1608: Hoverboard

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Hoverboard

• To experience the interactivity of this game, visit the original comic.

Explanation

The "comic" is actually a browser game made to celebrate the release of 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 title refers to a hoverboard (which resembles a hovering skateboard without wheels) which has been most prominently featured in the movie Back to the Future Part II, which took place in the future, until a little more than a month before this comic was released. Marty McFly traveled to the future in this second installment, more precisely to 2015-10-21, and this comic were 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 hav e come to pass before reaching the date from the movie, but are more uncommon in our world, along with other inventions like flying cars and musical clothing. Randall is known to have had electric skateboards, which is also thematically related, although another type of hoverboard would be mentioned just five weeks later in 1623: 2016 Conversation Guide.

With Randall's enjoyment with movies and time travels it is very likely that this game is also a tribute to the 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. Instead the main part of the game is all the references to several movies and other stuff and that has often been featured in xkcd as well as many of the other comics.

The game feature

The game features an animated Cueball riding on a hoverboard which can take up several different positions. The controls are the left, up, and right arrows as written on the start screen until you begin the game, then the text disappears. But there are alternatives as explained in the 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 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 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 play the game! If you didn't do that already, reading any below will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic, and maybe make some interesting discoveries yourself! So here is a spoiler alert if you read on.

Beyond the maze on either side (just far enough that players who remain within the maze will not see) are tall walls seemingly designed to contain the player. However, the walls have a finite height and, combined with the ability to multi-jump, the player can leave the purported "play area" either to the sides or above the initial maze. This returns a flashing red error message: "Return to the Play Area".

But if the player overcomes the desire to comply and return to the play area, and disregard this message he can take hoverboard Cueball outside beyond the tall walls surrounding the initial play area. And here he will discover an entire world that can be explored left and right (and above), including numerous points of interest and Easter eggs similar in style to comic 1110: Click and Drag. There are also many more 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 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 April Fools' Day a new game, 1663: Garden, were released where the users also actively moved items around on the screen and could make items disappear (like taking coins in this game.)

The main themes

There are many themes and references throughout the game, but the two main themes are Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Below there is a 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 the opening scene in the first film, where Princess Leia's space ship Tantive IV also known as The Rebel Blockade Runner is flying over the desert planet Tatooine. Here it is followed by the Star Destroyer, Devastator. The 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 commented on by Megan who looks out from an opening in the bottom of the Destroyers hull.

Megan: Is this ship designed to fly in the atmosphere like this?

Both ships are high above the ground level, but there are three wires from the ground that connect (and thus guide you) up to The Runner and from there 100+ torpedoes, which are fired down on the Runner coming 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 looking up and reacting or like White Hat looking from the tip of the Washington Monument and reacting by saying: "Uh, what the heck is that?!.").

One of the main points (The Joke) of the entire game is the extreme size of such a Destroyer. It takes up more space than the rest of the game (and most of the coins is located there). Inside the Destroyer there are many many rooms, long corridors and deep shafts, even a huge cave with trees and animals. At the bridge we meet both Darth Vader and the Emperor himself, 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 Steven's mom from Steven Universe and Steven himself, with family can be found 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 the wedding scene where 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 volcano where for instance Megan tries to throw in rings of power, as in the scene from the last LOTR film where Frodo fails and Gollum attacks inside the volcano Mount Doom, thus making it clear that the volcano in the game represents this volcano. Both Frodo, Sauron and Gandalf are mentioned in the game. The first two by name in the text. Two great eagles are talking about Frodo and Tolkien, Sauron's name is read up by Megan from a book, and Gandalf is drawn as a wizard figure in the crater and also his name is used in the message you receive if you collect all possible coins.

The two worlds do conflict though, as an X-wing fighter is 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 Balrog is modified by Cueball who is 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 Andy Serkis who played Gollum in LOTR, now plays the Supreme Leader Snoke in the new Star Wars movie, and 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 allot of Gollum when he talks about "the ring coming to me". Of course Randall would not have know this last part at the time this comic were released. But he would likely be aware of Andy Serkis involvement.

Other themes are related to other movies, like a naughty reference to Star Trek from inside 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 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 complete depiction of Level 1 of the computer game 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 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 (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 the Hobbit has been released as three films over the previous three Christmases it was Star Wars that dominated the Christmas a month after this comics release.

Reference to Thing Explainer

Some of the scenes in this game is references to pictures in the new book that it celebrates. Here are some examples:

• The original comic, that was the cause of Thing Explainer in the first place, 1133: Up Goer Five is also included in the book. And these are thus both referenced in this game by the space capsule used for reentry by the astronauts that flew to the moon using the 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 below the bridge of the Destroyer. (This is also a reference to Click and Drag where 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 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 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 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 skate board inside a hamster ball and to the 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 cars inside the Destroyer, 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 two base jumpers on the rock island.
• In the Red world space car explaining (about the Curiosity Rover on 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 the rear of the Runner.
  • When Curiosity is set down on Mars by the 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 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 USS Constitution (named after 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 silhouette of a giant octopus inside the Destroyer.
    • Octopuses like this is 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 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 ant queen in the Destroyer. They are of course also in the Tree of life.
• Basketball is shown twice in this comic (left of volcano and 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 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 giant light bulb towards the bottom rear end of the Destroyer is a reference to the entry on tungsten in the explanation for The pieces everything is made of (i.e. the periodic table). In the book a light bulb is shown and then an arrow points to the filament which is made of tungsten in the typical 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 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 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 ball pit filled with playpen balls, and two adults playing in it, like in 150: Grownups. Also the well in the left part of the world with 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 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 used by Megan in a room in the Destroyer, while she is inside a hamster ball. There is also another hamster ball, with a kid (looking like Megan) inside. It is used in a more than human sized ten pin bowling game to the left. Hamster balls is another item that has been prominently featured in xkcd.

In the weeks before, and especially the weeks after there were also other comics that had a subject which could reefer 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 Washington Monument (an obelisk) is part of the skyline depicted, and this monument is the first that is encountered in the picture when going left from the play area, plus a comment at the base of the monument to make sure we know it is the Washington monument, and another comment at the top of the monument referring to the 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 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. the Volcano, Mount Doom in the game as indicated by Megan 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 also has a kite to the left towards Mount Doom.
• 1620: Christmas Settings - another Star Wars reference to lightsaber noises in the title text. Lightsabers are featured twice in this comic, with Ponytail practicing on the Rebel Blockade Runner, and with a 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 in this game).
• 1630: Quadcopter - in this comic three quadcopters act together to abduct Cueball. Thus making them sentient, like the 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 song that Cueball sings at the ruin to the right, where the first four lines is mashup of the palindrome and the Spider-Man theme song (see this 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.

Characters

Almost all main 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 starting point. He is also the first character seen when walking both right and 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 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 here.

Also Ponytail is well represented with 26 appearances (for instance here).

Hairy (with different hair styles) is used 7 times (for instance here) and Hairbun is used 5 times (for instance here).

Two of the main characters are used twice: Beret Guy (here and here) and White Hat (here and here).

The only exception is that the main villain of xkcd Black Hat who is very hard to find. He is only 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 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…

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 wedding guests). But there are possibly some of the minor characters are used like Danish at the bridge in the Blockade Runner (here) and Miss Lenhart discovering a bug before the volcano (here). But neither of these can be confirmed, they just looks like them and has some similarities, like “Danish” teasing the Star Wars fan and Lenhart in some kind of teacher mode.

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 Miss Lenhart image mentioned above, where two kids looking like Megan and Hairy stand behind her, but they would in principle not be the Megan or the Hairy despite appearance, as the named characters are adults.

There are also many fictive people from different movies, books and TV-shows; for instance Darth Vader (here), Gandalf (here) and Steven Universe (here) all three mentioned above, and at least one real person: Elon Musk who has a hidden lair under the Volcano (see here).

