png (1022, 1095)]
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|This is the room where the long corridor going from the piñata room ends. Although it is a quite boring room it has three coins, the highest coin density seen so far when entering the Destroyer from the front end. A shaft down outside the room prevents this from being a dead end.
|-
|Triple coins and a single coin on top of a shaft at top of hull.
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:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d0/1608_1023x1097y_Triple_coins_and_a_single_coin_on_top_of_a_shaft_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1023:-1097+s.png (1023, 1097)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1025:-1097+s.png (1025, 1097)]
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|There is a very long straight stretch on top of the hull where nothing happens after the step down, but suddenly there are three coins in a row, and then a shaft down, with a ledge out over the shaft opening, with yet a coin, makes it worth the players while to come up there as well.
|-
|Zoom out of shaft and corridors with ledge at bottom of hull.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6f/1608_1025x1092y_Zoom_out_of_shaft_and_corridors_with_ledge_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|Overview
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|This overview at the bottom of the hull shows the shaft (to the right) that was covered with a ledge at the top of the hull. Although it takes a small turn left before going down and out at the bottom it thus almost runs straight through the Destroyer and also here at the bottom a thin ledge covers the shafts exit. But here are no coins. There are another shaft and two corridors.
|-
|Shall '''not not''' pass room and parachutes at one of two ledges at bottom of hull.
|
:Cueball: You shall not not pass!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ad/1608_1026x1093y_Shall_not_not_pass_room_and_parachutes_at_one_of_two_ledges_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1026:-1093+s.png (1026, 1093)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1028:-1092+s.png (1028, 1092)]
|
|Y
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|The shaft going out at the bottom left is the one mentioned above. Going through the corridor above takes hoverboard Cueball into a room with a Cueball blocking his way holding a hand out towards him. He almost uses the last part of a [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/quotes?item=qt0445998 famous quote by Gandalf] when facing the {{w|Balrog}} in the mines of {{w|Moria (Middle-earth)|Moria}}, but here with an '''extra not''' added to negate the "not" from the quote. So "You shall ''not'' '''not''' pass" = You '''shall''' pass, and when you do you get a coin. It is easy to miss that there are two times not in the sentence which is for certain intentionally by Randall, as the spoken sentence thus do not match the appearance of Cueball with a hand out.

If hoverboard Cueball jump ship at the ledge to the left he can fly over to the next ledge where Cueball and a guy with black hair is preparing to jump of the ship using parachutes. Behind them there is a shaft going up into the ship with a coin.
|-
|Two coins room and shafts.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5d/1608_1026x1095y_Two_coins_room_and_shafts.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1026:-1095+s.png (1026, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1027:-1095+s.png (1027, 1095)]
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|The shaft going up in the two coins room comes from a corridor below that also connects to the shaft to the left. The corridor is right above the ''you shall not not pass'' room below. The shaft to the left goes up the ledge covered exit to the top hull.
|-
|Steven Universe and Crystal Gems; and ice cream prediction.
|
:Megan: Prediction: Seconds before you die, you will remember these words.
:Box: Ice cream
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/39/1608_1031x1095y_Steven_Universe_family_and_ice_cream_prediction.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1031:-1095+s.png (1031, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1028:-1095+s.png (1029, 1095)]
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|TV series: {{w|Steven Universe}}
|In the room to the left, Megan talks to Cueball while they walk towards an ice cream freezer (at the end of the room with a coin on top). Her comment that she can predict that he will remember those words when he dies could be quite sinister. Since they are so boring the only way she can make this prediction come through is if she now turns around killing him. If she waits a little longer she will not have to move him so far before she can hide his body in the freezer...

In the room to the right is a group of four stick figures representing {{w|Steven Universe (character)|Steven Universe}} and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Steven_Universe_characters#/media/File:StevenFinalPoster.jpg Crystal Gems]. From left to right, Steven is next to {{w|Pearl (Steven Universe)|Pearl}} (as a stick figure with shorter hair), {{w|Garnet (Steven Universe)|Garnet}} (as a taller stick figure with sunglasses and an afro), and {{w|List_of_Steven_Universe_characters#Amethyst|Amethyst}} (as a shorter stick figure with long hair). The Crystal Gems are a "superhero" team of alien "Gems" who protect the earth, with their newest member being the half-Gem, half-human Steven. (Elsewhere on the bridge of the Destroyer, Darth Vader references Steven Universe in that Steven is half Gem.) A coin is hovering over Garnet's raised left hand.

Below these two rooms runs a corridor that goes left to the shaft going up to the top hull. The shaft going down goes to the two guys with parachutes. There is a coin next to the shaft. To get from this corridor to the rooms above hoverboard Cueball either have to go out on the top hull or move through the rotary that follows to the right.
|-
|'''Entire Rotary section.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/67/1608_Entire_Rotary_section.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e4/1608_Entire_Rotary_section_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e1/1608_Entire_Rebel_Blockade_Runner_swallowed_by_Destroyer.png Swallow Runner]
|Overview
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|Y
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|To the left in this overview is the roundabout like structure that Cueball above it calls a rotary, which has given name to this section of the ship that follows after it up to the section with the cave. The Destroyer becomes much broader here especially due to the two large steps that the top part of the hull takes in the middle and to the right in this image.

In the hidden passage image the cotton trap is revealed with the two entrances to the room below and to the corridor to the right that leads past different traps into the cave. At the top and bottom middle of the image there are two cars, and as it can be seen in the hidden passage image the hoverboard cannot rest on top of those.

In the composite ''Swallow Runner'' image the Rebel Runner has been placed in the opening in the bottom hull to reveal that this is indeed the opening in the bottom of the Destroyer that swallows the entire Rebel Runner in the opening scene of the first Star Wars movie. This feature is thus a direct reference to the "real" Devastator Destroyer and thus a direct reference to the opening scene and to Star Wars. Below the individual scenes in the Rotary section will be described.
|-
|Empty room and Cueball on corridor going to rotary at top of hull.
|
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/cf/1608_1029x1097y_Empty_room_and_Cueball_on_corridor_going_to_rotary_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1032:-1096+s.png (1032, 1096)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1030:-1097+s.png (1030, 1097)]
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|A big empty room near the top hull and a coin in a shaft going down from the top hull. The shaft going down will lead to both the room with the ice dream box and the one with Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems. The corridor going right will go down into the rotary, see next scene. Cueball is looking down into this and expressing his dislike of this {{w|Traffic circle|type of structures}}. Maybe he has bad experience with these in real life traffic.
|-
|The rotary.
|
:(none)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/3e/1608_1033x1095y_The_rotary.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1033:-1095+s.png (1033, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1035:-1095+s.png (1035, 1095)]
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|This is the {{w|Traffic circle|Rotary}} that has given it's name to the section of the Star Destroyer from the structure itself and right of this until the section where the cave is located. A rotary is also known as a ''traffic circle'' and is a large version of a roundabout with several roads exiting from it. At the top of the upper left passage (see the scene above) Cueball is looking down into this structure and calls it a rotary (hence the name).

The centre contains a small room with a stick figure wearing a tonsure haircut (where only the top of the head is shaved bald), a potted plant, and a coin. The plant resembles a pea plant, and the tonsure is a haircut associated with monks, so this is likely to be Gregor Mendel. Mendel was a 19th century Czech monk who discovered the principles of genetic inheritance by crossing strains of pea plants.

Large rotaries may have more than four roads leading away, but in this case there are four, and neither of them are leading straight away up/down or left/right. Three of them are almost at a 45 degree angel, but the one going down is only a little of to the right, and soon turns straight down.

Only other feature is the Cueball rushing right on his bike in the corridor leading away from the rightmost exit. There are several bikes throughout the comic, with two more in the Globe of Death above the bridge of the Destroyer and one going down the right slope of the Volcano.

Entering the rotary for the first time there are of course three new directions to move along in, making it a special point in the users exploration of the Destroyer.
|-
|Photon cannon Tetris piece and mini robot at bottom of hull.
|
:(None - the cannon part has been transcribed in the torpedo section)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/df/1608_1034x1091y_Photon_canon_Tetris_piece_and_mini_robot_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1034:-1093+s.png (1034, 1093)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1034:-1092+s.png (1035, 1092)]
|
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|Computer game: {{w|Tetris}}
|The bottom part of the scene has already been described in relation to the torpedo rain. But as can be seen here it is possible to enter the torpedo room almost directly from the bottom exit of the rotary above. Coming down that way is also a T-shaped {{w|Tetris#Colors_of_Tetriminos|tetriminos}} from the Tetris computer game. At the end of the corridor with the small robot there is a shaft, and in the exit from the corridor there is a coin.
|-
|Shaft corridor with coin and room with coin over ledge at bottom of hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d3/1608_1038x1092y_Shaft_corridor_with_coin_and_room_with_coin_over_ledge_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1038:-1092+s.png (1038, 1092)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1036:-1092+s.png (1036, 1092)]
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|Going down from the corridor from the scene above takes the player through a small room with a coin at the bottom of the hull and then out over a thick ledge in the air beneath the Destroyer. There is a large gap starting here that ends in the ''Atmosphere worry and car room at bottom of hull''. This large section is the section in which [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e1/1608_Entire_Rebel_Blockade_Runner_swallowed_by_Destroyer.png the Destroyer swallows the Rebel Runner] in the opening scene of the first Star Wars movie, as mentioned in the overview above.
|-
|Giant octopus in Destroyer.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b5/1608_1038x1094y_Giant_octopus_in_Destroyer.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1038:-1094+s.png (1038, 1094)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1038:-1093+s.png (1038, 1093)]
|
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|Y
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|A giant octopus with a dome shaped head in a dome shaped room with coins above its tentacles left and right. In TE there are several octopuses, and this animal is also often used in xkcd in general. But particularly in ''The USS Laws of the Land'' there is both a large octopus beneath the ship and one giant tentacle reaching up from the deep. If this is considered a monster then this section of the ship may be the monster section as there also seem to be some kind of horned monster in the room to the right of this room.
|-
|Hamster ball and stilts room.
|
:Megan: ''AaaaAaaa''
:Guy with hair: I can't leave.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/89/1608_1038x1095y_Hamsterball_and_stilts_room.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1038:-1095+s.png (1038, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1039:-1096+s.png (1039, 1096)]
|
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|Y
|Comics: [[:Category:Hamster Ball|Hamster Ball category]]
|This room is the first after exiting the rotary to the upper right. The shaft goes down past the octopus room (see scene above). It is the second instance with a hamster ball in this comic, the first being a small girl (with Megan like hair) in the left part of the world just before the plateau. But in this case it is the adult Megan that is inside the ball, not only running but actually standing on a skateboard. She is clearly not in control. As the player is on a hoverboard there is some kind of connection with a girl on skateboard. In ''Sky Toucher'' in TE Megan also uses a skateboard, inside a rounded structure.

Megan is not alone though as there is also a guy (with a wee bit of hair) on stilts. The stilts seems to be very high and if the guy wishes to stay on these stilts his assessment, that he can't leave the room, is true. Between his stilts there is a coin. The world highest stilts is shown in [[482: Height]] and in the next "game" comic after this one, [[1663: Garden]], it is possible to "[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0c/1663_garden_One_color_Between_Light_yellow_and_yellow_First_thing_stilts.png grow]" a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d0/Garden_Stilt_walker.png girl on stilts].
|-
|Box with horns and coin room.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a2/1608_1043x1093y_Box_with_horns_and_coin_room.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1043:-1093+s.png (1043, 1093)]
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|In this room across from the giant octopus room there is yet a possible monster hidden in a box. Two large horns jut out of the box, but if they are standing on the box or is sitting on some horned beast inside the box is not clear. But they look rather ominously, and if it is a monster it would with the giant octopus make this section a monster section. A coin is hovering between the horns. The shaft up is the only way to move further down inside the Destroyer without moving over or under the hull.

Its appearance in the Star Destroyer with the coin makes it superficially similar to a holoprojector, with the coin as the holorgram - it is unclear whether this is the intended meaning however.
|-
|Zoom out of three empty rooms near bottom of hull.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e6/1608_1046x1094y_Zoom_out_of_three_empty_rooms_near_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|Overview
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|A dead end with three empty room with no coins or any interesting features, thus only this zoomed out version is displayed here. The rooms are just right of the horned box and below is the part of the hull that is the opening where the Runner will be swallowed by the Destroyer. It is not a complete waste to come over this way, as the room to the right with the hoverboard is central to the comic. But no need to go into these rooms if trying to pick up all the coins as fast as possible.
|-
|Corridor with coin.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a2/1608_1046x1097y_Corridor_with_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1046:-1097+s.png (1046, 1097)]
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|This is one of the longer corridors without any features. It is the only way to move right inside the destroyer in this section. The corridor goes above the three empty rooms in the scene above and also above the hoverboard room in the scene below. At the end of the corridor there is a shaft up. The only reason this segment is shown is because of the coin.
|-
|Two hoverboards room.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/01/1608_1048x1095y_Two_hoverboards_room.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1048:-1095+s.png (1048, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1048:-1094+s.png (1048, 1094)]
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|Comic: [[1623: 2016 Conversation Guide]]
|Self-reference to title of this comic, and the conversation guide comic released shortly after this is also referencing this entire comic as it complains that hoverboards are not real yet. There is both another hoverboard Cueball and a hoverboard Megan in this room, but compared to the players hoverboard Cueball these two are some what more advanced, and managed to swoop around the coin in the middle. The room can only be entered from the right. To the left there is only a dead end with three completely empty rooms, so don't bother going there if you are in a hurry to pick up all the coins...
|-
|Zoom out with dead end corridor car room and shaft at top of hull.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f9/1608_1051x1097y_Zoom_out_with_dead_end_corridor_car_room_and_shaft_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|Overview
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|Overview of the end of the long corridor with the coin mentioned above. It ends here in the dead end at the bottom. The corridor above has Cueball lying on the hood of a car in a small room quite a distance from any exits to the outside.
|-
|Cueball on hood of car room and a giant step with coins at top of hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d4/1608_1048x1099y_Cueball_on_hood_of_car_room_and_a_giant_step_with_coins_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1048:-1099+s.png (1048, 1099)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1049:-1099+s.png (1049, 1099)]
|
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|Y
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|In this dead end room Cueball is lying on the hood of a car. Hoverboard Cueball cannot copy this as the car is not a solid segment of the image. The hull is not far away, and the car room is right where one of the large steps in the upper hull appears. Right outside there are two coins at the bottom and top of the step. These cannot be seen from inside the room. There is no fast way to get outside from here, and actually no easy way to get a car into this room either. In ''Sky Toucher'' in TE there is also a car stuck in the middle of the sky scraper a long way from the parking cellar. In this comic there is actually even one more car in the Destroyer, but that is at least close to an exit ledge (see scene below).
|-
|Atmosphere worry and car room at bottom of hull.
|
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Blonde woman with hair bun: Whatever. Who cares it’s probably fine.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1049x1090y_Atmosphere_worry_and_car_room_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1049:-1090+s.png (1049, 1090)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1050:-1090+s.png (1050, 1090)]
|Y
|
|
|
|Megan is referring to the fact that space ships in Star Wars often fly fast also inside the atmosphere of a planet. Not something you would normally design for. Though in the case with the Destroyer and Runner they did not go inside the atmosphere as depicted here in the comic, in the scene from the original Star Wars movie. The blonde woman comes with a comment typical for b-moves, who cares if this would work in real life, it is just a film.

There is a large gap in the bottom hull ending here and starting in the ''Shaft corridor with coin and room with coin over ledge at bottom of hull''. This large section is the section in which [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e1/1608_Entire_Rebel_Blockade_Runner_swallowed_by_Destroyer.png the Destroyer swallows the Rebel Runner] in the opening scene of the first Star Wars movie, as mentioned in the overview above.

Behind the two women, who are standing on a thin ledge where the large gap ends, there is another car (see scene above). At least it is clear how this car could get into this room (and out again). Above the car there is a coin. Behind the car there is a corridor going into the Destroyer, but quite high up on the wall for a normal exit. The car cannot be used as a step to jump in there, as it is not part of the solid picture.
|-
|Ponytail flying up a shaft towards a coin.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/76/1608_1053x1091y_Ponytail_flying_up_a_shaft_towards_a_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1053:-1091+s.png (1053, 1091)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1054:-1091+s.png (1054, 1091)]
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|The corridor from the room with Megan and the car is long. In the middle of it there is a shaft going up (a long way). Just inside this shaft Ponytail is seen flying up, hands in front of her like another Superman. Above her in the shaft there is a coin. This is not the only place in the comic where Ponytail is flying. Although here it seems like an automatic thing (like Superman), whereas down below on the ground below the Destroyer she has to flap her arms violently, but then actually manages to take of from the ground. In a space ship like this Destroyer there could both be a system to let people float upwards, some gravitational effects or just plain effects of the flying itself, wheres down on the ground flying like that would be magic for sure. But at least there seems to be some correlation since it is Ponytail that flies in both cases.
|-
|Trap covered with leaves and flying Ponytail at bottom of hull.
|
:Cueball: ...And we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fd/1608_1055x1090y_Trap_covered_with_leaves_and_flying_Ponytail_at_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1055:-1090+s.png (1055, 1090)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1055:-1091+s.png (1055, 1091)]
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|After the shaft where Ponytail flies up (see more in the scene above) the corridor continues to a pit which Cueball and a kid have been covering with leaves and sticks. It seems like they are making a trap, which is even more likely seeing that the bottom of the pit has six sharp spikes that would likely impale any unlucky victims that fell in. Alternatively (given the words Cueball uses), they have made this hole by mistake, and now tries to cover it so no one sees it. If he meant it to be a trap he might instead have phrased it, "so they won't see it until it is too late". The kid looks like the kid in the room at the rotary, as they have the same hairdo.
|-
|Corridor and shaft with coin.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/8f/1608_1053x1094y_Corridor_and_shaft_with_coin.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1053:-1094+s.png (1053, 1094)]
|
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|The shaft going up from Ponytail below goes past the corridor to the left that goes to the hoverboards room. There is a coin in the entrance.
|-
|'''Entire Corridor peristalsis and colon.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c6/1608_Entire_Corridor_peristalsis_and_colon.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/be/1608_Entire_area_around_Corridor_peristalsis_and_colon.png Zoom out to entire area]
|Overview
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|With the comment from Hairbun about peristalsis - the bowel movement getting food etc. through the digestive system, and with the three chambers with coins above a colon like structure, leading into the corridor with these motions, with a coin both going down the colon and through the peristalsis, there can be no doubt that this is the digestive system for this ”living” space ship, and coins is what it lives off. This interpretation can further be extended to the very front end, where there is the appearance of a head that eats coins (see the front end overview) and at the rear end a coin is bouncing out at the very last shaft before the very end of the ship. Suggesting where this animal gets rid of the waste products afterwards. (The rest of the ship is not part of this interpretation).
|-
|Corridor peristalsis and two coin rooms at top of hull.
|
:Hairbun: Ah, yes. Corridor peristalsis.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e4/1608_1054x1099y_Corridor_peristalsis_and_two_coin_rooms_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1054:-1099+s.png (1054, 1099)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1057:-1100+s.png (1057, 1100)]
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|Following the corridor from the room with Cueball on the hoof of a car leads to a part of that corridor experiencing {{w|peristalsis}}. This is the kind of muscle movements that causes food to move through the {{w|human gastrointestinal tract}}. Hairbun is telling Cueball that this is indeed corridor peristalsis, so a way for the corridor to move stuff along. As there are coins at both end of this section it is quite clear that these coins are moved along by the corridor itself. The indentations of the corridor is so strong that the corridor is not wide enough to allow hoverboard Cueball to pass through. So to get both coins another route needs to be found. The shortest way is to go up the shaft behind Hairbun, passing the two empty rooms with coins on the way to the top of the Destroyers hull. To get to the other side hoverboard Cueball will then have to pass through the Destroyers colon like structure to the right. See below. As mentioned in the overview above this is a clear reference to the human digestive system, or in this case the Destroyers ditto.
|-
|Corridor peristalsis and colon.
|
:Cueball: Wheee!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0a/1608_1055x1099y_Corridor_peristalsis_and_colon.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1055:-1099+s.png (1055, 1099)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1056:-1099+s.png (1056, 1099)]
|
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|Y
|
|Moving a little further down right than the peristalsis scene above the bottom part of the {{w|Large intestine|colon}} like structure can be seen, closely connected to this other intestine like structure (The three coins in the left part of the image are the same as in the scene above). The reason for showing this scene is to show the closeness of these two digestive system structures. In ''Box that cleans food holders'' in TE Ponytail yells Wheee! as she slides through a pipe inside the machine on her stomach, a mix of the action performed by Cueball and Ponytail in the colon like structure. Ponytail is sliding towards a coin at the bottom in one of the colon loops. The top part of the colon can be seen in the next scene.
|-
|Colon like structure with Ponytail and Cueball sliding down.
|
:(None - text already transcribed in the scene above ''Corridor peristalsis and colon''.)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b3/1608_1058x1100y_Colon_like_structure_with_Ponytail_and_Cueball_sliding_down.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1058:-1100+s.png (1058, 1100)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1058:-1101+s.png (1058, 1101)]
|
|
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|The entrance from the top to the colon like structure have a Cueball looking down into it. The rest of the scene has been described above.
|-
|Huge step and three room with coin and Cueball looking into shaft at top of hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/14/1608_1058x1102y_Huge_step_and_three_room_with_coin_and_Cueball_looking_into_shaft_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1058:-1102+s.png (1058, 1102)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1056:-1103+s.png (1056, 1103)]
|
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|This is the upper entrance to the colon like structure into which Cueball is looking. (See scenes above). To the left is the top hull of the Destroyer which takes two huge steps up at this place. Cueball is standing in a corridor with three small rooms, each with a coin in the top of the room. This seems to be a place to hold the coins until they are ready to move down the colon like structure, where another coin is already moving through, going down to the corridor peristalsis in the corridor below, where more coins are moving through the ships digestive system. Going over the hull and down this colon like structure is the fastest/shortest way between the two separated sides of the corridor peristalsis.
|-
|Coin in corridor under Buffer stop room.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1608_1060x1099y_Coin_in_corridor_under_Buffer_stop_room.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1060:-1099+s.png (1059, 1099)]
|
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|Moving away to the right from the corridor peristalsis takes hoverboard Cueball past a small shaft up into a room with two coins in front of what looks like a train {{w|buffer stop}}. One coin in front of each of the buffers. Continuing along the corridor there is another coin. The corridor continues and a shaft is going up. This part of the Destroyer is the beginning of the cave section. The cave can be entered from above by continuing along the corridor.
|-
|Cannon with coin on top of hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a0/1608_1060x1103y_Canon_with_coin_on_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1060:-1103+s.png (1060, 1103)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1062:-1103+s.png (1062, 1103)]
|
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|There is a similar cannon with a coin in front of the barrel on the top of the Runner below the Destroyer. This cannon is on top of the hull above and right of the three room above the colon like structure. The shaft going down right is over the next cave section.
|-
|Coin in corridor below mining company in dead end corridor.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c8/1608_1062x1101y_Coin_in_corridor_below_mining_company_in_dead_end_corridor.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1062:-1101+s.png (1062, 1101)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1063:-1101+s.png (1063, 1101)]
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|Two Cueballs work as a mining company in this corridor which they are expanding. It could be that they are digging for gold, but if that gold should be represented by coins, it is weird that the coin hangs above the Cueball with the {{w|pickaxe}} in the higher section of this corridor, instead of being in front of him. The other Cueball drives away with a wheelbarrow full of the rubble they have dug free from the ship. This is another indication of how big the ship is. It is easier to just dig a new corridor than to build the corridor into the ship to begin with. Further to the left in the Destroyer there was another dead end corridor that looked like it had been dug out - see the scene ''Dead end shaft with rubbles at bottom of hull.'' But here the mining company had left (even though there also was a coin there). The shaft to the left goes up to the hull right of the cannon from the scene above. The corridor below goes left (past another coin) to the shaft down to the corridor with peristalsis. To the right it goes above the cave to the dance hall room with piano.
|-
|Mining company in dead end corridor also coin on top of hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/ca/1608_1063x1102y_Mining_company_in_dead_end_corridor_also_coin_on_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1063:-1102+s.png (1063, 1102)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1063:-1103+s.png (1063, 1103)]
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|The same mining company scene as described above but with the view moved to show the top hull, right of the cannon. Right of the shaft going up there is a coin. At the very top right of the hull, the basketball dropped by the Cueball like kid can be seen as it comes bouncing down the length of the hull. This basketball scene is part of the cave section and will be describved below.
|-
|'''Entire cotton trap and spark gap room.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/78/1608_Entire_cotton_trap_and_spark_gap_room.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/65/1608_Entire_cotton_trap_and_spark_gap_room_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/36/1608_Entire_area_around_cotton_trap.png Entire area around] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/1608_Entire_area_around_cotton_trap_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|
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|Here are two different zoom out of the cotton trap room with the spark gap room below. In the first overview a zoom out is shown with only these two rooms. There are four coins inside and two on the outside of the hull. The three coins around the cotton trap is almost connected by the cotton, as can be seen in the next overview where the hidden passage through the cotton is clearly marked in red. As can be seen there is a very deep black hole beneath the surface of the cotton (which Ponytail states is cotton). From the bottom of the cotton trap going left will lead to a hidden entrance to the top of the spark gap room. Going right will lead to the hidden entrance to the corridor with traps going to the left entrance to the cave. There are coins on each exit as well as just above the cotton to the right. The third image is a further zoom out to show the entire surroundings of the cotton trap room. (And the last is with the cotton etc. turned red). Here the traps in the corridor leading to the cave can be seen as well as the opening into the cave. Below that the strange spiral corridor can be seen. Both these scenes will be described below in the cave section. To the left the shaft and corridors that connect the two rooms even if not noticing the hidden passage can be seen. It is the corridor with the trap covered by Cueball and the shaft where Ponytail flies up. Three more coins are visible in this wider zoom out for a total of nine coins in this area. The two rooms will be described in further detail below. All of the rooms that can be entered through the cotton trap can also be entered through different entrances from other routes. This means that failing to find out how the cotton trap works, will not prevent the player in reaching either the spark gap from below or the cave to the right.
|-
|Entire Cotton trap room.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/be/1608_1058x1094y_Zoom_out_of_Cotton_trap_room.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/11/1608_1058x1094y_Zoom_out_of_Cotton_trap_room_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|Overview with the entire cotton trap with and without the cotton shown in red. See above and below for more details.
|-
|Coins in two corridors towards cotton trap.
|
:(None - transcript is written in the scene below.)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1055x1095y_Coins_in_two_corridors_towards_cotton_trap.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1055:-1095+s.png (1055, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1056:-1095+s.png (1056, 1095)]
|
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|The corridor going from the shaft with the flying Ponytail to the Ponytail warning about the cotton trap also has a coin. The coin in the exit of the other corridor to the shaft was mentioned previously as it is the exit from the room with two hoverboards. See more about the cotton trap below.
|-
|Cotton trap room with Ponytail.
|
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/28/1608_1058x1094y_Cotton_trap_room_with_Ponytail.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/42/1608_1058x1094y_Cotton_trap_room_with_Ponytail_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1057:-1095+s.png (1057, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1059:-1094+s.png (1059, 1094)]
|
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|Entering this room along the top corridor reveals Ponytail standing at the beginning of a steep descend. She clearly warns the player about a trap made of cotton. As can be seen in the hidden passage image most of the black at the bottom of the descend is not solid floor but a hidden passage. Given Ponytails comment it must be assumed to be made of cotton. Given that hoverboard Cueball is not affected by the cotton and can move either up again, or out left or right it is not a trap for him. But other unlucky persons falling into the cotton might not be as lucky. If this is not a trap in it self, there are several traps if moving out to the right (where the coin is below the cotton level). This corridor goes to the cave, but first after passing five traps. See more about the entire surroundings in the overview scenes above.
|-
|Cotton trap room bottom.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/32/1608_1058x1092y_Cotton_trap_room_bottom.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/73/1608_1058x1092y_Cotton_trap_room_bottom_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1058:-1092+s.png (1058, 1092)]
|
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|The bottom of the cotton trap is a dark place. But as can be seen in the red hidden passage image it is possible to move both left and right to get out. In either case a coin can be obtained at the exit. The left exit leads to a shaft going into the spark gap room below, and the right exit leads through a corridor with traps into the cave. Going up in the spark gap room below will clearly reveal the shaft up. But if the cotton trap has not been discovered at this time, it is likely that the player will not attempt to breech the wall, and would thus fail to enter the cotton trap from below. The coin could easily seem enough reason for this dead end shaft above the room.
|-
|Entire spark gap room to bottom of hull.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7b/1608_1058x1090y_Zoom_out_of_spark_gap_room_to_bottom_of_hull.png Overview]
|Overview
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|An overview of the entire spark gap room, both showing the two coins beneath the outside hull as well as the coin in the top shaft (leading to the cotton trap to the right of this) and the coin behind the spark gap. See more below.
|-
|Spark gap room
|
:Cueball on wall: Shh.
:Electrode bottom: JS
:Electrode top: JS
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4d/1608_1057x1092y_Spark_gap_room_with_Cueball_on_the_wall.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6a/1608_1058x1090y_Spark_gap_room_only_with_Cueball_on_floor_and_coins_at_bottom_of_hull.png Buttom part to below hull]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1058:-1090+s.png (1058, 1090)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1057:-1092+s.png (1057, 1092)]
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|This room is called the {{w|spark gap}} room, because there seems to be a spark between the two large electrode like structures marked JS. Cueball is watching this, maybe he is the evil inventor that has created this device. At least another Cueball is climbing high above him up on the wall to the left, and when the player passes him on his hoverboard he asks the player no to tell about him (''shh''). It is unclear if he is sneaking away, spying or sneaking down to attack the other Cueball. A coin is hidden behind the spark gap, but as the spark gap is of the "red" type of black hoverboard Cueball can pass without problems into the coin. As can be seen in the other image displaying the lower part of this scene, the coin outside of the hull is close by, and actually the two coins above each other down there are in the same small image (see the first of the small images).
|-
|Corridor with fire and hammer traps.
|
:Hammers left: Chomp Chomp
:Hammer right: Chomp
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a2/1608_1061x1093y_Corridor_with_fire_and_hammer_traps.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/16/1608_1061x1093y_Corridor_with_fire_and_hammer_traps_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1060:-1094+s.png (1060, 1094)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1061:-1093+s.png (1061, 1093)]
|
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|This is the corridor exiting the cotton trap room (with a coin as mentioned previously), see the cotton in the hidden passage in red image. The corridor leads to the cave, but to get there five traps has to be passed. First there are four hammers with jagged edges that opens and closes with much force as perceived by the noises. And then a pit with a fire has to be surpassed. Of course as can be seen in the "red" image, neither of these traps are any problem for hoverboard Cueball as they are all of the red type of black. But it is a clear indication that the player is about to enter some interesting place, which is true as the cave is one of the most interesting places in the Destroyer. Although there are two other ways to get into the cave, it is by far the most interesting way to enter the cave for the first time!
|-
|Corridor to cave opening.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/32/1608_1062x1094y_Corridor_to_cave_opening.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1062:-1094+s.png (1062, 1094)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1063:-1094+s.png (1063, 1094)]
|
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|Same scene as above but only the right part with the fire, to show how the corridor enters the beginning of the cave.
|-
|Zoom out with spiral corridor at bottom of the hull.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/45/1608_1063x1091y_Zoom_out_with_spiral_corridor_at_bottom_of_the_hull.png Overview]
|Overview
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|Below the corridor to the cave is a strange corridor which spirals into nothing in the middle. There are no coins in this section so this is a zoom out without any further zoom in on this section. The room at the top seems like a starting point to go into the spiral. The corridor to the right goes into the huge glitch floor room below the cave. The shaft down goes out the bottom of the hull.
|-
|'''Entire Cave Bridge and rear end.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/74/1608_Entire_Cave_Bridge_and_rear_end.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e0/1608_Entire_Cave_Bridge_and_rear_end_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
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|-
|'''Entire cave section.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_Entire_cave_section.png Overview]
|Overview
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|-
|Entire Cave and Glitch floor room.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ea/1608_Entire_Cave_and_Glitch_floor_room.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|Y
|
|
|
|From this image it is clear that the two largest rooms in the Destroyer are almost of the same size, and positioned almost on top of each other. They only need a little parallel shift to make them into one big circular room. The Glitch floor room, is a feature that can be seen in the Star Wars film, as a protrusion beneath the hull of the Destroyer. In an actual Star Destroyer, this protrusion holds the hypermatter reactor that powers the ship as a whole.
|-
|'''Entire Cave.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/58/1608_Entire_Cave.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/24/1608_Entire_Cave_and_shaft_above.png With shaft and room above] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bf/1608_Entire_Cave_With_entire_pyramid_for_scale.png Size scale of Pyramid]
|Overview
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|In ''Sky Toucher'' there is also a floor in the sky scraper with trees inside, just like the tree inside the cave inside the Destroyer.
|-
|Lake with tree birds and puma on rock at exit in the bottom left side of the cave.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/75/1608_1053x1093y_Lake_with_tree_birds_and_puma_on_rock_at_exit_in_the_bottom_left_side_of_the_cave.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/81/1608_1053x1093y_Lake_with_tree_birds_and_puma_on_rock_at_exit_in_the_bottom_left_side_of_the_cave_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1065:-1093+s.png (1065, 1093)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1067:-1094+s.png (1067, 1094)]
|
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|{{w|Puma}}, or mountain lions, are important predators in an ecosystem and would help keep the deer population in this cave under control.
|-
|Three birds in the top left side of the cave.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1608_1065x1095y_Three_birds_in_the_top_left_side_of_the_cave.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1065:-1095+s.png (1065, 1095)]
|
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|The {{w|National Audubon Society}} has its origins in bird conservation, and it is only natural that an Imperial Park such as this (see below) would also contain birds.
|-
|Gazebo puma deer Cueball with bow and talk of Palpatine in the middle of the cave.
|
:Cueball: I know it seems weird, but every Star Destroyer has one of these rooms.
:Cueball: Say what you will about Palpatine's politics, but he's a staunch supporter of the imperial parks and the Coruscant Audubon society.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b0/1608_1067x1094y_Gazebo_puma_deer_Cueball_with_bow_and_talk_of_Palpatine_in_the_middle_of_the_cave.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1068:-1093+s.png (1068, 1093)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1068:-1094+s.png (1068, 1094)]
|Y
|
|
|
|The {{w|National Audubon Society}} is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Palpatine is the evil emperor and the capital ”planet” Coruscant is a planet with city all over the solid parts of the surface. So that he is interested in keeping parks both on this planet and on all his Star Destroyers comes as a surprise...
|-

|The broad shaft going into the top of the cave.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a5/1608_1067x1097y_The_broad_shaft_going_into_the_top_of_the_cave.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1067:-1097+s.png (1067, 1097)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1068:-1096+s.png (1068, 1096)]
|
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|-
|Deer and exit below lamp coin and Black Hat in the bottom right side of the cave.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/68/1608_1069x1093y_Deer_and_exit_below_lamp_coin_and_Black_Hat_in_the_bottom_right_side_of_the_cave.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/69/1608_1069x1093y_Deer_and_exit_below_lamp_coin_and_Black_Hat_in_the_bottom_right_side_of_the_cave_no_coin.png Without coin]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1069:-1093+s.png (1069, 1093)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1071:-1093+s.png (1071, 1093)]
|
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|Black Hat is sitting in a cubby high above the ground and looks to be asleep.
|-
|Lamp coin and Black Hat in the top right side of the cave.
|
:Insects: ''Bzzzzz''

:Black Hat: Zzz
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0d/1608_1070x1095y_Lamp_coin_and_Black_Hat_in_the_top_right_side_of_the_cave.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/aa/1608_1070x1095y_Lamp_coin_and_Black_Hat_in_the_top_right_side_of_the_cave_no_coin.png Without coin]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1070:-1095+s.png (1070, 1095)]
|
|
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|In this image the coin is part of the scenery as it is the lamp the buzzing insects fly around. When it is gone it reveals a broken lamp, and an insect that had been hidden behind the coin.
|-
|Corridor from shaft to the two coins in corridors.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e1/1608_1063x1099y_Corridor_from_shaft_to_the_two_coins_in_corridors.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1065:-1099+s.png (1065, 1099)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1064:-1098+s.png (1064, 1098)]
|
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|-
|Two coins in corridors and four coin room above shaft to cave.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0b/1608_1067x1104y_Two_coins_in_corridors_and_four_coin_room_above_shaft_to_cave.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1067:-1100+s.png (1067, 1100)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1067:-1098+s.png (1067, 1098)]
|
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|-
|Chandelier room with two coins above cave.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d6/1608_1070x1098y_Chandelier_room_with_two_coins_above_cave.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1070:-1098+s.png (1070, 1098)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1071:-1098+s.png (1071, 1098)]
|
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|The coins here look like lightbulbs, although it is unclear what a chandelier is doing in a room like this.
|-
|Zoom out with dance room and basketball and slinky stair at top of hull.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f3/1608_1068x1101y_Zoom_out_with_dance_room_and_basketball_and_slinky_stair_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|Overview
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|-
|Basketball on top of Destroyer - zoom out.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1608_1065x1104y_Basket_ball_on_top_of_Destroyer_zoom_out.png Overview]
|Overview
|
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|-
|Coin close to basketball on top of Destroyer.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4e/1608_1063x1104y_Coin_close_to_basket_ball_on_top_of_Destroyer.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1065:-1104+s.png (1065, 1104)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1064:-1104+s.png (1064, 1104)]
|
|
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|
|This coin could also be something that's bouncing down the slope of the Star Destroyer hull - see below.
|-
|Basketball on top of Destroyer.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1067x1104y_Basket_ball_on_top_of_Destroyer.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1067:-1104+s.png (1067, 1104)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1066:-1104+s.png (1066, 1104)]
|
|
|Y
|
|2 Cueballs, Megan and Ponytail are playing basketball on top of the sloped hull of the Star Destroyer. This has proven to be a bad idea, as the slope of the hull has caused the basketball to bounce and roll down the slope, while Cueball runs behind it to catch it.
|-
|Dancing room with piano.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a7/1608_1069x1101y_Dancing_room_with_piano.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1069:-1101+s.png (1069, 1101)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1070:-1101+s.png (1070, 1101)]
|
|
|
|
|Possibly a reference to Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, and Oscar Levant in "An American In Paris."
|-
|Slinky staircase at top of hull.
|
:Slinky: Slink slink slink
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1c/1608_1069x1104y_Slinky_stair_case_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1069:-1104+s.png (1069, 1104)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1070:-1103+s.png (1070, 1103)]
|
|
|
|
|While it is unclear why the slinky is on the star destroyer at all, the stairs are a reference to the slinky {{w|jingle}} which says "walks down stairs..." The noise is also a reference to the creation of the name "slinky" which was based on the word slink in the dictionary.
|-
|Upside down room and Giddyayup cowboy riding the ship at top of hull.
|
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/79/1608_1073x1104y_Upside_down_room_and_Giddyayup_cowboy_riding_the_ship_at_top_of_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1072:-1104+s.png (1072, 1104)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1074:-1103+s.png (1074, 1103)]
|
|
|
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|The man on top of the hull is a reference to riding a horse and specifically an American cowboy riding a horse. The (Cueball?) is using reins to "steer" the star destroyer much the same as one would steer a horse. In addition "Giddyayup" is the command for a horse move. The upside-down room is most likely just a simple visual gag, but could also be a reference to the fact that star destroyers have artificial gravity in SW and thus any direction could be "up" depending on where you are.
|-
|'''Entire Glitch floor room.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/52/1608_Entire_Glitch_floor_room.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6b/1608_Entire_Glitch_floor_room_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/63/1608_Entire_Glitch_floor_room_and_two_close_rooms.png Including two rooms] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/dd/1608_Entire_Glitch_floor_room_and_two_close_rooms_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/49/1608_Entire_area_around_Glitch_floor_room.png Entire area around the room] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/00/1608_Entire_area_around_Glitch_floor_room_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/63/1608_Entire_Glitch_floor_room_and_two_close_rooms.png Also including two close rooms] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/dd/1608_Entire_Glitch_floor_room_and_two_close_rooms_red.png Hidden passages in red] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/49/1608_Entire_area_around_Glitch_floor_room.png Entire area around the room] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/00/1608_Entire_area_around_Glitch_floor_room_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|
|In the zoom outs the coin below the hidden glitch in the floor can be seen at the very bottom of the pictures. It is quite a drop to catch it, but if you did not expect it, it is likely you would reach it before going up again.
|-
|Bottom center of Glitch floor room with coin sign and Cueball.
|
:Large sign:
::!
::Caution:
::Glitchfloor.

