User:Malgond

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Experiment

Planets and Planet-like Objects
Name	Tiles (X, Y)	Directions	Description	Explanation
Starting Planet tiny-world	(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 origin	(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.
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Features and Items
Planet	Type	Location	Description / Message	Explanation
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
	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.
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, which starts 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 not among the speed record holding space probes as of 2023, however they are the first in history to reach Solar System's escape velocity. They have also executed two 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
	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 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 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 Gateway Arch located in St. Louis, Missouri. The shaft going through the planet ends here.
	Message	A sign next to St. Louis Arch's right leg	The St. Louis arch is also known as the gateway to space.	???
	Upgrade	High above the St. Louis Arch	Nice flying! Your tanks recharge faster now.	Congratulations for getting your orbital mechanics right and skillfully executing gravity assist.
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