Furthermore, there are many animals (like the puma and the deer) in the cave, some even rather big like this octopus or even gigantic like this 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 (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 section.
  • 1608: Hoverboard/The whole image - A collection of different compilations of the whole Image. It is linked from the 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 section.
  • 1608: Hoverboard/All image links It is linked from the All images section.
  • 1608: Hoverboard/Images coins It is linked from the Coins section.
  • 1608: Hoverboard/Screen-shots It can be linked from several sections, but among others from the Messages in Play Area section.
  • 1608: Hoverboard/Images of individual scenes It will be linked from the 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 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 below.]

Trivia

• There is as usual no title text for these interactive comics. But there is actually one listed in the info page on xkcd. But this text: "Return to the play area", is never shown as a normal title text. But it will erroneously be shown in the unofficial mobile versions of the site.
  • This is actually the text that is shown blinking red at the bottom of the screen when leaving the Play Area.

Viewers

• 1608: Hoverboard (native game, use arrows)

Warning: apart from using one of the a full maps below there are also other cheating possibilities where people (or the game) have implemented ways to explore the game world more easily!. The best way to enjoy this comic, however, is to play the game, explore the comic's world the way you're supposed to, get lost in the caves or in the sky, be startled by unexpected things or happy when finding some people or a coin after lengthy exploration through a repetitive landscape. If you didn't do that already, reading any below will spoil you from truly enjoying the comic. So go back to the link above and try that out first.

• Though you can download the full view, the easiest way to browse it is through a Zooming user interface:
  • 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 lanzaa on this reddit thread
  • Quickly hacked overview. Missing the rock island in the sky. Courtesy of kyledavide on the same reddit thread.
• Below are several examples of full pictures:
  • 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 0x90-0x90 on the same reddit thread.
  • Incomplete compilation of the entire game area (note the missing pinnacle of the Washington Monument. It also missed the floating island above the monument).
  • Full png-map. Simple picture of the entire game without coins - courtesy of luke_in_the_sky on the same reddit thread.
  • Full png-map green for non existing tiles. Here's the transparent spaces in green - also courtesy of luke_in_the_sky on the another reddit thread.
  • 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.
  • And see also the collection of different versions of 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:
  • Project on GitHub
  • 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.

• more information
• 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 screen-shots or click on the links from the number of coins in the table below:

# coins	Text when depositing this number of coins "X" is the number of coins collected
0 coins	You got 0 coins in 1 second You successfully avoided all the coins.
1 coin	You got a single coin in 1 second It's a start.
2-4 coins	You got X coins in 3 seconds Not bad!
5-9 coins	You got X coins in 12 seconds Terrific!
10-16 coins	You got X coins in 10 seconds
17 coins	You got 17 coins in 15 seconds You found all the coins! Great job!
18-41 coins	You got X coins in 430 seconds
42 coins	You got 42 coins in 460 seconds No answers here.
43-168 coins	You got X coins in 460 seconds
All 169 coins	You got 169 coins in 1457 seconds Are you Gandalf?

• Once you leave the area you get a flashing warning message in red letters at the bottom of the screen:

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 typical 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.
  • 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

• 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

Whole Image

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 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. Some of these places even hide secret passages or hidden rooms.

One notable hidden area is 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 even if you know it is there. (For more details, see secret passages.)

Another hidden place is the floating rock island that floats high above the Washington Monument, which 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. (The 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 Gandalf-like wizard. (See more regarding 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 binding you from going any further down than the deepest depression or hidden caves... In the upward direction, there is in principle also an invisible wall, but while jumping up Cueball on his hoverboard will appear to continue upwards as long as you press to 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. Until maps were created it could be possible that there could be some hidden unexplored parts, but the maps created already within the first few days covers 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). Above the three eggs are ten coins (the most collected in one place outside the play area, and these are closer together).

To the far left is a blond haired woman with a hair bun looking right. In front of her are four coins on a row. She tells about the Destroyer (should you have gone this way without finding it yet).

Woman: In the sky, beyond the mountain, I saw a starship.

Regarding the highest part you find the highest straight rise up in the air to something other than white, under the Rock Island just left of and very high above the Washington monument. Standing on the large rock on top of this floating rock island you are standing almost as high up as possible. There is a coin here one step down from the top of this large rock. This is the highest located coin in the game. Going over the edge also represents the largest possible drop in the game. However this is not the highest point where you can stand, as the very top of the bridge on the Destroyer is just a tat higher. But there is no coin there. Also this is not close enough to the end of the Destroyer that you can jump down to the ground, so the drop from the rock is by far the longest possible.

The deepest part of the lair should have been the lowest point, but as this lair's entrance is up in the volcano crater, it does not reach down to become the lowest part of the image. There is also a deep well (half way left to the Volcano) with a girl at the bottom, that goes just as deep. But the deepest part where you can stand is in the ocean below the Destroyer where a rouge 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.

When standing under this wave you cannot get any lower. There are coins in all three locations, but as the coin is above the top of the high wave, it may be that it is the coin in the well that is the deepest. The coin under the lava is not at the bottom of the room so that is not so low.

Taking a route that takes the hoverboard through all the extremes mentioned above, that is the lowest, highest, left and rightmost coins and solid positions within the game can be done in about 9 minutes and 30 seconds. See a picture here of the coin delivery after such a trip that reached all the boundaries.

All images

• Coordinates for the images are given in (X, Y) coordinates with the starting point at (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: All image links.
  • Note: This is a large page which may take some time to load.
• The individual images are so small, and cut of 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 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):
    • (1037, 1073)
    • (1037, 1074)
    • (1038, 1073)
    • (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 (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: (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 (1000, 1073), and so are the next three below.
    • The bottom images at Y = 1069 has a white border at the bottom: (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 (1107, 1069) (this is not the case to the far left at (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 (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: (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 (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 (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 (956, 1088).

Dimensions

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Here should be an overview of how large the picture is (physical distances and time to traverse it. Speed of hoverboard etc.) Could be based on know monuments sizes. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

• It takes 1 minute 52 s to reach from the starting point to the left edge

List of details and references

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: The table with all the items should be filled out with explanations etc. and the diameter should be calculated from real data (with references). Or with the new version of the table another column should be added with the use in gigaliter for each substance in the US to compare. Anyone who is up for calculating how long it would take to fill the pool with US saliva? If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

• 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 below from where they are linked directly.
  • There are also several overviews in smaller resolution
  • Almost all these images have been made using this 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 lanzaa on this reddit thread

Explanation of the table

• The contents of the comic are documented in the 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 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