:Floor signs:
::!
::!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fa/1608_1070x1089y_Bottom_center_of_Glitch_floor_room_with_coin_sign_and_Cueball.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/71/1608_1070x1089y_Bottom_center_of_Glitch_floor_room_with_coin_sign_and_Cueball_red.png Hidden passages in red]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1069:-1088+s.png (1069, 1088)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1070:-1088+s.png (1070, 1088)]
|
|
|
|
|You are warned not to step onto this glitch floor! But if you do you can drop down to yet another coin far below the Destroyer, but even farther up above the ground.
|-
|Two rooms with coins right of Glitch floor room.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/2e/1608_1074x1090y_Two_rooms_with_coins_right_of_Glitch_floor_room.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1073:-1092+s.png (1073, 1092)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1074:-1091+s.png (1074, 1091)]
|
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|-
|Cannon protruding below the hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f4/1608_1075x1088y_Canon_protruding_below_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1075:-1088+s.png (1075, 1088)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1076:-1088+s.png (1076, 1088)]
|
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|
|This cannon is a standard cannon seen on a star destroyer in star wars, and is not out of place here. It is somewhat unusual that this is on the bottom, since these cannons are generally on top though they are all over the ship, and there are turrets on the bottom of the First Order star destroyer in Force Awakens. Also the shape is more reminiscent of a real tank gun than the more square turrets in star wars, though this is probably just an effect of Randall's drawing style, rather than anything significant.
|-
|Entire area around the bridge.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/bd/1608_Entire_area_around_the_bridge.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/4b/1608_Entire_Bridge_and_rear_section.png Entire bridge area] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/f1/1608_Entire_Bridge_and_emperor.png Brdige and emperor] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c2/1608_Entire_Bridge_and_globe_of_death.png Bridge and globe of death] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/54/1608_Actual_Bridge_with_Vader_and_Tarkin.png Actual bridge] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c7/1608_Vader_twice_and_emperor_on_and_near_bridge.png Vader twice and emperor]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|
|This is the main bridge of the Star Destroyer, including the command deck. It hosts both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpantine aboard. The Globe of Death is a part of the Star Destroyer's deflector shield generators.
|-
|Ponytail with paper plane and coin below her on top hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/11/1608_1077x1107y_Ponytail_with_paper_plane_and_coin_below_her_on_top_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1078:-1106+s.png (1078, 1006)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1105+s.png (1077, 1105)]
|
|
|Y
|
|Cueball also throws out a plane in Click and Drag from the sky scraper. This also happens in the ''Sky Toucher'' in TE where it is Ponytail again.
|-
|Tarkin on the bridge and Ponytail with paper plane.
|
:Cueball: The fault, dear Tarkin, is not in our star destroyers, but in ourselves.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/2/20/1608_1077x1107y_Tarkin_on_the_bridge_and_Ponytail_with_paper_plane.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1107+s.png (1077, 1107)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1108+s.png (1077, 1108)]
|Y
|
|
|
|| This is most likely a reference to the book (then made into a movie) titled {{w|The_Fault_in_Our_Stars |"The Fault in Our Stars"}}. The title of which is a reference to a line in {{w|William Shakespeare |Shakespeare's}} play {{W|Julius Caesar (play) |Julius Ceasar}}; "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves". Grand Moff Tarkin is the commander of the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
|-
|Darth Vader talks about Steven Universe on the bridge Megan adjust antenna.
|
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move

:Darth Vader: ''Breathe''
:Darth Vader: But Steven's ''mother'' is a crystal gem,
:Darth Vader: ''Breathe'')
:Darth Vader: so he's half- Are you getting all this?
:Hairy: Yes, my Lord!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fa/1608_1077x1109y_Darth_Vaders_talks_about_Steven_Universe_on_the_bridge_Megan_adjust_antenna.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1109+s.png (1077, 1109)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1110+s.png (1077, 1110)]
|Y
|
|
|TV series: {{w|Steven Universe}}
|Darth Vader refers to Steven Universe from the TV series. His mother is a Crystal Gem, so since his father is human, he is only a half gem, which is a joke in itself. Steven and his family are located inside a room in the middle of the Destroyer. Maybe as prisoners or it could be Vader is just a big fan since he talks about them on the bridge.
|-
|Globe of Death at the top of the Destroyer.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7b/1608_1078x1111y_Globe_of_Death_at_the_top_of_the_Destroyer.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1078:-1110+s.png (1078, 1110)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1112+s.png (1077, 1112)]
|Y
|
|
|
|This structure of the Globe of death is a part of the Star Destroyer's deflector shield generator globes as can be seen in the films.
|-
|Fire system with pure oxygen and two coins room.
|
:Hairbun: In the event of a fire on one of the decks, this system will seal it off and pump in pure oxygen.
:Ponytail: Wait, ''Oxygen?'' Not a fire suppressant like-
:Hairbun: Ugh, ''boring''.

|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d0/1608_1080x1105y_Fire_system_with_pure_oxygen_and_two_coins_room.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1080:-1105+s.png (1080, 1105)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1081:-1105+s.png (1081, 1105)]
|
|
|
|
|This is a reference to a {{w|Gaseous fire suppression}} in which tanks similar to those shown are filled with an inert gas, usually nitrogen. Similar systems are referenced in [[1737: Datacenter Scale]]. This system is generally used in large server rooms, where a room with fire will be sealed off from the rest of the servers, and the inert gas will flow into the room, extinguishing the fire, at the cost of whatever was in the room. Since this could be deadly these systems are only legal in rooms with little or no human interaction. The character on the left (Possibly Megan with hair buns) starts off by describing this system, though the system on the star destroyer has the key difference of piping in oxygen, instead of nitrogen, which Ponytail questions. Megan responds "Uhh, ''Boring''." which is technically true. An Inert gas will have a little visible effect, and the fire will slowly die. Piping in oxygen, however, is not a valid way to extinguish flames, as it would feed the fire instead of extinguishing it, though, if you have an adequate seal, this might not be as much of a problem as it sounds. The fire will eventually consume all of the oxygen and die. Unfortunately, there are 3 problems with this. The first is simple: there are people on a star destroyer, and this system will kill them if they happen to be near the fire. The second is that in addition to simply feeding the fire the oxygen is explosive, which could potentially blow the doors that seal the decks, allowing the fire to spread. The third is in the wording of (Megan?); who says that it will seal off the affected ''deck'' which is SW generally refers to an entire level. While this may just be a wording error by Randall, given the humor of the rest of the system, it would not be a great leap to imagine a system that seals off a whole floor regardless of the size of the fire, killing everyone on that floor. In addition given that the Empire is evil, it is also not a stretch to believe that they would kill an entire deck for a small fire just because the alternative is boring. This kind of scenario was in fact explored in the novel {{w|Star Wars: Lost Stars}} where it is described that entire decks were destroyed during the scene in {{w|The Empire Strikes Back}} where a star destroyer chases the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field. This destruction is pointed out in the novel and dismissed, as it is in this comic.
|-
|Darth Vader’s gold bullion and Cueball and Ponytail in small room at the top of the hull.
|
:Cueball: Aha! Darth Vader's secret gold bullion reserves! We'll be rich!
:Megan: I'm not sure this is canon.
:Bags: $ $ $
:Boxes: $ $ $ $ $
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7e/1608_1080x1108y_Darth_Vaders_gold_bullion_and_Cueball_and_Ponytail_in_small_room_at_the_top_of_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1080:-1108+s.png (1080, 1108)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1079:-1109+s.png (1079, 1109)]
|Y
|
|
|
|Despots are generally known for having vast reserves of wealth hidden away secretly, often in the form of gold. Here, Megan remarks on finding Darth Vader's secret stash. This is obviously not canon, as Cueball remarks - Darth Vader's palaces in both canon and legacy storylines have been largely devoid of treasures and wealth, being mostly a place of meditation on the Dark Side.
|-
|Large crocodile near globe of death at the top of the hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/e8/1608_1081x1110y_Large_crocodile_near_globe_of_death_at_the_top_of_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1081:-1110+s.png (1081, 1110)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1079:-1111+s.png (1079, 1111)]
|
|
|
|
|Crocodiles are cold-blooded creatures, and a flat, open, sunlit space such as the top of the Star Destroyer Bridge would be a great place for a crocodile to bask in the sun to warm itself.
|-
|The Emperor Palpatine and his birds at the top of the hull.
|
:Guy: My emperor...
:Guy: We all share in your newfound enthusiasm for birdwatching.
:Guy: But normally one watches them in the wild, rather than drugging and imprisoning them in a house of stairs.
:Emperor: ''Silence.''
:Bird: Chirp
:Bird: Chirp
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6b/1608_1083x1109y_The_Emperor_Palpatine_and_his_birds_at_the_top_of_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1083:-1109+s.png (1083, 1109)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1084:-1109+s.png (1084, 1109)]
|Y
|
|
|
|House of Stairs may refer to the M. C. Escher {{w|House Of Stairs|lithograph}} with that title, but this is more likely to be a reference to the William Sleator novel {{w|House of Stairs (Sleator novel)|House Of Stairs}} (named for the Escher work) which features five teenage orphans who wake up inside an environment with similarities to that in the Escher print (but with normal gravity).
|-
|Coin behind the rear end at the top of the hull.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/01/1608_1087x1108y_Coin_behind_the_rear_end_at_the_top_of_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1087:-1108+s.png (1087, 1108)]
|
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|-
|'''Entire Prince of Persia maze.'''
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/b/b0/1608_Entire_Prince_of_Persia_maze.png Overview] [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/f/fa/1608_Entire_Prince_of_Persia_maze_with_both_exits.png Including both exits]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|Computer game: {{w|Prince of Persia}}
|Compare to this [http://cdn.wikimg.net/strategywiki/images/a/a2/Princeofpersia_dos_level1.png picture of level 1] taken from the game.
|-
|Corridor left of Prince of Persia maze.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5b/1608_1073x1101y_Corridor_left_of_Prince_of_Persia_maze.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1073:-1101+s.png (1073, 1101)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1072:-1101+s.png (1072, 1101)]
|
|
|
|
|See above.
|-
|Left entrance to Prince of Persia maze.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/6c/1608_1076x1101y_Left_entrance_to_Prince_of_Persia_maze.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1076:-1101+s.png (1076, 1101)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1101+s.png (1077, 1101)]
|
|
|
|
|See above.
|-
|Left part of Prince of Persia maze.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/03/1608_1079x1102y_Left_part_of_Prince_of_Persia_maze.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1102+s.png (1077, 1102)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1080:-1102+s.png (1080, 1102)]
|
|
|
|
|See above.
|-
|Right part and exit of Prince of Persia maze.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/1d/1608_1082x1101y_Right_part_and_exit_of_Prince_of_Persia_maze.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1082:-1101+s.png (1082, 1101)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1081:-1102+s.png (1081, 1102)]
|
|
|
|
|See above.
|-
|Right exit of Prince of Persia maze and shafts.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/42/1608_1084x1103y_Right_exit_of_Prince_of_Persia_maze_and_shafts.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1083:-1102+s.png (1083, 1102)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1083:-1103+s.png (1083, 1103)]
|
|
|
|
|See above.
|-
|Ant Queen and alarm ante room.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/10/1608_Ant_Queen_and_alarm_ante_room.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|
|In this section all rooms have the same dome shaped ceiling that goes a little below the walls of the corridors.
|-
|Corridor with alarm and trapped Cueball.
|
:Alarm: …Beep…
:Alarm: …Beep…
:Alarm: …Beep…
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/01/1608_1075x1094y_Corridor_with_alarm_and_trapped_Cueball.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1075:-1094+s.png (1075, 1094)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1074:-1094+s.png (1074, 1094)]
|
|
|
|
|Cueball appears to be trapped beneath a platform and is looking up, presumably wondering how to escape this situation. This has been made more ominous by the alarm going off nearby, which adds to the seriousness of the situation. A coin has been stored alongside some boxes nearby as well.
|-
|Ant Queen in Destroyer.
|
:Cueball: What's up?
:Ant queen: The usual. Poopin' out ants.
:Cueball: Eww.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1078x1095y_Ant_Queen_in_Destroyer.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1078:-1095+s.png (1078, 1095)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1077:-1094+s.png (1077, 1094)]
|
|
|Y
|Comic: [[1610: Fire Ants]] and [[1641: Hot Dogs]]
|The ant comic was released only a week after this comic and refers how cool ants are. Ants are also used twice in TE A zoom in on an ant is used to indicate size in ''Earth's past'' and under the ''Tree'' in that explanation there is an ant colony where one ant is much bigger than the others; an ant queen, a clear reference to the ant queen in the Destroyer. The other comic is a discussion running along exactly the same template ending in ''Eww''.

This is probably a reference to a part of Orson Scott Card's "Xenocide" in his Ender series. In it, the main character, Ender, visits a hive queen "bugger" he saved on his travels and became friends with, at a time after the queen has settled in on a new planet. At one point, Ender brings other humans to meet the queen at a time when she was giving birth to some of her drones. This is most likely meant to represent a parody of that conversation or else represent a comedic idea of his first conversation with her when she had been birthing, where Ender is alone and is speaking to the Hive Queen. In this version, when he finds out that she is in the process of birthing more ants, rather than being compassionate and understanding with the Queen (as he is in the book), Ender is weirded out like the other humans he brings along with him later.
|-
|Entire shafts from top to bottom towards the rear end.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/ce/1608_Entire_shafts_from_top_to_bottom_towards_the_rear_end.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|
|This is the longest shaft in the Destroyer, and with the other shaft going out at the rear end, it is possible to go from the top room at the emperor and out beneath in a very short time.
|-
|Coin in the longest shaft.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5a/1608_1084x1099y_Coin_in_the_longest_shaft.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1084:-1099+s.png (1084, 1099)]
|
|
|
|
|
|Might be a reference to how the Emperor fell to his first death by being thrown down a shaft in the throne room by Darth Vader onboard the 2nd Death Star in Return of the Jedi.
|-
|Cueball and Megan hanging on to each other in a shaft figuring this out.
|
:Cueball: Okay
:Cueball: We can figure this out.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/c/c4/1608_1084x1095y_Cueball_and_Megan_hanging_on_to_each_other_in_a_shaft_figuring_this_out.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1084:-1095+s.png (1084, 1095)]
|
|
|
|
|
|Possibly a reference to a similar scene in "The Emperor's New Groove", although neither character here is obviously a llama.
|-
|Zoom out on light bulb with corridor and other room.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/5/5b/1608_1084x1092y_Zoom_out_on_light_bulb_with_corridor_and_other_room.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
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|-
|Giant light bulb room.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/d/d2/1608_1084x1090y_Giant_light_bulb_room.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1084:-1090+s.png (1084, 1090)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1085:-1090+s.png (1085, 1090)]
|
|
|Y
|
|In ''The pieces everything is made of'' in TE a light bulb is used as reference for the entry on tungsten as the filament in such bulbs is made from this element.
|-
|Hairbun proposition room and Cueball losing his sandwich at the rear end.
|
:Hairbun: Use a proposition instead of a preposition if you need something to end a sentence with, baby.

:Cueball: My sandwich!
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/6/63/1608_1086x1091y_Hair_Bun_Girl_proposition_room_and_Cueball_losing_his_sandwich_at_the_rear_end.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1086:-1091+s.png (1086, 1091)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1089:-1091+s.png (1089, 1091)]
|
|
|
|
|One comment is inside the other on the outside of the Destroyer. Cueballs sandwich will fall to the ground.
|-
|Coin bouncing out from a shaft below the hull.
|
:Coin: Bounce
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/44/1608_1086x1088y_Coin_bouncing_out_from_a_shaft_below_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1086:-1088+s.png (1086, 1088)]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1086:-1090+s.png (1086, 1090)]
|
|
|
|
|In relation to the colon interpretation (see above) then this would literally be the rear of this living space ship, and the coin is the waste going out the rear entry!
|-
|Megan hanging on below the bottom of the hull.
|
:Megan Hmm.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/ee/1608_1082x1088y_Megan_hanging_on_below_the_bottom_of_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1082:-1088+s.png (1082, 1088)]
|
|
|
|
|
|Megan has found herself in a precarious situation, and is humorously underreacting by going 'Hmm'.
|-
|Zoom out on shaft and small dead end room at the rear end.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/1/11/1608_1088x1098y_Zoom_out_on_shaft_and_small_dead_end_room_at_the_rear_end.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|Zoom out on shafts and part of the rear end.
|
:(N/A)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/45/1608_1088x1105y_Zoom_out_on_shafts_and_part_of_the_rear_end.png Overview]
|Overview
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
|Coin in a small indentation corridor at the rear end.
|
:(None)
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/3/35/1608_1090x1102y_Coin_in_a_small_indentation_corridor_at_the_rear_end.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1090:-1102+s.png (1090, 1102)]
|
|
|
|
|
|It is unknown what part of the Star Destroyer it could explicitly be hidden in, however, a Star Destroyer would have more than enough surface features for such an indent to exist and have a coin inside it.
|-
|Megan wants synesthesia at the rear end at bottom of the hull.
|
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.
|[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/9/9d/1608_1090x1088y_Megan_want_synesthesia_at_the_rear_end_at_bottom_of_the_hull.png Overview]
|[http://xkcd.com/1608/1090:-1088+s.png (1090, 1088)]
|
|
|
|
|Comic: [[1213: Combination Vision Test]]
|{{w|Synesthesia}} is a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. One typical version is where numbers are perceived as having colors. This was used in the comic referenced. In this comic a wish for something makes Megan almost taste it. If she did indeed have this dysfunction, she might already have what she wished for... This is one of the rare incidences where there are two almost identically Megans in one scene.
|}

==Coins==
*There are 169 coins.
*For more details see here for [[1608: Hoverboard/Images coins|coins location]].
**The highest located coin in the game is beside the large rock on Rock Island.
**The lowest located coin is a toss-up between the one in the volcano lair, in the well, and on the rogue wave talking to Cueball. (There's also a coin under the lava but it's not at the bottom of the room.)
**On top of the eggs in the stork nest, on the far right of the image, there are ten coins. These are the most coins that can be collected in one place outside the play area.

*The Coins are not part of the drawing.
**They are added later for the game, and they are superimposed on top of the image.
***This means they are always on top of the black parts of the image.
***There are no coins located over any part of the black that you cannot pass through.
***But in more than one occasion, the coins cover some of the black parts that you can walk through.
****See example here [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/0/0b/1608_with_coin_1070_1095.png with coin] vs. [http://xkcd.com/1608/1070:-1095+s.png without coin]. The coin is here a lamp, and then when it is removed it reveals an exploded lamp and also one more insect. This means that the coins can never be hidden by anything black, and although coins can be hidden away in a secret lair, including under water or lava or holes in the Washington Monument.
****If there were any coins in these dark areas, the coins would still be shown on top of the image.

*See a picture here of the coin delivery after [[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#Reaching all the boundaries|reaching all coins and all the boundaries]].

==Technical aspects==
The game was made by [http://chromakode.com Max Goodman] who has previously worked on [[1416: Pixels]]. The source code for the game can be found [https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js here].

===Image tiles and coordinates===
As previously noted, the comic bears considerable resemblance to [[1110: Click and Drag]]. The comic is made in much the same way, with 'drawn' images "glued" together to form a large "map", with the illusion of infinite bounds made possible through space saving techniques where blank tiles are not stored and are instead painted white. The boundary between blank squares and 'drawn' squares is made clear as any white space in the normal images has a very slight grey tint. Thus, seams between images and blank spaces can be discerned.

The tiles for the map are stored as simple PNG files in the naming scheme: X:-Y+s.png. An example from the starting tile can be seen here: http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1074+s.png, with the coordinate (X, Y) coordinate (1000, 1074).

Each file is 513x513 pixels in size, one pixel is reserved as overlap to ensure seamless joining of images. The image tiles names are listed as coordinates in an X - Y grid with X in the range from 928 to 1108 and Y in the range from 928 to 1112.

Internally in the game, the position of the player is given for instance as (X: 512187, -Y: -549668) for the starting position. Then these numbers are divided by 512 and rounded down. This gives the coordinate of the tile that the hoverboard is currently in.
:(X: 512187, -Y: -549668)/512 => (X, Y) = (1000.37, -[-1073,6]) => (1000, 1074) when the numbers are rounded down.
The bottom left corner of the first tile, would thus be (1000, 1073), and the top left corner (1000, 1074) => (512000, -549888).

The collision map is encoded in the darkness of the black. Using an image manipulation program, one can easily find the secret pathways even in the zoomed out maps provided below by enhancing the contrast of the dark areas.

====Play Area used as example====
*Using the Play Area as an example some of the features mentioned in this section will be explained.
**The images used below can be seen together [[1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots#All of Play Area|here]].
*The hoverboard begins in (X, Y) = [http://xkcd.com/1608/1000:-1074+s.png (1000, 1074)].
**But even while staying within the Play Area, defined as the area where you will not be told to [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/ae/Return_to_the_play_area.PNG Return to the Play Area], you can see all or part of 20 images.
***You can move one image left and right of the starting point before reaching the walls, and one image up without getting too high. But from there you can see part of the images one step further left, right and up, and from the starting level you can see part of the black images below as well.
***This makes it a 5 times 4 images rectangle.
*This first example shows a full size image combined from these 20 images that make up the play area starting in the top left corner with image [http://xkcd.com/1608/998:-1076+s.png (998, 1076)] and finishing down the right corner with image [http://xkcd.com/1608/1002:-1073+s.png (1002, 1073)].
**Here is only the images themselves, nothing with the game parts, i.e. coins and hoverboard Cueball:
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/e/eb/1680_Play_Area_Full_Size_Images_Only.png Play Area Full Size Images Only].
*This next example shows both where the tiles are and what you see to begin with, i.e. the starting view when loading the comic to begin with. Still without any in game details.
**Here the tiles are lines out with green and the view frame is in red. From this it can be seen that the view is somewhat larger than a single image.
**More precisely the view is 1.43 times longer and 1.34 higher than a tile giving an area almost twice as big (1.93 times), but only going about 1/3 of a tile length in each direction:
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/7/7b/1680_Play_Area_Full_Size_Tiles_and_View.png Play Area Full Size Tiles and View].
*This third example shows the game version, with coins and hoverboard, but still the hole Play Area and hence also the read viewing square.
**This is included to indicate which coins can be seen to begin with and also how the view is centered around Cueball and the hoverboard.
**Cueballs center is also the center of the view. His center is defines as the line of his body in the X direction and just above his hands in the Y direction.
**The view is 12 times as high and 30 times as wide as the Cueball on hoverboard (and compared to a tile these numbers are 9.4 and 20.8 times).
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/8b/1680_Play_Area_Full_Size_Coins_Hoverboard_and_View.png Play Area Full Size Coins Hoverboard and View].
*The last and fourth example is the same as above, but again with the green tiles.
**This to indicate the size of a tile compared to Cueball
**It also shows that although there are 12 coins in the starting view, the one at the top left is clearly in the image above, and the three other at the top are grazing the top edge of the image:
***[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/a/a3/1680_Play_Area_Full_Size_Coins_Hoverboard_Tiles_and_View.png Play Area Full Size Coins Hoverboard Tiles and View].

===Functionality===
By observing page code while playing, the game grabs and displays images based on location, and subsequently clears all non-visible images. The game uses what seems to be a position syntax to retrieve the intended images live, and returns an error if such an image does not exist, such as a blank area. This technically means things could be added to the world and updated live. If the player is moving sufficiently fast or if the internet connection is slow, this means that the player can get stuck in a black area that does not load in time.

This also means that the game does not have coded top or bottom limits, so any attempt to find the ''ceiling'' of the game will be futile unless the game is tweaked. The game does however have side limits, and it is not possible to go down further than image with Y coordinate 1073 (and it goes down to 1069 in the full image), so there is a bottom limit in the game. If using a [[#Cheats and Exploits|cheat mode]] this may be different.

Opening the console will display the text: what? hoverboard not enough for you!? in the log. Activating goggles mode will cause the text 'B-)' to appear in the log.

===Bugs and errors===
*On a slow connection, it's possible to move into an 'open' area and then the black image loads in and (probably permanently, without tricks) traps you immobile.
*Sometimes the timing of the game is completely off. This can make the Cueball move extremely slowly. Or on the other extreme make him go faster so the images jumps and makes the graphic look horrible.
**This error was actually used to discover something about how you move when pressing the arrows - see under [[#Controls|Controls]].
*If the focus switches from the game to the page, the Cueball can freeze in midair. The same thing can happen if the window border overlaps the play area.

===Controls===
The keyboard controls are as follows:

*'''Go Left''' - Left arrow key, a or h
*'''Go Right''' - Right arrow key, d or l
*'''Go Up (jump or hover)''' - Up arrow key, w, or k
*'''Go Down (if gravity disabled)''' - Down arrow key, s, or j

This control scheme covers the three commonly used directional key sets: WASD a set of keys commonly used by modern games; HJKL a set of movement keys used by vi and applications which attempt to mimic vi key controls (vim); and the arrow keys, the most generic set of keys which is usually accepted by most applications which take movement as input, these were commonly used in older games.

On devices which have a touch screen and tilt sensor (portable devices like mobile phones and tablets) the controls are as follows:
*'''Go Left''' - Roll the device anticlockwise
*'''Go Right''' - Roll the device clockwise
*'''Go Up (jump or hover)''' - Tap the screen

After inspecting the source code, there appears to be no way to move down on a portable device, this is only relevant if gravity is disabled (see [[#Cheats and Exploits|Cheats and Exploits]]).

*If you keep down the left/right control you will keep moving along in that direction as long as no object blocks you.
*A jump will only take you a certain height.
**Then you drop down.
**The jump is fast to begin with, then gravity stops you and revert the direction.
**When descending again you accelerate to begin with but quickly reach a terminal velocity.
*If you jump repeatedly while keeping a left/right control down you will jump in that direction.
**But if you only jump one time, while keeping down the direction control, then you will stop moving forward after about 2.8s, from then on you will just keep falling straight down, or stop where you reached if on the ground.
**This makes quite a difference when you jump into an opening from a high structure. If the background is completely white, you cannot see that you do not continue to move forward, and will thus not be aware that you are now falling straight down, instead of going left/right.
**It can actually be quite difficult to notice as you will leave any structures that can indicate this issue very quickly.
***Of course if you notice that you land much too close to some high structure from where you base jumped, you will begin to understand. For instance falling off the floating rock, and not moving away from under neath it during that long fall.
***The timing was discovered because of one of the [[#Bugs and errors|bugs]] in the program that sometimes makes Cueball move extremely slow, so one jump takes more than 3s.
**The solution: if you wish to keep moving to either side while descending, is that after the jump, you release and repress the left/right control. Then you will continue moving in that direction as long as you do not jump again.
**As long as you continue to jump you will also keep moving laterally if you keep one of those buttons down. This is quite counter intuitive.
***This also means that when you jump up over a long distance (or continue to jump hover over the landscape), you will not have this issue, since every jump reactivates the lateral movement.
***But if you jump over a small obstacle and then just keep another arrow down, you will soon stop, which could fool you into believing that it was an obstacle on the ground that held you back.

===Cheats and Exploits===
Aside from the obvious ability to move out of bounds in the game, there are some more obscure hidden features which can't be enabled through normal gameplay, the ones found so far are as follows:

'''Modes''' are activated by opening the Javascript Console (F12 [Or Command-Alt-I in most browsers under Mac OS X] to open Developer Tools, then Console tab) and writing corresponding commands. 
'''Click to expand:'''

<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">

*'''Gandalf Mode:''' ''i.am.gandalf = true'' - jumps and runs further. displays a white gandalf hat that works well in places where the avatar can't be seen.
*'''Speedhack:''' ''explorer.opts.speed= *Value*'' - Speed hacking, with 1 = normal speed
*'''Jump Hack:''' '' explorer.opts.jumpForce= -*Value*'' - Jump hacking, with -10 = normal jump (positive values cause the hoverboard guy to move down when jumping)
*'''Mewtwo mode:''' ''mewtwo = true'' - disables gravity
*'''Noclip mode:''' ''noclip = true'' - player is able to move around the map without collision. Combine with Gandalf and Mewtwo modes for free easy map traversal.
*'''Goggles mode:''' ''ze.goggles()'' - displays a small window showing area around the player in a pixelated manner. The goggles indicate collision boundaries (where the player touches the world) in cyan lines. Black pixels that are passable (such as other characters or text) will be highlighted red (allowing secret passages to be discovered).
*'''Position Tracking:''' ''explorer.pos'' - Returns the player location to the console. Can be used to track position and test to ensure you are still moving. Must be re-entered to compare positioning.
*'''Position Setting:''' ''explorer.pos.x = *Value* or explorer.pos.y = *Value*'' - Can be used to manually set a position within the world. The start is at x: 512106, y: -549612. The left terrain bound is at x: 475210, y: -553711. The right terrain bound is at x: 567281, y: -549712. Mewtwo and Noclip modes are a must for exploring in this way.
* '''All the above:''' ''explorer.opts'' - Contains all the game's parameters. You can directly mess with ''gravity'', collision (''disableCollision''), jump force (''jumpForce'') and speed (''maxSpeed''), among others. Run ''Object.keys(explorer.opts)'' to list all available parameters you can tweak.
* '''List all coins:''' ''explorer.objects'' - Array containing the position of the 169 coins of the game.
* '''Disable tilt input:''' ''getEventListeners(window)['deviceorientation'][0].remove()'' - on Macs with motion sensor, disables tilt input which causes problems controlling the avatar

'''Getting All Coins: ''' To instantly get all coins, input the below into the console window. Does not use standard formatting of [i] to avoid conflicts with i.am.gandalf

for (var T = 0; T < explorer.objects.length; T++) {
explorer.objects[T].got = true;
}

To teleport to the next coin every time you press the left or right arrow:

var T = 0;
document.onkeydown = function(event){
if (event.keyCode == 37) { T = T-1 }
else if (event.keyCode == 39) { T = T+1 }
else { return }
T = T % explorer.objects.length;
var coin = explorer.objects[T];
explorer.pos.x = coin.x1; explorer.pos.y = coin.y1;
}

For a quick tour of all the coins:

var delayInMilliseconds = 1000; // 1 second delay between each teleport. feel free to change this.
var index = 0;
explorer.objects.forEach(function(x){
setTimeout(function(){
explorer.pos.x = x.x1;
explorer.pos.y = x.y1;
x.got = true;
explorer.frame(); // forces a redraw
},
(index + 1) * delayInMilliseconds);
index++;
});

To see a list of coin coordinates you have not yet collected:

var coinsfound = 0;
for (var T = 0; T < explorer.objects.length; T++) {
if (explorer.objects[T].got == true) {coinsfound++}
}
console.log(coinsfound);

To display the distance and direction to the closest coin (with inverted colors once you have all the coins):

<pre>
function distance(x1, y1, x2, y2) {
var dx = x2 - x1;
var dy = y2 - y1;
return Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
}

function angle(x1, y1, x2, y2) {
var dx = x2 - x1;
var dy = y2 - y1;
return Math.atan2(dy, dx) * 180 / Math.PI;
}

function renderRadar() {
var mindist = 10000000000;
var closest = {
x1:512278.0, y1:-549613.0
};
var linecolor = "blue";
for (var S = 0; S < explorer.objects.length; S++) {
var I = explorer.objects[S];
if (!I.got) {
var dist = distance(explorer.pos.x, explorer.pos.y, I.x1, I.y1);
if (dist < mindist) {
mindist = dist;
closest = I;
}
}
}
if (mindist == 10000000000) {
mindist = distance(explorer.pos.x, explorer.pos.y, closest.x1, closest.y1);
if (document.getElementById("radar").style.backgroundColor != "blue") {
document.getElementById("radar").style.backgroundColor = "blue";
}
linecolor = "deepskyblue";
} else {
if (document.getElementById("radar").style.backgroundColor != "deepskyblue") {
document.getElementById("radar").style.backgroundColor = "deepskyblue";
}
}
var ang = angle(explorer.pos.x, explorer.pos.y, closest.x1, closest.y1);
var indicator = "";
if (ang > 112.5 || ang < -112.5) {
indicator += "left";
}
if (ang < 67.5 && ang > -67.5) {
indicator += "right";
}
if (ang > -157.5 && ang < -22.5) {
indicator += " up";
}
if (ang > 22.5 && ang < 157.5) {
indicator += " down";
}
document.getElementById("radar").innerHTML = "Distance: " + mindist.toFixed(1).toString() + " ";
document.getElementById("radar").innerHTML += indicator + " (" + (((ang+270+180)%360+180)%360-180).toFixed(1).toString() + "°)";
document.getElementById("radar").innerHTML += "<div id='circle' style='border: 1px solid black; border-radius: 50px; width: 100px; height: 100px; position:absolute; top:50px; left:25px'/>";
document.getElementById("radar").innerHTML += "<div id='line' style='width: 50px; height: 1px; background-color: " + linecolor + "; position:absolute; top:100px; left:75px; transform:rotate(" + ang + "deg); transform-origin:0% 0%'/>";
}

var d = document.createElement("div");
d.id = "radar";
d.style.position = "fixed";
d.style.left = "0px";
d.style.top = "0px";
d.style.width = "150px";
d.style.height = "160px";
d.style.border = "1px solid blue";
d.style.zIndex = "2";
d.style.backgroundColor = "deepskyblue";
d.style.color = "#8f8";
document.body.appendChild(d);

setInterval(renderRadar, 50);
</pre>

To see how many coins you've collected:

var coinsfound = 0;
for (var T = 0; T < explorer.objects.length; T++) {
if (explorer.objects[T].got == true) {coinsfound++}
}

console.log(coinsfound);

To display your current coordinates:

function renderRadar2() {
document.getElementById("radar2").innerHTML = "x: " + explorer.pos.x.toFixed(1).toString() + " y: " + explorer.pos.y.toFixed(1).toString()
}

var d = document.createElement("div")
d.id = "radar2"
d.style.position = "fixed"
d.style.left = "150px"
d.style.top = "0px"
d.style.width = "150px"
d.style.height = "35px"
d.style.border = "1px solid red"
d.style.zIndex = "2"
d.style.backgroundColor = "green"
d.style.color = "#8f8"
document.body.appendChild(d)

setInterval(renderRadar2, 1000)
</div>

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:No title text]] 
[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics with animation]] 
[[Category:Dynamic comics]]
[[Category:Interactive comics]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Beret Guy]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairbun]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Blondie]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring Elon Musk]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]] 
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Video games]]
[[Category:Star Wars]]
[[Category:LOTR]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:The Lion King]] 
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Spiders]] 
[[Category:Songs]] 
[[Category:Protip]] 
[[Category:Hamster Ball]]
[[Category:Playpen balls]]
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
[[Category:Sport]] 
[[Category:Robots]] 
[[Category:Artificial Intelligence]] 
[[Category:Food]] 
[[Category:Social networking]] 
[[Category:Clickbait]] 
[[Category:Drones]] 
[[Category:Book promotion]]
[[Category:Volcanoes]]
[[Category:Ants]]
[[Category:Stilts]]

482: Height

2023-05-26T23:28:22Z

Malgond: added Category:Stilts using HotCat

{{comic
| number = 482
| date = September 29, 2008
| title = Height
| before = [[#Explanation|↓ Skip to explanation ↓]]
| image = height.png
| titletext = Interestingly, on a true vertical log plot, I think the Eiffel Tower's sides would really be straight lines.
}}
{{TOC}}

==Explanation==
''Height'' uses a {{w|logarithmic scale}} to depict the contents of the {{w|universe}} at progressively smaller distances from Earth (less high above the Earth), starting at the highest possible "point," the edge of the {{w|observable universe}}, going all the way down to the grass beneath our feet. The comic is a direct companion piece to [[485: Depth]], also released on a Monday the week after this one. ''Depth'' similarly uses the logarithmic scale to depict the Earth at progressively greater magnification (going "deeper" down), from Earth's surface (the grass) to the interior of a single proton.

The very top (edge) of the observable universe is described as being 46 billion {{w|light years}} above the Earth. The universe is "only" about {{w|Age of the universe|13.8 billion years old}}, so the {{w|cosmic background radiation}} that reaches the Earth today has also only traveled 13.8 billion light years. However, during that time, {{w|Metric expansion of space|the universe has expanded}}, so the galaxies that formed from that spot where this background radiation was emitted 13.8 billion years ago would now be 46 billion light years away. This has led to many {{w|Observable_universe#Misconceptions_on_its_size|misconceptions regarding the size}}, the most typical being that the radius of the observable universe is "only" 13.8 billion light years. See this video, ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXfhGxZFcVE How Do You Measure the Size of the Universe?]'', for a great explanation of the 46 billion light years.

To the right of the text, [[Black Hat]] stands atop the comic, having just dropped a cat off the edge head first; he is clearly going to test if the cat will land on its feet, being a jerk per his usual character. It will take some time, though, before the cat reaches Earth....

As one scrolls down, the depicted distances become less compressed, until arriving at the surface of Earth, all the while approaching a 1:1 scale with real-life distances. As shown in [[1162: Log Scale]], if [[Randall]] didn't do this, the comic would be much, MUCH longer.

In this comic, most objects that are grounded on Earth are scaled logarithmically on the vertical axes and linearly on the horizontal axes (some are scaled linearly on both axes). Displaying objects in this manner noticeably distorts their shape; the Great Pyramid, for instance, looks not like a pyramid but like a bullet.

Outside of the Earth's atmosphere, the objects are placed at their actual distances from Earth on the log scale, but their shapes are not subjected to the logarithmic scaling of Earth objects, instead appearing as they would be seen (otherwise, round objects like the sun would appear more egg shaped, with the flatter side facing upward). However, objects are still much larger or much smaller than they would be in real life, in order to allow them to be properly seen.

In the title text, Randall muses on how the inwardly-curved sides of the {{w|Eiffel Tower}} might actually become perfectly straightened when subjected to this logarithmic distortion. Although it is shown to bulge in the comic proper, this may be a consequence of Randall's rough art style rather than any reflection of his beliefs. The actual shape of the Tower approximates an {{w|Exponential function|exponential curve}}, which would indeed give a straight line on a log scale, although it was actually designed by {{w|Gustave Eiffel}} to minimize wind resistance rather than to be mathematically exact (the design is so perfect that the amount the Tower sways in the wind is less than the amount it is distorted due to thermal expansion of the sunlit side).

===Objects===
All objects are sorted from bottom to top by their maximum distance from earth for objects in a solar orbit, and their current distance for others.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Distance
! Object
! Description
|-
| 435 ×1024m
| Black Hat and cat
| Black Hat dropping a cat off the top of the comic, presumably to determine whether it will land on its feet.
|-
| 435 ×1024m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | Top of {{w|observable universe}}
|-
| 11.3 ×1024m
| {{w|Hubble Deep Field}} objects
| Objects of extremely distant galaxies found in a long-exposure photograph by of the Hubble telescope, 12 billion light-years away. The rightmost object is probably intended to be a quasar, schematically shown from the side.
|-
| 9.46 ×1024m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One billion light years
|-
| 3.1 ×1024m
| {{w|Quasar}}
| A supermassive black hole at the center of some young, distant galaxies, the energy released by stuff as it falls into them makes them the brightest known objects, the black hole eventually gets too big so the huge amounts of energy can't escape, but while they're active, they outshine entire clusters of galaxies.
|-
| 2.36 ×1024m
| {{w|Great Attractor}}
| An unusual concentration of intergalactic mass. (It could also just be [[502: Dark Flow|Your Mom]]).
|-
| 425 ×1021m
| {{w|Antennae Galaxies}} (colliding)
| A pair of colliding galaxies.
|-
| 23.6 ×1021m
| {{w|Andromeda Galaxy}}
| A sibling to our Milky Way. It is the nearest spiral galaxy to ours.
|-
| 23.6 ×1021m
| Holy crap lots of space
| There is a lot of {{w|Void (astronomy)|nearly empty space between galaxies}}.
|-
| 9.46 ×1021m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One million light years
|-
| 2.38 ×1021m
| [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cat-on-a-keyboard-in-space Cat on a keyboard in space]
| An internet meme featuring a picture of a cat sitting on a musical keyboard, superimposed on an image of space.
|-
| 1.56 ×1021m
| {{w|Magellanic Clouds}}
| These clouds are a pair of nearby dwarf galaxies.
|-
| 263 ×1018m
| Edge of Galaxy
| The edge of the {{w|Milky Way}} galaxy, the galaxy in which we reside.
|-
| 245 ×1018m
| {{w|Galactic Center}}
| The center of the Milky Way galaxy.
|-
| 61.5 ×1018m
| {{w|Crab Nebula}}
| Nebula are supernova remnants.
|-
| 14.2 ×1018m
| {{w|Horsehead Nebula}}
| A dark nebula that is part of the Orion Constellation.
|-
| 12.7 ×1018m
| {{w|Orion Nebula}}
| A nebula that is part of the Orion Constellation, just south of Orion's Belt.
|-
| 8.14 ×1018m
| {{w|Rigel}}
| The brightest star in the Orion Constellation, it is actually a triple star system known alternatively as Beta Orionis.
|-
| 6.08 ×1018m
| {{w|Betelgeuse}}
| The star Betelgeuse is displayed along with the location of {{w|Ford_Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect}} on his home planet, which orbits Betelgeuse. Ford Prefect is a fictional character from the science fiction parody {{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}.
|-
| 4.20 ×1018m
| {{w|Pleiades}}
| The Pleiades also have a derogatory remark (for those who do not know how to recognize them), as per [[66: Abusive Astronomy]]. This is probably because they are Randall's favorite astronomical entity as is stated at the very bottom of the [http://www.xkcd.com/about/ about] page on xkcd.
|-
| 2.90 ×1018m
| The [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Romulan_Neutral_Zone Romulan Neutral Zone]
| This marks the edge of the {{w|Star Trek}} Federation.
|-
| 931 ×1015m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The first radio broadcast was in January 1910. Since radio waves travel at the speed of light, and this was published in September 2008, the radio waves traveled about 98.5 light years. See {{w|Contact (1997 film)}} for a depiction of this. This is also referenced in [[1212: Interstellar Memes]].
|-
| 350 ×1015m
| {{w|Arcturus}}
| An orange giant star that is part of the Boötes constellation.
|-
| 320 ×1015m
| {{w|Pollux}}
| One of the most distinct stars in the Gemini Constellation, it is large Orange Giant with an apparent visual magnitude of 1.1
|-
| 242 ×1015m
| The edge of {{w|Federation Sector 0-0-1}}
| The sector of space assigned to Earth in {{w|Star Trek}}.
|-
| 224 ×1015m
| {{w|Iraq and weapons of mass destruction|"missing WMDs"}}
| A reference to the alleged weapons of mass destruction that were used as a pretense to mobilize the world population against Iraq and start the Iraq war.
|-
| 81.3 ×1015m
| {{w|Sirius}}
|Also known as Alpha Canis Majoris or the Dog Star, it is actually a binary system of stars consisting of a main sequence white star and a small white dwarf.
|-
| 56.6 ×1015m
| {{w|Barnard's Star}}
| Barnard's Star is a very small red dwarf that is of great interest to astronomers as an achievement in the SIM ({{w|Space Interferometry Mission}}) to find a celestial object out of solar system that is as small as 3 earth masses.
|-
| 41.3 ×1015m
| {{w|Alpha Centauri}}
| Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to our planet.
|-
| 30.9 ×1015m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One {{w|parsec}} (= 3.26 light-years).
|-
| 9.46 ×1015m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | One {{w|light-year}}.
|-
| 15.0 ×1015m
| {{w|Oort cloud}}
| A halo of ice balls surrounding our solar system, but missing the {{w|Kuiper belt}} between Neptune and the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is only theorized to exist, with no confirmed direct observations, so Randall has written a question mark (?) next to this region of the graph.
|-
| 350 ×1012m
| {{w|Bupkis}}
| Yiddish for "nothing." Only a handful of objects are known to orbit between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.
|-
| 55.0 ×1012m
| A comet that will destroy the Earth in late 2063.
| To coincide with the latest biblically-based prophesy for the [http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p971105.htm end of the world].
|-
| 19.5 ×1012m
| {{w|Voyager 1}}
| An early space probe. Distance correct as of 20th Nov 2014, click [http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/where/ here] to see NASA's live distance counter.
|-
| 16.7 ×1012m
| {{w|Pioneer 10}}
| Listed distance is an estimate based on {{w|Pioneer_10#Current_status|this information}}.
|-
| 17.7 ×1012m
| {{w|Pioneer 11}}
| By the similarity in appearance to Pioneer 10, this unlabeled probe must be Pioneer 11. Listed distance is an estimate based on {{w|Pioneer_11#Current_status|this information}}.
|-
| 14.5 ×1012m
| {{w|Eris (dwarf planet)|Eris}}
| One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object}}s now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. The "All hail Discordia!" after Eris is a reference to {{w|Discordianism}}, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek religion based around the goddess Eris. The distance is the maximum distance from Earth.
|-
| 7.50 ×1012m
| {{w|Pluto}}
| One of a pair of {{w|Trans-Neptunian object}}s now classified as {{w|dwarf planet}}s. Pluto was originally classified as the 9th planet of the Solar system. Many people were appalled when it was suddenly degraded to dwarf planet. Obviously Randall does not think much of these people, thus the comment: ''Not a planet. Neener neener''. The distance is the maximum distance of Pluto from Earth.
|-
| 4.70 ×1012m
| {{w|Neptune}}
| Neptune is displayed here with its moons. Neptune is the eighth and final planet in our solar system.
|-
| 3.20 ×1012m
| {{w|Uranus}}
| Uranus is displayed here with its moons. Uranus is the seventh planet in our solar system.
|-
| 1.67 ×1012m
| {{w|Saturn}}
| Saturn is displayed along with its moons. One of Saturn's moons, most likely {{w|Enceladus}}, is labeled as a potential location to find life. Enceladus was known in 2008 to have a possible subsurface ocean and active geysers, and a paper co-authored by well-known planetary scientist Caroline Porco in Astrobiology during that year (when the comic was published) spelt out the case for searching for life there (McKay et al. 2008 "The Possible Origin and Persistence of Life on Enceladus and Detection of Biomarkers in the Plume," Astrobiology 8(5):909-919). In 2015, the {{w|Cassini probe}} sampled material thought to be from Enceladus' geysers, and scientists have found evidence that its subsurface ocean closely resembles a particular kind of deep sea hydrothermal environment on Earth known to harbor life.