			Tiles (X, Y)		References
Description	Transcript	Overview links	Defining	Other	S W	L O T R	T E	Other	Explanation
Everything Left of play area.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						Section of the image revealed when going left of the starting point.
Entire Volcano plateau.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						About halfway from the Play Area to the volcanos slope, there is a steep plateau. This is the part left of this plateau.
Woman at the left end of world looking right.	Woman: In the sky, Woman: beyond the mountain, Woman: I saw a starship.	Overview	(928, 1082)		Y				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.
Coin and boulders.	(None)	Overview	(933, 1083)	(935, 1083)					A single coin hangs in the air above the rocky ground with giant boulders.
Entire Volcano.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview			Y		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.
Left Volcano Top.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						A zoom out of the left rim of the volcanic crater.
Basketball on the volcano.	Ponytail: OK, as soon as it erupts, go for the dunk. Our sweet moves will be preserved for all eternity!	Overview	(936, 1084)				Y		This is a reference to 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 Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. When it was 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 he or she 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.
Old man walking up the volcano.	(None)	Overview	(937, 1085)						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.
Duck at the left crater top.	(None)	Overview	(940, 1087)						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.
Megan’s treasure hoard.	Megan: Gooooold! Megan: Goold! Bags: $ $	Overview	(941, 1084)	(941, 1083)					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.
Entire Lava lake.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red Zoom in left part Hidden passages in red Entire left part Hidden passages in red Shaft in lake in red Zoom in central part Hidden passages in red Entire Right part Hidden passages in red Shaft into lair below Hidden passages in red	Overview						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.
Rock with Gandalf in Lava lake.	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!	Overview Hidden passages in red	(944, 1083)			Y		Film: 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) 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.
Quadcopters over lava lake right.	Right quadcopter: Remember: There's no such thing as good volcano footage taken by a quadcopter that survived.	Overview Hidden passages in red	(950, 1084)					Comics: 1630: Quadcopter and in general those about Robots and AI	The comic was released shortly after this one, and is about AI quadcopters that abduct Cueball. One of these 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.
Entire Lava lair.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						The three rooms of the volcanic lair (and the entrance haft in the image with hidden passages in red).
Trending on twitter cave in lair and Lava lake bottom shaft.	Cueball: What news of the world above? Please, tell me- what's hot and viral? What's trending on Twitter?!!	Overview Hidden passages in red	(944, 1079)	(945, 1079)				Comics with 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 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.
Elon Musk’s cave in lair.	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!	Overview	(945, 1074)	(946, 1074)				Comics with Elon Musk	It turns out that this is 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 James Bond film) that has such a place, but also heroes, like 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.
Ground symbol in lair.	Ponytail: So this is where it is.	Overview	(947, 1073)						The antenna looking item hanging from the ceiling is the embodiment of the 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 antistatic wrist straps.
Right Volcano Top	(N/A)	Overview Extra zoom out Hidden passages in red	Overview						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.
Ring of power and lave floor at the right crater top.	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.	Overview	(952, 1087)	(953, 1087)		Y			Megan tells Cueball that one of the many rings she throws into the crater is probably a ring of power, a reference to the scene from the last LOTR film where Frodo fails and Gollum attacks inside the volcano 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 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.
Megan sliding down slope on snow sleigh.	(None)	Overview	(956, 1085)	(956, 1086)					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.
Eagles over right crater top.	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.	Overview	(956, 1088)			Y			Did Frodo loose his cloak in the books? Is this a reference to any real plot holes (not just using eagles) about the cloack being lost somewhere but then back later? If you can dismiss this, then make a note below. If there is something please explain Two of the great eagles from LOTR flies above the right crater top. In this situation the eagles are being used to find Frodo's cloak, with one eagle complaining that "he", meaning 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 deus ex machina and the supposed plot hole of the eagles not flying the ring to mordor. However, this was of course not possible before Sauron and his ringwraiths were defeated.
Ponytail racing down the steep slope on a bike.	Ponytail: 114 mph! Ponytail: Suck it, previous downhill volcano record-holder!	Overview	(958, 1083)						Ponytail is trying to break the world record for downhill race on a bike on a volcano. The 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 Éric Barone (the 107 mph) and one for serial production bicycle (102.5 mph set in 2011 by 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...
Tell my wife why you left me there, and Megan and Cueball with a device	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…	Overview	(960, 1081)	(961, 1081)					If I don't make it back is a common 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 song with the same title by 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.
It becomes a V7 if the volcano erupts and Ponytail and Cueball on the slope	Megan: This is currently a V2, but it becomes a V7 if the volcano erupts.	Overview	(962, 1080)	(963, 1079)					Explanation needs to be checked by someone who actually knows about the v-scale and bouldering. Does the sentence even make sense in anyway if there is an eruption? Megan and Cueball climbs a very steep part of the mountain slope. Megan refers to the way the difficulty of bouldering, is graded using the V scale. She exclaims that at the moment the climb is only a V2, but if the volcano erupts this would increase to V7. Since the grade has something to do with how steep and difficult the climb is, the eruption would only make a difference if it immediately shifts the slope they are on to a higher angle. But of course if lava comes down the side, it would also become more difficult, but that is not a usual factor in the V-scale. There are also two other people climbing this part of the slope, and at the top there is a burning three stump showing how active this volcano is. The eruption could seem likely.
Megan reading for children about Sauron’s ring.	Megan: ”The time has come” the Walrus said, and put on a Sauron's ring…	Overview	(964, 1078)	(964, 1079)		Y			The line "”The time has come” the Walrus said, to talk of many things" is from the poem The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll's book Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 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 walrus can only put the 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.
Vaping Earth.	Cueball: The Earth is vaping.	Overview	(969, 1077)	(968, 1077)					Vaping is a term used instead of smoking for the use of electronic cigarettes. There is even a game called the 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.
Left of play area to Kite.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						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.	Overview Hidden passages in red	(970, 1077)	(972, 1077)			Y	Comic 1614: Kites and in general the kite category. Also the 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 in that discovers the bug has a clear resemblance to Miss Lenhart. But it cannot be said conclusively that it is her. She talks like she is one of the clickbait headlines used for getting people to click in on the link generally aimed at generating online advertising revenue. 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!	Overview	(976, 1079)	(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)	Overview	(978, 1077)	(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)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview					Comics in the 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)	Overview	(980, 1077)						Cueball looks into the deep well.
Well bottom.	Girl: I'm not a ghost. I just like wells.	Overview Hidden passages in red	(980, 1073)						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 Banchō Sarayashiki whose 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 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 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)	Overview Without coin	Overview						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)	Overview	(982, 1077)	(983, 1077)	Y				Megan has managed to land her 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. the 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)	Overview Without coin	(982, 1079)					Film: 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 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.	Overview	(986, 1076)	(986, 1075)				Film: The Lion King and comic: 1504: Opportunity as well as 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 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)	Overview	(987, 1075)	(989, 1074)			Y	Comics: 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 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.	Overview	(990, 1074)	(991, 1074)				Song (or quote): (If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right	A reference to either the general love quote or maybe more likely to the song performed most notably by Luther Ingram. Recently (2014), there has also been a TV series produced called 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)	Overview Hidden passages in red Central hidden passage Hidden passages in red	Overview					Comic: 1600: MarketWatch	The tallest man made structure on the ground in this game is the 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 earthquake damage from 2011 where several stones cracked.
Base of Washington monument with Cueball and Megan	Cueball: Honestly, it doesn't even look that muck like Washington.	Overview Hidden passages in red	(994, 1074)	(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 Washington. If he is referring to the city or to the monument is a bit unclear. 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). It could also just be Cueball who is not happy about it. 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. But 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 actually 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 the Stars and Stripes as there are fifty flag poles with the US flag (one for each 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?!	Overview	(995, 1083)	(995, 1084)					The tip of the monument is actually made of solid aluminum and at the time this aluminum apex was installed it was a rare metal as valuable as 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)	Overview	Overview					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 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 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 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)	Overview	(990, 1112)	(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 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)	Overview	(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)	Overview	(992, 1109)	(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)	Overview With starting view	Overview						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 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 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	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1000, 1074)	(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 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 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)	Overview	Overview						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 accommodate the entire pyramid.
Cueball outside play area.	(None)	Overview	(1004, 1074)	(1003, 1074)					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.	Overview	(1008, 1074)	(1006, 1074)					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)	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1010, 1073)	(1008, 1073)					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)	Overview	Overview						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)	Overview	(1013, 1073)	(1011, 1073)					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 know 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 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)	Overview	(1015, 1076)	(1014, 1078)			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 canon 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 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)	Overview	Overview		Y				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 Tatooine where the opening scene is taking place.