A more distant possibility is that Randall is referencing Saturn's largest (and much more well known moons) {{w|Titan (moon)|Titan}}, the only known moon to have an atmosphere and lakes. It was long predicted that there may be bodies of liquid on the surface filled with liquid methane and ethane (Titan is too cold for liquid water and life as we know it, but ethane and methane remain a liquid at those temperatures). There is some speculation that exotic forms of life based on extremely cold exotic chemistries may form in such conditions, with liquid hydrocarbons playing the role of the solvent (the role water plays in terrestrial life).
|-
| 928 ×109m
| {{w|Jupiter}}
| Jupiter is displayed along with its moons. One of Jupiter's moons, {{w|Europa (moon)|Europa}}, is labeled as a potential location to find life. Europa may be covered by a deep ocean of water found under a layer of ice many kilometers thick. Some hypothesize that life could have formed in such oceans.
|-
| 222 ×109m
| Asteroids
| The {{w|Asteroid|Asteroid belt}} contains a spaceship from {{w|Asteroids (video game)}}
|-
| 133 ×109m
| {{w|Mars}}
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits with a maximum distance of 401 million km and a minimum of 54.6 million km.
|-
| 114 ×109m
| {{w|Venus}}
| Note the path, reflecting the fact that their distances from Earth vary as the planets move in their orbits with a maximum distance of 261 million km and a minimum of 37.7 million km.
|-
| 138 ×109m
| {{w|Mercury}}
| Mercury is the innermost planet in our solar system. The distance shown is the maximum distance from Earth.
|-
| 149 ×109m
| {{w|Sun}}
| The Sun is the star at the center of our solar system, around which the Earth and the other planets orbit.
|-
| 16.3 ×109m
| {{w|Discovery One}}
| The Discovery One from {{w|2001: A Space Odyssey}}, referring to the quote "open the pod bay door, HAL." Also may be a reference to [[375: Pod Bay Doors]].
|-
| 9.43 ×109m
| Planet Express
| The spaceplane is most likely the Planet Express from {{w|Futurama}}, where Fry once discussed "a big heaping bowl of salt."
|-
| 400 ×106m
| Human Altitude Record
| Achieved by the team of {{w|Apollo 13}} approximately 100 km higher than the remaining Apollo missions.
|-
| 384 ×106m
| {{w|Moon}}
| The Moon is the Earth's only natural satellite.
|-
| 90.4 ×106m
| {{w|Snoop Dogg}}
| A tongue-in-cheek reference to a rapper notorious for smoking marijuana, shown as having the second-highest altitude record. Someone who is taking drugs is said to be getting high.
|-
| 60.5 ×106m
| {{w|Space elevator}}
| A proposed method of transporting cargo or people into orbit, consisting of a large mass beyond geosynchronous orbit, a station at the geosynchronous point, a cable connecting it to the Earth, and a climber that can scale the cable. Space elevators are also seen in [[697: Tensile vs. Shear Strength]] and [[536: Space Elevators]].
|-
| 42.1 ×106m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | {{w|Geosynchronous orbit|Geosynchronous Orbit}}
|-
| 20.2 ×106m
| {{w|GPS (satellite)|GPS Satellites}}
| GPS satellites are used for global positioning.
|-
| 3.94 ×106m
| {{w|Lunar Lander}}
| The quote is a reference to {{w|Contact (1997 film)}}, where the main character Ellie Arroway after witnessing a celestial light show up close says "Poetry! They should've sent a poet."
|-
| 800 ×103m
| {{w|Space debris|Space Junk}}
| There is a large quantity of defunct objects in orbit around the Earth. Amongst other things, this includes old satellites, rocket stages, and fragments from collisions or disintegration. Space junk is also referenced in [[1242: Scary Names]] under the title {{w|Kessler syndrome}}.
|-
| 422.5 ×103m
| {{w|International Space Station}}
| The ISS (International Space Station) is a multinational effort to put a research vessel in space. It is currently the largest artificial object in Earth's orbit, as well as the location of the longest continuous human presence in space.
|-
| 100 ×103m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | The {{w|Edge of space|official edge of space}} as defined by the {{w|Kármán line}}.
|-
| 76.0 ×103m
| {{w|Meteors}}
| Meteors are chunks of rock (usually asteroids) that burn up in the atmosphere, producing the bright light associated with them. If they are large enough to hit the ground, they become meteorites, which is why Munroe labeled them only in the upper atmosphere.
|-
| 25.0 ×103m
| {{w|High-altitude balloon|High-altitude balloons}}
| Unmanned balloons, typically filled with helium or hydrogen. The current altitude record was set in 2002 by a balloon named BU60-1 that reached 53,000m.
|-
| 16.1 ×103m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/10 ATM = 0.1 {{w|Atmospheric pressure|atmosphere of pressure}}
|-
| 12.0 ×103m
| {{w|Airliner|Airliners}}
| This is a typical cruising altitude of jet aircraft, equating to roughly 40,000 feet. (Aircraft altitude tends to be specified in feet rather than metres (yay!?))
|-
| 8.84 ×103m
| {{w|Mount Everest}}
| The Earth's highest mountain, located in the {{w|Himalayas|Himalayan mountain range}} in South Asia.
|-
| 8.00 ×103m
| {{w|Cory Doctorow}}
| Cory Doctorow is a [[:Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow|recurring theme]] in xkcd. He was first seen in a balloon in [[239: Blagofaire]].
|-
| 6.34 ×103m
| {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia disaster}}
| The {{w|Space Shuttle Columbia}} and its seven-member crew were lost when it disintegrated at [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6v16AgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA7&ots=LDKQ3nsNHs&dq=shuttle%20columbia%20altitude&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q=shuttle%20columbia%20altitude&f=false approximately 63,400m] in 2003. This number is inconsistent with the height of the graph by a factor of 10 (probably a mistype by Randall).
|-
| 6.00 ×103m
| {{w|Helicopter}}
| Though the record for helicopter altitude (without payload) is 12,442m, normal flying is usually performed much lower. In the US, 6000m is into {{w|Class A airspace}}, which is restricted and requires flight under {{w|Instrument Flight Rules}}.
|-
| 6.00 ×103m
| {{w|Cloud}}
| Though not actually labeled, there are a couple of clouds shown. While different cloud types vary in height, 6000m is roughly in the middle of the height range for [http://weatherfaqs.org.uk/node/21 clouds in temperate regions].
|-
| 5.49 ×103m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 1/2 ATM = 0.5 {{w|Atmospheric pressure|atmosphere of pressure}}
|-
| 1.78 ×103m
| [[Cueball]]
| Apparently still using Python as shown in comic [[353: Python]].
|-
| 800 ×100m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 800 meters
|-
| 800 ×100m
| {{w|Burj Khalifa|Burj Dubai}}
| Now known as the Burj Khalifa, it is the tallest building in the world. This was also a main feature in [[1110: Click and Drag]].
|-
| 500 ×100m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 500 meters
|-
| 400 ×100m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 400 meters
|-
| 325 ×100m
| {{w|Eiffel Tower}}
| A famous landmark in Paris, France.
|-
| 300 ×100m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 300 meters
|-
| 200 ×100m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 200 meters
|-
| 150 ×100m
| Kite
| Kite string is commonly sold in large spools; a nice thick spool will probably hold 150 meters. Kites are a [[:Category:Kites|recurring theme]] in xkcd; for instance, see [[235: Kite]].
|-
| 140 ×100m
| {{w|Great Pyramid of Giza}}
| One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is located in Egypt.
|-
| 120 ×100m
| {{w|Pop fly}}
| In {{w|Baseball}}, a 'Pop Fly' is when the batter mis-hits the baseball, which then follows a tall arc deep into the infield where it's easy picking for the other team to catch on its way down. The highest recorded pop fly, not including those that landed in foul territory, was 172 meters.
|-
| 115 ×100m
| {{w|Redwood Tree|Redwood trees}}
| The tallest trees in the world. At 115.61 m (379.3 ft), {{w|Hyperion (tree)|Hyperion}}, a Coast Redwood, holds the record for the tallest tree in the world.
|-
| 100 ×100m
| colspan="2" align="center" style="background: #ffdead;" | 100 meters
|-
| 20.0 ×100m
| {{w|Oak}}
| While oaks may grow to be in excess of 40m in height, heights of around 20m are more typical. The person in the tree saying, "Hey, squirrels!" is a reference to [[167: Nihilism]].
|-
| 16.4 ×100m
| Tallest stilts
| The tallest {{w|stilts}} recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records (as of November 2006) were 16.4 meters, or nearly 54 feet. See also [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/8/89/1608_1038x1095y_Hamsterball_and_stilts_room.png these tall stilts] from [[1608: Hoverboard]].
|-
| 13.0 ×100m
| {{w|Brachiosaurus|Brachiosaur}}
| A large genus of dinosaur.
|-
| 8.00 ×100m
| {{w|Giraffe}}
| The tallest living terrestrial animal, with fully grown adults reaching in excess of 5 m. While labeled 8m in the comic, the [http://www.big-animals.com/the-giraffe-the-worlds-tallest-animal/ record] for height is reported at 5.8m. Giraffes have been used by Randall for measuring heights, most prominently in the ''[[what if? (blog)|what if?]]'' ''{{what if|44|High Throw}}''.
|-
| 1.70 ×100m
| {{w|Human height|Folks}}
| Determining an average height of the world population is fraught with complications, but as a ballpark figure, 1.7m is fairly accurate.
|}

==Transcript==
:'''Top of observable universe'''
:[Black Hat is standing on top, throwing a black kitty down.]
:Black Cat: Mrowl!
:[Map of the universe from observable universe to Earth. Each area of item is labeled. Labels left to right, up to down:]
:(46 billion light years up)
::Hubble Deep Field Objects
:-One billion light years-
::Great Attractor
::Antennae Galaxies (colliding)
::Andromeda
::Holy crap lots of space
:-One million light years-
::Magellanic Clouds
::Edge of galaxy
::Galactic center
::Crab Nebula
::Orion Nebula
::Horsehead Nebula
::Romulan neutral zone
::The Pleiades, duh!
::Rigel
::Betelgeuse
::Ford Prefect
:[Three arrows are pointing up above three lines with the following label:]
:-Expanding shell of radio transmissions-
::[Above a dotted line:]
::Edge of federation sector 0-0-1
::Pollux
::Arcturus
::Missing WMDs
::Sirius
::Barnard's Star
::Alpha Centauri
:-One parsec-
:-One light year-
::Oort Cloud (?)
::Bupkis
::Comet which will destroy Earth in late 2063
::Pioneer 10
::Voyager I
::Eris (All hail Discordia!)
::Pluto (Not a planet. Neener neener.)
::Neptune
::Uranus
::Saturn
::[Two arrows point to two moons, one next to each of the planets above and below.]
::<-- Life -->
::Jupiter
::Asteroids
::Mars
::Venus
::Sun
::Mercury
::Spaceship Planet Express: Hey, a heaping bowl of salt!
::Spaceship Discovery One: Open the fridge door, Hal.
::Moon
::Human altitude record (Apollo 13)
::2nd place: Snoop Dogg
::Space elevator - One of these days, promise!
::Geosynchronous Orbit
::GPS satellites
::Lunar lander: In retrospect, they shouldn't have sent a poet. I have no idea how to land.
::International Space Station
::Space junk
:-Official edge of space (100 km)-
::Meteors
:-1/10 ATM-
::High altitude balloons
::Airliners
::Shuttle Columbia lost
:-1/2 ATM-
::Cory Doctrow
::Everest
::Helicopters (6000 m)
::Cueball: Woo Python!
::[A vertical scale is drawn along the right side of the picture, starting at 1 km and getting progressivly smaller and smaller.]
:1 km
:-800 m-
::Burj Dubai (~800 m)
:500
:400
::Eiffel Tower (325 m)
:200
::Kites
::Great Pyramid (140 m)
::Pop fly
::Redwood (115 m)
:100m
::Oak (20 m)
::A person in the oak: Hey squirrels!
::Tallest stilts
::Brachiosaur (13 m)
::Giraffe (8 m)
::[Megan and Cueball holding the kite are labeled:]
::Folks
:'''The observable universe, from top to bottom'''
::~On a log scale~
::Sizes are not to scale, but heights above the Earth's surface are accurate on a log scale. (That is, each step up is double the height.)

==Trivia==
*A print version of this comic is available in the [https://store.xkcd.com/products/height-poster xkcd store].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Illustrations of scale]]
[[Category:Comics with inverted brightness]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cory Doctorow]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Space probes]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Elevators]] 
[[Category:Baseball]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Giraffes]]
[[Category:Squirrels]] 
[[Category:Programming]] 
[[Category:Kites]]
[[Category:Star Trek]]
[[Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]
[[Category:Stilts]]

Talk:2765: Escape Speed/Tables

2023-05-17T23:27:36Z

Malgond: Created page with "====How to present information==== There was some discussion about what form (a list, a table, whatever) sha..."

====How to present information====

There was some [[Talk:2765: Escape Speed#Another attempt to explain EVERYTHING|discussion]] about what form (a list, a table, whatever) shall be used to list and explain everything in the game. I propose to discuss what ''goals'' we want to achive first, then find a suitable form. Some goals may be hard to achieve simultaneously in one particular form. There may be more than one form of presentation and organization, but it may be hard to kep in sync. Some goals mentioned by inerested editors were:
* Make a list all the planets and what can be found on them
* Make a list all items and powerups
* Have the list of collectible items clear and easily accessible, so a player can quickly verify if he/she got everything
* Have everything explained – references (in-game, to other xkcd comics, external), puns, dialogues etc.
-- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 23:27, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

2765: Escape Speed/Tables

2023-05-17T23:13:32Z

Malgond: /* Table of planets */

*Here the long tables needed for the explanation of the interactive comic [[2765: Escape Speed]] could be moved.

===Table of planets===
{{incomplete|
'''This is a different attempt to list and explain all the planets and other objects that have gravity and can be landed upon and explored'''.

The description and explanations may be incomplete or incorrect. Please help improve them. Try to keep separate the ''description'' (i.e. how the planet looks and what general features it has) and ''explanation'' (i.e. what the name and look represent, what they refer to both in the real and fictional worlds and what XKCD comics may have been a source or an inspiration. Please describe the planets only, not the objects that can be found on them.
}}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name <code>code-name</code>
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet''' <code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin''' <code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet''' <code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet''' <code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki''' <code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship''' <code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field''' <code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn''' <code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| The planet resembles Saturn with its rings, however it is translucent: a soccer ball can bee seen inside. One of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| '''Andal''' <code>platform-planet</code>
| (12048, 14048)
| To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top.
| This is a small partly rocky and partly grassy planet with a strange T-shaped tower.
| A reference to ''{{w|Animorphs}}'' book series featuring fictional sapient species of [https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Andalite Andalites]. Two such (or similar) creatures can be found on the planet. In the original books, the planet the Andalites come from is unnamed.
|-
| '''Projection of Earth''' <code>earth-map</code>
| (-15808, 22192)
| To get there by follow the sign on the hollow planet or launch from the Earth map monument on Origin.
| The planet is shaped like a huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth. The player's spaceship can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land. Some straights between islands are to narrow for the ship to pass, especially in the {{w|Southeast Asia}} area. Some {{w|mediterranean seas}} are also inaccessible.
| Probably a reference to [[977: Map Projections]] or, more generally, to the Randall's obsession about [[:Category:Maps|maps]].
|-
| '''Voyager 1''' <code>voyager-1</code>
| (1606, -14282)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spiral landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2''' <code>voyager-2</code>
| (10682, -5172)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spider landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 2}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''SafetySat''' <code>safetysat</code>
| (17024, 1024)
| To get here, launch from the cell tower on Origin.
| A cube satellite with an absurd set of assorted objects on board.
| This is a reference to [[1992: SafetySat]].
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton''' <code>space-shuttle</code>
| (-30200, 14576)
| To get here, launch from the Shuttle Skeleton landmark on Origin or in the northwestern direction from Alaska on the Projection of Earth.
| The planet looks like an outline of the space shuttle with a strange skeleton inside.
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]].
|-
| '''Giant Spider''' <code>spider</code>
| (26982, -8714)
| To get here, launch from the spider landmark on Origin.
| The object is a giant spider floating in space with eight people standing on top of his legs.
| [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] is a recurring theme on xkcd.
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star''' <code>diffraction</code>
| (-19944, 11240)
| To get here, launch from the back of the left "hand" of the Shuttle Skeleton or the north of Alaska.
| The object is a star with very long spikes.
| This is a reference to [[2762: Diffraction Spikes]].
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth''' <code>earth-roche</code> ''and'' <code>normal-moon</code>
| (-9952, -3952)
| To get there, launch from the like-shaped statue on Origin.
| This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard.
|
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet''' <code>dark-matter</code>
| (-2892, 2640)
| To get here, launch from the goal on the half of the field with just one person on it on Spacetime Soccer Field.
| This is a small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times.
|
{{w|Dark matter}} is a hypothetical form of {{w|matter}} sought by {{w|Astrophysics|astrophycists}} as a possible cause of behavior of {{w|Galaxy|galaxies}}, which cannot be explained by the current theory of {{w|gravity}} and observations. The anomalies would be explained if there was extra {{w|mass}} in the galaxies, which is not observed, but is theorized as dark matter presence. The dark matter is named this way not because it has some dark color, but because it supposedly does not interact (or interacts very weakly) with {{w|electromagnetic field}}, therefore does not emit {{w|light}} and can't be seen.

This is also a reference to [[2186: Dark Matter]]
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet''' <code>gravity-qwantz</code>
| (20000, 11000)
| To get here, launch from the dinosaur on Origin or from the Andalites on Andal.
| It's a big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times.
|
This is a reference to the 1993 {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|''Jurassic Park''}} film and the related {{w|Jurassic Park|media franchise}}. It contains images of dinosaurs taken from the [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaurs] web comic, which, similarly to xkcd, uses a random string of letters for its domain name: <code>quantz.com</code>. It also reflects Randal's avid interest in [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]]. This is an exact copy of the Dinosaur Planet from [[2712: Gravity]].
|-
| '''Comet 67P''' <code>67p</code>
| (18048, -11152)
| To get here, launch from the duck next to the 'Caution: long vertical drop' sign on Origin.
| This is a small, potato-shaped body, modelled after the {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}} comet.
|
This is a reference to the 2004–2016 {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} spacecraft mission, which was the first to place a lander ({{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}}) on a comet core. The mission was also commemorated in [[1446: Landing]] and the spacecraft are mentioned in [[1402: Harpoons]] and [[1740: Rosetta]].
|-
| '''What If? Planet''' <code>gravity-earth</code>
| (22000, 34000)
| To get here, launch from the two people explaining where Boston is on Origin, the left of Stonehenge on the Round Planet, or the left rim of the Guitar Ship.
| This is a huge, round planet with many bodies of water. The planet contains several scenes from ''[[what if]]? '' and [[2712: Gravity]]. Megan and Cueball are floating inside a small space in the center of the planet.
| This is an almost exact copy of the Earth planet from [[2712: Gravity]], however a few scenes and all text were removed.
|-
| '''Subway Planet''' <code>subway-planet</code> ''and'' <code>black-hole-3</code>
| (-46000, -24000)
| To can get there take off from the "secret glade" item next to the the bush where someone says "Shhh" on Origin.
|
This is a huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from [[1196: Subways]]. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washington, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.
|
This is a key planet to solve the puzzle in the game, and contains several out of many in-game references to {{w|Boston}} (in many meanings of the name) and the {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}, which currently is located in {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts}}, but was founded in 1861 in Boston.

Obviously, it's also a reference to [[1196: Subways]]
|-
| '''Boston Planet''' <code>mbta</code>
| (-42000, 8000)
| To get here, launch from the back of the Shuttle Skeleton.
|
This is a big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names.
|
This is the other key planet to the game puzzle. It is apparently the round part ripped off the Subway Planet, but drawn not to scale. The tunnels inside the planet roughly correspond to the Boston part of the scheme in [[1196: Subways]], but with few additions (e.g. Union Sq, Mattapan). The codename comes from the abbreviation of {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}.
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere''' ''from'' <code>ring-1</code> ''to'' <code>ring-36</code>
|
| To get here, launch from anywhere and keep avoiding planets until you hit it.
|
Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a thick enormous ring called Crystal Sphere. Both the interior and exterior edges of the Sphere are almost smooth, but have a few dents. There's a wide navigable crack leading out of the Sphere, which sides are rugged and riddled with broken planks, similarily to the Boston hole in the Subwau Planet. The gravity increases significantly as the spaceship goes through the crack, it gradually feels the pull from the parts of the sphere it has left. It is not possible to leave the Sphere without the hyperdrive, however having collected all the engine upgrades inside the Sphere one can barely reach the outer surface, but moving along is very difficult. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it.
|
The Crystal Sphere may be a reference to {{w|The Crystal Spheres}}, a short story by {{w|science fiction}} author {{w|David Brin}}, which suggests that each star with habitable planets in the universe is surrounded by a crystal sphere that can be broken only from the inside and is otherwise completely impenetrable.

It may also be a reference to {{w|celestial spheres}}, an early concept trying to explain apparent movement of planets and stars.
|-
| '''Star Destroyer''' ''from'' <code>star-destroyer-a</code> ''to'' <code>star-destroyer-i</code>
| (18192, -130000)
| To get here, launch from the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|
This is a gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship. Below it, down a stream of torpedoes fired from a turred, there's a much smaller starhip.
|
This is a reference to {{w|Star Destroyer}}s and the {{w|Tantive IV|CR90 Corellian corvette}}, spaceships from the fictional ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe.

The whole scene is copied from [[1608: Hoverboard]], with the only difference being that {{w|Darth Vader}}'s dialogue was changed from referencing {{w|Steven Universe}} to {{w|The Murderbot Diaries}}.
|-
| '''Click and Drag Planet''' <code>clickdrag-nw</code>, <code>clickdrag-ne</code>, <code>clickdrag-sw</code>, ''and'' <code>clickdrag-se</code>
| (-31808, 111808)
| To get here, launch from the bow or stern of the Star Destroyer tangentially to the Crystal Sphere to orbit it and keep the stars in the background moving horizontally on the screen until you see a dot around the spaceship guiding you.
|
The planet is huge, larger than any other in the game world, but smaller than the Star Destroyer. It is located outside the Crystal Sphere roughly opposite the Star Destroyer. It is mostly round, with many landscape features and scenes partly copied from [[1110: Click and Drag]], but arrayed in a circular, instead of linear shape. What's missing in comparison to the Click and Drag comic, is a few of the scenes, some textual content like dialogues (leaving persons intact), the underground parts, upper parts of the very high objects, and objects high above the surface.
|
|}

===Table of Items===

etc... Work in progress

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-17T23:02:52Z

Malgond:

=== Planets ===

[[2765: Escape Speed/Tables#Table of planets|Moved!]]

=== Objects ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are {{w|List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among}} the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's {{w|escape velocity}}. They have also executed two {{w|gravity assist}} maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| {{w|5G}} is a modern emerging standard for {{w|cellular networks}} promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable {{w|Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem}} – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the {{w|Gateway Arch}} located in {{w|St. Louis}}, {{w|Missouri}}. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect {{w|Eero Saarinen}}, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the {{w|American frontier}} and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| {{w|Wren}}s are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| {{w|Tumbleweed}} is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| {{w|Marsh wren}} is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song ''{{w|More Than a Feeling}}'' by the {{w|Boston_(band)|Boston}} rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| {{w|Meteorite}}s are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a {{w|meteoroid}} or a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}} instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular {{w|Charizard|character}} from the {{w|Pokémon}} media franchise. {{w|Holography|Holographic}} {{w|business card}}s are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The {{w|Oberth effect}} is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American {{w|The Core|science fiction disaster film}}.

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, {{w||shell theorem}}, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
{{w|Lagrange point}}s are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
{{w|Heavy water}} is a form of water that contains only {{w|deuterium}} (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common {{w|Hydrogen|hydrogen-1}} atoms. It is approximately 10% {{w|Density|denser}} than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from {{w|Outer space|space}} (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episode V ''{{w|The Empire Strikes Back}}''. In the original context the starships were attacking {{w|Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT}} four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|


|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" |
|
|
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|

|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

2765: Escape Speed/Tables

2023-05-17T23:01:06Z

Malgond: /* Table of planets */

*Here the long tables needed for the explanation of the interactive comic [[2765: Escape Speed]] could be moved.

===Table of planets===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name <code>code-name</code>
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet''' <code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin''' <code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet''' <code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet''' <code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki''' <code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship''' <code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field''' <code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn''' <code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| The planet resembles Saturn with its rings, however it is translucent: a soccer ball can bee seen inside. One of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| '''Andal''' <code>platform-planet</code>
| (12048, 14048)
| To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top.
| This is a small partly rocky and partly grassy planet with a strange T-shaped tower.
| A reference to ''{{w|Animorphs}}'' book series featuring fictional sapient species of [https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Andalite Andalites]. Two such (or similar) creatures can be found on the planet. In the original books, the planet the Andalites come from is unnamed.
|-
| '''Projection of Earth''' <code>earth-map</code>
| (-15808, 22192)
| To get there by follow the sign on the hollow planet or launch from the Earth map monument on Origin.
| The planet is shaped like a huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth. The player's spaceship can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land. Some straights between islands are to narrow for the ship to pass, especially in the {{w|Southeast Asia}} area. Some {{w|mediterranean seas}} are also inaccessible.
| Probably a reference to [[977: Map Projections]] or, more generally, to the Randall's obsession about [[:Category:Maps|maps]].
|-
| '''Voyager 1''' <code>voyager-1</code>
| (1606, -14282)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spiral landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2''' <code>voyager-2</code>
| (10682, -5172)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spider landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 2}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''SafetySat''' <code>safetysat</code>
| (17024, 1024)
| To get here, launch from the cell tower on Origin.
| A cube satellite with an absurd set of assorted objects on board.
| This is a reference to [[1992: SafetySat]].
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton''' <code>space-shuttle</code>
| (-30200, 14576)
| To get here, launch from the Shuttle Skeleton landmark on Origin or in the northwestern direction from Alaska on the Projection of Earth.
| The planet looks like an outline of the space shuttle with a strange skeleton inside.
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]].
|-
| '''Giant Spider''' <code>spider</code>
| (26982, -8714)
| To get here, launch from the spider landmark on Origin.
| The object is a giant spider floating in space with eight people standing on top of his legs.
| [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] is a recurring theme on xkcd.
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star''' <code>diffraction</code>
| (-19944, 11240)
| To get here, launch from the back of the left "hand" of the Shuttle Skeleton or the north of Alaska.
| The object is a star with very long spikes.
| This is a reference to [[2762: Diffraction Spikes]].
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth''' <code>earth-roche</code> ''and'' <code>normal-moon</code>
| (-9952, -3952)
| To get there, launch from the like-shaped statue on Origin.
| This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard.
|
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet''' <code>dark-matter</code>
| (-2892, 2640)
| To get here, launch from the goal on the half of the field with just one person on it on Spacetime Soccer Field.
| This is a small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times.
|
{{w|Dark matter}} is a hypothetical form of {{w|matter}} sought by {{w|Astrophysics|astrophycists}} as a possible cause of behavior of {{w|Galaxy|galaxies}}, which cannot be explained by the current theory of {{w|gravity}} and observations. The anomalies would be explained if there was extra {{w|mass}} in the galaxies, which is not observed, but is theorized as dark matter presence. The dark matter is named this way not because it has some dark color, but because it supposedly does not interact (or interacts very weakly) with {{w|electromagnetic field}}, therefore does not emit {{w|light}} and can't be seen.

This is also a reference to [[2186: Dark Matter]]
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet''' <code>gravity-qwantz</code>
| (20000, 11000)
| To get here, launch from the dinosaur on Origin or from the Andalites on Andal.
| It's a big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times.
|
This is a reference to the 1993 {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|''Jurassic Park''}} film and the related {{w|Jurassic Park|media franchise}}. It contains images of dinosaurs taken from the [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaurs] web comic, which, similarly to xkcd, uses a random string of letters for its domain name: <code>quantz.com</code>. It also reflects Randal's avid interest in [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]]. This is an exact copy of the Dinosaur Planet from [[2712: Gravity]].
|-
| '''Comet 67P''' <code>67p</code>
| (18048, -11152)
| To get here, launch from the duck next to the 'Caution: long vertical drop' sign on Origin.
| This is a small, potato-shaped body, modelled after the {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}} comet.
|
This is a reference to the 2004–2016 {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} spacecraft mission, which was the first to place a lander ({{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}}) on a comet core. The mission was also commemorated in [[1446: Landing]] and the spacecraft are mentioned in [[1402: Harpoons]] and [[1740: Rosetta]].
|-
| '''What If? Planet''' <code>gravity-earth</code>
| (22000, 34000)
| To get here, launch from the two people explaining where Boston is on Origin, the left of Stonehenge on the Round Planet, or the left rim of the Guitar Ship.
| This is a huge, round planet with many bodies of water. The planet contains several scenes from ''[[what if]]? '' and [[2712: Gravity]]. Megan and Cueball are floating inside a small space in the center of the planet.
| This is an almost exact copy of the Earth planet from [[2712: Gravity]], however a few scenes and all text were removed.
|-
| '''Subway Planet''' <code>subway-planet</code> ''and'' <code>black-hole-3</code>
| (-46000, -24000)
| To can get there take off from the "secret glade" item next to the the bush where someone says "Shhh" on Origin.
|
This is a huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from [[1196: Subways]]. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washington, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.
|
This is a key planet to solve the puzzle in the game, and contains several out of many in-game references to {{w|Boston}} (in many meanings of the name) and the {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}, which currently is located in {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts}}, but was founded in 1861 in Boston.

Obviously, it's also a reference to [[1196: Subways]]
|-
| '''Boston Planet''' <code>mbta</code>
| (-42000, 8000)
| To get here, launch from the back of the Shuttle Skeleton.
|
This is a big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names.
|
This is the other key planet to the game puzzle. It is apparently the round part ripped off the Subway Planet, but drawn not to scale. The tunnels inside the planet roughly correspond to the Boston part of the scheme in [[1196: Subways]], but with few additions (e.g. Union Sq, Mattapan). The codename comes from the abbreviation of {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}.
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere''' ''from'' <code>ring-1</code> ''to'' <code>ring-36</code>
|
| To get here, launch from anywhere and keep avoiding planets until you hit it.
|
Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a thick enormous ring called Crystal Sphere. Both the interior and exterior edges of the Sphere are almost smooth, but have a few dents. There's a wide navigable crack leading out of the Sphere, which sides are rugged and riddled with broken planks, similarily to the Boston hole in the Subwau Planet. The gravity increases significantly as the spaceship goes through the crack, it gradually feels the pull from the parts of the sphere it has left. It is not possible to leave the Sphere without the hyperdrive, however having collected all the engine upgrades inside the Sphere one can barely reach the outer surface, but moving along is very difficult. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it.
|
The Crystal Sphere may be a reference to {[w|The Crystal Spheres}}, a short story by {{w|science fiction}} author {{w|David Brin}}, which suggests that each star with habitable planets in the universe is surrounded by a crystal sphere that can be broken only from the inside and is otherwise completely impenetrable.

It may also be a reference to {{w|celestial spheres}}, an early concept trying to explain apparent movement of planets and stars.
|-
| '''Star Destroyer''' ''from'' <code>star-destroyer-a</code> ''to'' <code>star-destroyer-i</code>
| (18192, -130000)
| To get here, launch from the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|
This is a gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship. Below it, down a stream of torpedoes fired from a turred, there's a much smaller starhip.
|
This is a reference to {{w|Star Destroyer}}s and the {{w|Tantive IV|CR90 Corellian corvette}}, spaceships from the fictional ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe.

The whole scene is copied from [[1608: Hoverboard]], with the only difference being that {{w|Darth Vader}}'s dialogue was changed from referencing {{w|Steven Universe}} to {{w|The Murderbot Diaries}}.
|-
| '''Click and Drag Planet''' <code>clickdrag-nw</code>, <code>clickdrag-ne</code>, <code>clickdrag-sw</code>, ''and'' <code>clickdrag-se</code>
| (-31808, 111808)
| To get here, launch from the bow or stern of the Star Destroyer tangentially to the Crystal Sphere to orbit it and keep the stars in the background moving horizontally on the screen until you see a dot around the spaceship guiding you.
|
The planet is huge, larger than any other in the game world, but smaller than the Star Destroyer. It is located outside the Crystal Sphere roughly opposite the Star Destroyer. It is mostly round, with many landscape features and scenes partly copied from [[1110: Click and Drag]], but arrayed in a circular, instead of linear shape. What's missing in comparison to the Click and Drag comic, is a few of the scenes, some textual content like dialogues (leaving persons intact), the underground parts, upper parts of the very high objects, and objects high above the surface.
|
|}

===Table of Items===

etc... Work in progress

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

User talk:Malgond

2023-05-17T22:59:21Z

Malgond: /* Terrible spam attack on your user page */

Hey, thanks for replying to my table project. I wanted to let you know that I replied to your comment:
>''[...] ... I think it shall be somehow reflected in the table. For example: one column for Message (a value always present), another for Item name (may be empty) and another for Effect (may be empty). Unfortunately, the spreadsheet does not contain the kind of visual representation (a dot, a star, a star with a dot inside, or none at all).''
Yeah I noticed that too, but tbh I don't think it's SO important that needs to be included in the table or even in the entire page. Also, it would be very time-consuming.
> ''the Explanation column is currently a short description (of a planet) and some of its features, the way to get there, only sometimes containing an explanation of what the planet name refers to. These should be separate.''
I don't think they should be separate, because it would mean that the table would get even bigger and navigating it would be harder. You're welcome to add any information in the explanation section, as I'm not editing its contents.
> ''explanation for the Message/Item of "11 squares packed into a larger square" shall have a reference to [[2740:_Square_Packing]] and a short description of the mathematical problem involved.''
I totally agree, and as I said in the initial message (above the table), I plan on adding item-specific explanations next to the item "names".
> ''I also think we may need separate tables for planets (with very general descriptions and directions), features on the planets, possibly one table per planet (containing architecture, vegetation, animals, people etc. - if worth noting or there's some pun or reference), items and messages to be collected by the player (maybe one per planet), and for words spoken by the people and messages written somewhere (again, only if they contain a pun or a reference).''
I'm sorry but the amount of effort I'm putting in this ''"simple"'' table is already IMMENSE. I hope you understand that this would probably require dozens of hours between exploration and formatting. I won't be doing that myself, that's for sure :)

By the way, do you know where to find the coordinates of each planet? Thanks, [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:58, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

== Cosmetic suggestion ==

All those <code><nowiki>[[wikipedia:Page_link|Link text]]</nowiki></code> examples, in your rapidly expanding table 'sandboxing', would fit better (from an editing POV) with the {{template|w}}-template we try to use universally for wiki links. Such as <code><nowiki>{{w|Page link|Link text}}</nowiki></code>. (Noting also that the underline/space issue is largely irrelevent in both, under most circumstances, with pipe-delimiting. It's only <code><nowiki>[url://server/various_folders/whatever_filename.html Full URLs space-delimitered from any Link Text]</nowiki></code> where such things as underlines (<code>&amp;</code> reserved-character escaping!) needs quite so much strict honouring at all.)
 Not worth revising all of what you're building up, but if you're making future changes (or ever decide to copy and paste it elsewhere), you might want to try transitioning some/all. Then check the Preview, to make sure you haven't mixed up <code><nowiki>[external_page blah text]</nowiki></code>, <code><nowiki>[[internalised page|blah text]]</nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki>{{w|Wiki Page Title#Optional section|blah text}}</nowiki></code> formats!
 There's also similarly templated {{template|wiktionary}} and {{template|tvtropes}}, amongst others, should you need them. Used right, they make the page source that little nicer to review and keep correct, I find. YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 10:20, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:Thanks, I've tried the {{template|w}}-template once, but it didn't seem to work (maybe I've made some trivial mistake), so I switched to another method. Will try again.
::Quick way, if you have the Wiki page that you broadly want already open:
::* Select and copy the main page header/title, e.g. "Leonhard Euler"
::* Put it in the "x" position of "<nowiki>{{w|x}}</nowiki>" ('w' template, told to go to 'x'), to produce {{w|Leonhard Euler}}
::* Optionally add second pipe-separator to add link text where "y" is in "<nowiki>{{w|x|y}}</nowiki>", to produce {{w|Leonhard Euler|a link by other text}}
::* Always a good idea to Preview the edit, and (if you think necessary) follow the nicely-looking/working-looking link (as a new tab/whatever, so you can then come back and Save Changes without fuss) to make sure. I occasionally make stupid errors. Like forgetting the vital "w|" part!
::If you don't have the page already open, but are vaguely sure you have the right idea for a link:
::* Do a "<nowiki>{{w|x}}</nowiki>" (or with "|y" text added) for your chosen "x", e.g. "Euler"
::* Preview it, as above, and follow link as new tab.
::* If you find that it's wrong (not found, entirely wrong thing), vague (sent to disambiguation page) or redirected (''"Euler" redirects here. For other uses, see Euler (disambiguation)'') then you can now find the exact right page, if you're not re-landed there already, and copy that page's title to paste in and rePreview/refollow unless you're happy that you made it good.
::*In this case, it would be a case of "Euler"->"Leonhard Euler", and you ''can'' leave it (if you're happy it does what you need), but there's nothing lost by pasting in the end-point title, usually.
::**People tend to change jump-to-redirect links to jump-to-redirected ones, if they find one; could not have been redirect->redirected link when first authored, even.
::If I want a subsection-anchor link, it takes a bit more thought. And there may be better ways of doing it, but I personally do this:
::* Go to the page I want (straight off new tab, or via intermediate Preview)
::* Look at the Contents section
::* Click on the section/subsection I desire, e.g. under "Contributions to mathematics and physics" the "Physics, astronomy, and engineering" subsection
::** I almost certainly then ''could'' just copy the (sub)header concerned and add it as an #anchor to the "|x|" bit (and might even directly need to if there ''is no'' Table Of Contents, but section headers), but occasionally this isn't quite right, so instead..
::* Copy the address-bar you get (in this case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler#Physics,_astronomy,_and_engineering is what I got)
::* Put it into the "|x| bit.
::* Strip it down to just the "title#subtitle" bit, e.g. "Leonhard_Euler#Physics,_astronomy,_and_engineering"
::* Optionally (or at least it is if you already have a "|y" replacement text bit, otherwise it's advisable to do, ''or'' [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2637:_Roman_Numerals&curid=25387&diff=312758&oldid=310491 supply a 'copycat' "|y"] that looks more right...) change the underlines to spaces, and possibly replace other 'websafe' encodings with their valid 'normal' characters
::* You now have a link like {{w|Leonhard Euler#Physics, astronomy, and engineering}}, which may or may not be sufficiently demonstrable, or perhaps you'd prefer it {{w|Leonhard Euler#Physics, astronomy, and engineering|with the link text changed}}...
::** Note that following either of ''those'' links give the revised 'websafe' URL of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler#Physics.2C_astronomy.2C_and_engineering with the ".2C"-websafing applied on top, another level of meta-encoding you can edit down, if you somehow have accumulated
::* Obviously do a final test Preview and test New Tab if you're not both confident ''and'' in a rush (which is often when I make big errors that someone else has to correct!)
::...But this is just my own way of keeping myself (usually) on the right road for an edit.
::As long as I remember it's [] for a URL (with optional space+alt text), [[]] for a ''usually'' internal wikilink (with optional pipe+alt text) and {{}} to invoke a template 'shortcut' container, e.g. the "w" one with pipe+title[#etc] (and optional pipe+alt text).
::Also, <code><nowiki>{{w|link}}s</nowiki></code> (like the <code><nowiki>[[longer:link]]s</nowiki></code> it shortcuts), and possibly some other like variations, behaves like the more long-hanx <code><nowiki>{{w|link|Links}}</nowiki></code>, by various forms of wikimedia-magyck. Makes no difference to the page output, how you do it, but if you like a certain style of readability in the edit-level page source then it might be something you'll be happy to adopt.
::HTH, and obviously there are probably other opinions, but this is just my own personal boiling down of the options available! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 15:41, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

== Terrible spam attack on your user page ==

Recently, there has been a whole lot of spam on your user page. Would you mind asking the moderator to semi-protect your page? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 22:54, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
:??? You can't be serious. (Look, Malgond, whatever you think. But I thought that virtually all that was posted there was by you (unlogged in), perhaps some others edited inspired by you, as IPs. If missed any "spamdals" in any way 'ruining' the page, it's because it got cleaned up fairly quickly. Which is how things tend to work round here.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.153|172.70.86.153]] 08:11, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
:No, most edits were mine & some people helped. The confusion is my fault. I edit from at least two computers. I use an offline solution for managing my passwords & I keep forgetting to update xkcd password in the other place, hence IP edits. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 06:51, 15 May 2023 (UTC)
::They're still spamming. [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.71|172.71.154.71]] 22:55, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
:::Come on, it's ''me'' editing my page and draft pages, just not logged in. I have explained the reason above. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 22:59, 17 May 2023 (UTC)

== Escape speed ==

Hi Malgond. Have replied both on [[Escape Speed]]'s talk page and on my page. I like your work! Maybe put it here to begin with: [[2765: Escape Speed/Tables]] Maybe if complete the old tables can then either be deleted or also moved there as an alternative. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:19, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-17T22:56:43Z

Malgond: /* Planets */

=== Planets ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name <code>code-name</code>
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet''' <code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin''' <code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet''' <code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet''' <code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki''' <code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship''' <code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field''' <code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn''' <code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| The planet resembles Saturn with its rings, however it is translucent: a soccer ball can bee seen inside. One of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| '''Andal''' <code>platform-planet</code>
| (12048, 14048)
| To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top.
| This is a small partly rocky and partly grassy planet with a strange T-shaped tower.
| A reference to ''{{w|Animorphs}}'' book series featuring fictional sapient species of [https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Andalite Andalites]. Two such (or similar) creatures can be found on the planet. In the original books, the planet the Andalites come from is unnamed.
|-
| '''Projection of Earth''' <code>earth-map</code>
| (-15808, 22192)
| To get there by follow the sign on the hollow planet or launch from the Earth map monument on Origin.
| The planet is shaped like a huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth. The player's spaceship can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land. Some straights between islands are to narrow for the ship to pass, especially in the {{w|Southeast Asia}} area. Some {{w|mediterranean seas}} are also inaccessible.
| Probably a reference to [[977: Map Projections]] or, more generally, to the Randall's obsession about [[:Category:Maps|maps]].
|-
| '''Voyager 1''' <code>voyager-1</code>
| (1606, -14282)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spiral landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2''' <code>voyager-2</code>
| (10682, -5172)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spider landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 2}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''SafetySat''' <code>safetysat</code>
| (17024, 1024)
| To get here, launch from the cell tower on Origin.
| A cube satellite with an absurd set of assorted objects on board.
| This is a reference to [[1992: SafetySat]].
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton''' <code>space-shuttle</code>
| (-30200, 14576)
| To get here, launch from the Shuttle Skeleton landmark on Origin or in the northwestern direction from Alaska on the Projection of Earth.
| The planet looks like an outline of the space shuttle with a strange skeleton inside.
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]].
|-
| '''Giant Spider''' <code>spider</code>
| (26982, -8714)
| To get here, launch from the spider landmark on Origin.
| The object is a giant spider floating in space with eight people standing on top of his legs.
| [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] is a recurring theme on xkcd.
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star''' <code>diffraction</code>
| (-19944, 11240)
| To get here, launch from the back of the left "hand" of the Shuttle Skeleton or the north of Alaska.
| The object is a star with very long spikes.
| This is a reference to [[2762: Diffraction Spikes]].
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth''' <code>earth-roche</code> ''and'' <code>normal-moon</code>
| (-9952, -3952)
| To get there, launch from the like-shaped statue on Origin.
| This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard.
|
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet''' <code>dark-matter</code>
| (-2892, 2640)
| To get here, launch from the goal on the half of the field with just one person on it on Spacetime Soccer Field.
| This is a small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times.
|
{{w|Dark matter}} is a hypothetical form of {{w|matter}} sought by {{w|Astrophysics|astrophycists}} as a possible cause of behavior of {{w|Galaxy|galaxies}}, which cannot be explained by the current theory of {{w|gravity}} and observations. The anomalies would be explained if there was extra {{w|mass}} in the galaxies, which is not observed, but is theorized as dark matter presence. The dark matter is named this way not because it has some dark color, but because it supposedly does not interact (or interacts very weakly) with {{w|electromagnetic field}}, therefore does not emit {{w|light}} and can't be seen.

This is also a reference to [[2186: Dark Matter]]
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet''' <code>gravity-qwantz</code>
| (20000, 11000)
| To get here, launch from the dinosaur on Origin or from the Andalites on Andal.
| It's a big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times.
|
This is a reference to the 1993 {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|''Jurassic Park''}} film and the related {{w|Jurassic Park|media franchise}}. It contains images of dinosaurs taken from the [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaurs] web comic, which, similarly to xkcd, uses a random string of letters for its domain name: <code>quantz.com</code>. It also reflects Randal's avid interest in [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]]. This is an exact copy of the Dinosaur Planet from [[2712: Gravity]].
|-
| '''Comet 67P''' <code>67p</code>
| (18048, -11152)
| To get here, launch from the duck next to the 'Caution: long vertical drop' sign on Origin.
| This is a small, potato-shaped body, modelled after the {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}} comet.
|
This is a reference to the 2004–2016 {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} spacecraft mission, which was the first to place a lander ({{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}}) on a comet core. The mission was also commemorated in [[1446: Landing]] and the spacecraft are mentioned in [[1402: Harpoons]] and [[1740: Rosetta]].
|-
| '''What If? Planet''' <code>gravity-earth</code>
| (22000, 34000)
| To get here, launch from the two people explaining where Boston is on Origin, the left of Stonehenge on the Round Planet, or the left rim of the Guitar Ship.
| This is a huge, round planet with many bodies of water. The planet contains several scenes from ''[[what if]]? '' and [[2712: Gravity]]. Megan and Cueball are floating inside a small space in the center of the planet.
| This is an almost exact copy of the Earth planet from [[2712: Gravity]], however a few scenes and all text were removed.
|-
| '''Subway Planet''' <code>subway-planet</code> ''and'' <code>black-hole-3</code>
| (-46000, -24000)
| To can get there take off from the "secret glade" item next to the the bush where someone says "Shhh" on Origin.
|
This is a huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from [[1196: Subways]]. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washington, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.
|
This is a key planet to solve the puzzle in the game, and contains several out of many in-game references to {{w|Boston}} (in many meanings of the name) and the {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}, which currently is located in {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts}}, but was founded in 1861 in Boston.

Obviously, it's also a reference to [[1196: Subways]]
|-
| '''Boston Planet''' <code>mbta</code>
| (-42000, 8000)
| To get here, launch from the back of the Shuttle Skeleton.
|
This is a big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names.
|
This is the other key planet to the game puzzle. It is apparently the round part ripped off the Subway Planet, but drawn not to scale. The tunnels inside the planet roughly correspond to the Boston part of the scheme in [[1196: Subways]], but with few additions (e.g. Union Sq, Mattapan). The codename comes from the abbreviation of {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}.
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere''' ''from'' <code>ring-1</code> ''to'' <code>ring-36</code>
|
| To get here, launch from anywhere and keep avoiding planets until you hit it.
|
Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a thick enormous ring called Crystal Sphere. Both the interior and exterior edges of the Sphere are almost smooth, but have a few dents. There's a wide navigable crack leading out of the Sphere, which sides are rugged and riddled with broken planks, similarily to the Boston hole in the Subwau Planet. The gravity increases significantly as the spaceship goes through the crack, it gradually feels the pull from the parts of the sphere it has left. It is not possible to leave the Sphere without the hyperdrive, however having collected all the engine upgrades inside the Sphere one can barely reach the outer surface, but moving along is very difficult. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it.
|
The Crystal Sphere may be a reference to {[w|The Crystal Spheres}}, a short story by {{w|science fiction}} author {{w|David Brin}}, which suggests that each star with habitable planets in the universe is surrounded by a crystal sphere that can be broken only from the inside and is otherwise completely impenetrable.

It may also be a reference to {{w|celestial spheres}}, an early concept trying to explain apparent movement of planets and stars.
|-
| '''Star Destroyer''' ''from'' <code>star-destroyer-a</code> ''to'' <code>star-destroyer-i</code>
| (18192, -130000)
| To get here, launch from the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|
This is a gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship. Below it, down a stream of torpedoes fired from a turred, there's a much smaller starhip.
|
This is a reference to {{w|Star Destroyer}}s and the {{w|Tantive IV|CR90 Corellian corvette}}, spaceships from the fictional ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' universe.

The whole scene is copied from [[1608: Hoverboard]], with the only difference being that {{w|Darth Vader}}'s dialogue was changed from referencing {{w|Steven Universe}} to {{w|The Murderbot Diaries}}.
|-
| '''Click and Drag Planet''' <code>clickdrag-nw</code>, <code>clickdrag-ne</code>, <code>clickdrag-sw</code>, ''and'' <code>clickdrag-se</code>
| (-31808, 111808)
| To get here, launch from the bow or stern of the Star Destroyer tangentially to the Crystal Sphere to orbit it and keep the stars in the background moving horizontally on the screen until you see a dot around the spaceship guiding you.
|
The planet is huge, larger than any other in the game world, but smaller than the Star Destroyer. It is located outside the Crystal Sphere roughly opposite the Star Destroyer. It is mostly round, with many landscape features and scenes partly copied from [[1110: Click and Drag]], but arrayed in a circular, instead of linear shape. What's missing in comparison to the Click and Drag comic, is a few of the scenes, some textual content like dialogues (leaving persons intact), the underground parts, upper parts of the very high objects, and objects high above the surface.
|
|}

=== Objects ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are {{w|List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among}} the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's {{w|escape velocity}}. They have also executed two {{w|gravity assist}} maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| {{w|5G}} is a modern emerging standard for {{w|cellular networks}} promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable {{w|Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem}} – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the {{w|Gateway Arch}} located in {{w|St. Louis}}, {{w|Missouri}}. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect {{w|Eero Saarinen}}, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the {{w|American frontier}} and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| {{w|Wren}}s are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| {{w|Tumbleweed}} is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| {{w|Marsh wren}} is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song ''{{w|More Than a Feeling}}'' by the {{w|Boston_(band)|Boston}} rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| {{w|Meteorite}}s are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a {{w|meteoroid}} or a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}} instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular {{w|Charizard|character}} from the {{w|Pokémon}} media franchise. {{w|Holography|Holographic}} {{w|business card}}s are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The {{w|Oberth effect}} is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American {{w|The Core|science fiction disaster film}}.

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, {{w||shell theorem}}, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
{{w|Lagrange point}}s are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
{{w|Heavy water}} is a form of water that contains only {{w|deuterium}} (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common {{w|Hydrogen|hydrogen-1}} atoms. It is approximately 10% {{w|Density|denser}} than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from {{w|Outer space|space}} (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episode V ''{{w|The Empire Strikes Back}}''. In the original context the starships were attacking {{w|Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT}} four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|


|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" |
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|-
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|-
| ...
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| ...
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User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-17T22:37:05Z

Malgond: /* Planets */

=== Planets ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name <code>code-name</code>
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet''' <code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin''' <code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet''' <code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet''' <code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki''' <code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship''' <code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field''' <code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn''' <code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| The planet resembles Saturn with its rings, however it is translucent: a soccer ball can bee seen inside. One of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| '''Andal''' <code>platform-planet</code>
| (12048, 14048)
| To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top.
| This is a small partly rocky and partly grassy planet with a strange T-shaped tower.
| A reference to ''{{w|Animorphs}}'' book series featuring fictional sapient species of [https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Andalite Andalites]. Two such (or similar) creatures can be found on the planet. In the original books, the planet the Andalites come from is unnamed.
|-
| '''Projection of Earth''' <code>earth-map</code>
| (-15808, 22192)
| To get there by follow the sign on the hollow planet or launch from the Earth map monument on Origin.
| The planet is shaped like a huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth. The player's spaceship can fly where water would be, but it can't go over land. Some straights between islands are to narrow for the ship to pass, especially in the {{w|Southeast Asia}} area. Some {{w|mediterranean seas}} are also inaccessible.
| Probably a reference to [[977: Map Projections]] or, more generally, to the Randall's obsession about [[:Category:Maps|maps]].
|-
| '''Voyager 1''' <code>voyager-1</code>
| (1606, -14282)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spiral landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 1}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''Voyager 2''' <code>voyager-2</code>
| (10682, -5172)
| To get here, launch from the "Receiving transmission" communication device near the spider landmark on Origin.
| This is a recreation of the {{w|Voyager 2}} space probe.
|
|-
| '''SafetySat''' <code>safetysat</code>
| (17024, 1024)
| To get here, launch from the cell tower on Origin.
| A cube satellite with an absurd set of assorted objects on board.
| This is a reference to [[1992: SafetySat]].
|-
| '''Shuttle Skeleton''' <code>space-shuttle</code>
| (-30200, 14576)
| To get here, launch from the Shuttle Skeleton landmark on Origin or in the northwestern direction from Alaska on the Projection of Earth.
| The planet looks like an outline of the space shuttle with a strange skeleton inside.
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]].
|-
| '''Giant Spider''' <code>spider</code>
| (26982, -8714)
| To get here, launch from the spider landmark on Origin.
| The object is a giant spider floating in space with eight people standing on top of his legs.
| [[:Category:Spiders|Spiders]] is a recurring theme on xkcd.
|-
| '''Diffraction Spikes Star''' <code>diffraction</code>
| (-19944, 11240)
| To get here, launch from the back of the left "hand" of the Shuttle Skeleton or the north of Alaska.
| The object is a star with very long spikes.
| This is a reference to [[2762: Diffraction Spikes]].
|-
| '''Roche Lobe Earth''' <code>earth-roche</code> ''and'' <code>normal-moon</code>
| (-9952, -3952)
| To get there, launch from the like-shaped statue on Origin.
| This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces are pulling northern Atlantic Ocean really hard.
|
|-
| '''Dark Matter Planet''' <code>dark-matter</code>
| (-2892, 2640)
| To get here, launch from the goal on the half of the field with just one person on it on Spacetime Soccer Field.
| This is a small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an inscription "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times.
|
{{w|Dark matter}} is a hypothetical form of {{w|matter}} sought by {{w|Astrophysics|astrophycists}} as a possible cause of behavior of {{w|Galaxy|galaxies}}, which cannot be explained by the current theory of {{w|gravity}} and observations. The anomalies would be explained if there was extra {{w|mass}} in the galaxies, which is not observed, but is theorized as dark matter presence. The dark matter is named this way not because it has some dark color, but because it supposedly does not interact (or interacts very weakly) with {{w|electromagnetic field}}, therefore does not emit {{w|light}} and can't be seen.

This is also a reference to [[2186: Dark Matter]]
|-
| '''Jurassic Park Planet''' <code>gravity-qwantz</code>
| (20000, 11000)
| To get here, launch from the dinosaur on Origin or from the Andalites on Andal.
| It's a big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times.
|
This is a reference to the 1993 {{w|Jurassic Park (film)|''Jurassic Park''}} film and the related {{w|Jurassic Park|media franchise}}. It contains images of dinosaurs taken from the [https://www.qwantz.com/ Dinosaurs] web comic, which, similarly to xkcd, uses a random string of letters for its domain name: <code>quantz.com</code>. It also reflects Randal's avid interest in [[:Category:Dinosaurs|dinosaurs]]. This is an exact copy of the Dinosaur Planet from [[2712: Gravity]].
|-
| '''Comet 67P''' <code>67p</code>
| (18048, -11152)
| To get here, launch from the duck next to the 'Caution: long vertical drop' sign on Origin.
| This is a small, potato-shaped body, modelled after the {{w|67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko}} comet.
|
This is a reference to the 2004–2016 {{w|Rosetta (spacecraft)|Rosetta}} spacecraft mission, which was the first to place a lander ({{w|Philae (spacecraft)|Philae}}) on a comet core. The mission was also commemorated in [[1446: Landing]] and the spacecraft are mentioned in [[1402: Harpoons]] and [[1740: Rosetta]].
|-
| '''What If? Planet''' <code>gravity-earth</code>
| (22000, 34000)
| To get here, launch from the two people explaining where Boston is on Origin, the left of Stonehenge on the Round Planet, or the left rim of the Guitar Ship.
| This is a huge, round planet with many bodies of water. The planet contains several scenes from ''[[what if]]? '' and [[2712: Gravity]]. Megan and Cueball are floating inside a small space in the center of the planet.
| This is an almost exact copy of the Earth planet from [[2712: Gravity]], however a few scenes and all text were removed.
|-
| '''Subway Planet''' <code>subway-planet</code> ''and'' <code>black-hole-3</code>
| (-46000, -24000)
| To can get there take off from the "secret glade" item next to the the bush where someone says "Shhh" on Origin.
|
This is a huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from [[1196: Subways]]. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washington, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.
|
This is a key planet to solve the puzzle in the game, and contains several out of many in-game references to {{w|Boston}} (in many meanings of the name) and the {{w|Massachusetts Institute of Technology}}, which currently is located in {{w|Cambridge, Massachusetts}}, but was founded in 1861 in Boston.

Obviously, it's also a reference to [[1196: Subways]]
|-
| '''Boston Planet''' <code>mbta</code>
| (-42000, 8000)
| To get here, launch from the back of the Shuttle Skeleton.
|
This is a big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names.
|
This is the other key planet to the game puzzle. It is apparently the round part ripped off the Subway Planet, but drawn not to scale. The tunnels inside the planet roughly correspond to the Boston part of the scheme in [[1196: Subways]], but with few additions (e.g. Union Sq, Mattapan). The codename comes from the abbreviation of {{w|Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority}}.
|-
| '''Crystal Sphere''' ''from'' <code>ring-1</code> ''to'' <code>ring-36</code>
|
| To get here, launch from anywhere and keep avoiding planets until you hit it.
|
Most planets and celestial objects are inside of a thick enormous ring called Crystal Sphere. Both the interior and exterior edges of the Sphere are almost smooth, but have a few dents. There's a wide navigable crack leading out of the Sphere, which sides are rugged and riddled with broken planks, similarily to the Boston hole in the Subwau Planet. The gravity increases significantly as the spaceship goes through the crack, it gradually feels the pull from the parts of the sphere it has left. It is not possible to leave the Sphere without the hyperdrive, however having collected all the engine upgrades inside the Sphere one can barely reach the outer surface, but moving along is very difficult. Above the crack, there is an arch made up of the repeating words "The End", which is reminiscent of the "Don't leave the play area" message in [[1608: Hoverboard]] that appeared when the player tried to get out of it.
|
The Crystal Sphere may be a reference to {[w|The Crystal Spheres}}, a short story by {{w|science fiction}} author {{w|David Brin}}, which suggests that each star with habitable planets in the universe is surrounded by a crystal sphere that can be broken only from the inside and is otherwise completely impenetrable.

It may also be a reference to {{w|celestial spheres}}, an early concept trying to explain apparent movement of planets and stars.
|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

=== Objects ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are {{w|List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among}} the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's {{w|escape velocity}}. They have also executed two {{w|gravity assist}} maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| {{w|5G}} is a modern emerging standard for {{w|cellular networks}} promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable {{w|Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem}} – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the {{w|Gateway Arch}} located in {{w|St. Louis}}, {{w|Missouri}}. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect {{w|Eero Saarinen}}, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the {{w|American frontier}} and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| {{w|Wren}}s are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| {{w|Tumbleweed}} is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| {{w|Marsh wren}} is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song ''{{w|More Than a Feeling}}'' by the {{w|Boston_(band)|Boston}} rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| {{w|Meteorite}}s are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a {{w|meteoroid}} or a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}} instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular {{w|Charizard|character}} from the {{w|Pokémon}} media franchise. {{w|Holography|Holographic}} {{w|business card}}s are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The {{w|Oberth effect}} is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American {{w|The Core|science fiction disaster film}}.

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, {{w||shell theorem}}, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
{{w|Lagrange point}}s are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
{{w|Heavy water}} is a form of water that contains only {{w|deuterium}} (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common {{w|Hydrogen|hydrogen-1}} atoms. It is approximately 10% {{w|Density|denser}} than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from {{w|Outer space|space}} (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episode V ''{{w|The Empire Strikes Back}}''. In the original context the starships were attacking {{w|Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT}} four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|


|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" |
|
|
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|

|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

User talk:Malgond

2023-05-15T06:51:09Z

Malgond: /* Terrible spam attack on your user page */

Hey, thanks for replying to my table project. I wanted to let you know that I replied to your comment:
>''[...] ... I think it shall be somehow reflected in the table. For example: one column for Message (a value always present), another for Item name (may be empty) and another for Effect (may be empty). Unfortunately, the spreadsheet does not contain the kind of visual representation (a dot, a star, a star with a dot inside, or none at all).''
Yeah I noticed that too, but tbh I don't think it's SO important that needs to be included in the table or even in the entire page. Also, it would be very time-consuming.
> ''the Explanation column is currently a short description (of a planet) and some of its features, the way to get there, only sometimes containing an explanation of what the planet name refers to. These should be separate.''
I don't think they should be separate, because it would mean that the table would get even bigger and navigating it would be harder. You're welcome to add any information in the explanation section, as I'm not editing its contents.
> ''explanation for the Message/Item of "11 squares packed into a larger square" shall have a reference to [[2740:_Square_Packing]] and a short description of the mathematical problem involved.''
I totally agree, and as I said in the initial message (above the table), I plan on adding item-specific explanations next to the item "names".
> ''I also think we may need separate tables for planets (with very general descriptions and directions), features on the planets, possibly one table per planet (containing architecture, vegetation, animals, people etc. - if worth noting or there's some pun or reference), items and messages to be collected by the player (maybe one per planet), and for words spoken by the people and messages written somewhere (again, only if they contain a pun or a reference).''
I'm sorry but the amount of effort I'm putting in this ''"simple"'' table is already IMMENSE. I hope you understand that this would probably require dozens of hours between exploration and formatting. I won't be doing that myself, that's for sure :)

By the way, do you know where to find the coordinates of each planet? Thanks, [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:58, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

== Cosmetic suggestion ==

All those <code><nowiki>[[wikipedia:Page_link|Link text]]</nowiki></code> examples, in your rapidly expanding table 'sandboxing', would fit better (from an editing POV) with the {{template|w}}-template we try to use universally for wiki links. Such as <code><nowiki>{{w|Page link|Link text}}</nowiki></code>. (Noting also that the underline/space issue is largely irrelevent in both, under most circumstances, with pipe-delimiting. It's only <code><nowiki>[url://server/various_folders/whatever_filename.html Full URLs space-delimitered from any Link Text]</nowiki></code> where such things as underlines (<code>&amp;</code> reserved-character escaping!) needs quite so much strict honouring at all.)
 Not worth revising all of what you're building up, but if you're making future changes (or ever decide to copy and paste it elsewhere), you might want to try transitioning some/all. Then check the Preview, to make sure you haven't mixed up <code><nowiki>[external_page blah text]</nowiki></code>, <code><nowiki>[[internalised page|blah text]]</nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki>{{w|Wiki Page Title#Optional section|blah text}}</nowiki></code> formats!
 There's also similarly templated {{template|wiktionary}} and {{template|tvtropes}}, amongst others, should you need them. Used right, they make the page source that little nicer to review and keep correct, I find. YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.152|172.70.91.152]] 10:20, 12 May 2023 (UTC)
:Thanks, I've tried the {{template|w}}-template once, but it didn't seem to work (maybe I've made some trivial mistake), so I switched to another method. Will try again.
::Quick way, if you have the Wiki page that you broadly want already open:
::* Select and copy the main page header/title, e.g. "Leonhard Euler"
::* Put it in the "x" position of "<nowiki>{{w|x}}</nowiki>" ('w' template, told to go to 'x'), to produce {{w|Leonhard Euler}}
::* Optionally add second pipe-separator to add link text where "y" is in "<nowiki>{{w|x|y}}</nowiki>", to produce {{w|Leonhard Euler|a link by other text}}
::* Always a good idea to Preview the edit, and (if you think necessary) follow the nicely-looking/working-looking link (as a new tab/whatever, so you can then come back and Save Changes without fuss) to make sure. I occasionally make stupid errors. Like forgetting the vital "w|" part!
::If you don't have the page already open, but are vaguely sure you have the right idea for a link:
::* Do a "<nowiki>{{w|x}}</nowiki>" (or with "|y" text added) for your chosen "x", e.g. "Euler"
::* Preview it, as above, and follow link as new tab.
::* If you find that it's wrong (not found, entirely wrong thing), vague (sent to disambiguation page) or redirected (''"Euler" redirects here. For other uses, see Euler (disambiguation)'') then you can now find the exact right page, if you're not re-landed there already, and copy that page's title to paste in and rePreview/refollow unless you're happy that you made it good.
::*In this case, it would be a case of "Euler"->"Leonhard Euler", and you ''can'' leave it (if you're happy it does what you need), but there's nothing lost by pasting in the end-point title, usually.
::**People tend to change jump-to-redirect links to jump-to-redirected ones, if they find one; could not have been redirect->redirected link when first authored, even.
::If I want a subsection-anchor link, it takes a bit more thought. And there may be better ways of doing it, but I personally do this:
::* Go to the page I want (straight off new tab, or via intermediate Preview)
::* Look at the Contents section
::* Click on the section/subsection I desire, e.g. under "Contributions to mathematics and physics" the "Physics, astronomy, and engineering" subsection
::** I almost certainly then ''could'' just copy the (sub)header concerned and add it as an #anchor to the "|x|" bit (and might even directly need to if there ''is no'' Table Of Contents, but section headers), but occasionally this isn't quite right, so instead..
::* Copy the address-bar you get (in this case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler#Physics,_astronomy,_and_engineering is what I got)
::* Put it into the "|x| bit.
::* Strip it down to just the "title#subtitle" bit, e.g. "Leonhard_Euler#Physics,_astronomy,_and_engineering"
::* Optionally (or at least it is if you already have a "|y" replacement text bit, otherwise it's advisable to do, ''or'' [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2637:_Roman_Numerals&curid=25387&diff=312758&oldid=310491 supply a 'copycat' "|y"] that looks more right...) change the underlines to spaces, and possibly replace other 'websafe' encodings with their valid 'normal' characters
::* You now have a link like {{w|Leonhard Euler#Physics, astronomy, and engineering}}, which may or may not be sufficiently demonstrable, or perhaps you'd prefer it {{w|Leonhard Euler#Physics, astronomy, and engineering|with the link text changed}}...
::** Note that following either of ''those'' links give the revised 'websafe' URL of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Euler#Physics.2C_astronomy.2C_and_engineering with the ".2C"-websafing applied on top, another level of meta-encoding you can edit down, if you somehow have accumulated
::* Obviously do a final test Preview and test New Tab if you're not both confident ''and'' in a rush (which is often when I make big errors that someone else has to correct!)
::...But this is just my own way of keeping myself (usually) on the right road for an edit.
::As long as I remember it's [] for a URL (with optional space+alt text), [[]] for a ''usually'' internal wikilink (with optional pipe+alt text) and {{}} to invoke a template 'shortcut' container, e.g. the "w" one with pipe+title[#etc] (and optional pipe+alt text).
::Also, <code><nowiki>{{w|link}}s</nowiki></code> (like the <code><nowiki>[[longer:link]]s</nowiki></code> it shortcuts), and possibly some other like variations, behaves like the more long-hanx <code><nowiki>{{w|link|Links}}</nowiki></code>, by various forms of wikimedia-magyck. Makes no difference to the page output, how you do it, but if you like a certain style of readability in the edit-level page source then it might be something you'll be happy to adopt.
::HTH, and obviously there are probably other opinions, but this is just my own personal boiling down of the options available! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.90.101|172.70.90.101]] 15:41, 12 May 2023 (UTC)

== Terrible spam attack on your user page ==

Recently, there has been a whole lot of spam on your user page. Would you mind asking the moderator to semi-protect your page? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.154.229|172.71.154.229]] 22:54, 13 May 2023 (UTC)
:??? You can't be serious. (Look, Malgond, whatever you think. But I thought that virtually all that was posted there was by you (unlogged in), perhaps some others edited inspired by you, as IPs. If missed any "spamdals" in any way 'ruining' the page, it's because it got cleaned up fairly quickly. Which is how things tend to work round here.) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.153|172.70.86.153]] 08:11, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
:No, most edits were mine & some people helped. The confusion is my fault. I edit from at least two computers. I use an offline solution for managing my passwords & I keep forgetting to update xkcd password in the other place, hence IP edits. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 06:51, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

== Escape speed ==

Hi Malgond. Have replied both on [[Escape Speed]]'s talk page and on my page. I like your work! Maybe put it here to begin with: [[2765: Escape Speed/Tables]] Maybe if complete the old tables can then either be deleted or also moved there as an alternative. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:19, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-13T22:33:36Z

Malgond: /* Planets */

=== Planets ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''
<code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin'''
<code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''
<code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet'''
<code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''
<code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''
<code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
<code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn'''
<code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| '''Andal'''
<code>platform-planet</code>
| (12048, 14048)
| To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a round shape with a small "T" on top.
| A small rocky and grassy planet with a strange T-shaped tower.
| A reference to ''{{w|Animorphs}}'' book series featuring fictional sapient species of [https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Andalite Andalites]. Two such (or similar) creatures can be found on the planet. In the original books, the planet the Andalites come from is unnamed.
|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

=== Objects ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are {{w|List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among}} the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's {{w|escape velocity}}. They have also executed two {{w|gravity assist}} maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| {{w|5G}} is a modern emerging standard for {{w|cellular networks}} promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable {{w|Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem}} – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the {{w|Gateway Arch}} located in {{w|St. Louis}}, {{w|Missouri}}. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect {{w|Eero Saarinen}}, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the {{w|American frontier}} and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| {{w|Wren}}s are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| {{w|Tumbleweed}} is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| {{w|Marsh wren}} is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song ''{{w|More Than a Feeling}}'' by the {{w|Boston_(band)|Boston}} rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| {{w|Meteorite}}s are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a {{w|meteoroid}} or a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}} instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular {{w|Charizard|character}} from the {{w|Pokémon}} media franchise. {{w|Holography|Holographic}} {{w|business card}}s are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The {{w|Oberth effect}} is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American {{w|The Core|science fiction disaster film}}.

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, {{w||shell theorem}}, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
{{w|Lagrange point}}s are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
{{w|Heavy water}} is a form of water that contains only {{w|deuterium}} (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common {{w|Hydrogen|hydrogen-1}} atoms. It is approximately 10% {{w|Density|denser}} than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from {{w|Outer space|space}} (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episode V ''{{w|The Empire Strikes Back}}''. In the original context the starships were attacking {{w|Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT}} four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|


|-
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|
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|-
|
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|

|-
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User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-13T22:17:49Z

Malgond: /* Objects */ wikipedia links to use the template

=== Planets ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''
<code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin'''
<code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''
<code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet'''
<code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''
<code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''
<code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
<code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn'''
<code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

=== Objects ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are {{w|List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among}} the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's {{w|escape velocity}}. They have also executed two {{w|gravity assist}} maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| {{w|5G}} is a modern emerging standard for {{w|cellular networks}} promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable {{w|Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem}} – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world {{w|Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum}}.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the {{w|Gateway Arch}} located in {{w|St. Louis}}, {{w|Missouri}}. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect {{w|Eero Saarinen}}, reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the {{w|American frontier}} and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| {{w|Wren}}s are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| {{w|Tumbleweed}} is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| {{w|Marsh wren}} is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song ''{{w|More Than a Feeling}}'' by the {{w|Boston_(band)|Boston}} rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| {{w|Meteorite}}s are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a {{w|meteoroid}} or a {{w|Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor}} instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular {{w|Charizard|character}} from the {{w|Pokémon}} media franchise. {{w|Holography|Holographic}} {{w|business card}}s are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The {{w|Oberth effect}} is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American {{w|The Core|science fiction disaster film}}.

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, {{w||shell theorem}}, as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
{{w|Lagrange point}}s are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
{{w|Heavy water}} is a form of water that contains only {{w|deuterium}} (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common {{w|Hydrogen|hydrogen-1}} atoms. It is approximately 10% {{w|Density|denser}} than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the {{w|Great Wall of China}} is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from {{w|Outer space|space}} (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from ''{{w|Star Wars}}'' episode V ''{{w|The Empire Strikes Back}}''. In the original context the starships were attacking {{w|Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT}} four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|


|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" |
|
|
|
|
|-
|
|
|
|

|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
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|}

User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-13T22:00:28Z

Malgond: /* Planets */

=== Planets ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''
<code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin'''
<code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''
<code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet'''
<code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''
<code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''
<code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
<code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
|
The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.
|-
| '''Saturn'''
<code>saturn</code>
| (2600, 14000)
| To get here, launch from the pyramid with Saturn on it on Origin. If you see the Spacetime Soccer Field, you're too far left.
| A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area.
| It is a reference to [[2513: Saturn Hexagon]]
|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

=== Objects ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are [[wikipedia:List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among]] the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's [[wikipedia:Escape velocity|escape velocity]]. They have also executed two [[wikipedia:Gravity_assist|gravity assist]] maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| [[wikipedia:5G|5G]] is a modern emerging standard for [[wikipedia:Cellular network|cellular networks]] promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable [[wikipedia:Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem]] – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world [[wikipedia:Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum]].
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the [[wikipedia:Gateway Arch|Gateway Arch]] located in [[wikipedia:St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]]. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect [[wikipedia:Eero Saarinen|Eero Saarinen]], reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the [[wikipedia:American frontier|American frontier]] and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| [[wikipedia:Wren|Wrens]] are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| [[wikipedia:Tumbleweed|Tumbleweed]] is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| [[wikipedia:Marsh wren|Marsh wren]] is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song [[wikipedia:More Than a Feeling|"More Than a Feeling"]] by the [[wikipedia:Boston_(band)|Boston]] rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| [[wikipedia:Meteorite|Meteorites]] are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a [[wikipedia:Meteoroid|meteoroid]] or a [[wikipedia:Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor]] instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular [[wikipedia:Charizard|character]] from the [[wikipedia:Pokémon|Pokémon]] media franchise. [[wikipedia:Holography|Holographic]] [[wikipedia:Business card|business cards]] are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The [[wikipedia:Oberth effect|Oberth effect]] is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American [[wikipedia:The Core|science fiction disaster film]].

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, [[wikipedia:Shell theorem|shell theorem]], as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
[[wikipedia:Lagrange point|Lagrange points]] are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
[[wikipedia:Heavy water|Heavy water]] is a form of water that contains only [[wikipedia:Deuterium|deuterium]] (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common [[wikipedia:Hydrogen|hydrogen-1]] atoms. It is approximately 10% [[wikipedia:Density|denser]] than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the [[wikipedia:Great Wall of China|Great Wall of China]] is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from [[wikipedia:Outer space|space]] (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from [[wikipedia:Star Wars|''Star Wars'']] episode V [[wikipedia:The Empire Strikes Back|''The_Empire_Strikes_Back'']]. In the original context the starships were attacking [[wikipedia:Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT]] four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|


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User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-13T21:55:26Z

Malgond:

=== Planets ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''
<code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin'''
<code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''
<code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet'''
<code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''
<code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''
<code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
<code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
| The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.

|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

=== Objects ===

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are [[wikipedia:List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among]] the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's [[wikipedia:Escape velocity|escape velocity]]. They have also executed two [[wikipedia:Gravity_assist|gravity assist]] maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| [[wikipedia:5G|5G]] is a modern emerging standard for [[wikipedia:Cellular network|cellular networks]] promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable [[wikipedia:Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem]] – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world [[wikipedia:Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum]].
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the [[wikipedia:Gateway Arch|Gateway Arch]] located in [[wikipedia:St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]]. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect [[wikipedia:Eero Saarinen|Eero Saarinen]], reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the [[wikipedia:American frontier|American frontier]] and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| [[wikipedia:Wren|Wrens]] are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| [[wikipedia:Tumbleweed|Tumbleweed]] is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| [[wikipedia:Marsh wren|Marsh wren]] is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song [[wikipedia:More Than a Feeling|"More Than a Feeling"]] by the [[wikipedia:Boston_(band)|Boston]] rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| [[wikipedia:Meteorite|Meteorites]] are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a [[wikipedia:Meteoroid|meteoroid]] or a [[wikipedia:Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor]] instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular [[wikipedia:Charizard|character]] from the [[wikipedia:Pokémon|Pokémon]] media franchise. [[wikipedia:Holography|Holographic]] [[wikipedia:Business card|business cards]] are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The [[wikipedia:Oberth effect|Oberth effect]] is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American [[wikipedia:The Core|science fiction disaster film]].

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, [[wikipedia:Shell theorem|shell theorem]], as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
[[wikipedia:Lagrange point|Lagrange points]] are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
[[wikipedia:Heavy water|Heavy water]] is a form of water that contains only [[wikipedia:Deuterium|deuterium]] (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common [[wikipedia:Hydrogen|hydrogen-1]] atoms. It is approximately 10% [[wikipedia:Density|denser]] than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the [[wikipedia:Great Wall of China|Great Wall of China]] is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from [[wikipedia:Outer space|space]] (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
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|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
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Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from [[wikipedia:Star Wars|''Star Wars'']] episode V [[wikipedia:The Empire Strikes Back|''The_Empire_Strikes_Back'']]. In the original context the starships were attacking [[wikipedia:Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT]] four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
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|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
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An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
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User talk:Kynde

2023-05-13T21:52:10Z

Malgond: /* Notification */

== Cueball references ==
Hi, please do not remove the Cueball references here. He is a standard character. The category [[:Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] gives just an overview about all comics showing this stick figure. And just one is him, not defined by Randall but by us. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:10, 8 May 2014 (UTC)
:But who should define who Cueball is? You? I could see him as both here. And somebody did. You have just corrected back so that the Cueball in the explain is switched to the other charachter in the transcript. At least one of these should then be changed to match the other. It is thus also clear that people have different views of what Cueball stands for. Is he the one trolling, or is he the one who knows which movie Blade Runner is? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:35, 10 May 2014 (UTC)
:By the way - I did not remove the reference to the chategory - but only in the text as described above. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:38, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

== Minor tags on edits ==
Also, a minor concern, but please be more sparing in your use of "minor" tags on edits. Addition of 1200 characters (e.g. . . m Talk:1496: Art Project‎; 20:04 . . (+1,240)‎ . . ‎Kynde, or . . m 1497: New Products‎; 19:12 . . (-419)‎ . . ‎Kynde →‎Explanation: It does not fit into category four! See new test. I also deleted a lot of text, that already was written below, and was basically the same as the one stille) is NOT minor. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 21:22, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
::When adding a new comment to the talk page I newer see this as a major change. This i a discussion not a change to the explanation!. I do not believe it was a big change removing the text you wrote, when all of it basically was written below. Try and read your version, and see that it was more or less double. Also I had already once removed the reference to the fourth category. If the guy has signed up he have no problems with this company. Also it is mentioned that the fourth category is not a company he is afraid off, but just someone they do not like. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:42, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

== Thank you ==

I like what you did at [[1402: Harpoons]]. Thank you. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.153|173.245.54.153]]
:You're welcome - I did it based on your comment [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 03:41, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

==[[980: Money]]==
Hey, you've done an amazing job on the money comic's transcript, but the explanation page is still marked as incomplete. Is there actually anything left to be done on it? Thanks! [[User:Davak72|Davak72]] ([[User talk:Davak72|talk]]) 03:04, 3 April 2015 (UTC)
:Thanks allot. I have replied on the Money page where you repeated the above. I can even remember the number although it was some time since I did the transcript. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:44, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

== Merge Cueball & Rob ==

You seem to have changed some comics in which formerly more than one cueball appeared to make it such that none were called cueball (e.g. Orb Hammer). But many persist, see transcripts in:
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/1405:_Meteor
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/192:_Working_for_Google
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/525:_I_Know_You%27re_Listening
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/187:_The_Familiar
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/79:_Iambic_Pentameter
http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/65:_Banter

We should probably seek broader consensus before rewriting all these transcripts. There seems to me to be a general trend to name one "Cueball" and call the others "Friend" or somesuch in these cases and I'm concerned that you seem to want to singlehandedly rewrite all that convention. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 21:07, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:It is typically the first who writes the transcript who decides who of the Cueballs (or Megans) he feel represents the real Cueball. However, there is no real behavior of Cueball. So who should decide. I could also change these transcripts so it becomes the other character who becomes Cueball, because I think the first transcripter did it wrong. This was exactly what happened with the two Megan-like comics. First it was Megan and Danish. Then unidentified girl and Megan. Then Megan and unidentified girl, then two Megan like girls with short and long hair and finally you reverted it to my first ide: Unidentified girl and Megan. So thanks for showing me these six double Cueball comics. I will change asap. And as I answered your comment on [[1496: Art Project]] Rob is already listed as part of the category for Comics featuring Cueball: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_featuring_Rob and this is listed as the first entry when going to the page for Category:Comics featuring Cueball: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Comics_featuring_Cueball Thus he should not be merged--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:21, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:: Can you please add this discussion here [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob]. I have refrained from making these sort of substantial changes and want to seek a broader consensus. Please use the community forum to seek such consensus before making major unilateral changes like that. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 21:24, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:::Done with interests --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:02, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:: there are dozens of multiple-Cueball comments. Please don't change them to "man 1", "man 2" until we can reach a braoder consensus. I will not be changing them to "Rob" without consensus. This is not something to be done all at once and making that many changes will prompt me to request that an admin freeze your account. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 21:27, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:::I was about to write this before your comment no. two. So this was a reply to your previous comment: "I can post it there, but these changes has been underway a long time for almost a year. But it is hard to find these comics as I do not go through them just to find incidences. How long have you been active in xkcd. I can see your page has been created today, but maybe you were active long before that?"--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:42, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
::::This is a comment to your next comment: "It is very hard to threaten someone like that already. I have been making these changes before, and by the way never to man 1 or man 2. I have been one of the top contributers for more than a year. I hope this is not just because I reverted one of your contributions to Mondays comic? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]21:42, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:::::I didn't want to threaten. I think consistent style is important, and general style I see is in multi-Cueball comics, one is ID'd as Cueball and others are "Friend", etc. Anyone unilaterally changing an established style should seek consensus first.
:::::Additionally, I think your undo on my edit actually improved the explanation.
:::::Finally, if you know how to solicit more opinions on the matter at hand, please let me know (or do it). Thanks! [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 23:53, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
::::::Thanks on the edit appraisal. As I wrote on the talk page, yours was also much better phrased the second time. I do not know how to get anyone to go read your comment except by giving them the message like you did with me. Or putting a link to it from the talk page of the double Megan comic, and maybe on some of the double Cueball comics too. I did not understand the "solicit more opinions" at first (why I wrote that last part in my comment below "how many will read"). So you do realize, I can see now, that not many will. By the way I'm [[Danish]]... That is, I'm neither a mean girl or a pastry cake, but from Denmark. And although I'm, really good at English for everyday use, it is not by far a language I can understand everything. But suddenly I got your message.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:10, 12 March 2015 (UTC)
My only point is we need to wait until consensus is reached before undoing years of precedent in Cueball naming. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 22:38, 11 March 2015 (UTC)
:Well as I have made fairly clear there is no consensus. Because it is up to the first one who writes the transcript to decide who is the friend. And this often leads to discussion or changes forth and back (like we just saw with two Megans) since people have different opinion on how Cueball should behave, since they do not know that Cueball can behave anyway Randall needs him to. Often he reflects Randall's intelligence, but just as often he is a prick behaving horribly towards girls etc. So if there are two, one good and one bad, you cannot say the good one is Cueball. And how many do you think reads your post? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:43, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

I have had a look at the comics you have listed. Here are my comments:
*[[1405:_Meteor]]
**Here I would have changed - since it is believed that Cueball often represents Randall's version of himself - especially when it is his hobby. Of course it is then Randall who is pedantic, and thus Cueball. So I would change the Cueball reference. So here we could have a stupid editing war, instead of writing something else.
*[[525:_I_Know_You%27re_Listening]]
**Here there is only one Cueball speaking. And the other is listening in. So here I would no object so much. Maybe I would mention that the other looks like Cueball.
*[[192:_Working_for_Google]]
**Here I would have changed - since I would think that Cueball should have the most interesting story, and also that this Cueball is Randall as it is known that Randall has an interest in Google and has also been cheated by their aptitude test (so much that he did the famous [[356: Nerd Sniping]]). So also here I would change the Cueball reference. So again stupid editing war, instead of writing something else.
*[[187:_The_Familiar]]
**Here I would have changed - since I would thing that Cueball should be the one always interested in computers. Not the other way. I know there are other comics where he enjoys nature. But Also a lot where he enjoys computers out of hand and math etc. So again I would have changed the Cueball reference. So again stupid editing war, instead of writing something else.
*[[79:_Iambic_Pentameter]]
**Here I agree with the Cueball = Randall - it's Randall my hobby and thus the one with the Hobby is Cueball. But I would still prefer they are not named. some might argue against me on the hobby, saying the Cueball with the hobby is "Randall" so the other Cueball is "Cueball". Thus once more editing war. But I would not start it. But still probably mention that the Cueball with a hobby is Randall.
*[[65:_Banter]]
**What can I say. The first is called Cueball the other is not. They have the same amount of text, and they are obviously both gay and missing out. I would definitely loose the Cueball reference here.
That is my ten cents about these six examples. Maybe we should create a category called multiple Cueballs. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:02, 12 March 2015 (UTC)
:Note that I have not changed any of these... yet. But maybe I should revert those three I think is plain wrong, so the Cueball and friend is changed. Then we can see if anyone changes back? ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:02, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

:::I advise waiting. If you want to enact 4, go for it, but then put in the discussion a [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob link] to our discussion for '''all''' the changes you make so hopefully someone besides you and me goes to that page and weighs in.

To answer your question, I've read xkcd for years (I started reading regularly around the time there were ~500 total comics), lurked on explainxkcd and made anonymous minor edits for most of that time. I set up an account in July 2013, when I began making more regular edits.

I recognize that the issue has a large amount of inertia. My point is precisely that there are 9 "Rob" comics and countless Cueball. But, as I stated on the page, there is ample evidence that the same character (Black Hat's friend/roommate, Megan's boyfriend) '''is''' named Rob. I haven't done a count, but I suspect that "Megan" is named in the comic fewer than 9 times, but characters of her appearance are '''all''' called "Megan".

Yes, multiple Megans triggered the idea that's been brewing in my mind since someone (not me) made an anonymous comment on a relatively recent Rob comic [1168: tar]. Since I read that it's been sitting in my mind, but I haven't wanted to make an issue. However, the asymmetry between Megan/Cutie and Rob/Cueball grates for me and I want to urge the community here to evaluate critically whether it is the right thing or an inappropriate historical artifact. Years ago, [Cutie] was abolished (redirects now to [Megan]), I think it's objectively appropriate to make a symmetrical arrangement for Rob/Cueball (hence my options 2 & 3 in the public discussion thread).

For now, if you want to go changing all those comics go ahead. I won't argue or revert, but I request that you put the following (or something close to it) in the discussion of all the comics you change "I've removed the name 'Cueball' from this and several other comics that have multiple Cueball's in them as per my position on the issue currently under discussion at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob if you support this change or disagree with it, please weigh in on that discussion thread."

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from more users. [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 00:04, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

::::Dear Djbrasier
:(By the way my name is Kynde - that is both my nick and my middle name).
:Thanks for this very open talk. I like you much better now ;-)
:If I do change any of these I will do as you ask. It is not like I have forever to do these changes, although I for sure use too much time already on explain... I think I will add the category:Comics with multiple Cueballs. What do you think of the name if I do (and if I do then maybe also make one with Category:Comics where Megan is named Megan. Please tell me you can think of a better name for that one ;-) I only know of the three now mentioned on [[Megan]]s page.
:As you can see om my page, I have only used explain xkcd since late 2013. So you have been member longer than me by some months. I did not read xkcd before that - became fascinated with the What if section on xkcd and when I finished with those I turned to the comic. But found that I failed to understand quite a few, and thus searched and found this page. I have read them as they come out since then, and then also began reading from no. 1. But since I always look in this page for the explanation and like to contribute I only progress very slowly. Recently I have reached [[540: Base System]] where I have made several improvements additions and corrections. And that is as far as I have reached reading straight fro no. 1. But I have of course used the cross referencing and thus read many in between that and those from October 2013.
:Regards Kynde --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:02, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

::Happy to have the discussion and to get to wiki-know you. I definitely see your points. I added a few comments and links to our public discussion in the hopes that, over time, it will attract more users to the community portal discussion. I suspect it will take some months for enough users to weigh in that we have a reasonable consensus. I think that if you remove "Cueball" from some of the comics you mentioned above and put a link to the portal page in the discussion block of those comments, that will prompt community input.
::Cheers,
::DJ [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 13:40, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

I also added incomplete tags to a few comics in which I think a strong argument can be made that "Cueball" is really Rob, despite his name not showing up (Boombox & Cover-up) [[User:Djbrasier|Djbrasier]] ([[User talk:Djbrasier|talk]]) 13:49, 13 March 2015 (UTC)
:Well I disagree again. See the talk pages. But then it is out for discussion.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:19, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

I have changed several of the Multiple Cueballs comics as you said was OK with you. See the new caregory. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:41, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

== xkcloud permalink usernames ==

You said "The user name and user picture stay the same though.", [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1506:_xkcloud&diff=prev&oldid=88207 An Anon] had mentioned that [http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/3c34fb48-1a07-51d2-a81d-5257a3681024 3c34fb48-1a07-51d2-a81d-5257a3681024] had the name "Lauren Ibsen Dolores Amit" and changed to "Margaret5", then by the time I looked at it, it had "Virginia2006". It still has "Virginia2006" now, but since it has changed twice I wouldn't assume it is now permanent. Due to this, I [[1506:_xkcloud/Table of Permalinks|haven't been saving the usernames]]. Could you confirm that you see Virginia2006? Perhaps it's different for each user. -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 21:09, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
:Yes I did see Virginia2006. I think it may change some times, but then suddenly it could become stable? The permalink used on the main page of the explain, was mine. I noted it was Mark Zuckerberg. But this has changed. But now I think it is stuck on: Destiny1983 and always with the skating "Megan". Can you confirm this: http://xkcd.com/1506/#post/50b47c70-3a7c-504d-bcc0-60597338e999 . Cool that you have collected all these images. Can we put the link under the permalink section. As you can see I'm trying to completely revise the page so it is easier to find the explain and then only see the detail if you are interested. Hope you like these changes --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:27, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
::Yeah, I see Destiny1983 on that one too. I like the changes, they make everything much clearer. -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 21:30, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
:::Thanks. I was trying to make it easier to write some extra info on your permalink page, and deleted most of them. Luckily they are not deleted permanently. But the page is so big I have trouble loading it. I try to repair my mistake, but else please do so for me, and sorry in advance. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:45, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

::::NP, <tt>&action=history</tt> is a life-saver. I was going to suggest using <tt>&action=edit&section=0</tt>, but I see you've already added a description heading. It also lags pretty badly for me so I expect I'll have to stop at 10000, and I'm already up to 8444 since my last edit to the page. -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 22:20, 6 April 2015 (UTC)
:::::Yes I think I fixed it but I had to split it in three uploads. How many different pictures do you think there are. I guess some off them are the same? (And same for text). Maybe the last part can be seen by sorting the table. But does the image also have the same name when used more than once? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:33, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

::::::Well, I know of 1419 unique images so far. Yes, both images and text are reused for different permalinks, some come up a lot more frequently than others. If you click the heading, you can sort by either image or text, which will group them together. It's kind of interesting to see different captions for the same image. If you mean the same username, I haven't checked. I also haven't checked whether the same pair of image and text ever appear together as different permalinks, I'll check that <s>eventually</s>, <s>later</s>, ''right now''... nope. I imagine the prompt never even ''suggests'' a caption which is already associated with an image. -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 23:27, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

::::::I hit the 2mb page limit at 10217 permalinks, out of the 15000+ I have found, so I've reduced the table to only show each image and text once. As in, ''either'' the image or text once, so there will be a couple of duplicate images and text. So what I said previously about sorting to see different captions for the same image no longer applies, but the page will be more manageable this way. -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 13:53, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

::::::: So you think that it will not be possible for anyone to add the same image to the same caption, because this caption will never again come up with this image or the other way around? I can see yo have removed the ? where they where something else like turtles... Nice. What about all the links below? Are they just the other 10.000 links not associated with a new image or caption, just a different combination? If so maybe this should be made clear. You could make a new section heading for them. Would it be possible to list them in any other way, or is this to save space? Alternatively you could make a new subpage with extra permalinks for further study. We of course both know that no one will ever read these again ;-) But nice work anyway. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:17, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

:::::::: So far, I've never found the same image and same caption, but I'll keep checking, as I'm still storing all of the information, just not posting the full list to the wiki now. The other links at the bottom are all 15000+ permalinks I've found, good point about making that more clear. It might also be a good idea to list them on another separate page to save space, but they're not for further study, as I have all the images and captions associated with them, there just isn't room to display all of the information, because it would currently take 3mb+. Regarding the symbols, I was previously pasting my javascript output into my text editor to format them, but now I have my script format them for me, so the symbols are preserved. - and it's also a lot easier for me. -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 14:29, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

:::::::: Well, I've hit the 2 megabyte limit again, so it looks like we'll have to put the table on one page and the list of links on another. Any suggestions for the page titles? -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 15:25, 23 April 2015 (UTC)
::::::::: You are crazy :-) My suggestion is that you create a new page called Table of Permalink (with the explanation at the top the same, but now linking to the old page, and vice versa for the old page to the new). Then let the list of permalink stay on the old page. And move the table to the new page. Finally, look at what pages direct to the old page, and redirect them to the new, only leaving link to the old page from the new one. The table is most important. The problem with your table is that it is too big for anyone to load... Maybe there should even be another page in between. Which is called - a selection of permalink. And then with link to the full table and links, with a fair warning about huge amount of data (Big data.). My explorer just went down trying to load the page (or maybe I'm just too impatient?) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:36, 24 April 2015 (UTC) (Ah, now it is finished loading...)
:::::::::: Thanks. I haven't tried it in internet explorer, but the table loads okay with Chrome on my laptop I bought 7 years ago. Now that the pages are split, it might load faster for you. -[[User:452|452]] ([[User talk:452|talk]]) 18:58, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

==[[1608: Hoverboard/Transcript|Hoverboard Transcript]]==

Sorry to ask about such a minor thing, just curious about why the man on the raised plateau can't be a woman. Elsewhere in the comic Darth Vader is seen explaining Steven Universe to someone. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.43|108.162.221.43]] 13:46, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
:Hi - it cold be. But to me it looks like a family. But to be honest I had not expected anyone to change it, and did not notice before I had copy pasted some text in from the document I write the transcript in. But hopefully at some time this family (or whatever) becomes part of the effort to explain the entire comic. My guess is that someone will know who it is - that they are from some TV series or movie. In that case it will become clear if it is (as I assumed) a family with mom and dad and two children or if it is a lesbian couple or something entirely different... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:02, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

::The family resembles the main characters of Steven Universe, a cartoon(the characters being three women and a child) The explanation page also lists them as such(Steven Universe and the Crystal Gems - (x: 551664, y: -567383). [[Special:Contributions/173.245.55.64|173.245.55.64]] 21:03, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
:::Perfect thanks. Then is makes sense with the Vader reference. Is it the boy who is Steven? And is the low girl also a grown woman? I will look it up but thanks for answering. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:07, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
::::Fixed the transcript. Some of the link I put in, is not supposed to be there, but may be moved once they are explained in the main article.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:20, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

== Hair Bun "Girl" ==

Hi Kynde, I noticed you created the character page for "Hair Bun Girl". This naming convention is inconsistent with most of the other characters named here, e.g. Cueball, Ponytail, Hairy, et al. Beret Guy is a potential counterexample, but the words "guy" and "man" don't have the same relationship as "girl" and "woman". Partly for consistency, and partly for simple feminism, I'd like to open a conversation about changing the character's name please. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 04:08, 4 February 2016 (UTC)
:I think it is exactly the same as guy vs. girl. Hair Bun Woman is just too cumbersome. But if you can find a name like Ponytail that fits then by all means. Hairbun just doesn't do it for me. But I do not have any specific feelings for this name, I just found that she was used too often to not have a character page. So I will not take offence against you trying to find a better name through a conversation. Contraty to for instance Megan, which once was Cuetie (sexistick I think), it will not be so hard to change Hair Bun Girl's name to something else, but still she has just reached comic no. 20 so it is not easy to find all the references. Are you ready to do that job if you do get a new name for her? Because else it is just semantics --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:20, 4 February 2016 (UTC)
::Thanks, appreciate it. Yes I am ready to do the job. What would you recommend for next steps? Should I raise the issue at http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Coordination? [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 04:06, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
:::Your welcome, and good luck. Try to see [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#Merge_Cueball_.26_Rob|this post]] regarding the naming convention of [[Cueball]] and [[Megan]] which much to my joy did not end up in altering anything, but they were "old" names, Hair Bun Girl is new. You could post you suggestion there. And maybe make a note at the top of [[Hair Bun Girl]]'s page? (You can write Notice as a template just like the incomplete. Check out this [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cueball&oldid=92611 old version of Cueball page history]). Now that I think about it '''Hairbun''' is probably as good a name as [[Ponytail]]. So I would think that would be a decent proposal for a change. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:08, 7 February 2016 (UTC)
::::Okay, process started. Thank you for the good wishes and guidance. [[User:Jkshapiro|Jkshapiro]] ([[User talk:Jkshapiro|talk]]) 04:31, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

=== Girl With Hairbun? ===

I have identified several comics that have a girl (clearly a child) similar in appearance to Hairbun.
Examples include [[1104: Feathers]], [[1352: Cosmologist on a Tire Swing]] and [[1370: President]]. Would these people be included under Hairbun? Most of them are not marked as such. And what are the requirments to make a new character? I think this girl has appeared rather often. {{unsigned ip|173.245.54.42}}
:Hi. If you look at the description for [[Hairbun]] it clearly states that she is an adult as are Ponytail and Cueball etc. So no, these examples should not be included in Hairbun category. If you look at the last entry on the talk page of President I suggested a children category. But I would agree that a category with curious girl or science girl could be relevant. She is also in [[1611: Baking Soda and Vinegar]] for instance. If there are about five comics that could go in a new category it is just to create it. The naming is important though. See othere categories for what to write on the category page. I have made several including Hairbun --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:12, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
::Thanks for your input. I think I will be creating this category soon. Since most of the names seem to refer to the hairstyles (they are recognizable) I think I'll be going with the name "Double Bun Girl".