Ponytail in the dunes.	(None)	Overview	(1015, 1073)	(1016, 1073)					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)	Overview	(1017, 1073)	(1018, 1073)					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)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						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:★★☆☆☆ [She actually rates 2½ stars which cannot be transcribed].	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1019, 1073)						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.	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1022, 1073)	(1023, 1073)				Comic: 1315: Questions for God	Fluid dynamics is a complex subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow. Although it is not their main target they can also be used for surface waves which would be like the 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 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. Turbulence is also described by fluid dynamics, so they are part of the equations and the quote by 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 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. Richard Feynman, who was himself largely responsible for explaining QED, famously 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.	Overview	(1026, 1073)	(1027, 1073)				Comic: 1632: Palindrome and the Spiders category	Any explanation for the ruin? The palindrome comic was released shortly after this and used a palindrome about the 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 Spider-Man theme song (see this 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 Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean or the other way around is not clear, but there are now spiders on both sides of the 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 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	Overview	(1029, 1073)	(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 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)	Overview	Overview						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)	Overview	(1032, 1074)	(1033, 1074)					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)	Overview	(1034, 1073)	(1035, 1073)					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.	Overview	(1038, 1073)	(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 is yet another Cueball, Hairy and Ponytail, but the last two it not familiar in xkcd one has a cap on backwards and then a person (M/W?) with black. Just before a wedding it is sometimes customary to ask if any in the crowd has 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 plea these in front of the great gangster boss from Star Wars, Jabba the Hutt. In case he has condoned this wedding then you may end up pleading for him to kill you mercifully if you did object anyway. The normal way of saying what the priest does goes more 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 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?”	Overview	(1042, 1074)	(1043, 1074)					Someone with better Latin knowledge than using Google translate would be most welcome to chip in here It is so common to have your motto translated in to the dead language Latin that there even is an entire category for 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. Of course if it is famous then many will now the meaning just from the Latin words like for instance Carpe diem (seize the day). 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 suddenly again changed into Latin. So it is a very Meta joke. 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 that just tried his best, or on purpose as there are probably many "private" mottoes out there that has not been checked by a professor in Latin. The original sentence Cur ego committitur dictar latinae cannot be translated by for instance Google Translate as the word dictar does not mean anything in Latin. But if it had meant speaking it would be close as the Google translation comes up with Why did I start dictar Latin. Also the word just is completely missing, but could have been included by using iustus. However, this part could have been added when Megan translated her already silly motto. Dictar is, however, not that far from some words that do make sense in the context. For instance dicta without the "R" means statements and dicti means said. To speak is dicere (still relatively close to dictar), but speaking generally translates to loquitur but also dicere can be used here. Going the other way by just putting the English sentence into the translator Why did I just start speaking Latin gives this: Cur ego solum Latine loquantur (but only if the question mark is not used???) This, however, then translates back to Why did I only speak Latin so it makes no sense. The best Latin sentence seems to be Cur ego iustus committitur loquitur Latinae? which Google translates directly to the correct Why did I just start speaking Latin? sentence. However, by using dicere (which should be interchangeable with loquitur) as in Cur ego iustus committitur dicere Latinae this translates (again only without the questions mark???) to Why did I just start to speak Latin. As the meaning is the same as the previous sentence and since dicere is at least close to dictar, and since just is not really needed then the sentence: Cur ego committitur dicere Latinae? comes close enough to real Latin and the quote and the meaning as Google translates this into Why did I start to speak Latin?
Huge foot.	Cueball: It says ”Yo, future dirtbags! Check out my huge foot!”	Overview	(1046, 1074)	(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 (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 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 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 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 Pyramid of Khafre the 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.
Entire Pyramid.	(N/A)	Overview 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	Overview	(1048, 1074)					Comics: Protip category	Ponytail greets the player as (if) he approaches 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 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.	(None)	Overview	(1051, 1076)						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.
Pyramid Right bottom.	(None)	Overview	(1053, 1074)						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.
Flat and bare ground.	(None)	Overview	(1056, 1074)	(1057, 1074)					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.
Flat grassy ground.	(None)	Overview	(1059, 1074)	(1060, 1074)					The second in a row of several "boring" scenes without much feature. This though have a little more grass than the previous scene...
Small cliff or hill.	(None)	Overview	(1063, 1075)	(1062, 1074)					Almost as boring as the previous two scenes, but at least there is a little cliff.
The three T's.	(None)	Overview	(1066, 1075)	(1067, 1075)				Computer games	Could there be another explanation than computer games, or at least another game that comes even closer in appearance? These three T's with Megan on top of the first, looks similar to scenes from many platform computer games, like for instance this example from Mario Bros..
Coin over grass hole.	(None)	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1071, 1074)	(1072, 1074)					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 sink to his waist.
Ponytail and bird black hat on a stick and Cueball whistling.	(None)	Overview	(1073, 1074)	(1074, 1074)					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.
Small stone pile.	(None)	Overview	(1078, 1074)						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.
Two birds and coin above them.	(None)	Overview	(1081, 1074)						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.
Pedestal.	(None)	Overview	(1086, 1074)						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.
Medusa and floating earth.	(None)	Overview	(1088, 1074)	(1090, 1075)					The first character in four scenes is no one else but 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).
White Hat hiding in the grass.	(None)	Overview	(1093, 1074)						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.
Lollipop plant and coin.	(None)	Overview	(1095, 1075)	(1094, 1074)					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.
Drifting Cueball.	(None)	Overview	(1098, 1074)						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.
Just grass.	(None)	Overview	(1103, 1074)	(1104, 1074)					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.
Storks nest at right end of the world with 10 coins.	(None)	Overview	(1107, 1075)	(1107, 1074)					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 stork nest with three eggs in it. Maybe it is not a stork nest (though it looks like a 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 completely white image tile right above the tile with the nest and eggs.
Entire Rebel Blockade Runner	(N/A)	Overview Also with wires Also with torpedoes	Overview		Y				An overview of the entire Rebel Blockade Runner Tantive IV from the opening scene of the original Star Wars movie. It has four rooms (one blown open), a small canon 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 canons 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.
Bridge on the Rebel Blockade Runner.	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	Overview	(1012, 1078)	(1013, 1078)	Y		Y	Film: The 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 opening line from the Star Trek series about stating the stardate for the captains log on board the first space ship ever shown in the Star Wars franchise. Hairbun behind her (it could be 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 Star Trek universe in the scene where the torpedoes are fired from in 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 Luke's Lightsaber Training from the original Star Wars movie where Luke Skywalker practices under Ben Kenobi's guidance while Han Solo comes with snide remarks. Ponytail (in Luke's place) holds a lightsaber above which floats a sphere which represents the small remote controlled 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 t-shirt cannon. Han Solo's quote begins like it but ends quite differently: Good against remotes is one thing good against the living it's something else. He would also prefer a blaster as he explains: 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 canons both above and below the hull, the one on top has a coin in front of the barrel. There is a similar canon with a coin in front on top of the Destroyer. Beneath this canon is a tiny room where another Cueball is pouring several small bullets from a bucket into a black box labeled bullets (for the canon). 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 canon 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 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 canon 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 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.	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.	Overview	(1017, 1078)	(1016, 1079)	Y				Further explanation needed by someone with more computer skill than Second Cueball and me who wrote the current version... Also is there some reference to someone saying something like that to an attack, rather than the one with C3PO The reference to the Death Star plans are from 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 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. C3PO uses 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.	Overview	(1018, 1079)	(1019, 1080)	Y		Y		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 Imperial class Destroyer. "Imperial class" is the designation of the Destroyer 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 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 knows as (Mark II, Mk-II or plainly II, and the original (as Devastator) became known as 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 expanded universe (now know 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 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 an operator on the Rebel Runner below the top canon (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 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 canon 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.	(None)	Overview	(1020, 1078)						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 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 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)	Overview	Overview						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.	(None)	Overview	(1019, 1081)	(1020, 1081)					11 torpedoes just above the Runner with a coin.
Torpedoes two steps above Runner with Beret Guy.	Beret Guy: Horsey!	Overview	(1020, 1083)	(1021, 1083)				Film: 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 strange powers. With his torpedo there are eight torpedoes in this scene
Torpedoes three steps above Runner.	(None)	Overview	(1023, 1086)	(1024, 1086)					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.	Torpedoes: Boom	Overview	(1025, 1087)	(1026, 1087)					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 canon to target without getting closer.
Torpedoes one step below Destroyer with coin.	(None)	Overview	(1029, 1089)	(1031, 1090)					19 torpedoes just below the Destroyer with a coin.
Torpedo canon below Destroyer.	Megan: We have no photon torpedoes, so I'm firing regular ones	Overview	(1034, 1091)	(1033, 1091)	Y			Film: The Star Trek universe	The 12 last torpedoes leads up to the canon 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 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 proton torpedoes. Photon torpedoes are a standard ship-based weapon armed with an 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 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 similar robot down in the Runner but only half this ones height.
Entire Star Destroyer.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview		Y				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.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						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.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						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.	(None)	Overview	(1002, 1094)	(1003, 1094)					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.	(None)	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1004, 1095)	(1005, 1095)				150: Grownups and the 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.	Cueball: No, I got this.	Overview	(1006, 1095)	(1007, 1095)	Y			Comic: 1620: Christmas Settings	Although the original 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 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.	(None)	Overview	(1007, 1094)	(1008, 1094)					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. Appart 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.	(None)	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1010, 1094)	(1011, 1094)					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.	(None)	Overview	(1011, 1096)	(1009, 1095)					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.	(None)	Overview	(1015, 1093)	(1016, 1093)					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)	Overview	Overview						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)	Overview	(1016, 1095)	(1013, 1096)					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.	(None)	Overview	(1023, 1095)	(1022, 1095)					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.	(None)	Overview	(1023, 1097)	(1025, 1097)					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)	Overview	Overview						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!	Overview	(1026, 1093)	(1028, 1092)		Y			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 famous quote by Gandalf when facing the Balrog in the mines of 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)	Overview	(1026, 1095)	(1027, 1095)					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 tot he left goes up the the ledge covered exit to the top hull.
Steven Universe family and ice cream prediction.	Megan: Prediction: Seconds before you die, you will remember these words. Box: Ice cream	Overview	(1031, 1095)	(1029, 1095)				TV series: 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 the boy Steven Universe with his family. The first woman with least hair is Pearl, the high woman with sunglasses and afro hair in the middle is Garnet and the shot woman with the big blond hair is Amethyst. The three woman are what is called crystal gems and are aliens. Steven is half alien. See later when Darth Vader himself references them, and the fact that Steve is thus a half gem, while standing on the bridge of the Destroyer. A coin hovers over Garnet's hand that she is holding palm up next to her head. 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)	Overview Hidden passages in red Swallow Runner	Overview			Y			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.	Overview	(1032, 1096)	(1030, 1097)					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's family. 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 type of structures. Maybe he has bad experience with these in real life traffic.
The rotary.	(None)	Overview	(1033, 1095)	(1035, 1095)					This is the 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). Typically for a real life rotary it is possible for pedestrians to enter the central part of the structure as is the case here with the small room with the hairy kid and his plant and coin. 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 canon Tetris piece and mini robot at bottom of hull.	(None - the canon part has been transcribed in the torpedo section)	Overview	(1034, 1093)	(1035, 1092)				Computer game: 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 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)	Overview	(1038, 1092)	(1036, 1092)					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 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)	Overview	(1038, 1094)	(1038, 1093)			Y		A giant octopus with a dome shaped head in a dome shaped room with coins above it's 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.	Overview	(1038, 1095)	(1039, 1096)			Y	Comics: 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 "grow" a girl on stilts.
Box with horns and coin room.	(None)	Overview	(1043, 1093)						Is there any clear references to a horned box that is being missed here? 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.
Zoom out of three empty rooms near bottom of hull.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						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)	Overview	(1046, 1097)						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)	Overview	(1048, 1095)	(1048, 1094)				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)	Overview	Overview						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)	Overview	(1048, 1099)	(1049, 1099)			Y		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.	Overview	(1049, 1090)	(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 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)	Overview	(1053, 1091)	(1054, 1091)					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.	Overview	(1055, 1090)	(1055, 1091)					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)	Overview	(1053, 1094)						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)	Overview Zoom out to entire area	Overview						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.	Overview	(1054, 1099)	(1057, 1100)					Following the corridor from the room with Cueball on the hoof of a car leads to a part of that corridor experiencing peristalsis. This is the kind of muscle movements that causes food to move through the 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!	Overview	(1055, 1099)	(1056, 1099)			Y		Moving a little further down right than the peristalsis scene above the bottom part of the 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.)	Overview	(1058, 1100)	(1058, 1101)					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)	Overview	(1058, 1102)	(1056, 1103)					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)	Overview	(1059, 1099)						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 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.
Canon with coin on top of hull.	(None)	Overview	(1060, 1103)	(1062, 1103)					There is a similar canon with a coin in front of the barrel on the top of the Runner below the Destroyer. This canon 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)	Overview	(1062, 1101)	(1063, 1101)					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 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 canon 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)	Overview	(1063, 1102)	(1063, 1103)					The same mining company scene as described above but with the view moved to show the top hull, right of the canon. 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)	Overview Hidden passages in red Entire area around Hidden passages in red	Overview						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)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						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.)	Overview	(1055, 1095)	(1056, 1095)					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.	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1057, 1095)	(1059, 1094)					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)	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1058, 1092)						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)	Overview	Overview						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	Overview Buttom part to below hull	(1058, 1090)	(1057, 1092)					Why is JS written on both electrodes This room is called the 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	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1060, 1094)	(1061, 1093)					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)	Overview	(1062, 1094)	(1063, 1094)					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)	Overview	Overview						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)	Overview Hidden passages in red	Overview						Explanation missing
Entire cave section.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						Explanation missing
Entire Cave and Glitch floor room.	(N/A)	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.
Entire Cave.	(N/A)	Overview With shaft and room above Size scale of Pyramid	Overview						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)	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1065, 1093)	(1067, 1094)					Explanation missing
Three birds in the top left side of the cave.	(None)	Overview	(1065, 1095)						Explanation missing
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.	Overview	(1068, 1093)	(1068, 1094)	Y				The 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)	Overview	(1067, 1097)	(1068, 1096)					Explanation missing
Deer and exit below lamp coin and Black Hat in the bottom right side of the cave.	(None)	Overview Without coin	(1069, 1093)	(1071, 1093)					Explanation missing
Lamp coin and Black Hat in the top right side of the cave.	Insects: Bzzzzz Black Hat: Zzz	Overview Without coin	(1070, 1095)						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)	Overview	(1065, 1099)	(1064, 1098)					Explanation missing
Two coins in corridors and four coin room above shaft to cave.	(None)	Overview	(1067, 1100)	(1067, 1098)					Explanation missing
Chandelier room with two coins above cave.	(None)	Overview	(1070, 1098)	(1071, 1098)					Explanation missing
Zoom out with dance room and basketball and slinky stair at top of hull.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						Explanation missing
Basketball on top of Destroyer - zoom out.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						Explanation missing
Coin close to basketball on top of Destroyer.	(None)	Overview	(1065, 1104)	(1064, 1104)					Explanation missing
Basketball on top of Destroyer.	(None)	Overview	(1067, 1104)	(1066, 1104)			Y		In Playing Fields in TE basketball mentioned, and it is also played on the left side of the volcano crater
Dancing room with piano.	(None)	Overview	(1069, 1101)	(1070, 1101)					Explanation missing
Slinky staircase at top of hull.	Slinky: Slink slink slink	Overview	(1069, 1104)	(1070, 1103)					Explanation missing
Upside down room and Giddyayup cowboy riding the ship at top of hull.	Cowboy: Giddyayup!	Overview	(1072, 1104)	(1074, 1103)					Explanation missing
Entire Glitch floor room.	(N/A)	Overview Hidden passages in red Including two rooms Hidden passages in red Entire area around the room Hidden passages in red Also including two close rooms Hidden passages in red Entire area around the room 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: ! !	Overview Hidden passages in red	(1069, 1088)	(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)	Overview	(1073, 1092)	(1074, 1091)					Explanation missing
Canon protruding below the hull.	(None)	Overview	(1075, 1088)	(1076, 1088)					Explanation missing
Entire area around the bridge.	(N/A)	Overview Entire bridge area Brdige and emperor Bridge and globe of death Actual bridge Vader twice and emperor	Overview						Explanation missing
Ponytail with paper plane and coin below her on top hull.	(None)	Overview	(1078, 1006)	(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.	Overview	(1077, 1107)	(1077, 1108)	Y				More on who Tarkin is This is most likely a reference to the book (then made into a movie) titled "The Fault in Our Stars". The title of which is a reference to a line in Shakespeare's play Julius Ceasar; "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves".
Darth Vader talks about Steven Universe on the bridge Megan adjust antenna.	Megan: Such a pain adjusting his 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!	Overview	(1077, 1109)	(1077, 1110)	Y			TV series: 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)	Overview	(1078, 1110)	(1077, 1112)	Y				This structure of the Globe of death is part of the Star Destroyer 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.	Overview	(1080, 1105)	(1081, 1105)					Explanation missing
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: $ $ $ $ $	Overview	(1080, 1108)	(1079, 1109)	Y				Explanation missing
Large crocodile near globe of death at the top of the hull.	(None)	Overview	(1081, 1110)	(1079, 1111)					Explanation missing
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	Overview	(1083, 1109)	(1084, 1109)	Y				Explanation missing
Coin behind the rear end at the top of the hull.	(None)	Overview	(1087, 1108)						Explanation missing
Entire Prince of Persia maze.	(N/A)	Overview Including both exits	Overview					Computer game: Prince of Persia	Compare to this picture of level 1 taken from the game.
Corridor left of Prince of Persia maze.	(None)	Overview	(1073, 1101)	(1072, 1101)					Explanation missing
Left entrance to Prince of Persia maze.	(None)	Overview	(1076, 1101)	(1077, 1101)					Explanation missing
Left part of Prince of Persia maze.	(None)	Overview	(1077, 1102)	(1080, 1102)					Explanation missing
Right part and exit of Prince of Persia maze.	(None)	Overview	(1082, 1101)	(1081, 1102)					Explanation missing
Right exit of Prince of Persia maze and shafts.	(None)	Overview	(1083, 1102)	(1083, 1103)					Explanation missing
Ant Queen and alarm ante room.	(N/A)	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…	Overview	(1075, 1094)	(1074, 1094)					Explanation missing
Ant Queen in Destroyer.	Cueball: What's up? Ant queen: The usual. Poopin' out ants. Cueball: Eww.	Overview	(1078, 1095)	(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)	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)	Overview	(1084, 1099)						Explanation missing
Cueball and Megan hanging on to each other in a shaft figuring this out.	Cueball: Okay Cueball: We can figure this out.	Overview	(1084, 1095)						Explanation missing
Zoom out on light bulb with corridor and other room.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						Explanation missing
Giant light bulb room.	(None)	Overview	(1084, 1090)	(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!	Overview	(1086, 1091)	(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	Overview	(1086, 1088)	(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.	Overview	(1082, 1088)						Explanation missing
Zoom out on shaft and small dead end room at the rear end.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						Explanation missing
Zoom out on shafts and part of the rear end.	(N/A)	Overview	Overview						Explanation missing
Coin in a small indentation corridor at the rear end.	(None)	Overview	(1090, 1102)						Explanation missing
Megan wants synesthesia at the rear end at bottom of the hull.	Megan: I want synesthesia so bad I can taste it.	Overview	(1090, 1088)					Comic: 1213: Combination Vision Test	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.
  • Here should be more details about the coins and where they are located and how many.
• For more details see here for coins location.
• 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 type of 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 with coin vs. without coin.
    • The coin is here a lamp, and then when it is removed it reveals an exploded lamp beneath the coin, 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, they can never be hidden under water or lava or holes in the Washington Monument.
      • Because if there were any coins in these dark areas, the coins would still be shown on top of the image.