== Marking edits as minor edits ==
Hey, I noticed that you mark lot of your edits as minor edits while most of them aren't. For example, [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1645%3A_Toasts&diff=112997&oldid=112996 this]] and probably [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1645:_Toasts&diff=next&oldid=113008 this]] too constitute as a minor edit, but these - [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1645:_Toasts&diff=next&oldid=112997 [1]]], [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1645:_Toasts&diff=next&oldid=113003 [2]]], [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1645:_Toasts&diff=next&oldid=113009 [3]]], etc. aren't minor edits. Refer to the wikipedia guidelines for minor edits - {{w|Help:Minor_edit}}.
::Examples include typographical corrections, formatting and presentational changes, and rearrangements of text without modification of its content. A minor edit is one that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute.
Basically, if you are adding/removing even a little bit of content, it is not minor. [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 23:31, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

Oh, and how in the world is [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thing_Explainer&curid=16286&diff=113034&oldid=113033 this ]] and [[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1608:_Hoverboard&curid=16986&diff=113019&oldid=113013 this ]] minor !! [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 23:47, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
:Sorry about that. I just updated my settings where it had been set to default: "Mark all edits minor by default". If I by mistake click OK to an update before clicking that off it was to late. But now it will be the other way instead. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:19, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
::Cool, no worries. It happens. I was just surprised that everything was marked minor. Anyway, keep up the good work. I see that you're finishing up all the incomplete explanations and improving comics in general. Great work ! :) [[Special:Contributions/199.27.130.216|199.27.130.216]] 01:04, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
:::Thanks for the support, nice to get some feedback. Also great that someone mentions when you are doing something the wrong way. I had only limited experience with wiki pages before signing up here, and I had not read the wiki page on minor edits, but now I have. How come you have chosen not to have an account? Seems like you also make several comments and changes... which is great ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:11, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

== Please create the discussion page for today's comic. ==
Thanks. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.221.13|108.162.221.13]] 15:02, 7 March 2016 (UTC)
:Well just did that (for [[1652: Conditionals]]) but not because I saw this comment, just before. I guess it is not possible for no registered users to create pages? Well I fulfilled your wish before I knew about it ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:05, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

== Moving comments around ==
Please do not move people's comments into unrelated discussions without asking them, and if you do, make sure the timestamps in the reply chain aren't out of order. [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 20:36, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
:I expect you were referring to [[Talk:1659: Tire Swing]]? Well all comments I moved were regarding the same question of who the girls looked like, and they should have been posted as replies to the first. There were no time stamp on the first comment and your post asking if they were children were posted straight under a post about if they were Megan and Hair Bun girl or Thelma and Louise. So I do believe your comment belong under that statement. But fine by my that it just stand beneath instead of being indented. The time stamp of all comments seem to be in time order as I see it. It would get really confusing or I would have to make the same reply three times if they were not together. The comments in between were not at all related and there should be no confusion. So I think it made the discussion page much more useful what I did.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:52, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
::Well I don't know about the other users, but I know for a fact that mine wasn't in response to the first one. I don't even know what the first one said, I just moved it from the explanation to comment page. And mine was posted immediately after it because I was chronologically the second comment made. I had no reason to wait (interestingly, you moved someone else's comment so that I was replying to it, even though it didn't exist when I posted.) [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 00:41, 24 March 2016 (UTC)
:::I cannot see that what you say is true about moving your comment. I just checked the history and here is what I found: 
'''This was what it looked like before my changes:''' 
--- 
the women do not look like Megan and Hair Bun Girl to me, are they new?
sorry for commenting here, but I do not have rights to create a new page, which seems to be necessary for posting the fire comment. Will move once the comment section is created.

I think they are Thelma and Louise (from the movie) given the looks of their hair {{unsigned|Chichak|March 23, 2016}}

I think they're children [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Maybe they got the truck from Black Hat's garage? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:34, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

I have yet to use a tire swing that was made from a worn tire (worn by the road not by swinging). From my experience, expired tires used by automobiles typically have sharp metal protruding from the rubber. This would make a dangerous tire swing. I thought landscaping (rubber mulch) and playgrounds was the preferred recycling method for used tires?--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:35, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

The first one certainly looks like Hair Bun, but the second one (which in in the explanation is presented as Megan) has a somewhat curly hair. Could she be another character, perhaps? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.166|108.162.218.166]] 17:05, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
 --- 
'''This what it looked like after:''' 
--- 
the women do not look like Megan and Hair Bun Girl to me, are they new?
sorry for commenting here, but I do not have rights to create a new page, which seems to be necessary for posting the fire comment. Will move once the comment section is created.
:I think they are Thelma and Louise (from the movie) given the looks of their hair {{unsigned|Chichak|March 23, 2016}}
::I think they're children [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:33, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
:::The first one certainly looks like Hair Bun, but the second one (which in in the explanation is presented as Megan) has a somewhat curly hair. Could she be another character, perhaps? [[Special:Contributions/108.162.218.166|108.162.218.166]] 17:05, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
::::As the tire comes from a truck and it's diameter is more than half the height of these small girls they are definitely kids (not that Randall could not have made adults make a swing as like in [[150]]). Also this makes it much more funny that they both stole a car and beat up an angry adult. And now they are going all environmental after wards. So they are not Megan (which looks nothing like a curly haired girl) and also not Hair Bun Girl as it is defined that these characters are adults. There are many stories using kids and they will never represent Cueball, Megan or Ponytail etc. Those with hats are for instance never drawn small! Have thus corrected the explanation. But it still seems to miss much more on the environmental issue which is the subject/point of the comic if not the joke --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:19, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Maybe they got the truck from Black Hat's garage? [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 15:34, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
:Then they would have lost the fight: [[433: Journal 5]]! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:22, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

I have yet to use a tire swing that was made from a worn tire (worn by the road not by swinging). From my experience, expired tires used by automobiles typically have sharp metal protruding from the rubber. This would make a dangerous tire swing. I thought landscaping (rubber mulch) and playgrounds was the preferred recycling method for used tires?--[[User:R0hrshach|R0hrshach]] ([[User talk:R0hrshach|talk]]) 15:35, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
:I think you are correct. We have one for our kids (though it sucked and we took it down again) and that was a brand new tire, but not one I think would be suitable for any car though. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:22, 23 March 2016 (UTC) 
--- 
'''As can be seen'''
:::I have only moved one comment up, and that was not yours! That you did not check that there already seemed to be two comments above yours, about the appearance of the girls, doesn't mean that it would not make sense to pool all these questions and comments regarding exactly this topic together to give just one answer. And as you can see from the above '''I did NOT move your comments''', but I moved someone else's comment, in between the first and second of your comments, to be able to reply to all four things already written about the girls (ie. 1) The women do not look like Megan and Hair Bun Girl to me, are they new? 2) I think they are Thelma and Louise (from the movie) 3) I think they're children and 4) ... a somewhat curly hair. Could she be another character?) All that was what I replied to, now possible to do in one go right beneath all four remarks. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:47, 25 March 2016 (UTC)
::::There was only one comment before mine, and it was 2 paragraphs. You moving the second half into a reply of the first half caused some of the confusion here [[User:Mikemk|Mikemk]] ([[User talk:Mikemk|talk]]) 06:54, 26 March 2016 (UTC)
:::::OK now I understand, so it was not your comment I moved, but the previous comment that I split in two (that was a mistake). That you did not answer to the comment above was of course not clear since it was on the same subject. Again this, as I understand it, was caused by someone posting a comment in the explanation, and you moving it into the comments section (which was fine, but made it hard to find out who posted what.) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:58, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

== Gardening ==

You mention "three links to images that did not work" in my "garden store for deer" entry. [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:UploadStash/thumb/13xmd97bimg0.n2wbws.5455.png/739px-13xmd97bimg0.n2wbws.5455.png These]
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:UploadStash/thumb/13xn667h2jlw.jonmk1.5455.png/739px-13xn667h2jlw.jonmk1.5455.png three]
[http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:UploadStash/thumb/13xod68rb29s.7fj65u.5455.png/739px-13xod68rb29s.7fj65u.5455.png links]
all work for me; they are images I tried to upload, scaled as large as the server would allow (739x461). Somehow I can upload images but not create image pages (also the spam protection is still triggered, so creating this account seems to accomplish nothing). It's very strange that the server has stored them but won't allow anyone else to view them (after logging out, it tells me I "must be logged in to upload files" instead of displaying the images). Someone should rescue the images from wherever they reside on the server.

The "face" I referred to (the second image) is really a cluster of leaves and branches: the bottom cluster of the rightmost tree looks like a head in profile, with curly hair, an eye, a grinning mouth, and a prominent nose. The two rightmost trees started with no branches (first image), but grew several when I placed a light above them. I moved the light so the face wouldn't be destroyed and tried to grow branches on the lower trunks. The third image is essentially the same as what you uploaded today.

Regarding Megan's office furniture: I'd actually pruned her second wand whenever it appeared, and then the bird took its place. [[User:.42|.42]] ([[User talk:.42|talk]]) 15:29, 8 April 2016 (UTC)
:Hi .42 First I think it take a few days (three) before you are allowed to create new pages to fight off spam boots that we have had problems with. I cannot see you images I get the following message:
:'''Internal Server Error'''
:'''This file (13xmd97bimg0.n2wbws.5455.png) doesn't belong to the current user.'''
:Cool that you have logged in as a user, although poor name ;-) On the other hand if you are a fan of Hitchhikers Guide then I guess it would be cool enough by the way. I'm happy to see that I finally get a chance to prune some of my gardens after several upsets since the comic came out. If I can help you with the images let me know. Maybe you can post them somewhere else and I can find upload them for you? [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:34, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

::I'll try to upload tomorrow, then. I don't know where the server found the .42 IP address — that isn't my address! It's ''really weird'' that it chose this number. [[User:.42|.42]] ([[User talk:.42|talk]]) 16:18, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Have you seen libra's [http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=114415&start=480#p3954408 purple light] gardens? [[User:.42|.42]] ([[User talk:.42|talk]]) 22:58, 11 April 2016 (UTC)
:No I had not. I like the stilt on platform up in tree. I did not know this could happen. [[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:24, 12 April 2016 (UTC)

== [[1703: Juno|NASA versus the press]] ==
Hi Kynde. I'm afraid I disagree. It seems pretty clear to me that the question about the tip-off comes from NASA. I've added a topic to the talk page, where I explain my reasoning, and where this should be discussed if you still disagree. Thanks! [[User:Garik|Garik]] ([[User talk:Garik|talk]]) 16:52, 6 July 2016 (UTC)
:Yes I still disagree. To me it seems like a continuation of the conference and it is now the press to speak. And given that I knew Juno to be related to Jupiter but not that she was the daughter of Saturn (and given the reason for the naming in the real world) I would not say that the name in any way would lead anyone to take it as a hint for going to Saturn. But great to discuss it. Will post this on the [[Talk:1703:_Juno|talk page]] too. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:21, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

== 1712: Politifact ==
Hi, I'm the BOT and I'm BORG...

...nevertheless your enhancement to the transcript was too much. And I think your enhancements to the explain section is also overrunning the target.

But I just only did revert the transcript. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:19, 28 July 2016 (UTC)
:HI BORG... :/
:I Highly disagree with your changes.
:A transcript serves several functions:
#To make it possible to find out what any text/characters reads, even if it is hard to read in the comic.
#To make a description of what happens in the images. This has two purposes:
##So people with eye disabilities can find out what the comic is about. So here a full description of the comic is needed apart from the text.
##So it is possible to search the comic for info on the content, like a woman with a hat with a white tag.
#Finally it is great if the transcript represents the way it is written in the comic as close as possible including colors (which should also be described in the text for those that cannot see them selves). So tables, colors and formatting is fine. If the text then is harder to read it is possible to copy paste it.
:I can see there may have been a bit of explanation in that I wrote about what Megan did in the previous panel, but that is not enough to just undo the whole thing.
:I will reinsert the transcript and if you disagree then lets discuss either on that comic or in a general fora on what a transcript should contain.
:Regards, just Kynde. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:16, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

== Follow-Up on that "Random Chat" ==
Hey dude! Uh... wow this is awkward. You said hi to me in the random chat on my user page. I said hi. Then we never said anything else to each other again. xD --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 16:07, 25 October 2016 (UTC)
:Hi Jay. Not so awkward. :-) I mean you just said thanks, and thus did not really initiate any chat. Do you have anything in mind? Like something to be improved here on explain? Something larger maybe that could need discussion. Or anything else... Problem is of course that when I chat to you here, you do not get any reminder like when I chat on your page and visa versa. So I will make a post on your page that I have answered here... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:04, 25 October 2016 (UTC)
::Well, by that, I just meant a simple random chat. Like a "hey! how are you doing? that's nice... what do you like to do in your free time..?" kind of chat. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 14:18, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
:::Ah well, I guess I would not really like to have such a chat on these pages, so sorry that I misunderstood you. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:19, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
::::It's alright.. also.... HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :D --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 14:41, 31 October 2016 (UTC)
:::::Wow... it's (almost) a whole year since then. Time sure flies by, huh? --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|'''JayRules''XKCD''' ]][[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|what's up?]] 12:34, 9 October 2017 (UTC)
::::::Yes that is true. Actually more since the first contact ;-) Haven't been so active the last half year. :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:22, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

== [[1751: Movie Folder]] ==

Assuming that Black Hat only has good movies is rather absurd, as there's not a shred of evidence to support this. Especially since this is Black Hat we're talking about. Therefore, there's no evidence that Titanic 98 is about the ship hitting the reef, and therefore, the calculations about stacking 97 ships have no relevance. --[[Special:Contributions/172.68.79.81|172.68.79.81]] 15:06, 1 November 2016 (UTC)
:Since this is relevant to a specific comic, I suggest that you just leave this comment on that specific comic's discussion board. Thank you. --[[User:JayRulesXKCD|JayRulesXKCD]] ([[User talk:JayRulesXKCD|talk]]) 15:13, 1 November 2016 (UTC)
::Yes that is true Jay. Anyway there is reason to believe that Black Hat either thinks or teases Cueball with his movies, and thus he suggest that the movies he has are god. Also the other comment he makes suggest this. So I think there is a lot of evidence that this movie 98 is one in the series of movies where Titanic hits the reef of older Titanics. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:05, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
:::Cueball names 7 movies, Black Hat replies to 4 of those. He has definitively positive things to say about 2 of those, and simply states information about another. In that context, there's no reason to assume his comment about the Titanic series should be interpreted as a claim that he considers Titanic 98 to be 'good'. And with only 2 of the other 6 known movies in his collection being stated as 'good', that's clearly not "a lot of evidence" that Titanic 98 is 'good'. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.86|108.162.237.86]] 21:24, 3 November 2016 (UTC)
::::Well we disagree on that then. If the explanation should be changed on the basis of this discussion it should be moved to the relevant discussion page. If it is the same person who wrote from both IP .81 and .86 you could move it there your self. Feel free to include my replies, but leave out Jays as that has nothing to do with the discussion. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:56, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
:::::[[Talk:1751: Movie Folder#Titanic XCVIII|Done]]. (Yes, .81 and .86 were me) --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.86|108.162.237.86]] 16:57, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

== Transcript TLDR; ==
*I got so tired of Dgbrt's negative comments (TLDR;), that I have collapsed them here below. Fell free to read them if you really wish by clicking: --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:00, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed leftAlign" style="width:100%">
 
Please stop to write this massive texts into the transcript. Have a look at the discus at the last (1798) comic. And also think about that you are the only one who is entering those massive explains perhaps also nobody does read. LESS is often MORE! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:43, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
:Maybe. I was under the impression that they where both there for those that had problems with vision, and also so you could search on something you remembered from a comic and find it using that tool. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:27, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
::Even visually impaired persons don't like it (see 1798). And TLDR means "too long; didn't read", just in case. You should consider this. Reading the transcript should not take much longer than identifying the features from picture itself. Every spoken text and a short description what is shown should be suffice. At [[1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones]] even not every county must be mentioned; showing differences to a regular map projection should be enough because everybody knows a regular world map. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:44, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
:::I completely disagree about only writing spoken text. The transcript is intended to make it possible to read all text in the image not just spoken text. It is often difficult to read all text, and also if people misread it or do not notice it by looking at the image, it will be there to find in the transcript, especially for those visually impaired. And what you said means there should be no transcript for the current comic [[1799]] where you linked to this discussion from. By the way I know what TLDR means, and also did not ask about it, if you noticed! I have seen it used here before, probably regarding something you wrote! ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:33, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
::I agree with Dgbrt. [[User:Elektrizikekswerk|Elektrizikekswerk]] ([[User talk:Elektrizikekswerk|talk]]) 12:50, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
:::I expect mainly people who agree comes here, as people who are not troubled by it, might not care enough. ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:33, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
::::The first criticism was done by a visually impaired person (Zetfr 23:11, 13 February 2017 (UTC)) at [[Talk:1798:_Box_Plot]]. That was the reason for me to start this discussion.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:52, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
:::::Yes thanks for pointing that out. I had not read his comments when I replied before. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:13, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
::Another reason for detailed transcripts with image descriptions is that sometimes people have misunderstood what is in the image, and then a transcript can be used to make sure what is there. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:33, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
:::All that may go into the explain section; it doesn't belong to the transcript.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:52, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
::::Yes maybe, but will the visibly impaired not also be annoyed about it there. Then maybe in a trivia section if there is need. I will try that for [[1798]] I think. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:13, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Maybe not known to all. In the past Randall provided a transcript on each comic. It is in a hidden div-tag. Then something went wrong and the transcript actually belonged to an older comic. Right now there is no transcript anymore. But have look at this example (shown on https://xkcd.com/1664/ for https://xkcd.com/1662/):
<pre>
[[Two children, a girl and a boy, are talking to an adult woman as they walk away from her. The boy has a bucket.]]
Girl: Me and Jack are going up the hill to fetch a pail of water.
[[The children have left; the woman calls after them.]]
Woman: Okay, have fun! [[The woman stands and thinks.]]
Woman: ... wait. What the heck is going on with the hydrology around here?
{{Title text: Jill and Jack began to frack. The oil boosts their town. But fractures make the bedrock shake and Jack came tumbling down.}}
</pre>
--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:07, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
:Yes I tried to include this on explain xkcd by making a [[xkcd#Transcript_on_xkcd|description]] of it on the [[xkcd]] page some weeks ago. Transcript are of course even more important now that there are no longer transcripts on xkcd. The first problem arose after the [[Hoverboard]] comic where the transcript for all comics after that was shifted two and later three comics from the one they belonged to. The last of those shifted transcript ended with [[1674]] whose transcript was found three comics later at [[1677]]. But also comics with transcript needs a better transcript here on xkcd, to include other written text, and small important details, as well as we are using given names for characters which Randall has never used (or only rarely uses). Actually Randall has once made a direct link to Explain xkcd for a better transcript. Alas there was not transcript until this year, where I made it: See this [[Payloads#Trivia|trivia]] under [[Payloads]].--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:16, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

I'm glad this discussion is finally taking place. I raised the point a while back on [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Proposals#purpose_of_detailed_transcripts the community portal] but nobody noticed. I tried again on [[1795]] but attention had already moved on to the next comic... Seems I got it right this time ;-)
Different people may have different uses for the transcripts. For me, being visually impaired, the right level of detail is that of Randall's official transcripts. It should include every written word in the comic (spoken, printed, in captions, etc.) and just enough information on what's going on to "get it", but not how things are drawn. E.g. "Cueball is talking to Megan", not "Cueball, on the left, has his right arm extended towards Megan who is sitting on a chair" (unless the chair somehow plays a part in the story). Imagine you're talking on the phone: "hey, I saw a great comic this morning, here is how it goes..." and then "tell" yor friend the joke, rather than "describe" the comic. BTW, I think this also serves your goal of being able to search old comics for a specific element. The element you'll remember will be something important to the comic's story, not a graphical detail such as a character's position or the number of lines drawn around his hand to indicate movement. Anyway, thanks for the good work!! Zetfr 16:18, 16 February 2017 (UTC)
:Thanks for the input, especially to Zetfr. I had not seen your comment on 1795 or in the community portal. I'll have a look, and thanks to Dgbrt for letting me know about your latest comment. I will try to keep out the details in the transcript. For me personally I have often been looking for a specific thing, like searching for the comic where Cueball stands on a chair with a sword or rotates in an office chair. As I could not remember any lines spoken, and because those making the transcript had not mentioned either spinning office chair, or sword, I could not search my way to them even in this explain page. I have found them later, but by chance. And then I put in the details. Maybe I have gotten carried away, so sorry about that. I think the details somehow belongs, but if that should be in the trivia, or at the bottom of the transcript...? I'm not sure, which was also why I put it in the transcript. Being the one who makes the most edits and also hard work (large tables, and huge transcripts) I'm happy Zetfr likes the page :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:09, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
::I have changed the transcript for [[1795]] putting the details into a subesection of the transcript. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:38, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
:::Hi Kynde, I still disagree with this subsection solution. You don't have to repaint the picture by text! If a detail is important for understanding a pun it has to be mentioned in the transcript itself; otherwise it is useless and oversized. E.g.: Nobody wants to know -- and wont remember later -- if there are two, three, four, or five sound symbols and how they are painted. The single word "SOUND" describes all. And please consider: Nobody reads those long texts. LESS is often MORE!.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:04, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
::::Hi Dgbrt. We can movie it into a trivia. I think some of it is relevant, and sometimes it is hard to find out which part will be searched for later. But I guess we two alone would end in a [[1800: Chess Notation|½-½]] for this discussion so far... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:41, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
:::::I completely agree with Dgbrt. The transcript should say *what* Randall wants to tell us, not *how* he tells it. In most cases this should also work to let you search for details you remember. In your example, Cueball holding a sword is certainly important to the comic's point, so it should be mentioned in the transcript. But the length and position of the sword are irrelevant, and probably not what you'll search for. Obviously, there is no hard rule to decide what should or shouldn't go into the transcript, it's a matter of personal judgment and common sense, but I think we can all agree on general guidelines. Regarding the "Detailed image description" section tested in [[1795]], I have no problem with that. I'm not sure it will ever be useful to anyone, but it won't do any harm either, so if you're willing to put in the extra work, go for it. Zetfr 12:17, 18 February 2017 (UTC)
::::::Thanks Zetfr. About the extra details, they could be put into a section where you had to press to see the extra details. I do not know if a reader will pass over that. For instance like I have done with explanation for several categories like [[:Category:New Year]] --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:12, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Nice find for [[1461:_Payloads]], I didn't now Randall refers to this wiki. According to ''web.archive.org'' that hint was entered between 2015-01-25 and 2015-02-07 and refers to the entire wiki page, not only "our" transcript. So it's absolutely NOT embarrassing as you wrote in the trivia section. I'm setting an incomplete tag for the transcript and trivia section and edit it tomorrow (18th Feb). I will let you know what I've done and why. Stay tuned...--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:59, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
:The rework on [[1461:_Payloads]] is done. But I didn't remove the incomplete tag. That's up to you. Like Zetfr I'm not sure it will ever be useful to anyone, but the larger description on a separate page would be acceptable to me. Furthermore I've done some investigations on Randalls links to this wiki and put it together in a new category: [[:Category:Explain_mentioned_by_Randall]].--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:57, 18 February 2017 (UTC)
::Thanks both for the "nice find" and for reworking Payloads, and especially for the new category. Great find. I will look at the other examples soon. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:12, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Many thanks by me for this positive and productive discussion. It seems there are some more former transcripts which need a rework. I personally will focus on checking all the JSON-scripts I downloaded today (1799 at all; ofcourse 404 doesn't exist; and exactly seven contain the word "explainxkcd"). I will write a small script to put them into a human readable form and present it somewhere here for further use. Stay tuned... --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 17:45, 18 February 2017 (UTC)
:Thanks Dbgrt. And really cool how you made that new category. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:14, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

== [[xkcd]] page and subpages ==

You moved some contented into subpages which doesn't make it better. There is no need to describe in [[Design of xkcd.com]] a layout everybody can see. The lemma "Design" requires just a few lines of text but you repeat all the "Content". And just for interest: Before the redirect to https was in place (a few weeks ago) there was language specific advertising for the shop. I'm looking forward for a better and more compressed form on all of this. Any suggestions?--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:07, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
:Hi Dgbrt. My reason for making this page, is that the links, the comics, the headline, the byline, the warning etc. all changes with time, and I would like users of this site to have easy access to earlier links. Just like we have a category for the fotter comics (which I by the way did not make, but enjoyed, because I never thought absolute that he must have had them before all those five comics had been published and that they thus must have changed). So I thought similar things would be nice to have for changes to the layout and hence I decided to describe it. Maybe it was too much, but I like to have the archive links to changes. And since I had already done lots of work on this, I just copied all the new text to another page, to not delete it. And yes as I have said on Davidy's page I should not have put it on the xkcd page to begin with. But when I started I had no idea it would end up soooo long. Waiting to hear your comments on this info, before going further with suggestions. But thanks for asking. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:16, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
::All those pages are on my agenda; your edit or not. I don't care. But I will not delete any content without an agreement. I will present something in a sandbox at my user page. You are welcome there (not before tomorrow). And consider, this wiki is not a backup for archive.org.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 19:56, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
:::I think this wiki is for explaining xkcd, not just the comics. I believe you agree as I have seen on Davidy's talk page. And major changes or important revisions to the main page is important in my opinion. For instance I'm sad to see that the [[xkcd warning]] has gone from xkcd, and think it is important to let it be know it was there for many years. Where to do so? And how to find it if you did not know about it? There need to be a place that links to it, directly or indirectly through the xkcd page. I look forward to see you [[Time|sand castle]]. :-) Please leave a comment here when you have something you wish me to see, with a link. Regarding you answer to my comment, I meant that I would hear what you had to say before I came with suggestions. Not that you should not do anything before I made one. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:08, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

== I am still calm... ==

...why I shouldn't? You see things inspiring others to see more things... (<- you would wrote 500 words for this) and you are still not able to put the pun on the top of an explanation. Keep your focus on the pun, not on every Million possibilities behind the drawing. And you can be sure I will have an eye on this because this is NOT "dreamingxkcd".--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:15, 4 March 2017 (UTC)
:Well I'm not! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:09, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

== Aggressive edits ==

While I was talking to others about the explanation and the transcript for more than 24 hours you need only one hour to change everything that was discussed before. Again all red is yours: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1810%3A_Chat_Systems&diff=137245&oldid=137225 1810: Chat Systems changes]. Editors, mainly not me, don't like it when all their work is changed after you finished your edits. Please respect other editors! --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:50, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
:I do not change everything. I add. But we are obviously not going to agree on this. I would prefer not to discuss with you. How do yo know what the others like or not. In the discussions we have had I found more against your way of communication than against my edits. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 21:57, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
::Massive changes and you call it add??? So tell me your adds and explain how all they other changes happened. I will add a sentence to the comic discussion because it's senseless here.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:14, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
:::Yes it is. And it is a real shame that you have decided to know how this wiki should be. Hope that Davidy soon tells one of us to back off. If it is me then I will have to take it into account. So far he has only had nice things to say to me about my work here, which is not what I have seen regarding your work. Have you read the other users that calls your tone negative/aggressive or even worse? I have really tried to speak nicely to you, but you never seems to accept any edits I do. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:21, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
::::Your "Citation needed" template add to my text is just one example for what I call aggressive. Hiding four paragraphs is an other.--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:09, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
</div>
 

== Possible Issues with Updating Old Comics ==

I know you spent a lot of time making edits to many older comics, so I thought you might have some input on one that I'm thinking needs a change - 38 Apple Jacks. I noticed you edited it a little a couple years ago. It's the one where the father tells his son they don't taste like apples, and his son tells him off.

The title text description says it appears to be another case of Randall explaining the comic to readers who don't know about the old commercial, but I think it might be the father telling the son why he was saying that to him. I think it's worth at least adding, if not totally replacing the current description, but I see you had previously added to it during your edits.

How would you handle that type of change, if it were you? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 21:38, 3 April 2018 (UTC)
: Hi Ianrbibtitlht
:I disagree with the idea you have. And my reason for that is based in the original quote from Randall when posting this comic to live journal where he asks:
::"Who else remembers those commercials?"
::See the comics [[38:_Apple_Jacks#Trivia|Trivia section]].
::To me indication that since no one did, he added the explanation in the title text.
:The son dismissed his father completely, and I do not think the father goes on.
:And since many of xkcd's readers may not know the reference he explains it in the title text.
:He did the same with the title text in [[30: Donner]], which is what is refereed to in the title text explanation. I have added links between these two examples. There may be more.
:Of course you are free to add an alternative explanation, and see if any one notices enough to complain about/remove it. ;-)
:--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:57, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

::I appreciate the feedback. I don't feel strongly enough to modify it at this point but thought it might be an added insight that nobody had thought about! ;-) [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:57, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

:::Thanks for asking, by the way. ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:46, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

== Need help ==
A few things. Several people have mentioned that ReCAPTCA v1 has expired, and something needs to be done about that. But no one has replied to the admin forum, so not sure what is going on. Are there even any admins still here? Seems like they've all disappeared. And should we create a new forum for questions and things like that? And if all the admins have left, should there be like more admins or something like that? [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 07:51, 8 April 2018 (UTC)
:Hi
:I haven't any idea about ReCAPTCA and Im not an admin. But yes if there is no one that replies it is a problem. Davidy is the obe I have had discussions with but he did not reply the last two times I wrote. Don't know if DGBRT with the BOT has any knowledge that can be used. Try those two. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:30, 9 April 2018 (UTC)
::FYI, we still have admins here and there will be a major update soon at one of the next weekends. BTW, I prefer it in lowercase: dgbrt - like xkcd--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:16, 16 April 2018 (UTC)
:::Thanks for the info dgbrt, and it sounds greawt. (Your signature is with capital D but that is maybe just as the username? I will use dgbrt from now on). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:08, 23 April 2018 (UTC)

== All is red again - you changed everything according to the diff ==

Hi, look at [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1981%3A_Rickrolling_Anniversary&diff=155913&oldid=155905 your edits] and tell me how someone can see what you have changed. Please keep your changes to smaller parts.

And beginning an explanation with a youtube link which even doesn't work in some countries like Germany is also not a god start to an explanation. I'm referring to your edits above. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:27, 16 April 2018 (UTC)
:OK, sorry about that. I will try to make smaller changes. The link was not one I put in, I just moved it to the beginning to rickroll someone - it was a joke... Of course if the link did not work I can understand why you did not get Rickrolled. But the link had already been included in the explanation before my edits. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:24, 18 April 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks for your understanding, "all is red..." was the reason why I started this section, the video link was meant as a minor remark and that it doesn't work in Germany is even less important for the explanation.
::But I didn't understand your joke. So what do you think about changing all the internal links like [[Cueball]] to rickroll the readers - of course only less important links.
::BTW: Around 2009 and some years later the German GEMA Mafia tried to block all music content until they got the money. Even dashcam videos from the meteorite incident in Chelyabinsk were blocked when you could hear something from the radio in the car. This has changed and newer uploads are now available to me (including Rick). --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 15:02, 18 April 2018 (UTC)
:::The joke was that this comic was about rickrolling and the link was to the ricrolling youtube video... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:30, 19 April 2018 (UTC)

I just tried to make several smaller changes, and it was much more difficult to me, with the risk of making mistakes... But have a look at this then: [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1982:_Evangelism&action=history Evangelism history].--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:45, 19 April 2018 (UTC)
:I like that but the development of this comic explanation is funny and not a typical one. Many vast changes were done after your comment here. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:01, 21 April 2018 (UTC)
::Well happy you do. Most of the changes were improvement, but often based on or improving parts I had edited (well I had edited most parts ;-) What I meant was that some of the good changes only came about because of the changes I had done in the first place. Still seems we need a citation for primates opening at the "wrong" end though? {{unsigned|Kynde}}
:::You know I'm a fan of short explanations just covering what's in the comic. And in [[1982: Evangelism]] there is no "wrong banana end" mentioned. It just mentions "the other" - which is of course always "wrong". The title text then indeed refers to a schism in Europe - the Americans weren't much developed by that time (excepting the natives).
:::BTW: My major workload here right now is working on the health of this wiki. You probably haven't seen my latest comment five days ago just a section above. We will get an update soon. Stay tuned.
:::BTW2: You have forgotten to sign your comment ;)
:::--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:19, 21 April 2018 (UTC)
::::Yes we are not fan of the same type of explanations we have covered that. I believe that the majority of humans do peel the banana from the opposite end of that cited (without citations) to what primates do... I'm not sure there is any year for the schism in Europe so who knows how developed the US was at that time. Bananas is a rather new thing in Europe I believe!
::::And no I had not seen that comment, probably same time you posted this comment thread? But sounds great! Are you an admin now? And do you have any contact with Davidy... He went off the xkcd explain grid long time ago.
::::I have amended my mistake and will sign this time ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:12, 23 April 2018 (UTC)

== You blanked the page [[1996]] ==

A you can see [[Talk:1995: MC Hammer Age|here]] "I decided to let it stay there as it is but on Monday that redirect will AND must be overwritten in the meaning of a comic number." That blank page isn't better than my decision. Beginning on Monday the number 1996 MUST be used for navigation (i.e. Comic Number) and nothing else.

Other future comics will be: 1999, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2038. That's all!

All those future comics (by number) - beginning with 1996 on Monday - AND that older ones (by name) should have a disambiguation line on top when the comic number overrides that name.

The problem is the logic at this wiki. While at xkcd the number and name have different meanings and navigation is only done by number it's not true here. While <nowiki>https://xkcd.com/1996</nowiki> will lead to the next future comic and is unique the link <nowiki>https://explainxkcd.com/1996</nowiki> could mean number OR name. We also use the number for navigation, so the abbreviation in the meaning as a comic name can not be supported for those eight comics. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 14:58, 19 May 2018 (UTC)
:Hi DBBRT
:I first saw your comments after I had blanked it. And I thought it was better to avoid confusion over the weekend. So I did not return it. I think it could be better to already now remove those page re-directions for the comics you mention now, to avoid confusion on all those numbers... A lot of those the next 20 comic or so. We already had a similar situation with [[1337]], because of the LEET comic series. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:15, 23 May 2018 (UTC)
::Read my future comic list above, it's only seven. And the blank page confused some users also. Nevertheless I will change the comic template, navigation to the right will not be shown when the target is greater than the LATESTCOMIC. The BOT will update those redirects anyway. I just prefer some tests at home to figure out the best solution before editing here. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 13:53, 23 May 2018 (UTC)
:::Well, I think 7 times confusing in 20 comics is a lot, but I can read that you are working on avoiding it, so that is great. I'm very impressed by your bot, but then again I have very little programming experience and it was back in my days as a PhD Student around 2002... (Pascal...) Great you have made it and keep improving it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:06, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
::::Thanks for your kind words. I still don't understand the 20, it's only seven comics and I've changed the global comic template so that this is SOLVED now. There is no link to [[1999]] in the navigation bar today. But on Monday my bot will update that page in the meaning of a comic number and the right navigation in [[1998: GDPR]] will be shown. FYI: I'm a professional programmer. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 21:04, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
:::::Must have been unclear. I meant that over the next 20 comics, there would have been this issue 7 times i.e. about once every week, and I found that it could have caused confusion a lot in those 7 weeks. But now you have solved this with you prof. programmer skills. ;-) So there is no longer any problems. Great work. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:04, 27 May 2018 (UTC)
::::::Thanks for your kind words. And I've done more: Embedding pictures from Commons works again and it's now also possible to change the size. See my latest edit here [[1400: D.B. Cooper]] which uses this statement <nowiki>[[File:DBCooper.jpg|thumb|150px|Cooper]]</nowiki>. That image is not uploaded here, click at it in the comic and you will see. I've mentioned this in the Community portal. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 12:07, 27 May 2018 (UTC)
:::::::Cool. I'm not sure how this works. Looks at first like the image is on the local wiki but I can see it is not so. But how does this works. Can you write the "File" formula for any picture name on commons and then get it embedded here like that? It is beyond my computer skills :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:02, 28 May 2018 (UTC)
::::::::When the picture isn't here it's searched on Commons. When it's found it's only cached at this wiki. In general it works like a local file. This did already work in the past until it was broken. But now we also can change the size, play with that 150px in the preview. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:15, 28 May 2018 (UTC)
:::::::::Thx --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:08, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

== Why you still focus on that SAD comics? ==

I focus on all edits done here and your edits are minor (there are much more edits here needing some attention), nonetheless I would be happy to find a solution on that ''sad'' thoughts are in your mind. I respect your thoughts, but that trivia at ''[[1756: I'm With Her]]'' really dohttps://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Kyndees not belong to that comic at all. It was deleted before, you reverted that -- by not reading or ignoring the discussion page -- and I just want to prevent an edit war. Furthermore I removed your statement about "trolls" at the discussion page because that's not polite.
*And now
**I start
***with
****your layout
*****You see???
Try to write full sentences without bullets. I'm hoping you understand my major two parts here. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 23:21, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
:Yes I did not read the comments. I was looking for the sad list, when I fond it missing. I saw through the edit and found the following comment:
::This "sad comics" list is utterly pointless and has no reason to exist. I don't regret deleting this waste. If anyone wants to keep it up, revert the edit, but make it readable, compact, and make at least one bit of sense. (Emojis? must be TRUMP!!?!one1!))
:I did not see any discussion there, and found it rude and also not done properly (with many links pointing to this section). So I just reverted it. It could be given its own page though.
:Regarding politeness I must say I did not find most of your comments on the talk page polite as I just read them. As you state "no one has criticized it before", so maybe it is just you, and now some years later a few guys that begins rambling on about it.
:As to why, I think it is quite clear that Randall was sad after the election. Maybe I took it too far, and it should no longer have been "sad", but about comics pointing to a political agenda by Randall. As Randall is on the move again with the mid term election coming, he has both a new political comic out, and has changed the header text with regards to registering for voting twice in a month.
:So I definitely still find it relevant. That has not changed just because two years have passed. What Trump does at the moment is even more disturbing than ever, and I'm sure Randall is thick and tried of it still! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:38, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
::PS. The layout was me trying to make a list of comics that was related to this issue. And with date and events listed as well. Maybe it can be done better, but I at least kept the format throughout. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:39, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
:::You always do this nested bullet lists. That's ugly layout. One bullet and one or two short sentences, not more. In most cases you just should simply omit the bullets and write full sentences. The page [[Design of xkcd.com]] is an other example for this bad layout.
:::But back to the main issue: Even jet you did not read the comments completely. Only after "A) Why does the sad comics list exist (see comment above)?..." I came in. And on 27 October 2018 I mentioned at least four incomplete reasons (the transcript was you).
:::So I recall: The trivia at ''[[1756: I'm With Her]]'' does not belong to that comic at all, and even at a different page the title would be wrong because most of the listed comics are NOT sad. Furthermore I don't know how you do know how Randall feels, he is just a writer and these are only comics.
:::There was a reason why David was against a category for sad comics, and this is still valid. This is the only reason why this section at the trivia of 1756 exists, be honest.
:::So my proposal is:
:::*moving the content to a separate page, either with a new title or only moving the "sad" content and deleting the rest
:::*using the link from the menu: "What links here" at 1756 ([[Special:WhatLinksHere/1756: I'm With Her]]) to fix the links to that part (mostly your former work) and maybe also change the text
:::The comic 1756 has to be explained mainly in the context of the time BEFORE the election. It was a campaign for Hillary Clinton, anything later done by Trump is irrelevant, besides that it has to be mentioned that the campaign wasn't successful. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:16, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
::::Well, I definitely know that the comment in here is mine. I did very much hate the list because, as mentioned in the talk page on the comic, the section was completely disorganized. It took up half of the entire page. As Dgbrt mentioned, the format you use is honestly really ugly, and I have to agree. The real problem that I found was ''after'' I posted the comment he quoted.
::::In that comment, I mentioned that it should have had its own category instead of being completely on that single page, which would have prevented it from the eyes of those who don't like this format. Alternatively, it could have been in a table, a format much more compact, several times easier to understand, and at least 12 octillion times less infuriating to look at.
::::The other mind-boggling and frankly stupid thing about the list, of course, was that you added '''''every. Single. Comic.''''' ...if it seemed to be remotely sad (and even if it ''wasn't sometimes!'') and tried to link it to the political situation and Trump. I, in that comment, presented two of the comics in a - admittedly more asshole-ish - way that you linked them like this. But that's the ''core'' of all of this drama. Hell, in multiple of the comics, you even said that no "big" event seemed related to the situation and simply just put it in because it mentioned the military or security. And even for some of the ones you did present a political event, the speculation that you presented for Randall making these comics was beyond 4chan with Smash Ultimate level.
::::Like I said in that comment, it isn't necessarily a political comment just because something big happened that day. Vomiting Emoji and Flag, the two I highlighted in my comment, have explanations that are just plainly absurd. Randall "expressing fear" that the moon would be gone before the eclipse was ''obviously'' a joke. Randall making a joke that has a flag in the picture doesn't mean he's going to rebel against the United States, make his own country, and science his way to taking it over just so that Trump is no longer the ruler.
::::I wouldn't have had these problems if the list weren't so outlandishly absurd, and combined with the fact that it clogged up the page with a lot of meaningless speculation, I felt pushed to just delete the entire thing. Yes, that may have been extreme of me, and I should apologize for being fed up, but I still maintain that a lot of the stuff on that list is bad. If it's presented in - again - a way that doesn't hurt to read or filled up with what it is, I would have not as many problems with it. But as it looks right now, just making the list collapsible doesn't remove the problem; it's like putting White-Out on a yellow test paper and saying that the question never existed, despite the fact that it's obvious that something is wrong. [[User:Halo422|Halo422]] ([[User talk:Halo422|talk]]) 04:05, 1 November 2018 (UTC)
:::::A bit complicated to reply now. But to Dgbrt I did not read any comments until your post here. I was pissed about the deletion of the entire section, and just undid it. As Dgbrt wrote it can only be deleted properly by also removing links that goes there. I'm not using the page that much at the moment, and do not read all comments. This is also why I first see your comments today.
:::::Dgbrt do you have any good idea for a page title? If it is only the first few comics that are clearly sad, could it then be called "Sad comics"? And should it be a page or a category? If we can find a solution for that, I will try to change it so it can be tolerable... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:01, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
::::::I'm honest: I vote for deleting that section. The main reason is that we don't know how Randall feels, whether sad or not. We just have comics, not an autobiography.
::::::If you still vote for keeping I only can see two possibilities:
::::::*Keep the title "Sad comics", move it to a single page (no subpage to any comic), remove most of the content, write a proper text instead of bullets, and start it like "Some comics may suggest the impression..." because your "...clear trend..." is nonsense.
::::::*Or, move everything to a separate page, but then I have no idea about any proper title.
::::::BTW: I've created a new category: [[:Category:Elections]], and as I mention here [[:Talk:2067: Challengers]] it still needs some work. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:06, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
:::::::I will think about the possibilities. And I did see your new category. Which is great by the way. There must be many of these from earlier years also?--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:09, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
::::::::I need help on this new category because I'm sure there is more. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 11:12, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
::I have now created [[Sad comics]] and moved the content from With her and tried to make the layout better. I do not agree with deleting the references to the other comics, but not they have been separated from the first four sad/negative comics. All links have been diverted to this page from all 16 comics. If there are other comics, not on the list, with link to that section I have not changed those... Many comics could refer to With Her for many reasons so I will not go through them all. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:55, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
:::You've done a big job, so thanks for this on the first place. And I can assure you that you always can find all links at the tools box "What links here", in this case when reading ''[[1756: I'm With Her]]''. I'm still not happy seeing comics like [[2064: I'm a Car]] linking to content titled as ''sad'', but that's up to other editors.
:::'''ProTip''': You should watch pages important to you, just activate "Watch this page" at the bottom when editing, or adjust your "Watchlist" at the top menu belonging to your personal profile. You will receive an email on every change. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 18:31, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
::::Yes I know about the links, but even though I have reverted the link to the sad trivia section, there may still be a link to the With her comic for other reasons. And there may even be links to the sad section from other comics not listed in my trivia, and I will not go through all pages referencing one of the controversial comics. I by the way highly disagree that we do not know Randall's political opinion. He has also endorsed Obama, so to day it is certain that he endorses the democrats vs Republican is a fact, not a guess. But you changed that on the new [[Challengers]] comic. I will not change it though. I just highly disagree with you on what is a know and what is a guess there.
::::Regarding the comics that are not sad it is not listed as being sad, that is only the first four. The rest is just listing comics that could have to do with Randall's political mood due to Trump and his politics.
::::I no longer have the time I once dedicated to this page... And hence I have taken e-mail alerts off, which is why I first noticed the deletion now. But I get e-mails on personal changes on this page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:37, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
:::::While I'm still sure not knowing much about Randall's condition when his comics are published, I sense ''you'' are sad. I insist you should take a closer look on all your contributions here, which are much more than only this stupid sad stories. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 00:18, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

== I am still happy to see your additions here... ==

...you did edits I didn't like - and vice versa - but that's a war I don't like. And now I'm in a position in which I have to take care of all the health here, not only what's written.

Ironically: xkcd is also about sarcasm, the hell, shoooouuuuting on the hellll...

I will probably disagree on some of your future edits, but I don't have to judge this. That's up to others here.

So now I'm asking for help on a SMALL page introducing the memes used at this site. Like the Editor-FAQ I did. David did...not that much on that requests over a long time.

While I'm not sure about a proper title, this Wiki still leaks on a page simply showing the memes used here, linking to more specific pages, presented to evrey newbee.