Technical aspects

The game was made by Max Goodman who has previously worked on 1416: Pixels. The source code for the game can be found 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 here.
• The hoverboard begins in in (X, Y) = (1000, 1074).
  • But even while staying within the Play Area, defined as the area where you will not be told to 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 (998, 1076) and finishing down the right corner with image (1002, 1073).
  • Here is only the images themselves, nothing with the game parts, i.e. coins and hoverboard Cueball:
    • 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:
    • 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).
    • 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:
    • 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 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.
• 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).

• 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 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. The 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:

• 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 -1 = 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 L = 0;
   for (var S = 0; S < explorer.objects.length; S++) {
       var I = explorer.objects[S];
       if (I.got) {
           L++;
       } else {
           console.log(I.x1.toString() + ", " + I.y1.toString());
       }
   }
   console.log("You've found " + L.toString() + " of 169 coins");

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

   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 = "red";
       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 != "red") {
               document.getElementById("radar").style.backgroundColor = "red";
           }
           linecolor = "green";
       } else {
           if (document.getElementById("radar").style.backgroundColor != "green") {
               document.getElementById("radar").style.backgroundColor = "green";
           }
       }
       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() + "<br/>";
       document.getElementById("radar").innerHTML += indicator + " (" + -ang.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 red";
   d.style.zIndex = "2";
   d.style.backgroundColor = "green";
   d.style.color = "#8f8";
   document.body.appendChild(d);
   
   setInterval(renderRadar, 100);

To display your current coordinates:

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

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Discussion

Well, this will be the next incomplete explanation for a while. -162.158.90.165 21:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Still working on it now four months later. But not many other helping with it. ;-) Getting closer to the end though with the table in place. --Kynde (talk) 14:10, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

It’s done! Rejoice

Now to work on Gravity 172.70.131.103 04:44, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

Yes, one thing to note is how to get the hell out of the cave near the volcano 108.162.249.159 22:38, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The image is made up of small images with addresses of the form http://xkcd.com/1608/XXXX:-YYYY+s.png (although not every coordinate inside the bounds has an image associated). A script could probably dump out all the images and paste them together. --108.162.216.6 22:46, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

West -- Under Lava Pools -- Elon Musk's Secret Volcano Base (not as enjoyable as you might expect).

The Starship out east contains, among other things, Darth Vader, apparently explaining Steven Universe to a subordinate. (Steven and the Crystal Gems can be found a the west end of the ship, near an ice cream cooler.) The same ship contains an elaborate homage to the original Prince of Persia. 162.158.56.5 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

There, have at thee an image! Arch-TK (talk) 22:58, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

"teleport to next coin" code doesn't work(insert name here) (talk) 14:47, 21 June 2019 (UTC)

There are 168 coins spread throughout the map according to the source code 173.245.54.53 23:03, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

It's actually 169 coins (t.length). --188.114.111.129 23:22, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

May I change the code for the display distance and direction thing to make the colors more appealing? I want to cheat but I don't want to stare at that yucky green the whole time. 172.69.170.88 17:44, 20 June 2019 (UTC)

When using a device, instead of saying "use arrow keys to move", it says "tilt to move, tap to jump". It's also a lot harder to control. 108.162.250.159 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

What kind of device and is this through the normal xkcd home page? It does not work on my tablet by going to xkcd (anroid, leonov tablet). --Kynde (talk) 17:24, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

I got 153 coins!! :D There's two starships, one's a star destroyer with an expansive maze dropping regular torpedoes on the other. May be noteworthy that there are various references to Star Wars and Steven Universe throughout. 108.162.221.13 23:27, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The second starship is the TantiveIV, Leia's ship at the beginning of episode 4. Note directly below the Tantive, the terrain seems to be sand dunes. Also there are two more space ships by the volcano; an X-wing at a gas station and an Apollo Command Module. 108.162.216.24 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js - Looks like there's an easier to read version of the code there. Maybe that'll help someone with extracting all the images. 199.27.130.168 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I've got all the images downloaded. Zipping/uploading now. Should I post a link here when complete or what's the best way to share these? I'm also working on setting up a zoomable map. 173.245.54.53 23:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The collision detection is glitchy. I keep landing/bumping against platforms I'm far away from. Is getting stuck against walls normal? --199.27.130.234 00:01, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Yes, getting stuck against walls is normal. If the wall has at least 1 pixel sticking out under the hoverboard, then that pixel will be treated as the floor, and the hoverboard will stop falling. This is easier to see in goggles mode.108.162.216.118 13:15, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

Tiles are located here in a zip: https://up1.ca/#Gi51KPFyPRELe0T1D6q9Mw All I did was iterate over http://xkcd.com/1608/X:-Y+s.png from X=[916...1116] and Y=[916...1116]. I'm working on putting a zoomable map together. If anyone has interest in helping we could hop on IRC? Jcox (talk) 00:15, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

This was great. But the zip file misses all images in column 1019-1021 as well as the 6 lowest images of 1022 (X coordinates 1019-1022, all Y coordinatesin the first three and then 6 lowest Y coordinates in the last). It was managable to download the last with my click skills. So thanks anyway. --Kynde (talk) 20:15, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

I've written a zsh script to iterate over all possible tiles (does anyone know the height limits? the source only gives the left and right limits) and glue them together into one giant file. I'll upload the results as soon as it's finished. Arch-TK (talk) 00:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't think it's limited vertically at all. I found a zoomable map on the reddit topic http://codepen.io/KyleDavidE/full/605dc87b614ff6b2bd716f4c6f640203/ (by kyledavide) Miraries (talk) 00:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)Mirages

Here's a zoomed out map of all the game area: https://i.imgur.com/rNU9ZgN.png. From luke_in_the_sky at Reddit [1]. --188.114.111.129 00:35, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Alright, the full png of the entire map is almost finished, I should have used white tiles as blank tiles but I guess I can fix that up in gimp, and I'm not sure how to account for the 1 pixel overlap with just imagemagick convert. The last step is to merge allthe layer images into one giant image, wish my laptop the best of luck! Arch-TK (talk) 01:00, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Someone beat you to it, but keep on it: that one doesn't have right limit tiles. https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/3u4sy1/xkcd_1608_hoverboard/cxc0p8x --188.114.111.129 01:19, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps we can change the screenshot at the top to this? It's a quickly hacked overview of the entire map: http://imgur.com/Mz9arHz 199.27.129.167 01:27, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I think it might make more sense to just add it as another image, mediawiki supports this after all. The syntax should be: [[File:filename.png|thumb|Subtitle|alt=alt]] Arch-TK (talk) 01:34, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

[2] This one loads all of the images quickly (From the xkcd site), and uses browser zooming. 173.245.54.47 01:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

The impassible backgrounds are RGB(0,0,0), and the passable ones are RGB(1,1,1). #explore > :first-child {filter:brightness(30);-webkit-filter:brightness(30);-moz-filter:brightness(30);-o-filter:brightness(30);-ms-filter:brightness(30);} ... See https://twitter.com/BadPhysics/status/669354631869304832 108.162.249.155 03:40, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Here are all the secret passages marked I could find: http://imgur.com/a/fKE1Q --162.158.91.220 00:50, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I wrote a tampermonkey script that shows you your coordinates and lets you teleport; will make coordinate sharing a lot easier. You do need tampermonkey installed for this to work. Click to install Minerguy31 (talk) 04:17, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I got 159 coins without the map. If you guys are still wondering how to escape the volcano, move to the right for as long as you think you can, then start spamming the up key while switching between holding the left and right keys. It worked for me on my first try.162.158.252.119 07:06, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

164 coins with the map. Guessing I might've missed the cotton ball pit bottom, some others in the star destroyer, and maybe one under the volcano. 162.158.63.196 21:03, 24 January 2021 (UTC)

Didn't take down the coordinates, but the layout to the first level of the original Prince of Persia is in there, including the guard standing by with his scimitar! I found it in the ship atop the pyramid east of the play area. --108.162.218.245 06:24, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Just thought this was interesting, when you "complete" the game by dropping coins, the following line of javascript is run, which sends your result to the server (L is number of coins, z is seconds used): (new Image).src = "//xkcd.com/events.gif?coins=" + L + "&seconds=" + z; Don't be tricked by the .gif extension, it doesn't show an image when opened, and the server probably handles this request by logging it to somewhere. 141.101.80.87 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

It actually returns a 1 by 1 pixel white GIF. Arch-TK (talk) 13:14, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Is there a way that we can merge the "game" part of this comic with the map of 1110: Click and Drag? Allowing us to explore that one in a similar way? Bon (talk) 11:03, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Well I managed to find (nearly) everything, except the floating rock island, and 162 coins without the map, but even with looking at several maps, I didn't pass any graveyard nor found the way to the grey ocean, which I assume is underneath the "continent". Does anyone know where the entrance is? 162.158.90.218 11:54, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Search for any missing things in the complete 1608: Hoverboard/Transcript, and you shall find what you seek. --Kynde (talk) 17:40, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Just thought I should say; the comic supports some alternative movement controls, there's the arrow keys, WASD, and also the vi keys (hjkl), and the numpad (8426). 108.162.242.125 13:29, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I was not able to get to some points because they were surrounded by text, people or other objects. Is that normal, or are there tricks to get to every coin without using cheats (console)? It would be nice if this could be mention / explained in the article. 162.158.135.35 13:31, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

In some cases you can come in from the side as opposed to trying to come down through or up through something. Example: at the X-Wing "gas station", to get that coin, land on the ground to the left of the X-Wing and move to the right on the ground towards the gas station. Jarod997 (talk) 14:45, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

No text is solid! You can use the full 1608: Hoverboard/Transcript to find out how to get to every coin and place (or the great map linked at the top). --Kynde (talk) 17:40, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

The list of "areas" in the map would be much easier to read, and much easier to correlate with the map, if the origin were set to the starting area (that is, if the coordinates of the starting area were set to x:0, y:0). What is the reason for the very large numbers? --BlueMoonlet (talk) 15:50, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

The large numbers are the actual ones used by the game code and displayed by the hacked-up "radar" so it was a natural choice to use them as they are. We could define some origin and count coordinates from it but we would have to agree on its position and then change the "radar" code and recalculate all coordinates written down already. -- 162.158.90.224 08:53, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Coordinates is not very helpful to most people. It should more be in relation to the objects you pass. Either you just look at one of the maps (and then past the pyramid or in the volcano makes sense) or else you actually try the real experience, and again after the ocean comes a pyramid makes more sense than coordinates. Have moved this section to a trivia section. The table should be build differently. That is still work to be done. All things are at the moment mentioned in the complete 1608: Hoverboard/Transcript. --Kynde (talk) 17:40, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

The starting area is in no way related to pac-man. The lines are not all right angles, there is a timer, there's gravity, there are no aggressors, you're collecting coins instead of pellets.... Not every line maze is pac-man. This is an erroneous reference that should be removed. --198.41.235.167 17:16, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

The source code found at https://xkcd.com/1608/tigl.js does not seem to be complete. I would personally work on de-obfuscating the full source code using the fragment found there but technically the source is covered by implicit copyright laws and that means that if I published a derived work I would be breaking those laws. Should I just change the line from "The source code can be found at ..." to "The full (obfuscated) source code can be found at ...tigl.min.js and a deobfuscated piece of the source code can be found at ...tigl.js". Arch-TK (talk) 18:28, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