--[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 22:06, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
::Thanks.
::I'm not sure I understand the page you are talking about, or what type of memes you mean.
::Also as is probably clear I'm not using that much time on this wiki anymore. I'm not leaving it, I just do not have the time any longer. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:31, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
:::Oh, I'm also not sure, maybe just a title like "About". It often happens that new people asking questions like "Why is the mouse-over text called title text?", how character names have been developed here, and so forth. A simple page, mostly showing links with a small introduction to the more hidden pages you often maintain. New readers have simple questions we don't think about anymore, that's what I would like to present. But it seems I have to collect some more items on which you maybe can help. --[[User:Dgbrt|Dgbrt]] ([[User talk:Dgbrt|talk]]) 20:34, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
:::Ah I see. It was the meme part that failed to register. But a about page makes sense. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:37, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

== We got a final image ==

Emoji dome has a wonderful ending image. Do you mind putting it as the current explainxkcd image? [[User:Netherin5|“That Guy from the Netherlands”]] ([[User talk:Netherin5|talk]]) 18:25, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
:No it is perfect. I can see [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:emojidome.png someone already did], it has just not been updated on the front of the page yet. It will be before tomorrow. The other pictures should be collected on a extra page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:56, 2 April 2019 (UTC)

== Removing all references to the Sad comics page ==

Hi Kynde,

I've expressed my intention to remove all references to the Sad comics page over at [[Talk:Sad_comics]], but I wanted to get your input too, since it is your page. Feel free to drop a comment over there if you want to contest this. [[User:Hawthorn|Hawthorn]] ([[User talk:Hawthorn|talk]]) 12:56, 13 May 2019 (UTC)
:Hi Hawthorbn. Thanks for alerting me. Did not follow the discussion page on Sad. I of course disagree. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:56, 14 May 2019 (UTC)

== 2196 ==
I mentioned this on DgbrtBOT's talk page, but I'm not sure Dgbrt saw it. Since you're an admin, could you help me with this?
# I uploaded the file, and it appeared in the page, but the link in the List of all comics page is still red. I think I messed up the upload, so could you delete the current file (the one I uploaded) for 2196 and reupload it?
# I created an incorrect redirect page [[Nice To E-Meet you]] (The name is incorrect, I forgot to capitalize the You). Could you please delete that page? Thanks!
[[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 00:52, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
:Hi Herobrine. No I'm not ad admin, just very active, and cannot do anything to delete pages. I can give it a look though cause I have created a few pages long time ago when the bot was not there/working. And yes seems like Dgbrt is not active at the moment. Lets see if it works again this Monday. As you can see [[User_talk:Dgbrt#DgbrtBOT_failed_2019-08-30|here]] I tried to write directly to him. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:38, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
::Can see you have created the page with [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Nice_To_E-Meet_You&redirect=no capital You] and I have now moved the image to a title with the hyphen in e-meet, which was missing in your original edit. So now [[List_of_all_comics]] works for the image as well. There are so many things which can go wrong, which is why we love out BOT. Hope it works tomorrow.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:46, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

== Category book promotion ==
Hi, you obviously know a thing or 2 about creating and adding categories, and like to do so :)
I feel like we could need a category about book promotion, with at least 3 comics related to how to and at least one to thing explainer (hoverboard, possibly also up goer five...), and myabe even others I can't remember right now. What do you think? --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:31, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:Maybe more a list of comics that promote books. Not comics that inspire books, so no to Up Goer Five. But it could get special mention with mention of the category in that explanation as well. But I think we need to find more than 4, five is kind of a limit. Maybe there where something for what if? But I do not think so... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:37, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
::Looking at it again, we do have five :) [[Hoverboard]], [[2190: Serena Versus the Drones]], [[2198: Throw]], [[Disappearing Sunday Update]] and [[2194: How to Send a File]]
:::Well great. Do you have an idea for the category name? "Category:Book promotion" ??--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:54, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
::::Sounds good to me! --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:56, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:::::Will you add that category to the comics? I can help create the page then. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:57, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
::::::Done --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 06:07, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
:::::::[[:Category:Book promotion]] page created and found another comic that promotes a book Randall has been involved in! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:40, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

== Broken Button ==
Hi Kynde, I've answered your question on my talk page. But I'll post it here just in case: I think you forgot to update [[Template:LATESTCOMIC]], so it would treat comic 2198 as 2197, hence breaking the button. [[User:Herobrine|Herobrine]] ([[User talk:Herobrine|talk]]) 22:55, 3 September 2019 (UTC)
:Thanks, DgbrtBOT has updatet it and now it works! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:40, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

== Thanks ==

I see you went through a few of my recent edits, and corrected them / replied on them / acted on them. Thanks a lot. Also, now I learned from your edits how subcategories work. Thanks also for that. :) (But, please try not to change the word typo to lupo in common use. I don't think it would be an honour :) ) --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 07:00, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
:I hope you could see the joke. Like when you fixed the fix? I also spotted you put a hidden joke . I will not make the same joke again. I guess it was also a kind of signature. I spotted that you where the most active last month. And was interested seeing what kind of edits. More or less I agreed with most... And cool with the spam fight. Do not use the same amount of time as I used to, but have been more active lately... Just became 2nd on all time activity list... Happy you both noticed and approved. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:09, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
::I could see the joke and I enjoyed it :) as I tend to make a lot of typos, it isn't even that far fetched to use my name instead ;). I usually visit the site a few times a day and start on the recent changes page, and check what has happened. That's also how I often quickly find the spam. The other thing I tend to do when I got some free time on my hands is use the "random page" button and find out if I can improve the place I get to. I also saw that you are progressing a lot in the all time list. Last month I even noticed you were in the monthly list at a score that would have put you in the all time top 50 on its own. Impressive! Have a good weekend. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 20:00, 11 October 2019 (UTC)
:::I'm also not native English speaker (Danish), and my grammar is probably horrible. Then it is great it is a wiki so others can fix that. I hope my additions are a plus. Have of course had rows with others, as can be seen above ;-) With some of the big one I think I have had months that would put me in top 20... (Not something I have checked). But with some of the comics where I added a lot of images, I will get a very high score as unique pages gives one point, and every picture uploaded is a new page. The amount of changes I have made puts me in nr. 1 spot, but that doesn't give much compared to number of pages visited. And please feel free to correct my typos. By the way I haven't even read all comics yet, since I have a hard time reading a new one without wishing to make corrections to transcript or explanations, so it takes some time every time I find a new. So between the first comic I saw when I found this page and then back from there there will be lots of comics I haven't even seen yet... Probably why you can find so many transcripts where caption below the panel has not been added (as it was I who began making this the way to write it). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 22:46, 11 October 2019 (UTC)

== Category for Back to the Future ==

Hi, can you create a category for the film series ''Back to the Future''? To start, there is [[102: Back to the Future]], [[656: October 30th]], [[1477: Star Wars]], [[2104: Biff Tannen]], [[2193: Well-Ordering Principle]], and maybe others. Thanks, [[Special:Contributions/172.68.47.144|172.68.47.144]] 20:26, 31 October 2019 (UTC)
:Hi yes I can. And I did: [[:Category:Back to the Future]]. I added yours. Here is [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=50&offset=0&profile=default&search=%22Back+to+the+Future%22 a search string] that may help find more (for you to add). --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:31, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

== Deletion of small categories? ==

Hi Kynde! I posted this on the community portal, but it seems unresponsive, and since none of the admins have edited recently, you seem like the person to ask.
I count eight categories on explainxkcd that satisfy the following properties: 1. They have only three comics in them. 2. They aren't really a comic series; they just feature or reference a comic theme. 3. They aren't Featuring some person or character. In short, they seem to have no real reason to exist. (They're [[:Category:Spice_Girls|t]][[:Category:Wind_turbine|h]] e[[:Category:Ender%27s_Game|s]]eo[[:Category:FernGully|n]][[:Category:Giraffes|e]]s.) In addition, there are [[:Category:Sketches|t]][[:Category:BSD|h]][[:Category:Emacs|i]][[:Category:Identity_Theft|r]][[:Category:Katamari_Damacy|t]][[:Category:Super_Bowl|e]][[:Category:The_Matrix|e]][[:Category:Tournament_bracket|n]][[:Category:Traffic_light| ]][[:Category:Trebuchet|m]][[:Category:Wingsuit|o]][[:Category:Euler_diagrams|r]][[:Category:Pedantic|e]] four-comic categories that also satisfy these requirements. I know non-admins can't delete articles, but because of these articles' status, should I remove their contents and add them to [[:Category:Pages to delete]]? --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 01:17, 12 November 2019 (UTC)
:Since I'm no admin just the most active over an extended period of time, I cannot really say what to do. Some of the categories I think has merit, I may even have created some of them. And there may be reason to expect more to come. But others I tend to agree. I think Randall has something with Giraffes and the Spice Girl spurt with three in short notice I think merits the categories. The other 6 with three I would not mind if they went away. But then there may need to be some links between those comics. Are you willing to make those? If you do then empty the categories, and put them as up for deletion. Most of those with four I would keep. I have NOT clicked on them all though, just read them here when I edited this response. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:56, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

== Category for Bees ==

Hi Kynde,

Can you add a category on bees, as a subcategory of [[:Category:Animals]]? I've found [[1259: Bee Orchid]], [[1186: Bumblebees]], [[2231: the Time Before And After Land]], [[2035: Dark Matter Candidates]], [[1692: Man Page]], and there are probably more. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.34.38|172.69.34.38]] 00:22, 22 November 2019 (UTC)
:Done [[:Category:Bees]]. Added your five comics. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:49, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

== New category - comics with store products ==

Hi Kynde, thanks for creating the new page for [[:Category:Comics with store products]]! (I was the one who added the comics to that category, but I didn't have permission to create a new page for the category itself, so I apologize for abandoning it like that.)

For the name of this category, I wanted to follow a similar pattern to existing category names such as "[[:Category:Comics from 2005]]" or "[[:Category:Comics with color]]". So for the name of this new category, I had considered some other more accurate names, such as "[[:Category:Comics upon which xkcd store products are based]]", or perhaps "[[:Category:Comics made into official merchandise]]"; but I felt that these new category names would be a bit too long, so I was trying to keep it more succinct than that. ...But now I realize that the current name I chose is not very clear, and might cause some confusion about what it's supposed to mean, so it was really a poor choice of words on my part. Do you have any ideas for a better name that we could use for this category? If so, please feel free to rename it, then I will go through all the comic pages where I added it, and update them to the new category.

On the other hand, in the edit-history of the [[:Category:Comics with store products]] page, I noticed in your comments that you felt it was maybe not a good idea for a category -- and I certainly understand that, so if you want to just remove this category completely, please feel free to do so, then I will go through and remove it from all the comics where I added it (so as not to leave any broken links behind).

Thanks for your help, and sorry for causing noob trouble!

- [[User:Yfmcpxpj|Yfmcpxpj]] ([[User talk:Yfmcpxpj|talk]]) 09:57, 24 November 2019 (UTC)
:Hi Yfmcpxpj
:First of all, the comment on my creation of the page, was because I did not understand the category. Store products.. I thought it was like with products bought in a type of store... First when I clicked on a few and saw your (?) comments that a t-shirt was based on this comic, did I understand the category. Think I wrote that in my next edit, where I linked to the store. After realizing that, I though it was a great category, although adding xkcd would probably help the understand-ability: "Category: Comics with xkcd store products"
:What do you say to that title?
:Regarding my ability to make pages, that is just because I have edited enough to get that right (I know I have edited more than any one else here...) But I'm actually not an admin, and I cannot delete pages. Sadly it seems the admins have left xkcd without replacements... So not one answers admin requests, and although I'm glad to help when I can, I do not have that many rights on the page.
:But true you may have asked for someone to create the page and also maybe ask for the title before creating it. I think I will be able to rename the page though, so if you can go through all the comics and correct the category there I would like to give it a try. (Do not do this before I have changed the name!)
:What do you say? And should I add the xkcd as suggested above?
:--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:14, 24 November 2019 (UTC)

::Yes, I like your title better, "Comics with xkcd store products" -- I think it is much clearer. If you can rename the category, I will wait for that, then after it has been successfully renamed, I'll go through and update those comics to use the new one instead. And sorry to hear that the admins have been absent -- but it looks like you are doing a good job of keeping the site maintained, so thank-you for that! - [[User:Yfmcpxpj|Yfmcpxpj]] ([[User talk:Yfmcpxpj|talk]]) 08:58, 25 November 2019 (UTC)
:::I have now moved the category page. You can find the list of comics that now need to be moved [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Comics_with_store_products&redirect=no here].
:::And the new empty category here [[:Category:Comics with xkcd store products]]. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:26, 25 November 2019 (UTC)

::::Thanks Kynde; I have moved the remaining comics into the new category. You mentioned that you don't have permissions to delete pages, so I wonder if the old page [[:Category:Comics with store products]] should be put into parent [[:Category:Pages to delete]] so maybe the admins will delete it? - [[User:Yfmcpxpj|Yfmcpxpj]] ([[User talk:Yfmcpxpj|talk]]) 08:15, 26 November 2019 (UTC)
:::::As the old Category redirects to the new one, I guess deletion is not necessary. --[[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 08:31, 26 November 2019 (UTC)
::::::If no pages refers to the old category, and to avoid anyone putting comics in that category again, it would be nice to have it deleted. But I'm not sure anyone will do that at the moment. Davidy is long gone and DGBRT seems to be absent as well... I was once asked to be an admin but declined at the time ... Maybe that was a shame, but at least I still react when someone post on my page... But I'm not that active anymore, and have never looked much through the portal pages etc. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:49, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

== Banned from Conferences Category ==

Hi Kynde, you usually have a good feeling on how Categories should be described, etc. There was a (quite short) discussion on [[153: Cryptography]], to remove a portion of the explanation. Do you think that stuff belongs into [[:Category:Banned from conferences]]? Maybe you can chime into the "discussion" on 153. -- Regards [[User:Lupo|Lupo]] ([[User talk:Lupo|talk]]) 14:24, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

== Edit summaries ==
Please use {{w|Help:Edit_summary|edit summaries}}; they are especially important for pages like [[:xkcd Header text]] that are infrequently monitored but have a meta-importance. Thanks. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 21:22, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
:I have more or less created the entire page from scratch. So I will not begin writing details every time I make a revision. But I use it for most other edits. I can see you care for BLM... Great, you probably know much more on this than I do. I made this page, to keep track of the header text, which was not explained on these pages. Sometimes it is relevant for a given comic, so great to have this place to write about it, and then link to it from the comics. The unfilled link was to help people wo may help editing this page, fill in when the header changed. I will do that now. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:37, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
::Kynde: I don't understand how your authorship of the page (from scratch or otherwise) has anything to do with whether you should be writing details of when you make a revision. But for sensitive topics, which BLM is, it is especially important for other editors to be able to carefully review changes. And when you make a large block of changes, like you did there on July 1, with 8 different edits, edit summaries are an extremely helpful tool for everyone else. So, again, the request is to please use an edit summary, ''especially'' when you are making multiple edits in a row, and ''especially'' on pages of meta-importance like [[:xkcd Header text]]. Of course, this is not Wikipedia, the rules here (such as they are) are relatively weak, and we all should coöperate. But if your answer is "I don't have to because I wrote the page first, years ago!" that doesn't make any sense at all. If your goal was to make sense, then I don't know how to respond. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 17:50, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
:::Well I shall try to be more careful around sensitive subjects. You are one of the first other than me to have edited the page. And one of the few that have added a new section. I just changed it into the same format that I have used on all the others. And did a revision now, and sorry I forgot to write what it was out of bad habit. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 17:57, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
::::I think the change you just made was…not great. See [[:Talk:xkcd_Header_text#Recent_BLM_edits]] where I give my opinion. But it is probably better discussed there than on your personal page, but I wanted to highlight it for you. [[User:JohnHawkinson|JohnHawkinson]] ([[User talk:JohnHawkinson|talk]]) 18:04, 18 July 2020 (UTC)
:::::I have replied on the other talk page. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:28, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

== Nationality ==

What country are you from? [[User:Beanie|Beanie]] [[User talk:Beanie|talk]] 12:34, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
:Denmark. Why? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:15, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

== Forgive this IP ==
I just made a handful of edits to recent changes that you had made (may not have been what you changed, in all cases; it might have just been pre-existing errors and Recent Changes just drew me to them). I hope it doesn't look personal, especially from an impersonal IP that you can't easily talk back to. So I'm mentioning it here to try to apologise if it does seem that way. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.85|162.158.159.85]] 18:57, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
:Hi. Thanks for telling. Since your IP will change I cannot see exactly which changes you made, but cheeked on my last changes and saw some CE and minor changes. Only thing I disagreed with (not sure it was you) was that the Launch comic should not have been released on the 24th. Which it was in most of the US if not all. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:01, 29 December 2021 (UTC)
::(Most of the changes occured under roughly the 172.70.… range, as I recall, though you can see the above switched to a whole different class-B - entirely due to the internediary's whim (Cloudflare?) without my changing anything. I'm sitting on a different connection now, so all bets are off what ''this'' will appear as. ;) )
::I have no argument with Randall posting on the 24th (his time) as the Bot got there soon enough to prove it. But of course the rest of us (mostly Europe and beyond) had a different experience. Still before the launch (whoever checked for themselves in time), which I think a couple of my edits were about. Really not huge issues, just minor fixes. You're good with those things, I know from experience, just a courtesy note (that and this). [[Special:Contributions/172.70.86.22|172.70.86.22]] 22:42, 29 December 2021 (UTC)
:::Maybe not you who posted. But as you can see your IP is not the same in these two posts, so I can only assume you are the same person, but cannot guess which of my edits you have changed and which someone else changed ;-) Do you have a name other than 162.158.159.85 or 172.70.86.22 ;-) Why not get an account? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:29, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
::::I just can't think of a decent username. I tend to use different ones everwhere (and never my RL identity) and most of them were 'good ideas at the time' but when the inevitable "Why is your username what it is?" thread comes around it always seems my 'explanation' is laughable. All the above in this section (that isn't you) is me, BTW. Just added an indent layer I missed. I'm happy being (slightly unpredictably) changing IP, because I seek no credit (or blame!) for my 'insights' and my ego survives well enough on such fleeting moments of anonymous fame, I assure you. ;) And I don't mind when other IP-editors 'land' on/near what I just used, either, even if they're now completely wrong.
::::Not that I think Usernames are a bad thing in general for you and others (c.f. 4chan 'anon' culture...), I'm just happy that it's one less thing to worry about in my own case! [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 15:04, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
:::::Well that is up to you. But then again it is hard to forgive an IP when I'm not sure what it has done or not. But as I could just see there where nothing needing forgiveness so we are good. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:15, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

== Do you get a healthy amount of sleep? ==
In recent days I see you editing very often and I just wanna make sure you get enough sleep because while you're doing amazing work, I am a bit concerned [[User:256.256.256.256|256.256.256.256]] ([[User talk:256.256.256.256|talk]]) 08:45, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
:Ha ha - thanks for both the concern and the praise. I'm from Denmark so if you look at the time stamp and think I should be sleeping, then maybe it is in the middle of the day here. I write this just before 10:00 AM here in DK. But actually I'm doing very little now compared to maybe five years ago. If you look at the [[Special:ContributionScores|ContributionScores]] at the bottom with the All time (Top 50), you will see that I'm number two. And if you look at number of changes I'm far ahead of number 2... So this is actually quite low level activity for me... --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 08:53, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

==[[Countdown in header text]] image ==
You mentioned you'd help uploading the countdown wiggle gif, so [https://tobot.dev/files/xkcd-countdown here]'s a link to all the image stuff of the countdown. (Specifically, [https://tobot.dev/files/xkcd-countdown/full_animation.gif full_animation.gif] and [https://tobot.dev/files/xkcd-countdown/Countdown%20in%20header%20text%20Wiggling.gif Countdown in header text Wiggling.gif]).
Optionally [https://tobot.dev/files/xkcd-countdown.zip zipped], for easier archival. [[User:Toby|Toby]] ([[User talk:Toby|talk]]) 20:03, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
:Great thanks Toby. Will try to make it work. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:15, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
::It worked and I have replied on your new talk page and created your own page, in case you still could not. Feel free to change that now. Very happy with your work, both of the files. Thanks!!! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 20:28, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

== Purely to improve your knowledge of English ==

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spacecrafts#English

i.e., as with vehicular "craft" in general (including aircraft, hovercraft, etc), the -s pluralisation is allowable but not considered standard. An oddity of the terminology that I don't actually know the reason for. I'm wondering could it be from our nautical heritage where singular craft were the rarity (a simpler version of how [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aderyn sometimes the singular can be considered rarer than the plural]? Yet ships/vessels/etc don't succumb to that usage. Even if sheep and fish do! Anyway, while spacecraft are preferred, spaceships are indeed the synonymous alternative. IYSWIM...

Crafts, as in skillfully created works, ''are'' the plurals exactly as you'd initially expect. Woodcrafts, metalcrafts, etc. So I suppose those people who are shipcrafters might therefore craft many crafted craft, thanks to the various crafts they know, and then exhibit their crafts at a craft-fair. ((i.e "Boatwrights might construct many well-made (model?) ships, thanks to their skills, then show their creations at an exhibition of bespoke manufacturing.")) Crafty, eh?

Sorry, I seem to have gone overboard with the explanation. Throw me that lifebelt, please? ;) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.73|172.70.85.73]] 10:40, 10 February 2022 (UTC)
:Hi. Thanks. I'm not sure it will help, I'm not very good at spelling, even in my own language. But maybe I will remember this. I do not mind other people copy editing my posts. My idea is that if I write something useful other will make it better, and correct the errors. But if I do not write it, then it may be left out of an explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 16:54, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

== THANK YOU!!! ==
Kynde - I have only just discovered this beautiful Explain XKCD wiki and am in awe - I saw that you have been a huge contribuotr for years and just wanted to say Thank You to you and team for this beautiful legacy of work! With it XKCD can be that much more of a portal into all the different directions Randall’s comics touch on and drift near.

I’ve been behind the scenes in wikipedia for years (so often painful) and love connecting with anyone else who is doing meaningful wiki work. I’m just stopping by here today on my way to *important deadlines* but intend to be back. Just set up my Explain editor account. Pop me a talk page note? Happy to plug in! [[User:DrMel|DrMel]] ([[User talk:DrMel|talk]]) 19:53, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

(Ps looks like I am not getting through the email validation steps - no email confirmation has yet made it to my email. I’ll check back later. On wikipedia I’m https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:DrMel

(pps - email validated! But i still dont have permission to setup my user page… so this time i really am going back to the Save-The-World work i am supposed to be doing!)
:Hi [[User:DrMel|DrMel]]. Wow, thanks a lot. Yes I have been very active on this page. I'm not one of the admins though, and sadly it seems this page is without any active admins, and that it has been so for a while. I guess I'm the best option right now. I have created your user page and talk page, so now you can work on the user page. Welcome to explain xkcd. If you have any questions regarding format or other things feel free to ask. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:38, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

== Nomination ==
I know you maybe don't want it, but see [[explain_xkcd:Community_portal/Coordination#New_admins]] '''[[User:Davidy22|{{Color|#707|David}}y²²]]'''[[User talk:Davidy22|<tt>[talk]</tt>]] 02:08, 8 May 2022 (UTC)
:I have answered there and accepted the nomination. It is an honor. Hope I can live up to it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:16, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
::Finally got the promotion from Jeff. Thanks. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:30, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

== Block User:Donald Trump ==

Can you block [[User:Donald Trump]]? He is another spambot, like the others recently: [[Special:Contributions/Donald_Trump]]. Thanks, [[User:Natg19|Natg19]] ([[User talk:Natg19|talk]]) 17:48, 26 May 2022 (UTC)
:Done--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:28, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

== you blocked a mobile phone (T-mobile) IP ==

You blocked “162.158.107.124”. The problem is, that’s a T-mobile IP that goes to whomever happens to get it. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.36|172.70.211.36]] 19:11, 26 May 2022 (UTC)
:Yes Im new to being administrator so sorry I messed that up. But think I [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Special:Contributions/162.158.107.124 managed to undo it]? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 19:33, 26 May 2022 (UTC)

== Regarding your latest IP block ==

See [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:While_False&oldid=286101#Concision_and_clarity my note on this latest thing] that it seems like you were reacting to.
 In general, I don't think IP-blocking is very useful (false-positives get hit and false-negatives get round it, depending upon the vagueries of everything, and as an IP myself this is close to the bone for me) but there's potentially something going on. I don't know if you get to see what ''doesn't'' happen because of a block, though. Tricky one to get your head round. But thought I'd clue you in on what I'm thinking. Completely your decision on how you take it.
 Keep up the good work, BTW! [[Special:Contributions/162.158.159.15|162.158.159.15]] 12:59, 3 June 2022 (UTC)
:Just to add that [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=957:_Development&curid=4423&diff=286104&oldid=283524 this change] follows the trend I mentioned (type of edit + history of its apparent IP), and now undone. Not to overly pester you with this (better the Community Portal for that), just FYI. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.98.11|141.101.98.11]] 17:05, 3 June 2022 (UTC)
::I only block them for a week or 3 days, just to stop current spam, and thanks for the praise --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 13:02, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

== Sparing use of Talk-page section headers ==

Note that I added a ;-title (not an individually editable section's title), albeit first mis-tapping in the :-indenter instead by accident, but maybe you were a bit overzealous squishing out the ==editable== section-headers (the existing one and my own once someone had helpfully 'upgraded' it) in the latest discussion.

The advice given on the main-page, as part of the discussion-inclusion templating, is that new sections should be used ''sparingly'', not that they are not to be used. If anything, I was wrong to use a ;-title (to logically separate my contribution from the headered bit I was following), perhaps I should have inserted as a normal running comment above the newly broken-out section.

Not complaining, but just positing the view that it seemed a bit draconic of an intervention. Livable-with, having been done, but not sure it was strictly necessary.

(Would be handy to add across the "Add to the bottom (etc)" HTML-comment to the top of the page, from a BOT-created new-discussion-page, though I suppose I could do that. Maybe I will. Yes, I think I will. You could also maybe check the circumstances why a normal user had needed to do theusafBOT's work for it... I'm sure it's more that theusaf's script is just temporarily offline, or slow to react, rather than having gone the way of dgbrtBOT/whatever...) [[Special:Contributions/172.70.85.177|172.70.85.177]] 13:49, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
:I think there is now use for headings in comment section. And in some cases the explanations have a TOC and then the headings of the talk page would come into this because we include talk page on the explanation page. Also it becomes confusing when others add different comments below, as they then seems to belong to the headered section. Thus best leave them out, unless something very special. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 05:55, 15 June 2022 (UTC)

== Table of tips? ==
Why put the table in a section on [[2649]]? It breaks the convention of discussing the comic before discussing the title text. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.210.145|172.70.210.145]] 07:11, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
:No this has been done whenever there is a table. The comic should be explained first, but if lots of info needs to be added in order to understand the full details of the comic, then the title text is usually explained after the first short explanation. And then the larger explanation is delegated to a sub section, just as I have done here. It is because you may not wish to dwell into all these details, they are not needed to understand the overall joke, but you might like to see the title text explained, and then this should not be hidden deep down. Also there is a link from the explanation to the table, so you can easily go there to read the main explanation for each tip.--[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:32, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
::Well it's no big deal; I don't have strong feelings about it, but I haven't been here very long, and noticed that [[2636]], [[2638]], and [[2639]] all have tables following the sequence of the comics instead of in a section at the end. [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.88|172.70.211.88]] 08:39, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
:::Yes that must also be said to be new comics, and not those that have been here long time ;-) All of them came out after my holiday began this summer, and I have not had time to go through those comics yet. But thanks I will fix it. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:21, 25 July 2022 (UTC)
::::Fixed those three and also completed two of the transcripts. Thanks for pointing the discrepancy out. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:02, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

How do you feel about [[2606]]? [[Special:Contributions/172.71.150.173|172.71.150.173]] 08:32, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
:Since the title text is just another symbol, it seems fine to have it in the table. But actually there may be a reason to explain that joke as well in the main explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:35, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
::But after updating the explanation I ended up moving the table to a section and moving any other explanation above. Including a mention of the title text. Is this the same person that started this thread that asked about 2606? --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:56, 27 July 2022 (UTC)
:::No, I'm [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=2207:_Math_Work&diff=291019&oldid=282989 this guy.] [[Special:Contributions/172.70.211.88|172.70.211.88]] 15:52, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
::::Hello, That Guy. (BTW, I'm also none of the above conversationalists, Kynde...) That change you linked... I just reverted it. It was fixed (devandalised) already in a state that was after the removal of the Incomplete tag and I couldn't work out ''why'' you considered it needing reverting. Yes, a lot of restored stuff (now unrestored), but I couldn't quite work out which (pre-vandalism) version you even reverted to, and surely there were various useful culling edits ("no, we don't need to say that, it's irrelevent", etc) that you were negating.
::::Or at least that was my almost knee-jerk response (almost, because I went back through the crapcrapcrap stuff and beyond trying to find where you were coming from, so I spent some time on thinking about it before I did it).
::::I offer it up to review by the wider community, or back to yourself (or give Kynde a shot, if they aren't busy). Maybe some old bits could be reintegrated, but I couldn't see which on a semi-cursory glance. So, given you have provided a handle on you, expanding upon the woefully short edit-summary space, to more fully explain any confusion (of mine, or yours, or just in general). Ok? [[Special:Contributions/172.70.91.128|172.70.91.128]] 16:43, 28 July 2022 (UTC)
:::::Are you saying you removed vandalism with the revert? Which parts do you think are crap stuff? Do you not see how it is all directly related to the drawing on the board? I should have removed the incomplete tag, but I think I'll try the appended section idea to appease objectors with a compromise. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.185|172.69.33.185]] 05:15, 29 July 2022 (UTC)
::::::I don't think this has anything to do with my comment, and I do not have any thing to add to this discussion. If this is all about [[2207:_Math_Work]], then please take any further [[Talk:2207:_Math_Work#Deletions|discussion there]], as to not disturb me with e-mails every time you change my user talk page ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 09:07, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

== A spammer has appeared! ==
Hi! It seems that there's a spammer who's been consistently adding an incredibly odd rant to the front page from a wide variety of IP addresses over the course of yesterday and today. They currently show no signs of stopping; could you use whatever Special Admin Powers you may have to resolve the issue? --[[User:Account|Account]] ([[User talk:Account|talk]]) 18:37, 30 July 2022 (UTC)
:Hi. No, sadly I cannot do much about it. I can try to alert those with more powers than me though. I'm not that technically minded. If it was a user I could block him, but as I understood from the newest comics discussion it is multiple ip addresses. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:36, 31 July 2022 (UTC)

== Interview request! and thanks! ==
Hey Kynde, forgive me if this isn't allowed! I'm a journalist and wiki enthusiast and I'd love to chat with you about all your work here. Can you send an email to annierau at umich dot edu? Thank you so much! [[User:Postgradpredeath|Postgradpredeath]] ([[User talk:Postgradpredeath|talk]]) 03:36, 22 September 2022 (UTC):Hi
:Annie Rau(?)/Postgradpredeath. I don't think asking me would not be allowed. I might not wish to mail you but that would then be an option. I may actually not wish to use my e-mail. But maybe we could try to catch up on twitter, where I have an account I only used to get into contact with admins on this page... If you also have a twitter acount we may be able to tweet to each other there... And thanks for the praise. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 06:39, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

== Vandalism on latest comic ==
Hello, just letting you know there's been another bit of spam. Only on the most recent comic as far as I've seen, and fixed for now :) [[User:Char Latte49|Char Latte]] ([[User talk:Char Latte49|talk]]) 22:11, 3 December 2022 (UTC)
:Thanks. Also had a vandal here replying to you comment. Of course deleted it. Haven't been so active lately. But hope the problem has stopped. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:55, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

== Notification ==
Hey, I wanted to let you know that I'm working on the huge project of making a table to organize planet names, coordinates, and explanations, and the four item types and their explanation in the latest interactive comic. I've replied to the conversation, here's a link: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/Talk:2765:_Escape_Speed#Making_a_table_to_organize_planet_names.2C_coordinates.2C_and_explanations.2C_and_the_four_item_types_and_their_explanation

If possible, could you check if you're able to answer the questions I have?

Thanks, [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:44, 29 April 2023 (UTC)
:Hi Favi. Have not had much time but looked at it and liked the table. Also added two more pages, one with overview images of the world and the planets and one with a place to post the screen shots needed for making a full explanation. Put some of the relevant images up already but will not have time to much more the rest of this week. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 14:25, 1 May 2023 (UTC)
:: Great! Thanks, I like the new pages. Do you happen to know of a way to find the coordinates of each planet, so i can add them to the table? How did the folks editing [[2712: Gravity]] do it? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 15:52, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
::: Hi Favi. Thanks. No I do not know, I did not do any editing on that comic. Have not had time like I did for instance with [[Hoverboard]] where I did most of the documentation. But have no idea what to do with a game like this. Not very tech savvy on that account. Keep up the good work! --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 11:35, 6 May 2023 (UTC)
::::Nevermind, someone on the discussions page let me know of a very useful script that did exactly that, s I filled the entire Tiles column :D {{unsigned|FaviFake}}
:::::Great --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 15:19, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

:Hi, I've made [[User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape_Speed|another attempt]] at tables. I've talked a little bit with [[User talk:FaviFake|FaviTake]] but we didn't seem to come to a conclusion. I think we need a third (and maybe fourth and fifth) opinion. I have put a note about this in the [[Talk:2765: Escape Speed|discussion board]] but I'm not sure anybody will notice (there's a lot of stuff there). - [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 21:52, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

User talk:FaviFake

2023-05-13T21:50:51Z

Malgond: /* Objects table */

== Objects table ==

Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books). There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''. Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.

What is also missing in the table are many structures or objects found on the planets and, most importantly, dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.

Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.

Technical remarks:
* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.

-- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 19:59, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
:> Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books).
:Hey! Yeah, that's the state of the table ''right now'', and I 100% percent agree with everything you're saying here. All planets and items that need an explanation should be explained and not just described. I mostly just copied and pasted the "planet description/explanations" from the old list to the table: creating the table was way more painful than i thought. I was actually surprized to see that nobody explained what Andal referred to, but I don't know anything about it so more knowledgeable people will have to chip in on that

:>There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''.
:I do! And I wish other people could help here. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but this is the banner i put above the table:

----
'''ALL ITEM EXPLANATIONS NEED TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE OLD PLANET LIST TO THE NEW TABLE''' 
We are currently switching from a disorganized list (below, inside the green banner) to the new organized table, but the explanations for specific items are missing from the new table. Please help by copying the item explanations from the old list and adding them to the new table ''in this format:'' 
<code>The item message &ndash; <nowiki>''Where to find it &ndash; Explanation, such as references etc''</nowiki></code> 
Example: You found a cheese platter (Your tanks recharge faster) – ''Next to the cell tower – The cheese is a reference to [https://example.com 1234: Cheese]''
----
'''OTHER ISSUES:'''
* upgrades that end in "???" need to be replaced by the exact upgrade message shown to the user.
* the "Tiles (X, Y)" column for planet coordinates is empty

:As you can see, the explanations should be put right next to the items and messages. Unfortunately no one has started to add them to the table yet

:> Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.
:Your English is excellent :)

:> dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.
Almost all the dialogues are on the [[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript]] page, so I guess they should be added there. I don't know if they're already here, I haven't looked at it enough
:: The transcript is not the place for explanations. Puns and references shall be explained elsewhere. I continue working on the transcript but there's still quite a way to go. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

:> Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.
:Yeah; i totally get everything you said. In my last reply I think I was a bit too rude for some reason, maybe it's because I just finished the table and was tired.

:>* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
:* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.
I was heavily inspired by the table in the [[2712: Gravity]] explanation, which included these. I kind of agree that the filename could be removed, and the filenames could be added to the planet name or explanation, i didn't think about that. About the tiles, someone might use them someday, but if the column keeps remaining empty, i don't mind seeing it disappear

:I really liked your ideas, if you don't mind I'll copy and paste this discussion in the actual comic discussion page and see what others think --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:37, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

::Update: I found a way and added all the coordinates, and moved the planet filenames to the Planet Name column to make more space for the other columns :)

::: Hi, what about dividing planets and objects like in [[User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape_Speed|my experiment]]? There's plenty of horizontal space for explanations and the entries are quite compact vertically. I also think about color-coding the different Types of game objects. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

::::Hmm, I think it looks a little messy and maybe too complicated. Do any other comics have two different tables? Also, I'm personally not a fan of mixing items, landscapes, and people. I think most people reading the table are there to get an overview of the planets and what they contain. Do we really have to explain everything in such detail? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:09, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::We do not have to follow other explanations too closely, we could use a new form if it seems clearer and better. The current form has no place neither for explaining items nor for dialogues/monologues. More columns could be problematic (specifically in today's world of high and narrow screens of smartphones). Should we explain everything? Well, it us up to collective "us". Personally, I would like someone explain a few puns/dialogues I do not understand.
:::::For now, there's only a handful of people still interested in somehow finishing the explanation for this huge comic. Maybe if we two can agree on some format we could put it in discussion page and ask for votes. (Discussion needs a cleanup, BTW). -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 22:00, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::Hey, I'm back. I see you're enhancing your example table, and iI was wondering, do you plan to move your edits to the actual article after you're done and use the test to see how the formatting looks? Isn't it easier to just add them to the main page directly? Just wondering. If you want I can help you port them over :)
:::::Keeping the contents of the table on your talk page and then porting them over afterwards could lead to a loss of information added after you started editing your user page [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 13:11, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

::::::I'm back too. Yes, I intend to put it in the main article, but I am a bit shy to replace a lot of your work; I've asked for opinions in the talk page. Let's see how it sorts out. Maybe someone has a still better idea. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 21:50, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

User:Malgond

2023-05-13T21:28:37Z

Malgond: Replaced content with "I am an addicted reader of this wiki and an occasional editor. Drop me a note on the talk page page if you have any comments on my edits, suggestions..."

I am an addicted reader of this wiki and an occasional editor. Drop me a note on the [[User_talk:Malgond|talk page]] page if you have any comments on my edits, suggestions and corrections are appreciated.

'''Note for visitors''': [[2765: Escape Speed]] tables moved [[User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape_Speed|here]].

User:Malgond/Drafts/Escape Speed

2023-05-13T21:26:43Z

Malgond: Created page with "{| class="wikitable sortable" ! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects |- ! Name ! Tiles (X, Y) ! Directions ! Description ! Explanation |- | '''Starting Planet''' <co..."

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="7"|Planets and Planet-like Objects
|-
! Name
! Tiles (X, Y)
! Directions
! Description
! Explanation
|-
| '''Starting Planet'''
<code>tiny-world</code>
| (6024, -8976)
| To get here, click the "Home" button in the lower right corner of the comic.
|
The planet is tiny, grassy, has a few trees and bushes and features several people. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement.
|
This is where the game starts. Pressing the "Home" button to go back to the starting planet shows the message, "Welcome back, pilot", which may be a reference to the greeting that plays when re-entering a Titan in the ''Titanfall'' video games.

|-
| '''Origin'''
<code>origin</code>
| (3096, -5904)
| To get here, launch from Beret Guy saying "Wow!" on the Starting Planet.
|
The planet is fairly big, has vegetation, and features many people, landscape objects, items and upgrades. It has a shaft through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any upgrades unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the middle of it. Many of the landmarks of the surface mark the directions to different planets.
|
The planet has a sign saying 'Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™'. The name may also refer to the fact that the planet lies almost at the center of the game world, or that it is the starting point for exploration as it provides many navigational hints.

|-
| '''Hollow Planet'''
<code>hollow-shell</code>
| (-13952, 1848)
| To get here, launch from the St. Louis Arch on Origin.
|
The planet is just a shell with some gaps. On the outside, there are a few signs that mark the directions to different planets.
|

|-
| '''Round Planet'''
<code>orb</code>
| (-19154, -7288)
| To get here, launch from the tower with an orb on it on Origin or the sign on the Hollow Planet.
|
The planet is moderately small with no vegetation and some architecture such as Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. It also features a few people and items.
|
|-
| '''Uzumaki'''
<code>uzumaki</code>
| (-3904, -26904)
| To get here, launch from Origin's spiral landmark, the sign on the Hollow Planet, or below the plane-towed banner on the Round Planet.
| The planet is a large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. It has very weak gravity.
| The shape of the planet is inspired by the {{w|manga}} {{w|Uzumaki}} by {{w|Junji Ito}}.
|-
| '''Guitar Ship'''
<code>guitar-ship</code>
| (-12000, -30000)
| To get there, launch from Uzumaki, a little to the left of the caffeine molecule item.
| The planet is shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. Within the dome there's the Boston skyline.
| This is a reference to the cover art of the album {{w|Boston (album)|Boston}} by the like-named American {{w|Boston (band)|rock band}}. It's one of many references to {{w|Boston}} in the game.
|-
| '''Spacetime Soccer Field'''
<code>soccerfield</code>
| (6048, 4048)
| To get here, launch from Origin, from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top of it.
|
This is a tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines, but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice, joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines. The center circle appears as two separate halves stemming from the two copies of the halfway line.
| The space soccer field utilizes the concept from [[2705: Spacetime Soccer]], but inversed: in the original comic the center point of the field was located in a gravity well, causing the ball to be pulled away from the goals; here the goals are located close to the center of the planet, so the ball naturally tries to fall towards them, probably making the game more interesting.

|-
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
| ...
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! colspan="5"|Features and Items
|-
! Planet
! Type
! Location
! Description / Message
! Explanation
|-
| rowspan="5" valign="top"|'''Starting Planet'''
| Message
| Above starting position
| ''Wheeee!''
| Probably reflects the excitation of a new visitor to this XKCD comic, seeing a promising game.
|-
| Item
| Above ground left of the starting position
| a rock with neat stripes
|
|-
| Item
| In the grass right of the starting position
| a cool bug
| A reference to 'Cool Bug Epoch' from [[2240: Timeline of the Universe]]
|-
| Item
| Up a tree
| a pretty leaf
|
|-
| People
| On the opposite of the starting position
| Beret Guy pointing his arm up and exclaiming ''WOW!''
| This is a reference to the title text of [[1117: My Sky]], and it could also be a reference to [[502: Dark Flow]].

|-
| rowspan="41" valign="top"| '''Origin'''
| Landscape
| Close to the Starting Planet
| A sign saying: ''Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™''
| The sign names the planet, and also indicates that it is not possible to leave it by just launching off the surface during early gameplay, when the player has not collected any upgrades. May be a reference to the song by The Eagles: "Hotel California".
|-
| Message
| Right of the welcome sign, above the rollercoaster
| ''Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!''
| A hint for the hidden shaft going through the planet; one of the entries is right below here.
|-
| Landscape
| On the right side of the rollercoaster
| A sign saying: ''Caution: Long vertical drop''
| Another hint for the hidden shaft.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the rollercoaster
| A spider-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the Giant Spider planet
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the spider monument
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to Voyager 2. The message is an additional hint as radio telescopes are often used to communicate with distant space probes, including receiving probes' measurements and other scientific data, like photos.
|-
| People
| Right next to the cell tower
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...
|
Voyager spacecraft are [[wikipedia:List_of_vehicle_speed_records#Spacecraft|not among]] the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's [[wikipedia:Escape velocity|escape velocity]]. They have also executed two [[wikipedia:Gravity_assist|gravity assist]] maneuvers each, so they are good examples on how to increase speed in this way, presumably allowing them to "teach" another spacecraft how to increase speed. Cueball's metaphor goes on to having to meet (catch up with) someone in order to learn something from him. The Voyagers are currently the farthest man-made objects in space; however in the game world they are quite close to the Origin planet.

This is also a hint regarding the upgrades located near both Voyager spacecraft, which add more thrust to the player's ship than regular thrust upgrades.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the radio telescope located near the spider monument
| A cell tower with 5G antennas. On top of it a strange object is mounted.
|
The strange object is a downscaled image of cube satellite from [[1992: SafetySat]]. Normally nobody puts cube satellites on top of fixed towers.

This landmark shows the direction to the SafetySat "planet".
|-
| Item
| Next to the top of the cell tower
| a 5G seagull
| [[wikipedia:5G|5G]] is a modern emerging standard for [[wikipedia:Cellular network|cellular networks]] promising really high download speeds and much higher network capacity (i.e. the number of active devices in an area). Probably a reference to [[1656: It Begins]]
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the cell tower
| A tyrannosaurus
| Marks the direction to the Jurassic Park planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Right next to the tyrannosaurus
| A St. Louis Arch shaped hole in the ground
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the left of the three pyramids
| A monument shaped like a sphere with a "T" on top
| This is a miniature of the Andal planet and marks the direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| The leftmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with a soccer ball on top
| Marks the direction to the Spacetime Soccer Field.
|-
| People
| The middle pyramid
|
Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it.
:'''Ponytail''': If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:'''Megan''': But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!
|
An in-game reference to the fact that the player's ship initially has too little thrust to launch right off the surface of the Origin planet and needs an upgrade to become a "better" spaceship able to visit other planets. On the other hand, all engine upgrades are located off Origin, creating the apparently unsolvable [[wikipedia:Chicken or the egg|chicken-and-egg problem]] – unless the player follows other hints and finds a way to escape Origin anyway.
|-
| Landscape
| The rightmost of three pyramids
| A pyramid with Saturn on top of it
| Marks the direction to Saturn.
|-
| People
| Next to the pyramid with Saturn on top
|
Cueball and White Hat talking.
:'''Cueball''': I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:'''White Hat''': Is that... safe?
:'''Cueball''': It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.
|
Normally, it would not be possible to have a real black hole as a museum exhibit.{{citation needed}} Also, there's a misunderstanding between White Hat and Cueball. White Hat asks if it is safe for the public to keep a black hole in a museum. Cueball thinks White Hat is concerned about safety of the black hole itself, and responds that it is protected from unscrupulous visitors by putting it in a special case.

This is an in-game hint regarding the Subway Planet and the black hole present in its tunnels. It's also a reference to the real-world [[wikipedia:Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum|''Intrepid'' Sea, Air & Space Museum]].
|-
| Landscape
| To the right from the pyramids
| A monument shaped like Earth's land masses
| Marks the direction to the Projection of Earth.
|-
| People
| Right next to the Projection of Earth monument
|
:'''Hairy''': Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.
| An in-game reference to the Crystal Sphere, the navigable crack through it and the hint regarding the hyperdrive.
|-
| Landscape
| On the left side of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument of a strange spaceship
| This is a reference to [[2630: Shuttle Skeleton]] and marks the direction to the Shuttle Skeleton planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Opposite the rollercoaster
| A large arch
| This is a reference to the [[wikipedia:Gateway Arch|Gateway Arch]] located in [[wikipedia:St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]]. Marks the other end of the shaft going through the planet core.
|-
| Message
| A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg
| ''The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.''
| The creator of the Arch, Finnish-American architect [[wikipedia:Eero Saarinen|Eero Saarinen]], reportedly said that the arch symbolizes "the gateway to the West" understood as the [[wikipedia:American frontier|American frontier]] and the expansion of American colonies into the western parts of the continent.

In-game, the Arch marks one of the "gateways" into the larger space of the game, namely the exits of the inner shaft, which allows the player to leave Origin by performing the Oberth maneuver (see below for further explanation).
|-
| Upgrade
| High above the St. Louis Arch
| ''Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.''
| Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing Oberth maneuver (see below).
|-
| People
| Right next to the St. Louis Arch
|
Ponytail with a group of three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.
:'''Ponytail''': The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.
| Ponytail acting as a guide repeats (or reads) to the kids the slogan written on the sign next to the Arch. See above for the explanation of the slogan.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A monument with a pear-shaped structure connected to a small sphere
| It's a miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking a direction to it.
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the St. Louis Arch
| A small structure and a tower with a strange-looking orb on top
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item
| Close to the top of the orb tower.
| an orb wren
| [[wikipedia:Wren|Wrens]] are a common family of birds. Their bodies are rather stocky with short wings, sometimes resembling an orb, especially when perched with ruffled feathers such as when enduring cold weather. There's no species actually called an "orb wren".
|-
| Item
| Hidden at the base of the orb tower.
| 11 squares packed into a larger square
| A reference to [[2740: Square Packing]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the orb tower
|
Hairbun and another person.
:'''Hairbun''': Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.
|
This is an in-game reference and a hint on how to find Boston and the Subway Planet
|-
| Item
| Hidden in a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a tumbleweed
| [[wikipedia:Tumbleweed|Tumbleweed]] is an above-ground part of some species of plants in a form of a round, dense bush, which detaches as the plant dries in the summer season and is pushed by winds, rolling along the landscape.
|-
| Item
| Over a grassy area to the right of the orb tower
| a marsh wren
| [[wikipedia:Marsh wren|Marsh wren]] is a species of North American songbird.
|-
| People
| To the right from the grassy area
|
A quintet of hairy and bearded or moustached people playing and singing:
:It's more than a feeling
:More than a feeling
| This is a reference to the popular song [[wikipedia:More Than a Feeling|"More Than a Feeling"]] by the [[wikipedia:Boston_(band)|Boston]] rock band. It is also an in-game reference and pun regarding multiple Bostons present.
|-
| Message
| Above ground to the right of the musical band
| ''You found a tiny meteorite!''
| [[wikipedia:Meteorite|Meteorites]] are fragments of small celestial bodies that have fallen onto the surface of Earth, surviving a high-speed passage through the atmosphere. Some are really tiny, being a result of a fragmentation of a larger one caused by the forces exerted during atmospherical entry. This particular one has not quite reached the surface, and should be called a [[wikipedia:Meteoroid|meteoroid]] or a [[wikipedia:Meteoroid#Meteors|meteor]] instead.
|-
| Item
| High above ground to the right of the musical band
| a single grain of salt
|
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A spiral-shaped monument
| Marks the direction to the spiral Uzumaki planet.
|-
| Landscape
| Between the grassy area and the forest left of the welcome sign
| A radio telescope with its antenna pointed straight up. ''Receiving transmission''.
| Marks the direction to the Voyager 1. See also the entry on Voyager 2 above.
|-
| People
| Next to the voyager 1 radio telescope.
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Megan''': It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."
|
|-
| Item
| At the left edge of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a holographic Charizard business card
|
This is a reference to a particular [[wikipedia:Charizard|character]] from the [[wikipedia:Pokémon|Pokémon]] media franchise. [[wikipedia:Holography|Holographic]] [[wikipedia:Business card|business cards]] are a fairly novel form of business or personal presentation.
|-
| Item
| In the middle of the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a secret glade
|
|-
| Item
| Up the widest tree in the forest to the left from the welcome sign
| a normal-looking leaf
|
|-
| Message
| In the exact middle of the planet
| ''Welcome to liminal space''
|
|-
| People
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
|
Megan with her hair floating around her head.
:'''Megan''': The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.
|
The [[wikipedia:Oberth effect|Oberth effect]] is a physical phenomenon and orbital maneuver when a spacecraft fires its thrusters as close to the perycenter (the point on the orbit closest to the center of the orbited body) as possible, being deeper in the "gravity well", to gain more kinetic energy than if the same impulse (amount of propellant used and therefore speed difference) has been applied away from the center, in effect using its propellant more effectively. The kinetic energy is what allows a spacecraft to leave the proximity of the orbited body. A special case of such a maneuver may be accelerating in a theoretical shaft going through the core of the body, which is the case simulated in the game. Applying the principle according to Megan's hint the player is able to "swing" the spaceship a few times along the shaft, accelerating close to the center and allowing the "energy" to regenerate while away, and leave Origin in spite off low initial thrust.

The fact that inside of a spherical body the gravity of the outer layers cancels out creates a local microgravity environment, causing Megan's hair to freely float around her head.
|-
| Item
| In a chamber next to the planet's center
| a DVD of The Core (2003)
| This is a reference to the 2003 American [[wikipedia:The Core|science fiction disaster film]].

|-
| rowspan="8" valign="top"| '''Hollow Planet'''
|People
| In the hollow center of the planet.
|
Ponytail and White Hat floating in microgravity. White Hat's hat has come off his head.
:'''White Hat''': It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:'''Ponytail''': Oh, so ''that's'' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.
|
White Hat experiences a practical application of an unintuitive, and since "weird" in his words, [[wikipedia:Shell theorem|shell theorem]], as applied to gravity: that inside a hollow, spherical shell the forces of the gravity exerted by the shell cancel out for every object inside, regardless of its position within. Ponytail gets an epiphany, that it also applies to the gigantic Crystal Sphere surrounding the most part of the world she is in.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Close to the center of the planet.
|
a sixth Lagrange point

''Your thrusters are more efficient now.''
|
[[wikipedia:Lagrange point|Lagrange points]] are places relative to two heavy bodies orbiting one another, where a third, much lighter body will stay in equilibrium with the large two, orbiting the common center of gravity with the same period and keeping a constant distance from both. There are only five Lagrange points.

In theory, a small body located in the center of a hollowed-out massive body will stay put as well (see the previous explanation), creating the sixth Lagrange point; however a hollow massive body can't exist, it will collapse under its own gravity.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet.
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Round Planet''
| Marks the direction to the Round Planet.
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| Over the surface to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
|
a glass of heavy water

''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
|
[[wikipedia:Heavy water|Heavy water]] is a form of water that contains only [[wikipedia:Deuterium|deuterium]] (hydrogen-2) atoms in place of the much more common [[wikipedia:Hydrogen|hydrogen-1]] atoms. It is approximately 10% [[wikipedia:Density|denser]] than the regular water, hence its name. Heavy water is not normally poured into glasses as for drinking.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface of the planet to the right of the ''Round Planet'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''EXIT''
| Marks the direction to the crack in the Crystal Sphere.
|-
| Landscape
| Next to the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Uzumaki''
| Marks the direction to Uzumaki
|-
| Landscape
| Across a gap in the surface to the right of the ''Uzumaki'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Origin and Subway''
| Marks the direction to Origin and (not quite precisely) to the Subway Planet.
|-
| Landscape
| On the surface opposite the ''EXIT'' sign
| A sign with upwards-pointing arrow saying: ''Earth (compromise projection)''
| Marks the direction to Projection of Earth.

|-
| rowspan="10" valign="top" | '''Round Planet'''
| People
| On the middle part of the Great Wall
|
Cueball and Megan.
:'''Cueball''': The Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure you can see space from.
|
This is a pun on the commonly voiced misconception that the [[wikipedia:Great Wall of China|Great Wall of China]] is the only man-made object on Earth that can be seen from [[wikipedia:Outer space|space]] (or the Earth's orbit at least).
|-
| Item + Upgrade
| To the right of the Great Wall over a field of boulders
|
a sensible cheese platter

''Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.''
|
A cheese platter is a common dish served in restaurants as a starter or sometimes as a main dish, as well as a final course in a formal meal (following the sweet, or as an option instead of one) composed of a selection of cheeses served on a large platter. However, often it may just be a random collection of what's available (e.g. a hard cheese, a soft cheese, a blue cheese of either hard or soft variety, possibly a small serving of butter; and a selection of crackers that are either far too many or far too few for the other products). A "sensible" plate, i.e. well-composed by a competent chef, might be considered rare.
|-
| Item
| Within Stonehenge
| a Swatch pop-out wristwatch
|
|-
| People
| To the right of the Stonehenge
| Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts
| People walking on stilts are a fairly common theme in xkcd. References include [[482: Height]], [[1608: Hoverboard]], [[1663: Garden]], [[2603: Childhood Toys]], [[2669: Things You Should Not Do]] and possibly other comics (maybe we need a new category).
|-
| Landscape
| Next to Hairbun on stilts
|
Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:
:''Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!''
|
This is a quote from [[wikipedia:Star Wars|''Star Wars'']] episode V [[wikipedia:The Empire Strikes Back|''The_Empire_Strikes_Back'']]. In the original context the starships were attacking [[wikipedia:Walker (Star Wars)#All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT)|AT-AT]] four-legged armored vehicles, trying to immobilize them by entangling their legs. In the game, they are attacking Hairbun on stilts instead.
|-
| Upgrade
| Above the middle spaceship attacking Hairbun
| ''Your engine gets a bit more powerful.''
| A regular engine upgrade.
|-
| People
| To the right of the three spaceships
| A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the volleyball field
|
An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it:
:''Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?''
| A reference to [[2757: Towed Message]].
|-
| People
| To the right of the airplane towing a banner
| Beret Guy climbing a cell tower with some fruit hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.
|
|-
| Landscape
| To the right of the cell tower
| Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.
|


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2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-05-08T00:35:48Z

Malgond: A powerup in th emiddel of nowhere

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

*Overview

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only relatively small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity. The world features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star. When the spaceship flies close to a collectible or powerup, it disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most collectibles, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimised to full-screen. Some collectibles display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and collected items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

*Starting Planet

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four collectibles. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's a collectible right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!
:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]
:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]
:[A collectible low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!
:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with a collectible up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!
:[A tree sapling]
:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!
:[A large tree]
:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]
:[A small tree]
:[Another collectible just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!
:[A small tree]

*Origin

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's a collectible item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''
:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's a collectible next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]
:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade
:[Another collectible hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collectible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''
:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another collectible]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

*Hollow Planet

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

*Round Planet

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]
:[The Great Wall of China]
:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only Human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with a collectible and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with a collectible between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit(?) hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

*Uzumaki

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin.Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]
:[A collectible and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A single tree]
:[A pack of three birds flying]
:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]
:[The "entrance" to the spiral with a collectible, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]
:[Cueball running]
:[A collectible]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!
:[A bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found a podcast episode!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a friendly bee!
:[A dead bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found an ink cartridge!
:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR
:[A collectible just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''
:[Another collectible]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!
:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!
:[A collectible]
:You found a burrito!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a scroll lock key!
:[A small tree]
:[A collectible]
:You found a primordial black hole!
:[A collectible and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.
:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

*Guitar Ship

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's a collectible.]
:You found a guitar pick!
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

*Spacetime Soccer Field

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing. Ponytail has just kicked a football. Each goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.
:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.
:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Saturn

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's a collectible at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!
:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Andal

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a ball with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Projection of Earth

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several collectibles and powerups.]
:[A collectible and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!
:[A collectible off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!
:[A collectible and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!
:[A collectible on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!
:[A collectible next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!
:[A collectible near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

*Voyager 1

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Voyager 2

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*SafetySat

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's a collectible in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind
:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

*Shuttle Skeleton

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]
:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A collectible at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone collectible in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

*Giant Spider

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spiders legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg. There's a collectible next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!
:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Diffraction Spikes Star

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]
:[A collectible at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!
:[A collectible at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

*Roche Lobe Earth

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces is pulling northern Atlatic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin. Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's a collectible off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!
:[Another collectible lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!
:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!
:[There's a collectible on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

*Dark Matter Planet

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an insciption "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!
:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

*Jurassic Park Planet

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park
:[There are several powerups and collectibles, going clockwise from the visitors:]
:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

*Comet 67P

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]
:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with a powerup and a collectible (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.
:[Hairbun standing]
:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP
:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*What If? Planet

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a dna base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Hairbun and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[A collectible in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker]

:[Hairbun running towards Megan. Megan is kicking something.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor(?). The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[Hairy sitting on a large heap of something, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!
:[There's a collectible over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below it. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''
:[There's a collectible next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two collectibles]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. A collectible below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap holding a remote control. An object is moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM
:[There's a collectible to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

*Subway Planet

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can;t possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cuaball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances. The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue a Montreal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[A collectible somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[A collectible and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[A collectible and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Science Girls is standing in the tunnel]
:Science Girl: Stop! This line goes to D.C.! Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C. Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[A collectible in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

*Boston Planet

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the player arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[Somwhere between the Boston planet and the Round Planet, in empty space there's a powerup. YOu can reach it by launching off Boston a bit to the right from Wonderland]
:You found a handful of the quantum foam that makes up the fabric of space! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Crystal Sphere

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two collectibles.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack:]

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[A collectible]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's a collectible on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

*Star Destroyer

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's a collectible just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship. At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges heve entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome. Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins. Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber with a collectible]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones. Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with a collectible to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant. There's a collectible and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's a collectible right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield. To the right the tunnel leads to a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber. Right at the beginning of the slope Ponytail stands.]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom. The latter exit leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnell leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Science Girl are observing the phenomenon.]
:Science Girl: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4. From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber. The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3. From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and a collectible right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

*Stream of torpedoes

*Corellian Corvette

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[A collectible in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedos]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedos coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship with comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's a collectible]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-05-08T00:12:33Z

Malgond: Correction

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

*Overview

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only relatively small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity. The world features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star. When the spaceship flies close to a collectible or powerup, it disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most collectibles, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimised to full-screen. Some collectibles display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and collected items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

*Starting Planet

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four collectibles. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's a collectible right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!
:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]
:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]
:[A collectible low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!
:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with a collectible up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!
:[A tree sapling]
:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!
:[A large tree]
:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]
:[A small tree]
:[Another collectible just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!
:[A small tree]

*Origin

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's a collectible item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''
:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's a collectible next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]
:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade
:[Another collectible hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collectible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''
:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another collectible]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

*Hollow Planet

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

*Round Planet

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]
:[The Great Wall of China]
:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only Human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with a collectible and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with a collectible between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit(?) hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

*Uzumaki

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin.Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]
:[A collectible and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A single tree]
:[A pack of three birds flying]
:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]
:[The "entrance" to the spiral with a collectible, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]
:[Cueball running]
:[A collectible]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!
:[A bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found a podcast episode!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a friendly bee!
:[A dead bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found an ink cartridge!
:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR
:[A collectible just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''
:[Another collectible]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!
:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!
:[A collectible]
:You found a burrito!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a scroll lock key!
:[A small tree]
:[A collectible]
:You found a primordial black hole!
:[A collectible and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.
:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

*Guitar Ship

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's a collectible.]
:You found a guitar pick!
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

*Spacetime Soccer Field

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing. Ponytail has just kicked a football. Each goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.
:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.
:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Saturn

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's a collectible at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!
:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Andal

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a ball with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Projection of Earth

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several collectibles and powerups.]
:[A collectible and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!
:[A collectible off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!
:[A collectible and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!
:[A collectible on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!
:[A collectible next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!
:[A collectible near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

*Voyager 1

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Voyager 2

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*SafetySat

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's a collectible in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind
:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

*Shuttle Skeleton

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]
:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A collectible at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone collectible in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

*Giant Spider

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spiders legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg. There's a collectible next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!
:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Diffraction Spikes Star

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]
:[A collectible at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!
:[A collectible at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

*Roche Lobe Earth

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces is pulling northern Atlatic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin. Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's a collectible off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!
:[Another collectible lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!
:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!
:[There's a collectible on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

*Dark Matter Planet

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an insciption "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!
:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

*Jurassic Park Planet

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park
:[There are several powerups and collectibles, going clockwise from the visitors:]
:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

*Comet 67P

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]
:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with a powerup and a collectible (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.
:[Hairbun standing]
:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP
:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*What If? Planet

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a dna base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Hairbun and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[A collectible in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker]

:[Hairbun running towards Megan. Megan is kicking something.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor(?). The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[Hairy sitting on a large heap of something, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!
:[There's a collectible over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below it. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''
:[There's a collectible next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two collectibles]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. A collectible below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap holding a remote control. An object is moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM
:[There's a collectible to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

*Subway Planet

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can;t possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cuaball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances. The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue a Montreal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[A collectible somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[A collectible and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[A collectible and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Science Girls is standing in the tunnel]
:Science Girl: Stop! This line goes to D.C.! Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C. Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[A collectible in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

*Boston Planet

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the player arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Crystal Sphere

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two collectibles.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack:]

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[A collectible]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's a collectible on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

*Star Destroyer

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's a collectible just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship. At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges heve entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome. Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins. Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber with a collectible]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones. Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with a collectible to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant. There's a collectible and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's a collectible right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield. To the right the tunnel leads to a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber. Right at the beginning of the slope Ponytail stands.]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom. The latter exit leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnell leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Science Girl are observing the phenomenon.]
:Science Girl: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4. From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber. The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3. From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and a collectible right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

*Stream of torpedoes

*Corellian Corvette

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[A collectible in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedos]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedos coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship with comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's a collectible]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-05-08T00:11:16Z

Malgond: Correction

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

*Overview

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only relatively small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity. The world features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star. When the spaceship flies close to a collectible or powerup, it disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most collectibles, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimised to full-screen. Some collectibles display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and collected items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

*Starting Planet

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four collectibles. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's a collectible right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!
:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]
:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]
:[A collectible low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!
:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with a collectible up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!
:[A tree sapling]
:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!
:[A large tree]
:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]
:[A small tree]
:[Another collectible just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!
:[A small tree]

*Origin

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's a collectible item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''
:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's a collectible next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]
:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade
:[Another collectible hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collectible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''
:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another collectible]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

*Hollow Planet

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

*Round Planet

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]
:[The Great Wall of China]
:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only Human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with a collectible and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with a collectible between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit(?) hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

*Uzumaki

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin.Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]
:[A collectible and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A single tree]
:[A pack of three birds flying]
:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]
:[The "entrance" to the spiral with a collectible, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]
:[Cueball running]
:[A collectible]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!
:[A bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found a podcast episode!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a friendly bee!
:[A dead bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found an ink cartridge!
:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR
:[A collectible just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''
:[Another collectible]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!
:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!
:[A collectible]
:You found a burrito!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a scroll lock key!
:[A small tree]
:[A collectible]
:You found a primordial black hole!
:[A collectible and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.
:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

*Guitar Ship

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's a collectible.]
:You found a guitar pick!
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

*Spacetime Soccer Field

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing. Ponytail has just kicked a football. Each goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.
:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.
:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Saturn

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's a collectible at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!
:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Andal

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a ball with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Projection of Earth

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several collectibles and powerups.]
:[A collectible and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!
:[A collectible off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!
:[A collectible and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!
:[A collectible on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!
:[A collectible next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!
:[A collectible near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

*Voyager 1

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Voyager 2

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*SafetySat

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's a collectible in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind
:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

*Shuttle Skeleton

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]
:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A collectible at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone collectible in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

*Giant Spider

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spiders legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg. There's a collectible next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!
:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Diffraction Spikes Star

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]
:[A collectible at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!
:[A collectible at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

*Roche Lobe Earth

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces is pulling northern Atlatic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin. Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's a collectible off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!
:[Another collectible lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!
:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!
:[There's a collectible on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

*Dark Matter Planet

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an insciption "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!
:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

*Jurassic Park Planet

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park
:[There are several powerups and collectibles, going clockwise from the visitors:]
:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

*Comet 67P

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]
:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with a powerup and a collectible (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.
:[Hairbun standing]
:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP
:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*What If? Planet

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a dna base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Hairbun and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[A collectible in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker]

:[Hairbun running towards Megan. Megan is kicking something.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor(?). The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[Hairy sitting on a large heap of something, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!
:[There's a collectible over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below it. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''
:[There's a collectible next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two collectibles]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. A collectible below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap holding a remote control. An object is moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM
:[There's a collectible to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

*Subway Planet

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can;t possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cuaball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances. The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue a Montreal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[A collectible somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[A collectible and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[A collectible and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:The next stop is Interplanetary Terminal G. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Science Girls is standing in the tunnel]
:Science Girl: Stop! This line goes to D.C.!Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C. Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[A collectible in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

*Boston Planet

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the player arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Crystal Sphere

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two collectibles.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack:]

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[A collectible]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's a collectible on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

*Star Destroyer

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's a collectible just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship. At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges heve entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome. Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins. Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber with a collectible]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones. Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with a collectible to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant. There's a collectible and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's a collectible right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield. To the right the tunnel leads to a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber. Right at the beginning of the slope Ponytail stands.]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom. The latter exit leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnell leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Science Girl are observing the phenomenon.]
:Science Girl: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4. From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber. The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3. From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and a collectible right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

*Stream of torpedoes

*Corellian Corvette

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[A collectible in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedos]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedos coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship with comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's a collectible]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-05-07T23:43:00Z

Malgond: Undo revision 312549 by Malgond (talk)

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

*Overview

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only relatively small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity. The world features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star. When the spaceship flies close to a collectible or powerup, it disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most collectibles, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimised to full-screen. Some collectibles display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and collected items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

*Starting Planet

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four collectibles. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's a collectible right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!
:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]
:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]
:[A collectible low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!
:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with a collectible up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!
:[A tree sapling]
:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!
:[A large tree]
:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]
:[A small tree]
:[Another collectible just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!
:[A small tree]

*Origin

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's a collectible item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''
:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's a collectible next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]
:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade
:[Another collectible hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collectible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''
:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another collectible]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

*Hollow Planet

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

*Round Planet

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]
:[The Great Wall of China]
:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only Human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with a collectible and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with a collectible between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit(?) hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

*Uzumaki

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin.Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]
:[A collectible and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A single tree]
:[A pack of three birds flying]
:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]
:[The "entrance" to the spiral with a collectible, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]
:[Cueball running]
:[A collectible]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!
:[A bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found a podcast episode!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a friendly bee!
:[A dead bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found an ink cartridge!
:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR
:[A collectible just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''
:[Another collectible]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!
:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!
:[A collectible]
:You found a burrito!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a scroll lock key!
:[A small tree]
:[A collectible]
:You found a primordial black hole!
:[A collectible and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.
:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

*Guitar Ship

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's a collectible.]
:You found a guitar pick!
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

*Spacetime Soccer Field

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing. Ponytail has just kicked a football. Each goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.
:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.
:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Saturn

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's a collectible at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!
:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Andal

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a ball with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Projection of Earth

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several collectibles and powerups.]
:[A collectible and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!
:[A collectible off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!
:[A collectible and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!
:[A collectible on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!
:[A collectible next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!
:[A collectible near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

*Voyager 1

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Voyager 2

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*SafetySat

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's a collectible in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind
:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

*Shuttle Skeleton

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]
:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A collectible at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone collectible in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

*Giant Spider

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spiders legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg. There's a collectible next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!
:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Diffraction Spikes Star

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]
:[A collectible at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!
:[A collectible at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

*Roche Lobe Earth

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces is pulling northern Atlatic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin. Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's a collectible off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!
:[Another collectible lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!
:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!
:[There's a collectible on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

*Dark Matter Planet

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an insciption "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!
:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

*Jurassic Park Planet

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park
:[There are several powerups and collectibles, going clockwise from the visitors:]
:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

*Comet 67P

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]
:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with a powerup and a collectible (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.
:[Hairbun standing]
:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP
:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*What If? Planet

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a dna base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Hairbun and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[A collectible in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker]

:[Hairbun running towards Megan. Megan is kicking something.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor(?). The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[Hairy sitting on a large heap of something, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!
:[There's a collectible over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below it. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''
:[There's a collectible next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two collectibles]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. A collectible below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap holding a remote control. An object is moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM
:[There's a collectible to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

*Subway Planet

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can;t possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cuaball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances. The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue a Montreal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[A collectible somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[A collectible and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[A collectible and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:Your engine gets a little more powerful. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Science Girls is standing in the tunnel]
:Science Girl: Stop! This line goes to D.C.!Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C. Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[A collectible in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

*Boston Planet

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the player arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Crystal Sphere

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two collectibles.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack:]

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[A collectible]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's a collectible on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

*Star Destroyer

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's a collectible just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship. At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges heve entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome. Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins. Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber with a collectible]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones. Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with a collectible to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant. There's a collectible and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's a collectible right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield. To the right the tunnel leads to a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber. Right at the beginning of the slope Ponytail stands.]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom. The latter exit leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnell leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Science Girl are observing the phenomenon.]
:Science Girl: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4. From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber. The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3. From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and a collectible right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

*Stream of torpedoes

*Corellian Corvette

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[A collectible in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedos]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedos coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship with comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's a collectible]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-05-07T23:41:43Z

Malgond:

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

*Overview

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only relatively small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity. The world features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star. When the spaceship flies close to a collectible or powerup, it disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most collectibles, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimised to full-screen. Some collectibles display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and collected items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

*Starting Planet

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four collectibles. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's a collectible right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!
:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]
:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]
:[A collectible low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!
:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with a collectible up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!
:[A tree sapling]
:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!
:[A large tree]
:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]
:[A small tree]
:[Another collectible just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!
:[A small tree]

*Origin

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's a collectible item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''
:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's a collectible next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]
:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade
:[Another collectible hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collectible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''
:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another collectible]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

*Hollow Planet

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

*Round Planet

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]
:[The Great Wall of China]
:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only Human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with a collectible and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with a collectible between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit(?) hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

*Uzumaki

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin.Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]
:[A collectible and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A single tree]
:[A pack of three birds flying]
:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]
:[The "entrance" to the spiral with a collectible, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]
:[Cueball running]
:[A collectible]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!
:[A bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found a podcast episode!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a friendly bee!
:[A dead bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found an ink cartridge!
:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR
:[A collectible just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''
:[Another collectible]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!
:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!
:[A collectible]
:You found a burrito!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a scroll lock key!
:[A small tree]
:[A collectible]
:You found a primordial black hole!
:[A collectible and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.
:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

*Guitar Ship

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's a collectible.]
:You found a guitar pick!
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

*Spacetime Soccer Field

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing. Ponytail has just kicked a football. Each goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.
:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.
:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Saturn

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's a collectible at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!
:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Andal

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a ball with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Projection of Earth

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several collectibles and powerups.]
:[A collectible and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!
:[A collectible off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!
:[A collectible and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!
:[A collectible on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!
:[A collectible next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!
:[A collectible near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

*Voyager 1

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Voyager 2

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*SafetySat

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's a collectible in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind
:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

*Shuttle Skeleton

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]
:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A collectible at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone collectible in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

*Giant Spider

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spiders legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg. There's a collectible next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!
:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Diffraction Spikes Star

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]
:[A collectible at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!
:[A collectible at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

*Roche Lobe Earth

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces is pulling northern Atlatic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin. Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's a collectible off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!
:[Another collectible lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!
:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!
:[There's a collectible on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

*Dark Matter Planet

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an insciption "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!
:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

*Jurassic Park Planet

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park
:[There are several powerups and collectibles, going clockwise from the visitors:]
:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

*Comet 67P

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]
:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with a powerup and a collectible (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.
:[Hairbun standing]
:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP
:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*What If? Planet

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the tower with an orb on Origin or from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a dna base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Hairbun and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[A collectible in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker]

:[Hairbun running towards Megan. Megan is kicking something.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor(?). The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[Hairy sitting on a large heap of something, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!
:[There's a collectible over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below it. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''
:[There's a collectible next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two collectibles]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. A collectible below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap holding a remote control. An object is moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM
:[There's a collectible to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

*Subway Planet

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can;t possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cuaball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances. The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue a Montreal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[A collectible somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[A collectible and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[A collectible and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:Your engine gets a little more powerful. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Science Girls is standing in the tunnel]
:Science Girl: Stop! This line goes to D.C.!Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C. Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[A collectible in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

*Boston Planet

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the player arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Crystal Sphere

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two collectibles.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack:]

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[A collectible]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's a collectible on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

*Star Destroyer

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's a collectible just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship. At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges heve entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome. Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins. Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber with a collectible]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones. Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with a collectible to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant. There's a collectible and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's a collectible right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield. To the right the tunnel leads to a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber. Right at the beginning of the slope Ponytail stands.]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom. The latter exit leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnell leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Science Girl are observing the phenomenon.]
:Science Girl: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4. From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber. The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3. From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and a collectible right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

*Stream of torpedoes

*Corellian Corvette

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[A collectible in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedos]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedos coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship with comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's a collectible]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-05-07T23:08:03Z

Malgond:

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

*Overview

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only relatively small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity. The world features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star. When the spaceship flies close to a collectible or powerup, it disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most collectibles, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimised to full-screen. Some collectibles display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and collected items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

*Starting Planet

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four collectibles. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's a collectible right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!
:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]
:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]
:[A collectible low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!
:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with a collectible up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!
:[A tree sapling]
:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!
:[A large tree]
:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]
:[A small tree]
:[Another collectible just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!
:[A small tree]

*Origin

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's a collectible item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''
:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's a collectible next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]
:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade
:[Another collectible hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collectible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''
:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another collectible]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

*Hollow Planet

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

*Round Planet

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]
:[The Great Wall of China]
:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only Human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with a collectible and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with a collectible between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit(?) hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

*Uzumaki

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin.Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]
:[A collectible and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A single tree]
:[A pack of three birds flying]
:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]
:[The "entrance" to the spiral with a collectible, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]
:[Cueball running]
:[A collectible]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!
:[A bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found a podcast episode!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a friendly bee!
:[A dead bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found an ink cartridge!
:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR
:[A collectible just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''
:[Another collectible]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!
:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!
:[A collectible]
:You found a burrito!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a scroll lock key!
:[A small tree]
:[A collectible]
:You found a primordial black hole!
:[A collectible and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.
:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

*Guitar Ship

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's a collectible.]
:You found a guitar pick!
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

*Spacetime Soccer Field

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing. Ponytail has just kicked a football. Each goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.
:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.
:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Saturn

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's a collectible at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!
:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Andal

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. To get there launch from a monument on Origin, featuring a ball with a small "T" on top. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Projection of Earth

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several collectibles and powerups.]
:[A collectible and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!
:[A collectible off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!
:[A collectible and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!
:[A collectible on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!
:[A collectible next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!
:[A collectible near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

*Voyager 1

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Voyager 2

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*SafetySat

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's a collectible in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind
:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

*Shuttle Skeleton

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]
:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A collectible at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone collectible in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

*Giant Spider

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spiders legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg. There's a collectible next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!
:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Diffraction Spikes Star

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]
:[A collectible at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!
:[A collectible at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

*Roche Lobe Earth

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces is pulling northern Atlatic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin. Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's a collectible off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!
:[Another collectible lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!
:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!
:[There's a collectible on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

*Dark Matter Planet

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an insciption "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!
:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

*Jurassic Park Planet

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park
:[There are several powerups and collectibles, going clockwise from the visitors:]
:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

*Comet 67P

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]
:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with a powerup and a collectible (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.
:[Hairbun standing]
:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP
:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*What If? Planet

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a dna base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Hairbun and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[A collectible in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker]

:[Hairbun running towards Megan. Megan is kicking something.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor(?). The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[Hairy sitting on a large heap of something, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!
:[There's a collectible over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below it. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''
:[There's a collectible next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two collectibles]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. A collectible below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap holding a remote control. An object is moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM
:[There's a collectible to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

*Subway Planet

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can;t possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cuaball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances. The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue a Montreal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[A collectible somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[A collectible and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[A collectible and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:Your engine gets a little more powerful. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Science Girls is standing in the tunnel]
:Science Girl: Stop! This line goes to D.C.!Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C. Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[A collectible in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

*Boston Planet

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the player arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Crystal Sphere

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two collectibles.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack:]

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[A collectible]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's a collectible on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

*Star Destroyer

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's a collectible just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship. At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges heve entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome. Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins. Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber with a collectible]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones. Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with a collectible to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant. There's a collectible and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's a collectible right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield. To the right the tunnel leads to a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber. Right at the beginning of the slope Ponytail stands.]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom. The latter exit leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnell leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Science Girl are observing the phenomenon.]
:Science Girl: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4. From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber. The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3. From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and a collectible right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

*Stream of torpedoes

*Corellian Corvette

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[A collectible in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedos]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedos coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship with comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's a collectible]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-05-07T22:37:10Z

Malgond:

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

*Overview

:[An interactive comic featuring a large world with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The spaceship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) thrusters. Left and right arrows activate thrusters which rotate the spaceship. The spaceship features a "radar" - grey dots around it. The placement of the dots around indicate directions to nearby planets; the size and shade of gray indicate distance. The playing field is a viewport into space, the spaceship is always in the center and the viewport scrolls as the spaceship moves through space - the player sees only relatively small part of the overall game world. Orientation is a bit difficult, exacerbated by the fact that the view automatically rotates according to the local gradient of gravity. The world features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey hollow stars). Sometimes these are collocated, i.e. a gray circle appears in the hollow center of a gray star. When the spaceship flies close to a collectible or powerup, it disappears, and a message is shown in the lower part of the viewport. After picking up most collectibles, their names are added to the "You've found" list below the playing field; unless you are viewing a mobile-device version, where the playing area is optimised to full-screen. Some collectibles display a message only and do not add an item to the list. The player can return to the starting position (keeping all powerups and collected items) by clicking the "Home" button in the bottom right of the playing field.]

*Starting Planet

:[A tiny grassy planet with a few trees and bushes and four collectibles. A planet is so tiny that it can be seen whole in the game's viewport. This is where the player starts or returns after clicking the "Home" button. Initially the navigation is difficult because of low initial engine thrust and strong gravity of the Origin planet nearby affecting movement. There's a collectible right up from the starting position (shows a message only and is not reflected in the "You've found" list)]
:Wheeee!
:[Other features of the planet, as they are encountered by carefully moving just above the planet's surface in the clockwise direction are:]
:[A tree, about twice as high as the spaceship]
:[A collectible low in the grass]
:You found a cool bug!
:[A small tree and a larger tree to the right, with a collectible up its branches]
:You found a pretty leaf!
:[A tree sapling]
:[Beret Guy pointing his arm up. From that position the surface of the Origin planet can be seen above.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!
:[A large tree]
:[Cueball and Megan standing together.]
:[A small tree]
:[Another collectible just off the surface]
:You found a rock with neat stripes!
:[A small tree]

*Origin

:[The planet has vegetation and features many people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a shaft through the center. To get there, just launch off the starting planet and let the gravity pull the spaceship towards Origin. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups unless one uses the shaft to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise from the point closest to the starting planet):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! ''You can never leave™''

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the shaft. There's a collectible item above.]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting! ''(message only)''
:[A billboard to the right of the rollercoaster]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Giant Spider planet]

:[A radio telescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and the satellite from xkcd comic 1992: Safety sat on top. There's a collectible next to it.]
:You found a 5G seagull

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground. Launching from where the T-Rex stands, you can reach the Jurassic Park planet.]
:[A miniature of the Andal planet, marking the direction to it.]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; leads to the Space Soccer Game planet]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.
:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; leads to the Saturn]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!
:White Hat: Is that... safe?
:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. Going up from there you can reach Shuttle Skeleton planet.]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it; launching from the tunnel you can reach the Hollow planet. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. When the spaceship passes near the sign, a message appears:]
:The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.
:[To the right of the Arch Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A miniature of the Roche Lobe Earth, marking the direction to it]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one close to the tower top, another one hidden at the base on the right side.]
:You found an orb wren!
:You found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person; launching from there you can reach the What if? planet]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway planet. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You found a tumbleweed!
:You found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You found a tiny meteorite! ''(message only)''

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine powerup)]
:You found a single grain of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Uzumaki aka the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: It's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible clockwise from Megan]
:You found a holographic Charizard business card

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush; launching from there you can reach the Subway planet.]
:You found a secret glade
:[Another collectible hidden up a large tree next to the secret glade]
:You found a normal-looking leaf!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collectible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space ''(message only)''
:[Next to the hollow there's a cave with another collectible]
:You found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint from Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup (subtracts 1.5 from thrust recovery time)]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

*Hollow Planet

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in microgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell doesn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[Next to White Hat and Ponytail there's a powerup (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a sixth Lagrange point! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planets which lay in the direction. These are (clockwise):]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (compromise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You found a glass of heavy water! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

*Round Planet

:[A perfectly round planet, somewhat smaller than the Origin, without any vegetation but with some architecture and people on it. You can reach it by following a sign on the Hollow planet or by launching from the Origin planet from the tower with an orb on top. Its features are (clockwise):]
:[The Great Wall of China]
:[Two small figures of Megan and Cueball on the Great Wall]
:Cueball: The Great Wall of China is the only Human-made structure you can see space from.

:[A few stones with a collectible and powerup above them (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a sensible cheese platter. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[The Stonehenge with a collectible between megaliths and Cueball standing next to it]
:You found a swatch pop-out wristwatch!

:[Hairbun walking on absurdly high stilts]

:[Three spaceships flying just above the surface. The leading one transmits a message:]
:Rogue group, use your harpoons and tow cables! Go for the legs!

:[A powerup just above the middle ship]
:Your engine gets a bit more powerful.

:[A volleyball net. Cueball is jumping in the air to hit a volleyball on the right side of the net while Ponytail is juggling three bowling pins on the left side.]

:[An airplane towing a long, narrow banner with a message printed across, not along it]
:Does any one know how to get this thing to print in land scape mode?

:[Beret Guy climbing a 5G tower with some fruit(?) hanging off the antennas. Cueball is standing next to it.]

:[A small volcano cone]

:[Huge gallows with a large flag on a pole hanging on it. The pole of the flag is twisted into a shape partly resembling an infinity sign; the loose end of the pole pierces the flag. A relatively large Cueball figure stands next to it.]

*Uzumaki

:[A large spiral overgrown with grass and some other vegetation. To get there launch from the sign on the Hollow Planet or from spiral monument on Origin.Features (clockwise):]

:[The outside of the spiral]
:[A collectible and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:You found a single caffeine molecule! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A single tree]
:[A pack of three birds flying]
:[A group of stones in an area free of vegetation]
:[The "entrance" to the spiral with a collectible, displaying a message only]
:EXIT ONLY

:[The inside of the spiral]
:[Cueball running]
:[A collectible]
:You found a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito!
:[A bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found a podcast episode!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a friendly bee!
:[A dead bush]
:[A collectible]
:You found an ink cartridge!
:[A free-roaming Roomba]
:Roomba: WHIRRR
:[A collectible just above Roomba]
:'You're going the wrong way!' ''(message only)''
:[Another collectible]
:You found a spiral-cut diamond!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a golden radio tuned to 1.618 MHz!
:[Beret Guy standing]
:Beret Guy: I like spirals!
:[A collectible]
:You found a burrito!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a cool pair of shoes with flames on the side!
:[Still another collectible]
:You found a scroll lock key!
:[A small tree]
:[A collectible]
:You found a primordial black hole!
:[A collectible and a powerup right at the center of the spiral (+2.5 to thrust duration)]
:You found a tree-filled grove and a nice spot for quiet contemplation Your thrusters are significantly more efficient now.
:[The center of the spiral is a dead end - one needs to fly all the way back out or just hit the Home button]

*Guitar Ship

:[A planet shaped like a guitar seen in perspective looking from the bottom of the body, with a dome on the back side. The planet lies close to Uzumaki, one can reach it by observing the spaceship's radar. Within the dome, there's the Boston skyline. Just over the dome there's a collectible.]
:You found a guitar pick!
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, orange line subway token appears near the guitar's neck]
:Orange line deactivated!

*Spacetime Soccer Field

:[A tiny planet with a smooth surface and a distorted soccer field marked around it. You can get there by launching from the pyramid with a soccer ball on top, located on the Origin. The goals and goal area lines are on the opposite sides of the planet (let's say, to the east and west), distorted into curved trapezoids. The touch lines (side lines) are sections of hyperbolas with the vertices closest to the planet at the north and south poles, extending symmetrically to some distance from the planet. There is no goal line; in this geometry it should be the extended axis. What seems to be penalty lines but drawn incorrectly to join the side lines instead of going back to the goal line, are sections of an ellipse. The halfway line appears twice joining the four ends of hyperbolic side lines, together with two halves of the center circle. The field utilizes the concept from xkcd comic 2705: Spacetime soccer, but inversed: the gravity well is located at both goals, not in the center. Hairy, Megan, Cueball and Ponytail are playing. Ponytail has just kicked a football. Each goal has a powerup inside (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Your engine gets a bit more powerful.
:[Another powerup lies at a pole of the planet]
:You've found a sunspot. Your launch speed has increased.
:[Still another power up lies at the center spot on one of the copies of the half-way line (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found the 3 million point line. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Saturn

:[A planet with rings, and a soccer ball inside; one of the ball's white hexagons is surfacing in the north pole area. You can reach it by launching from a Saturn-topped pyramid on Origin. There's a collectible at the equator, below the rings.]
:You found a really cool data point!
:[A powerup is located at the south pole]
:You found a block of scandium! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another powerup at middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere]
:You found a pair of platonic solids, not quite touching! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Andal

:[A small rocky and grassy planet. Features (clockwise):]

:[A T-shaped tower with a powerup on top (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:What a nice place for a ship to sit! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Two fantasy animals: one looks like a centaur, the other as a horse-headed centaur. Both have sickle-shaped blades at the ends of their tails. There's a powerup above them. (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found two Andalites, one canonical! Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup in a small recess in the ground]
:You found baby shoes (and baby)! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Cueball and Megan facing each other]
:Megan: The M.I.T. cloaking device only affects the electroweak and nuclear forces. Gravity is the odd one out, as usual.
:[A powerup next to Megan (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a friend. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

*Projection of Earth

:[A huge distorted map of all land masses of Earth, freely floating in space like asteroids. You can get there by following the sign on the hollow planet or the Earth map monument on Origin. You can navigate the spaceship within the spaces where oceans and seas would be. There are several collectibles and powerups.]
:[A collectible and a powerup at the North Sea]
:You found the Principality of Sealand! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible in the northern Atlantic Ocean]
:You found the Heart of the Ocean! It was drifting around in space.
:[When the Boston planet is uncloaked, red line subway token appears next to Boston, Massachusetts]
:Red line deactivated!
:[A collectible off the West African coastline]
:You found a whale shark!
:[A collectible and a powerup next to Rhode Island]
:You found a Rhode Island the size of an ant! Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A power up off the southern Australian coast]
:You found an icosahedral d10. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible by the Alexander Island of Antarctica]
:You found some microbial life!
:[A collectible on the Western coast of Myanmar near the Strait of Malacca]
:You found some tin from the Pantai Remis mine!
:[A collectible next to the Celebes Island of Indonesia]
:You found a sparkling gem!
:[A collectible near the Kamchatka peninsula in Eastern Russia]
:You found a piece of pumice floating in space!

*Voyager 1

:[The Voyager 1 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spiral monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 1! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Voyager 2

:[The Voyager 2 space probe. You can reach it by launching from a radio telescope next to the spider monument on Origin. There's a collectible and a powerup next to its dish antenna.]
:You found Voyager 2! Some of its great speed rubs off on you. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*SafetySat

:[The cube satellite from xkcd comic 1992: SafetySat. There's a collectible in front of its laser pointers.]
:You found a first of its kind
:[A powerup next to software-defined radio (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A powerup next to crude oil tank (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:The more refined oil had a dinner engagement. Your launch speed has increased.

*Shuttle Skeleton

:[A small planet shaped like a spaceship from xkcd comic 2630: Shuttle Skeleton. You can get there by launching from like-shaped monument on Origin or in northwestern direction from Alaska on Compromise Projection of Earth.]
:[A powerup next to the left-hand engine (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:A little upgrade works wonders on fuel efficiency. Your thrusters are more efficient now.
:[A collectible at the tip of the ship's bow]
:You found a piece of space shuttle food!

:[By launching straight from the engines of the Skeleton Shuttle you can find a lone collectible in the void of space, where the hidden Boston planet is. You can try finding it by observing the radar, because the hidden planet still has gravity. Once you've visited Shuttle skeleton, it is a good chance to get it, or it will be inside the Boston planet once it is de-cloaked].
:You found a strangely heavy subway token!

*Giant Spider

:[A giant spider floating in space. You can get there by launching from the spider figure on Origin. Eight people are standing on the tips of the spiders legs: Hairbun of fourth left leg, Hairy on third left one, White Hat on second left, Cueball on front left, Megan on front right leg, another Cueball on second right one, Beret Guy on third right and Black Hat on the fourth right leg. There's a collectible next to the tip of the spider's abdomen.]
:You found a spider-silk scarf!
:[The spider holds a powerup in its pincers]
:You found a friendly jumping spider. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*Diffraction Spikes Star

:[A very spiky star shaped like the one from xkcd comic 2762: Diffraction Spikes]
:[A collectible at the tip of a long spike]
:You found a hydrogen ion!
:[A collectible at the tip of a short spike]
:You found a piece of coronium! Wait, no, iron.

*Roche Lobe Earth

:[This is a small, distorted, drop-shaped Earth with oceans and continents of the northern hemisphere. There's the Moon close by. The distortion looks like if the Moon's tidal forces is pulling northern Atlatic Ocean really hard. The planet can be reached by launching from the like-shaped statue on Origin. Cueball is standing on the surface roughly about the place of the southern U.S.A. There's a collectible off the California coastline.]
:You found a curious Humboldt squid!
:[Another collectible lies off the Japan coast]
:You found a bathyscaphe at the Marianas Trench!
:[When the Boston planet has been uncloaked, the green line subway token appears on the East Coast of U.S.A., where the city of Boston is located]
:Green line deactivated!
:[There's a collectible on the far side of the Moon]
:You found a wayward Roomba full of moondust!

*Dark Matter Planet

:[A small, irregular planet with a black center (normal planets have white centers) and an insciption "DARK MATTER" inside, repeated three times. On its surface there are two squirrels and Hairbun.]
:Hairbun: I found it!
:[There's a powerup anti-clockwise from Hairbun]
:You found a delicate music box. Your engine is a little more powerful now.

*Jurassic Park Planet

:[A big planet with weak gravity, a lot of grass, and many dinosaur figures, some repeating a few times. You can get there by launching form a dinosaur statue on Origin. At one place on the surface Hairy and Megan are being greeted by dr John Hammond.]
:Welcome... to Jurassic Park
:[There are several powerups and collectibles, going clockwise from the visitors:]
:[A powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:But what if gravity doesn't actually exist? Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[Another powerup]
:Today is a good day I think for space exploration. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[A collectible]
:You found a tiny pteranodon!
:[Another collectible]
:You found a baby hedgehog!

*Comet 67P

:[A small, potato-shaped body. You can get there by launching form the rollercoaster on Origin. Features (clockwise):]
:[Remains of a crashed spacecraft, presumably Rosetta, with a powerup and a collectible (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:You found The Long Now Foundation's nickel paperweight containing an archive of every published Animorphs book! Your launch speed has increased.
:[Hairbun standing]
:[A small three-legged spacecraft, presumably Philae]
:Philae: BEEP BOOP
:[Cueball standing next to a smoke machine. There's a powerup to the left.]
:You found a broken smoke machine. Your engine gets a little more powerful.
:[Another Cueball and a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time)]
:Some people believe that when the Earth appears in the sky, it's a harbinger of doom. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.
:[A powerup next to a signpost]
:Anyone for Scrabble later? Your engine gets a little more powerful.

*What If? Planet

:[A huge, round planet with many bodies of water. You can get there by launching from the left part of Stonehenge on the Round Planet. Some scenes from the book "what if? 2" and the xkcd comic 2712: Gravity appear here. Features (clockwise):]

:[A flagpole with a powerup on the flag]
:You captured the flag! You decide to leave it there, but it's yours. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A cave in the ground. Inside it there's Beret Guy, two rabbits, and a powerup.]
:You found a dna base pair! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Two stones with sails attached, sliding on the ground towards Hairbun and Megan]

:[Black Hat with a bow, shooting an arrow upwards towards a spy satellite. There's a powerup just above it.]
:You found an eye in the sky

:[A lake with an eel swimming in it]

:[A collectible in the grass]
:You found a smooth green snake! It curls up in your hand and naps.

:[A small erupting volcano]

:[White Hat and Cueball standing, another person charging them with a sword held above head. Cueball is holding a small object in his left hand, the arm stretched towards the attacker]

:[Hairbun running towards Megan. Megan is kicking something.]

:[A person with a wide-rimmed hat driving a tractor(?). The ground strangely sticks to its wheels.]

:[Megan and Cueball on a shore of a shallow body of water, Cueball is poking a stick into the water. Some creature is flying over the water. There's a powerup at the bottom (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a sunken treasure. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[Cueball standing on the other side of the water, taking hits from some objects falling from above.]
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!
:PLINK
:Cueball: OW!

:[Hairy sitting on a large heap of something, Cueball standing aside.]

:[Megan standing on a brim of a small valley, Ryan standing in the valley with a small animal by his feet.]
:Megan: Hi Ryan!
:[There's a collectible over Ryan]
:You found an asterisk. It doesn’t seem to refer to anything.

:[A dugout. Cueball and Megan are standing there. Cueball holds a spade. There's a powerup above (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:The Yellowstone Super What? Your launch speed has increased.

:[A river, a waterfall and a lake below it. On the top of the waterfall Cueball faces two persons with police hats. There's a fat hose labelled "Niagara water" leading from the waterfall into a building labelled "LHC". Someone in the building shouts:]
:Someone: ''HEY''
:[There's a collectible next to the LHC building]
:You found a large hadron!

:[A body of rippled strangely-behaving water, like it was a solid. Two people in a sailboat. To the right there's a gap in the water from which a huge UFO-shaped rock has been ejected, with two people on it. Further right Megan is standing at the bottom of a shaft in the water, next to some water plant]

:[A few clouds and Cueball standing. The largest cloud, a cumulonimbus, features a powerup.]
:Nutritional Facts - Serving Size: 1 Cloud, Total Calories: 0. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Megan sitting on a rectangular block, another block standing upright, a few stones.]

:[White Hat walking along Hairbun, holding a rectangular object in her hand.]

:[A patch of trees with two collectibles]
:You found a secret leaf!
:You found a stick!

:[A small Cueball figure]

:[A tower crane lowering a comet, on a place with two dinosaurs. A collectible below the crane's beam.]
:You found a sterile neutrino!

:[Knit Cap holding a remote control. An object is moving at supersonic speed next to him.]
:BOOM
:[There's a collectible to the left of Knit Cap]
:You found a pair of squirrel goggles!

:[Danish standing in a swimming pool, Cueball on the brim. There's a powerup in the pool.]
:You found a steam calliope! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A large figure of Cueball]

*Subway Planet

:[A huge planet with a subway system connecting places named after U.S. cities, similar to the one from the xkcd comic 1196: Subways. In the area where Boston should be according to that system, there is a giant round hole with rugged sides consisting of a lot of broken planks. You can get there by taking off from the secret glade on Origin planet. There's a black hole inside, off the center, in the Washingon, D.C. area. There are many people and features both on the surface and within subway tunnels.]

:[On the surface of the planet, clockwise from the Boston hole, there are:]

:[Megan and Cueball standing on the edge of the Boston hole. Cueball is leaning forward, looking down.]
:Cueball: Where's Boston?
:Megan: I think M.I.T. kids took it.

:[Three consecutive entrances to tunnels leading to New Yourk City area, a tunnel leading a little below and back up, another three entrances; Cueball standing next to the middle one. There's a power up just a bit into the third (+0.5 to launch speed).]
:You found a hot dog. Your launch speed has increased.

:[Cueball and Danish walking]
:Cueball: Why did those M.I.T. kids keep talking about Morgantown?
:Danish: They're just transit enthusiasts, I guess.
:Cueball: But Morgantown is tiny. It can;t possibly have a subway, can it?
:Danish: Not exactly...

:[Hairy and White Hat standing]
:Hairy: A lot of people don't realize that North America only has one subway system; each city's metro is just one part of the network.

:[A sequence of seven tunnel entrances leading to Monterrey area. There's a warning message just below the surface:]
:Warning! Air and Space Museum black hole ahead!
:Turn back while you still have enough engine thrust!
:[The above message repeats many times within the maze of subway tunnels]

:[A powerup next to the second entrance (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a bottle of Coke Absolute Zero! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:["Mexico City" label just below the surface, an entrance to a tunnel leading to Atlanta and a warning message about the black hole, Ponytail]
:Ponytail: Welcome to the Subway Planet, home of all North America's metro systems!

:[Ponytail and Cueball. Cuaball is holding a four-wheeled suitcase.]
:Ponytail: Boston? No, that's on the other side of the planet. Or used to be, anyway.

:[Ponytail and Megan walking]
:Ponytail: My favorite thing about visiting Origin is all the pointing sculptures. They make it so easy to navigate!

:[Two tunnel entrances leading to Los Angeles. A "San Francisco" label next to them. Cueball and Megan standing on opposite sides of the first entrance.]
:Cueball: If you're looking for someone to track down those M.I.T. kid, you could try asking CalTech.
:Megan: But we're in San Francisco; Isn't CalTech in Pasadena?
:Cueball: Yeah, it's down there somewhere.

:[Ponytail jumping across a tunnel entrance]
:Ponytail: Vancouver!

:[A "Vancouver" label and another tunnel entrance. Cueball and Ponytail are looking up.]
:Cueball: Huh, I never noticed that crack in the crystal sphere before.

:[An entrance to a tunnel leading to Toronto]

:[A "Montreal" label and two tunnel entrances. The left edge of the Boston hole. Next to the right edge, there's a powerup (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You get the feeling you're not in Kansas anymore. Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[Features inside the metro system, in no particular order:]

:[Knit Cap in Montreal]
:Knit Cap: Bienvenue a Montreal!

:[Blondie and Megan at the bottom of the Boston hole]
:Blondie: I hear M.I.T. kids were working on a cloaking device. Boston could be anywhere.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end line near the right side of the Boston hole:
:You found a Cybiko® wireless handheld computer for teens (2000)!

:[A power up down the tunnels of New York City (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:You found a brightly-lit billboard. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in NYC]
:You found a handful of quantum foam!

:[A collectible somewhere in NYC]
:You found a normal-sized apple!

:[Down in NYC: another copy of the black hole warning message and a powerup next to it]
:You found a friendly cat! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Mexico, Cueball sitting on a ledge, Megan standing below]
:Megan: You'd need some powerful thrusters to make it down there and back.

:[In Monterrey, Megan is using her smartphone to look up the subway scheme in xkcd.com/1196]

:[A collectible and a powerup in a short dead-end tunnel near Miami]
:You found a beige electron! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A collectible in a dead-end tunnel in Toronto]
:You found a relativistic bowling ball!

:[A collectible and a power-up further down from Toronto]
:You found $30 in Yahoo! cash! Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[A powerup down in San Francisco]
:Your engine gets a little more powerful. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Los Angeles there's a rectangular chamber connected to a tunnel. Megan is standing at the entrance to it, Hairbun and Cueball are inside]
:Megan: Welcome to CalTech!
:Hairbun: The M.I.T. cloaking device control? It's in Morgantown, WV.
:Cueball: Figures.

:[A small distance left and down from the chamber Science Girls is standing in the tunnel]
:Science Girl: Stop! This line goes to D.C.!Ever since the Air and Space Museum put in the black hole exhibit, it's been difficult to return without enough engine thrust.

:[A powerup in a tunnel between Los Angeles and Philadelphia (+0.4 to thrust duration)]
:There is no parking in the white zone. Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[A powerup in a long straight dead-end tunnel near Philadelphia]
:You feel accomplished. Your engine gets a little more powerful.

:[Down in Philadelphia, Cueball sitting on a slope]
:Cueball: Morgantown? You could get there via Philly and Baltimore, but that would take you near the Museum. Might be safer to take the red line from Atlanta.

:[Further down from Philadelphia, close to Washington, D.C. Cueball is barely balancing himself on a slope of a tunnel leading to the black hole.]

:[A collectible in a tunnel in Washington, close to the black hole]
:Transfer here for Mornington Crescent ''(message only)''

:[At the center of Washington there's the black hole pictured as a dark circle with shiny rings around it. It is impossible to escape it without the Hyperdrive. If caught there, hit the Home button].

:[A sign in the tunnel leading from Washington to Morgantown]
:WV

:[Further along the tunnel Cueball is sitting at a subway station (a round chamber a bit wider than the tunnel) at a strange angle to the surface, affected by black hole gravity]
:Cueball: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[A gray circle with a letter "T"]
:MIT Cloaking Device deactivated! Boston detected.
:[Grey line appears, leading out of the tunnels exiting the Subway Planet interior near Mexico City. The line end with an arrow and a label "To Boston". A similar line appears on the Origin Planet, leading from the bush sayin SHHH, then through the shaft, and up the St. Louis arch. It ends with a similar arrow and label.]

:[Megan standing at a strange angle at the next station]
:Megan: Welcome to Morgantown!

:[Further along the tunnel Megan is sitting]
:Megan: I think I'm stuck. I can't even see the black hole from here!

:[Cueball sitting further along the Morgantown tunnel, where it joins another tunnel]
:Cueball: Where does that line go?

*Boston Planet

:[A big, perfectly round planet with a subway system. It is invisible until the player finds uncloaking device switch near Morgantown on the Subway Planet. Initially, all underground tunnels are blocked by huge round rocks with the letter "T" at the entrances and smaller round rocks down the tunnels. To unblock the tunnels, player needs to find subway tokens scattered in the universe; they appear only after the Boston planet is uncloaked. Subway stations on the surface and inside are marked with Boston district names. There are two trees and several people on the surface of the planet, described below (clockwise):]

:[Two large trees growing at both sides of a tunnel entrance of the orange line, labelled "Oak Grove"]

:[Cueball standing next to the entrance of the blue line, labelled "Wonderland"]
:Cueball: There's a token to open each T line. The blue line token is right here in Boston.

:[The blue line token is located just above the entrance]
:Blue line deactivated!

:[White Hat and Ponytail are standing on the other side of the blue line entrance]
:White Hat: Welcome to Wonderland!

:[Red line tunnel entrance labelled "Braintree". Cueball and Megan are standing next to it]
:Cueball: Transfer here to Skinflower and Bonevine.

:[Entrance to the second red line branch labelled "Mattapan"]

:[Cueball standing next to green line branch entrance labelled "Riverside"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line goes all the way to Los Angeles.

:[Entrances to another two branches of the green line labelled "Cleveland Circle" and "Boston College". Some way from the Boston College Megan and Ponytail are talking."
:Megan: Boston is a lot of places. It's on the East Coast of North America, but it's also on the surface of the Earth.
:Ponytail: And on some playlists.
:Megan: And of course it's right here!

:[Cueball at the entrance of another green line branch labelled "Medford/Tufts"]
:Cueball: I can't believe the green line extension is finally open.

:[There are several people down the Boston Subway tunnels. Down the blue line tunnel, Cueball is walking.]
:Cueball: The red line token? It's in Boston

:[Another Cueball further down]
:Cueball: The green line token is in Boston, too.

:[Still another Cueball, climbing]
:Cueball: The orange line token is also in Boston.

:[Cueball again, close to intersection with the orange line]
:Cueball: There are a lot of Bostons in this universe.

:[In the redline tunnel, down from Braintree Cueball and Megan are walking]
:Cueball: You know, the locals actually pronounce it "Quinchy"

:[Following the red line past the center, the player arrives at the M.I.T. Megan is standing there.]
:Megan: The hyperdrive works pretty well, but use it carefully. Try not to fly into walls at full speed.

:[There's a powerup in front of Megan]
:Welcome to MIT! You acquired a hyperdrive! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

*Crystal Sphere

:[All the "planets" described above lie within a huge ring called the Crystal Sphere. You can get there by flying in any direction, provided that you don't hit any planet. The interior edge of the Sphere is almost perfectly smooth, but has a few dents and cracks. At a point closest to the Subway Planet, there's a large crack leading all the way to the outside. At the entrance to the crack, on both sides, there are two collectibles.]
:Left lane must turn left ''(message only)''
:Right lane must turn right ''(message only)''

:[Along the interior edge there are a few objects (clockwise from the large crack:]

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:You found the gold crown Archimedes stole! Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[A collectible]
:You found a necklace of element samples whose symbols spell out your name (note: hopefully you are not named 'Katherine' or 'Brandon')!

:[A collectible and a powerup]
:A significant boost to the engines for a curious pilot. Your engine thrust has increased significantly.

:[The walls off the large crack in the Crystal Sphere are rugged, looking like a rumble of broken wooden planks. Some distance from the entrance there's a powerup (+0.5 to launch speed)]
:There is a way out. Your launch speed has increased.

:[From around the location of the "way out" powerup, gravity is increasing significantly. It is difficult to get out of the sphere unless one has collected almost all powerups from the locations inside the sphere. Even though, moving on the outer surface is difficult. There's an arch around the outer exit of the crack consisting of repeating words "THE END". There's a collectible on the outer surface, quite far anticlockwise from the crack.]
:You found the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogram!

*Star Destroyer

:[A gigantic starship; it could have barely fit within the Crystal Sphere. It is located out of the Sphere, right up from the crack, but it can't be reached without the Hyperdrive. It has many corridors and chambers inside, and a lot of people, objects and other features both inside and outside of it. The gravity of the Sphere is still strong around here, but the starship has its own center of gravity; the "down" direction generally points towards the ventral part of the starship, but not quite, making orientation somewhat difficult as the surfaces supposed to be level seem to tilt to the left near the stern and to the right near the bow of the starship.]

:[On the outside of the starship, going anti-clockwise starting from the top of the starship's bridge, featuring a large spherical dome, there are:]

:[A large crocodile resting on top of the bridge, aft of the dome]

:[On a ledge just below the dome, Cueball and Megan are standing next to a dish antenna, Megan is manipulating it]
:Megan: Such a pain adjusting this thing every time we move.

:[There's a collectible just over the antenna's support pole]
:You found an unread email. Better leave it unread.

:[Below a forward-protruding section of the starship's bridge, Ponytail has launched a paper plane from a small balcony. The balcony is an entrance (#1) into the Star Destroyer's huge network of corridors.]

:[Below, on the flat upper surface of the starship, some distance fore from the bridge's base, a figure with a wide-rimmed hat crouches, holding reins in both hands]
:Cowboy: Giddyayup!

:[A rectangular block protruding from the surface. An entrance (#2) with stairs, protected be a handrail.]

:[A ledge over a small drop on the surface of the starship. A basketball hoop on a pole, Cueball, Ponytail and Megan standing next to it watching a smaller Cueball chasing a basketball bouncing down the sloped surface. A powerup not far fore of the basketball (-0.75 to thrust recovery time).]
:You found a perpetual motion fidget spinner! Your tanks recharge a bit faster now.

:[An entrance shaft (#3). A ledge over a small diagonal drop, a cannon turret at the base of the drop.]

:[A thick ledge over a large drop on the surface. An entrance (#4) to a tunnel. Another two big drops without ledges. A shallow entry shaft (#5).]

:[A large drop with a short rounded ledge. A shaft (#6) some way fore, a small drop. Another shaft (#7) some distance away. Still fore, a small drop with a ledge, an entrance (#8) to a shaft below the ledge.]

:[Another shaft (#9), a slightly protruding, long block just next to the #9 shaft, still another shaft (#10), another block. Some distance from there there's the flat bow of the starship. At the bow, there are two entrances (#11 and #12) leading into the starship. Cueball stands next to entrance #12.]

:[Along the Star Destroyer's underbelly, fore to aft, there is a long protruding block, an entrance to a shaft (#13), a short recess in the surface, a long recess with a shaft (#14), another quite long recess with ledges on both sides. Both ledges heve entrances to shafts: #15 (fore) and #16 (aft). Hairy and Cueball are standing on the ledge leading to the #16 shaft, with parachutes strapped to their backs. Cueball is preparing to jump.]

:[Aft from the two paratroopers there's a turret firing a lot of torpedoes. Going down along the torpedoes path one can reach the Corellian Corvette.]

:[Still aft, there's a large uneven recess in the starship's underbelly, with ledges leading to tunnel entrances on both sides (#17 and #18). On the aft ledge, there is a car. On the edge, Megan and Ponytail stand, looking down at the Corellian Corvette.]
:Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?
:Ponytail: Whatever. Who cares. It's probably fine.

:[Aft of the ledge with a car, there are several rugged dents and cracks in the starship's lower surface and some debris hanging off one of the dents. Further aft, there's still another rectangular protruding block and a shaft (#19). Still further, a spherical dome protrudes partly from the underbelly. There's a hidden entrance (#20) slightly off the bottom of the dome. Not far from there, there's a small gun turret and another protruding block. Some distance aft from the block, Megan is hanging off the surface.]
:Megan: Hmm.

:[Still aft, there's the last shaft entrance (#21) leading into the the network of shafts, tunnels and chambers inside the starship. Some distance from there the wide stern of the starship begins. Near the bottom of the stern, on a ledge, there are two Megan-like figures, one leaning against the stern wall, another standing at the edge.]
:Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can ''taste'' it.

:[Some distance up the stern, Cueball sitting on a sloped ledge has dropped a sandwich. It bounces down the slope.]
:Cueball: My sandwich!

:[At the middle of the starship's stern, there's a short dead-end corridor leading to a small chamber with a collectible]
:You found two goats and a new car!

:[The interior of the Star Destroyer contains a vast maze of tunnels, shafts, and chambers. Starting for the bow and going roughly fore-to-aft, there are:]

:[The tunnel starting at the starship's bow next to entrance #11 is joined by a shaft with the tunnel leading from #12. The #11 tunnel ends in a chamber with a ball pit. Cueball and Megan are playing in it. A fish jumps over the surface.]

:[A little up the shaft joining tunnels #11 and #12 there's an aft-going tunnel, with two branches, first a shaft going up, then another shaft going down to the entrance #13. The tunnel ends with a large chamber containing a swimming pool. Cueball and Megan are swimming in it. Ponytail has just jumped from the edge of it.]

:[The shaft going up from the swimming pool tunnel leads to another tunnel. A short way along it towards the bow there's a chamber with a donkey-shaped piñata hanging on a rope attached to the ceiling. To the right Cueball, Megan and Hairy are standing together, Hairy holding a stick in his hand. To the left there's another Cueball with a lightsabre.]
:Cueball: No, I got this.

:Along the tunnel leading aft from the piñata chamber, there are another three shafts leading up to entrances #10 and #9 and down to #14. At the edge of the latter shaft Hairy stands, looking down. Some way down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading towards the bow of the starship, ending with a rumble of stones. Going further away from the piñata there's another shaft leading down and a chamber with a collectible to the right of the shaft.]
:You found a lymphocyte!

:[Down the shaft next to the lymphocyte chamber there's an aft-leading tunnel, connecting to shafts leading down to entrance #15 and up to #8; the tunnel leads to an empty chamber. Cueball is standing at the gateway to the chamber with his arm outstretched.]
:Cueball: You shall not pass!

:[A little up the #8 shaft there's another tunnel leading aft. A short way along, there's a shaft leading up to an empty chamber. A little farther, a down shaft leads to entrance #16. Still farther, the tunnel slopes up then joins a circular tunnel around a chamber in which Barrel Boy stands next to a potted plant. There's a collectible and a powerup next to the plant (+0.4 to thrust duration).]
:You found a vintage Juicero juicer! Your thrusters are more efficient now.

:[There are four exits leading away from the circular tunnel. The one up and left off the center leads to an upwards-sloping tunnel, Cueball stands on the sloped bottom.]
:Cueball: Ugh, rotaries.

:[Just past Cueball, the tunnel levels up and leads in the direction of the bow of the starship. Some way along, there's an upwards shaft leading to the entrance #7, and another shaft leading up to an empty chamber and down to a short tunnel. To the right there's a chamber with a group of strange people standing on a podium: a curly-haired kid, a woman in a short skirt wearing a strange cap or haircut, looking up, a person sporting flat-top Afro hairstyle holding up the left arm, and a girl with very long hair. To the left there's a chamber with an ice cream freezer next to the back wall. Cueball and Megan are walking towards it.]
:Megan: Prediction: seconds before you die, you will remember these words.

:[Down from the circular tunnel there's a shaft with a falling Tetris T-block in it. The shaft turns into an aft-leading tunnel. Just a little off the turn, there's a down shaft leading into the control room of the torpedo launcher. Cueball and Megan are in the room.]
:Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones

:[Up the shaft from the control room and aft along the tunnel there are two small devices, one riding on the top of another. The tunnel ends with a shaft leading up and down. A little down that shaft there's a short tunnel leading aft through a small empty chamber to the entrance #17. The upwards part of the shaft joins the fourth tunnel leading off the circular tunnel.]

:[The start of the fourth pathway leading away from the circular tunnel is located aft and a little up off the center. The tunnel slopes up shortly, then levels up. Cueball is riding a bicycle towards the stern of the starship. The tunnel joins a shaft leading down towards entrance #17 and leads some way farther aft to a large chamber. Megan is riding a skateboard inside a rolling hamster ball.]
:Megan: AAAaAAaaa

:[There's a collectible right in the middle of the hamster ball]
:You found an out-of-control trolley!

:[Next to Megan in a hamster ball, Cueball is walking on really high stilts.]
:Cueball: I can't leave.

:[Halfway up the shaft leading to entrance #17 there's another tunnel leading aft through a domed chamber with a huge cephalopod. Further along there's a shaft leading up to entrance #6. The tunnel ends in a chamber featuring a rectangular shape with two horns on top.]

:[Halfway down the #6 shaft an empty tunnel leads aft till a dead end. Just short of the dead-end there's a short upwards shaft leading to another tunnel. To the left from here a car is parked in a chamber. Cueball is sitting on the car's bonnet, leaning against the windshield. To the right the tunnel leads to a long downward shaft leading in the general direction of the entrance #18, going almost all the way down to the bottom of the ship near the place where the outer surface has some dents, cracks and hanging debris. About halfway down that shaft there are two tunnels, one leading aft, and, a little lower, another one going towards the bow of the starship; it passes through a chamber in which Cueball and Megan are flying on hoverboards, then follows to another short shaft going down to an empty chamber and up to a short tunnel ending with small empty chambers on both ends. The tunnel leading aft from from halfway the long downwards shaft ends, its bottom sloping down, with a funnel-shaped chamber. Right at the beginning of the slope Ponytail stands.]
:Ponytail: Watch out for the cotton. It's a trap for someone, I think.

:[The funnel-shaped chamber is partly hidden (or filled with "cotton"); the player's ship can fly to the bottom of the chamber through what appears to be solid inside of the starship. The funnel has round bottom and two exits, one near the bottom leading left and another leading right from a place halfway up from the bottom. The latter exit leads to a tunnel with four sets of dual mechanized toothed blades extending from the floor and the ceiling, the first one half open, another just closed, the third one fully open, and the fourth almost closed.]
:Blades: CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP.

:[A little further aft the tunnel there's a slightly wider section with a pit at the middle; at the bottom of the pit there's a grill and a fire burning on it. Still further aft the tunnel opens into the Imperial Park Chamber, described later.]

:[Near the bottom of the long downwards shaft, Ponytail is flying up the shaft. From there a tunnel leads left to the entrance #18. A small distance right from there, there's a spiked pit in the floor of the tunnel, covered with sticks. Cueball and Barrel Boy are standing next to it, Cueball pouring something over the sticks.]
:Cueball: ...and we cover it with leaves so no one sees it.

:[The tunnell leads farther aft to a large chamber with a seemingly dead-end shaft leading up from the ceiling and then a little right through a hidden passage to the bottom part of the funnel-shaped chamber. In the large chamber there's a strange device with two fat, pointy electrodes labelled "JS" generating an electrical arc between them. Cueball is standing nearby, observing. Another Cueball is climbing the smooth surface of the wall opposite the machine.]
:Cueball: Shh.

:[Going a little to the right along the tunnel from the upper end of the long shaft from entrance #18, there's short upwards shaft leading into a short tunnel with two small empty chambers on both ends and another short shaft to the entrance #5. Right next, the tunnel develops inexplicable waves on its floor and ceiling. Cueball and Science Girl are observing the phenomenon.]
:Science Girl: Ah, yes, corridor peristalsis.

:[Aft from the peristaltic tunnel, there's a twisty passage leading up. Ponytail and Cueball slide down it like a waterpark tube.]
:Cueball: Wheee!

:[At the top of the twisty passage, another Cueball stands, slouching and looking down. From there, a short tunnel leads right to a small empty chamber and left, through another two small empty chambers, to the entrance #4. From the bottom of the twisty passage, the tunnel leads further aft. There's a very short shaft going up to a chamber with what seems like two buttons on the aft wall. Going further aft, the tunnel branches up and goes further right, down, right again, up and right until it reaches a shaft, a bit wider than all others, going up to a chamber with two ledges, and down, through its ceiling, into the Imperial Park Chamber. The up branch leads to another horizontal tunnel going aft, and the second up branch. This one leads to a short tunnel in the aft part of which two Cueballs are busy excavating: one hitting the rugged tunnel face with a pick, another pushing away a trolley full of material. The right part leads to an upwards shaft and the entrance #3. From the second up branch, the tunnel leads aft to a big chamber in which Hairy is playing a piano and Cueball is dancing with Megan; Megan is spinning. At the upper right part of the chamber there's a cantilevered ledge and a collectible right beneath it.]
:You found a glass slipper with a glass foot in it!

*Stream of torpedoes

*Corellian Corvette

:[A spaceship borrowed from the Star Wars universe. It is quite big, its length is larger than the diameter of the Origin planet, but smaller than Boston planet. It is found most easily by following a stream of torpedoes fired from the Star Destroyer. There are several people both inside and outside of it, standing on the upper surface. Gravity in the area is quite strong, coming from the huge Crystal Sphere. Starting clockwise from the stern you can find:]

:[Cueball standing on a ledge next to engine nozzle. Megan is pulling him by his arm as if trying to prevent him falling off. Cueball, leaning over the ledge, is holding a long stick with a huge marshmallow the size of his head on it, right over the center of the nozzle.]

:[On a ledge next to the ventral laser cannon turret Cueball is standing with a fishing rod, fishing line lowered into the space below, a square-shaped bait on the hook. Two birds are flying next to the bait.]

:[On the top of the round bow section of the starship, Cueaball is standing next to some device]

:[There's a rugged hole in upper side of the middle section of the starship, two Cueball figures stand next to it]
:Cueball 1: So you just came down and made a hole in our ship without permission?
:Cueball 2: Yup.
:Cueball 1: Wow, rude.

:[A collectible in the focal point of the dorsal comms dish]
:You found a serif!

:[Two Cueballs to the right of the dish, looking up]
:Cueball 1: That thing is ''huge''. ''Imperial''-class?
:Cueball 2: Yeah. Maybe a Mk-I. Depends on whether this is the expanded universe or not.

:[Ponytail and Cueball shooting bows towards a stream of torpedos]
:''TWANG''

:[An explosion causing a shallow crater on thestarship's surface]
:BOOM

:[A bunch of torpedos coming in diagonally from above. One torpedo half-buried itself in a dome-shaped side of the starship. Two Cueballs next to it.]
:Cueball 1: Why are they still firing?
:Cueball 2: Oh, the turret operators pretty much do their own thing. It's definitely a pain sometimes.

:[A large rectangular chamber in the middle section of the starship with comms dishes. Hairy, and two Cueballs talking.]
:Cueball 1: The Death Start plans are ''not'' in the main computer.
:Cueball 2: Darn. See, if we had found them in the main computer, that would be good news, since it would mean no one else had them. But since we didn't find them, we need to keep searching for anyone with a copy. That all makes sense and I ''definitely'' understand how computers work.

:[A collectible in a short dead-end section of a corridor leading fore from the big chamber]
:You found the Death Star plans!

:[In a parallel corridor just above, Ponytail is walking, singing]

:[In a small chamber just below the dorsal turret there's a container labelled "Bullets". Cueball is pouring small bullets into it from a bucket.]

:[Further down the corridor a small device is moving towards the bow of the starship.]

:[Danish standing next to a console on the upper deck of the bow section, Hairbun right behind, her fists clenched.]
:Danish: Captain's log, stardate April 3rd, 2023...
:Hairbun: ''Augh!'' No!

:[Right in the entrance to the upper deck chamber there's a collectible]
:You found a forged resume!

:[On the lower deck, Ponytail is holding a lightsabre. A small round object is floating next to her. To the right, Megan stands next to a open container labelled "Shirts", holding a strange device.]
:Megan: Good against remotes is one thing, but a ''true'' Jedi trains with a T-shirt cannon.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

User talk:FaviFake

2023-05-07T22:00:29Z

Malgond: /* Objects table */

== Objects table ==

Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books). There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''. Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.

What is also missing in the table are many structures or objects found on the planets and, most importantly, dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.

Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.

Technical remarks:
* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.

-- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 19:59, 2 May 2023 (UTC)
:> Thanks for replying. The current table in the main text looks good, but still it is a ''description'' or just ''enumeration'' of game objects, not an ''explanation'' (or in some cases: partly an explanation). Supposing we keep the current structure, it is possible to add explanations for the planet names in the '''Explanation''' column. For example, first sentence of the second paragraph is a good ''explanation'' for the Uzumaki planet's name. On the other hand, Andal has only a ''description'' (what it looks like and what features are present on the surface) and no ''explanation'' (that it refers to Animorphs series of books).
:Hey! Yeah, that's the state of the table ''right now'', and I 100% percent agree with everything you're saying here. All planets and items that need an explanation should be explained and not just described. I mostly just copied and pasted the "planet description/explanations" from the old list to the table: creating the table was way more painful than i thought. I was actually surprized to see that nobody explained what Andal referred to, but I don't know anything about it so more knowledgeable people will have to chip in on that

:>There's also a question where one should put explanations of items and messages. Some do not need an explanation ('You found a stick'), but most do: what they mean and what they refer to, both in xkcd context (such as when there's a comic about the thing) and in general context. I hope you understand the difference between ''description'' and ''explanation''.
:I do! And I wish other people could help here. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but this is the banner i put above the table:

----
'''ALL ITEM EXPLANATIONS NEED TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE OLD PLANET LIST TO THE NEW TABLE''' 
We are currently switching from a disorganized list (below, inside the green banner) to the new organized table, but the explanations for specific items are missing from the new table. Please help by copying the item explanations from the old list and adding them to the new table ''in this format:'' 
<code>The item message &ndash; <nowiki>''Where to find it &ndash; Explanation, such as references etc''</nowiki></code> 
Example: You found a cheese platter (Your tanks recharge faster) – ''Next to the cell tower – The cheese is a reference to [https://example.com 1234: Cheese]''
----
'''OTHER ISSUES:'''
* upgrades that end in "???" need to be replaced by the exact upgrade message shown to the user.
* the "Tiles (X, Y)" column for planet coordinates is empty

:As you can see, the explanations should be put right next to the items and messages. Unfortunately no one has started to add them to the table yet

:> Maybe there's also some misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier; English is not my native language.
:Your English is excellent :)

:> dialogues or monologous of the characters, which contain many puns and references, and also hints for the player. There's simply no place for them in the current structure. Making more columns may be messsy. That's why I proposed making several tables covering different aspects.
Almost all the dialogues are on the [[2765: Escape Speed/Transcript]] page, so I guess they should be added there. I don't know if they're already here, I haven't looked at it enough
:: The transcript is not the place for explanations. Puns and references shall be explained elsewhere. I continue working on the transcript but there's still quite a way to go. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

:> Please take my remarks as proposals to improve the structure and not as a criticism or request for you to make everything right and fill every cell of the table. I think we need to create a clear structure for everyone else to fill in with details; but also to provide good examples to follow.
:Yeah; i totally get everything you said. In my last reply I think I was a bit too rude for some reason, maybe it's because I just finished the table and was tired.

:>* In my opinion, the filename column is not needed, it does not appear anywhere while playing, it's in source code only. Better remove it to have more horizontal space for the rest. The names given to the planets by the editors of the explanation page shown in the Description column are fine.
:* Coordinates are also not useful for a regular player, who does not use some Javascript addition/cheats, maybe remove it as well; textual directions in '''Explanation''' column are sufficient.
I was heavily inspired by the table in the [[2712: Gravity]] explanation, which included these. I kind of agree that the filename could be removed, and the filenames could be added to the planet name or explanation, i didn't think about that. About the tiles, someone might use them someday, but if the column keeps remaining empty, i don't mind seeing it disappear

:I really liked your ideas, if you don't mind I'll copy and paste this discussion in the actual comic discussion page and see what others think --[[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 21:37, 2 May 2023 (UTC)

::Update: I found a way and added all the coordinates, and moved the planet filenames to the Planet Name column to make more space for the other columns :)

::: Hi, what about dividing planets and objects like in [[User:Malgond#experiment|my experiment]]? There's plenty of horizontal space for explanations and the entries are quite compact vertically. I also think about color-coding the different Types of game objects. -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 5 May 2023

::::Hmm, I think it looks a little messy and maybe too complicated. Do any other comics have two different tables? Also, I'm personally not a fan of mixing items, landscapes, and people. I think most people reading the table are there to get an overview of the planets and what they contain. Do we really have to explain everything in such detail? [[User:FaviFake|FaviFake]] ([[User talk:FaviFake|talk]]) 14:09, 6 May 2023 (UTC)

:::::We do not have to follow other explanations too closely, we could use a new form if it seems clearer and better. The current form has no place neither for explaining items nor for dialogues/monologues. More columns could be problematic (specifically in today's world of high and narrow screens of smartphones). Should we explain everything? Well, it us up to collective "us". Personally, I would like someone explain a few puns/dialogues I do not understand. :::::For now, there's only a handful of people still interested in somehow finishing the explanation for this huge comic. Maybe if we two can agree on some format we could put it in discussion page and ask for votes. (Discussion needs a cleanup, BTW). -- [[User:Malgond|Malgond]] ([[User talk:Malgond|talk]]) 22:00, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

User talk:FaviFake

2023-05-02T19:59:58Z

Malgond: /* Objects table */ new section

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-25T06:56:53Z

Malgond: Dark matter planet

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-25T00:28:15Z

Malgond: Added Andal

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-25T00:09:38Z

Malgond: Added Saturn

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-24T23:58:59Z

Malgond: Spacetime soccer planet - corrections

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-24T23:53:49Z

Malgond: Spacetime soccer game planet

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-24T23:03:36Z

Malgond: correction

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-24T23:03:06Z

Malgond: Added Roche Lobe Earth

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-23T00:32:04Z

Malgond:

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

:[An interactive comic featuring a large space with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The ship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects, and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) trusters. Left and right arrows activate trusters which rotate the spaceship. The playing field features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey star-shaped items)]

:[Starting planet]
:[A small, grassy, planet with a few trees and bushes. Cueball and Megan are standing together. Beret Guy points his arm up.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!

:[Origin planet]
:[The planet has vegetation and features several people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a tunnel through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups, unless one uses the tunnel to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the tunnel. There's a collectible item above and a billboard to the right.]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[When the ceollectible is picked a message appears:]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Spider planet]

:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and 1992: Safety sat on top, and a collectible next to it]
:You've found a 5G seagull!

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground]
:[A strange object]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; (leads to the Football planet?)]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.

:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; (leads to the Saturn-shaped planet?)]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!

:White Hat: Is that... safe?

:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A fancy spaceship]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. To the right Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A strange object]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one at the base, one high up]
:You've found an orb wren!
:You've found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway plant. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You've found a tumbleweed!
:You've found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You've found a tiny meteorite!

:[Another collectible higher off (reachable only after you visit another planet and find engine pwoerup)]
:You've found a single graqin of salt!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: it's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible right next to Megan]
:You've found a holographic Charizard business card!

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush]
:You've found a secret glade!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collictible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space!
:[Next to the hollow there's a ceve with another collectible]
:You've found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in the microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint drom Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

:[Hollow planet]

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in micorgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell desn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planet which lay in this direction.]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (comprmise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You've found a glass of heavy water!
:Your engine is a bit more powerful

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-23T00:27:47Z

Malgond:

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

:[An interactive comic featuring a large space with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The ship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects, and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) trusters. Left and right arrows activate trusters which rotate the spaceship. The playing field features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey star-shaped items)]

:[Starting planet]
:[A small, grassy, planet with a few trees and bushes. Cueball and Megan are standing together. Beret Guy points his arm up.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!

:[Origin planet]
:[The planet has vegetation and features several people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a tunnel through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups, unless one uses the tunnel to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the tunnel. There's a collectible item above and a billboard to the right.]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[When the ceollectible is picked a message appears:]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Spider planet]

:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and 1992: Safety sat on top, and a collectible next to it]
:You've found a 5G seagull!

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground]
:[A strange object]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; (leads to the Football planet?)]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.

:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; (leads to the Saturn-shaped planet?)]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!

:White Hat: Is that... safe?

:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A fancy spaceship]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. To the right Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A strange object]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one at the base, one high up]
:You've found an orb wren!
:You've found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway plant. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You've found a tumbleweed!
:You've found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You've found a tiny meteorite!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: it's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible right next to Megan]
:You've found a holographic Charizard business card!

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush]
:You've found a secret glade!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collictible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space!
:[Next to the hollow there's a ceve with another collectible]
:You've found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in the microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint drom Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

:[Hollow planet]

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in micorgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell desn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

:[On the surface of the Hollow planet there's a bunch of signs with arrows pointing up and the names of the planet which lay in this direction.]
:Origin and Subway
:Earth (comprmise projection)
:Round planet
:Exit
:Uzumaki

:[There's a powerup between "Round planet" and "Exit" signs]
:You've found a glass of heavy water!
:Your engine is a bit mor powerful

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-23T00:20:23Z

Malgond: typo

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

:[An interactive comic featuring a large space with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The ship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects, and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) trusters. Left and right arrows activate trusters which rotate the spaceship. The playing field features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey star-shaped items)]

:[Starting planet]
:[A small, grassy, planet with a few trees and bushes. Cueball and Megan are standing together. Beret Guy points his arm up.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!

:[Origin planet]
:[The planet has vegetation and features several people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a tunnel through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups, unless one uses the tunnel to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the tunnel. There's a collectible item above and a billboard to the right.]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[When the ceollectible is picked a message appears:]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Spider planet]

:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and 1992: Safety sat on top, and a collectible next to it]
:You've found a 5G seagull!

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground]
:[A strange object]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; (leads to the Football planet?)]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.

:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; (leads to the Saturn-shaped planet?)]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!

:White Hat: Is that... safe?

:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A fancy spaceship]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. To the right Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A strange object]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one at the base, one high up]
:You've found an orb wren!
:You've found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway plant. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You've found a tumbleweed!
:You've found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You've found a tiny meteorite!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: it's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible right next to Megan]
:You've found a holographic Charizard business card!

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush]
:You've found a secret glade!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collictible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space!
:[Next to the hollow there's a ceve with another collectible]
:You've found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in the microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint drom Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

:[Hollow planet]

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in micorgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell desn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-23T00:20:04Z

Malgond:

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

:[An interactive comic featuring a large space with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The ship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects, and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) trusters. Left and right arrows activate trusters which rotate the spaceship. The playing field features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey star-shaped items)]

:[Starting planet]
:[A small, grassy, planet with a few trees and bushes. Cueball and Megan are standing together. Beret Guy points his arm up.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!

:[Origin planet]
:[The planet has vegetation and features several people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a tunnel through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups, unless one uses the tunnel to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the tunnel. There's a collectible item above and a billboard to the right.]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[When the ceollectible is picked a message appears:]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Spider planet]

:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and 1992: Safety sat on top, and a collectible next to it]
:You've found a 5G seagull!

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground]
:[A strange object]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; (leads to the Football planet?)]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.

:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; (leads to the Saturn-shaped planet?)]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!

:White Hat: Is that... safe?

:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A fancy spaceship]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. To the right Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A strange object]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one at the base, one high up]
:You've found an orb wren!
:You've found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway plant. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You've found a tumbleweed!
:You've found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You've found a tiny meteorite!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: it's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible right next to Megan]
:You've found a holographic Charizard business card!

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush]
:You've found a secret glade!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collictible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space!
:[Next to the hollow there's a ceve with another collectible]
:You've found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in the microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint drom Megan, you can launch high above the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

:[Launching like that you can reach the Hollow planet]

:[Hollow plant]

:[The planet is just a crust with a few holes through which you can fall into the center. Near the center, Ponytail and White Hat fly in micorgravity.]
:White Hat: It's weird how a hollow shell desn't exert gravitational force on objects inside it.
:Ponytail: Oh, so '''that's''' why we don't feel a pull from the crystal sphere.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]

2765: Escape Speed/Transcript

2023-04-22T23:59:03Z

Malgond:

Below, you will find a '''complete transcript''' for [[2765: Escape Speed]].

:[An interactive comic featuring a large space with many planets and objects, navigable by a small spaceship. The ship is affected by the gravity of the planets and objects, and controllable by arrow keys. The up arrow activates the main engine, adding forward speed; the down arrow activates reverse (bow) trusters. Left and right arrows activate trusters which rotate the spaceship. The playing field features collectible items (small gray circles) and powerups (grey star-shaped items)]

:[Starting planet]
:[A small, grassy, planet with a few trees and bushes. Cueball and Megan are standing together. Beret Guy points his arm up.]
:Beret Guy: WOW!

:[Origin planet]
:[The planet has vegetation and features several people, landscape objects and collectibles, and it has a tunnel through the center. The planet is hard to leave without any powerups, unless one uses the tunnel to gain more momentum by thrusting while moving through the center. The features of the planet include (clockwise):]
:[A billboard]
:Welcome to Origin! You can never leave™

:[A rollercoaster with a duck sitting on it. At the middle of it there's a (hidden) entrance to the tunnel. There's a collectible item above and a billboard to the right.]
:Caution: Long vertical drop

:[When the ceollectible is picked a message appears:]
:Be careful; this roller coaster can be disorienting!

:[A spider figure; going straight up from there you can reach the Spider planet]

:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 1(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and White Hat]
:White Hat: I bet the voyager spacecraft could teach you a thing or two about speed. Of course, you'd have to catch up to them first...

:[A cell tower with 5G antennas and 1992: Safety sat on top, and a collectible next to it]
:You've found a 5G seagull!

:[A tyrannosaurus, Ponytail and Cueball standing next to a St. Louis Arch-shaped hole in the ground]
:[A strange object]
:[A pyramid with a football on top; (leads to the Football planet?)]
:[Ponytail sitting on top of a pyramid, Megan standing at the base of it]
:Ponytail: If you want a better spaceship, you need to visit another planet.

:Megan: But if I want to visit another planet, I need a better spaceship!

:[A pyramid with Saturn on top; (leads to the Saturn-shaped planet?)]
:[Cueball and White Hat]
:Cueball: I can't believe the Air and Space Museum's new exhibit has a real black hole!

:White Hat: Is that... safe?

:Cueball: It's OK, they've got a protective case around it.

:[A few clouds]
:[A recess in the ground with a monument shaped as Earth continents in a hyperelliptical projection. Hairy is standing next to it.]
:Hairy: Even if you did find a crack in the crystal sphere, there's no way you'd be able to escape its gravitational pull. You'd need some kind of a hyperdrive for that.

:[A fancy spaceship]
:[St. Louis Arch. There's a hidden entrance to the tunnel under it. An intelligible sign is posted next to it. To the right Ponytail stands with three kids looking like Hairy, Megan and Cueball.]
:Ponytail: The St. Louis Arch is also known as the gateway to space.

:[A strange object]
:[A small building and a strange tower with a spiked orb on top and two collectibles next to it, one at the base, one high up]
:You've found an orb wren!
:You've found 11 squares packed into a larger square!

:[Hairbun and another person]
:Hairbun: Boston? That's in North America, on the Subway plant. It's straight up from the secret glade, you can't miss it.

:[A grassy area with two collectibles]
:You've found a tumbleweed!
:You've found a marsh wren!

:[A quintet of hairy and bearded people playing and singing]
:It's more than a feeling 
:More than a feeling

:[A collectible high off the surface right to the band]
:You've found a tiny meteorite!

:[A spiral on a pedestal; going straight up from there leads you to the Spiral planet]
:[A radiotelescope; going up you can reach Voyager 2(?)]
:Receiving transmission

:[Cueball and Megan]
:Megan: it's like my astronomy teacher always said: "Shoot for the Moon -- even if you miss, you might make a crack in the crystal sphere that imprisons us all in this universe."

:[A collectible right next to Megan]
:You've found a holographic Charizard business card!

:[A patch of trees and bushes]
:A bush: SHHH.

:[A collectible between two lower trees next to the talking bush]
:You've found a secret glade!

:[In the center of the planet there's a round hollow with a collictible in the exact middle]
:Welcome to liminal space!
:[Next to the hollow there's a ceve with another collectible]
:You've found a DVD of The Core (2003)!
:[In the cave there's Megan, her hair flying around her head in the microgravity]
:Megan: The Oberth effect states that firing thrusters deeper in a gravity well adds more kinetic energy.

:[Applying the above hint drom Megan, you can launch high abve the St. Luis Arch to reach a star-shaped powerup]
:Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.

{{DEFAULTSORT:2765}}
[[Category:Comic subpages]]