I added quick coordinate / teleport access on right-click to the quick hack map. Kyledavide (talk) 20:45, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Can't be bothered working out how to edit the page, but the explanation contains the phrase "People holding anchor lines to a Star Destroyer" - they're holding anchor lines to a CR90 Corvette, specifically the Tantive IV, commonly referred to as the "Rebel Blockade Runner", which in turn is being *attacked by* a Star Destroyer. I'll get my coat. 162.158.153.47 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

That's no 'Children's Swimming Pool', it's a ball pit! 162.158.2.222 23:46, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

If it is, it's filled with water as well. There are waves on the surface and fish live in it. -- 162.158.90.224 09:00, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

I slightly improved the "direction to next coin"-code by displaying a compas. Code can be found here http://pastebin.com/PL6fv5XK . I'm new to this wiki and don't want to mess up the page, so I didn't put the code in there myself ... --162.158.90.209 00:01, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Haven't read all the comments above so maybe someone has written about it? If you click up it seems to count how many times. So it will just show white and then when you release again, it will take longer to hit the ground the longer you have pushed up. Tried with 100 clicks (9-10 seconds) and 200 clicks (20 seconds). I got about 163 coins in about 15886 seconds. (4 hours and 24 minutes.) That was with breaks. It was written so shortly on the screen I did not manage to take it down for certain. But after that I read here about the 169 and found that there where at least three in the volcano I had not noticed at first. And it seems likely that there would be three more I have missed. But really fun to explore. I wrote a lot of the transcript along the way (not from the very start though) This I have now posted without any real order in the 1608: Hoverboard/Transcript page. Hope fully a full and useful transcript can emerge from this. I hope my text can be used if not used as it is written at the moment.--Kynde (talk) 02:05, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Now a complete transcript... Took me about three weeks to get enough time to do that--Kynde (talk) 17:42, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

I thought Atreyu's horse was Artax, not Artex. 198.41.238.32 05:27, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

The beret guy riding a torpedo (/explosive device of some sort) looks like a Dr. Strangeloe tribute to me. 162.158.255.39 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Just added in the 'collision detection' section the text "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." To expand upon this, if this is a risk to anyone else (I'm reliant on mobile internet, being away from any comparable landline capability) then you need to look out for perfectly horizontal/vertical edges. For example, hovering up the side of the Washington monument and encountering (typically above the 'bricks' line) a completely flat top. Drifting onto that soon gets you embedded in the remaining Monument, somewhere well below the eventual tip. Alternately, drifting sideways over the landscape and discovering a perfectly vertical cliff downwards (just past the bowling pins is a prime location) tempts you to drift down it and then suddenly the solid land 'happens' around you, forcing a page-refresh and restart (though doubtless there's also various console tricks that could be used). The well, also 'opens out', but it's a lie. I've ended up trapped 'in white' below the now closed black blocks that surround the well bottom (and not found any way back up). But if there a 'texture' (like other cliffs) or 'slope' (like the real Monument edge) to the surface, you're probably Ok. It's a genuine surface or wall that you can generally navigate around without fear of being misled. (Or so is my experience.) 162.158.152.227 09:12, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Doesn't show anything but a blank page on the first generation iPad. 162.158.184.11 10:41, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

I agree with Arch-TK. I have changed the text referring to the source code, since it does not refer to the full sourde code, but just an obfuscated part.--Gamevang (talk) 14:36, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

I can't pass through text, anybody else experiencing this? I remember being able to pass through text without no clip mode earlier, but for some reason not anymore.--173.245.54.36 18:16, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

I found that I can't pass through ANYTHING non-white when using current version of Chrome on an iPad iOS 9.1. Makes the "game" much harder to play. 173.245.63.144 04:23, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

---

We definitely need a better presentation of interesting objects/locations and their coordinates. Now, we have quite comprehensive multi-level bullet list and a newly-started table. Neither is perfect. We need some form that will show clearly what is where and where it belongs.

Issues to solve:

• Many objects are large and a single coordinates pair simply don't describe them well. We need a clear presentation form that will allow putting both a single pair and several ones, e.g. top and bottom for thin vertical objects (e.g. poles, The Monument), four corners for objects occupying large swaths etc.
• Grouping - we need to group objects that belong to an area, like all things within the Star Destroyer etc. Multilevel bullets are ok, but how to do that in a table?
• Order - within groups and between them, we need some ordering that will organize the entries. For example left-to-right then top-to-bottom or something like that.
• Coordinates system - the "native" game coordinates are large numbers, and negative values for the y coordinate to boot. Someone proposed setting a new origin and counting from there. I think it's a good idea, but will require a firm decision, rewrite of radar code and recalculating of all coordinates written down so far.

Any ideas? -- 162.158.90.224 09:24, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

If it weren't for so much effort put in already, I think that we could re-class features as follows:

• All coin locations, and/or links to the locations they are associated with (e.g. "in original game area" and "carried by a quadcopter drone"), if that's not considered 'unfair' to those wanting to actually play the game (without the self-discipline not to browse the list ;).
• Locations of all characters, certainly all stick-figures, but maybe also 'wildlife' (or automata) of notable types.
• All monologues/dialogues/labels (albeit that this is almost entirely a subset of the prior list).
• Other notable landscape (or structural) features that are more than mere 'flavour' (e.g. the T-shaped mushrooms/whatevers to the east, but not random ground-boulders).
• Notable move-through spots; inclusive of 'sink-into'able waters/magmas (waist-height, neck-height, fully-submerged?), even when not featuring further hidden routes, but excluding vegetation (ground-grasses/tree-trunks) that mostly are pass-throughable.

Some of these are themselves useful references to other items (e.g. "inside front of Blockade Runner" or "beneath eastern stretch of magma") and so can probably be sub-grouped as all items in a given structure ("coins within the initial play area", "characters/speech within the Star Destroyer") and some things do occupy a swathe (the 'play area', the Monument, the ships, the kites, with their strings; the hail of (regular) torpedoes). And I bet there's a whole lot of arguments about what level of detail we could go to... 162.158.152.227 10:21, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

When you deposit 42 coins, the response, "No answers here" is a reference to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."Hax (talk) 162.158.252.149 03:33, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

The full and complete 1608: Hoverboard/Transcript that I have made uses some of the ideas, and groups the stage into sections. Not saying these should be used as is. But all in the image has been described and text transcribed in there. So it would be easy to cut and paste something from them. I have used jump height and fall time as well as time elapsed when moving and the height of the hoverboard Cueball to measure distances/dimensions. I would suggest making pictures from the maps of larger rooms or items. And then zoom in on interesting features. --Kynde (talk) 17:50, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Where can I get the uncompressed (original) source code? The reason I am asking is, /tigl.js is incomplete (no Easter Eggs, etc.), and /tigl.min.js seems complete, but is unreadable due to "minification" (compression).

162.158.252.149 03:33, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

It's a great comic, but does anyone know what it has to do the with his new book? 198.41.235.161 03:50, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

I've created desktop C++/SDL2 based version of 1608, maybe someone will find it useful: https://github.com/AMDmi3/hoverboard-sdl 162.158.90.212 17:57, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the coordinates are, so I'm reluctant to add it to the page proper, but I'm pretty sure Beret Guy riding the bomb near the Tantive IV is a nod to Dr. Strangelove 108.162.218.185 19:17, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

When I try to play the game on my machine (IE10, Win7), I have whole sections that are just straight lined black boxes, almost like a puzzle with pieces missing. The easiest one to find is by going to the left, the quadcopters are hovering over nothing. Is this a java issue, an IE issue, a Windows issue, or just a "shut up and reboot" issue?108.162.216.44 19:19, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

You use IE? Suicide! The Department of Homeland Security considers IE as a threat. 173.245.54.36 22:39, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

Also: If you are using IE, no matter what the problem is, it will always be an IE issue.

• Stove fire? -- IE issue
• Alien obduction? -- IE issue

162.158.90.187 12:47, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Might be useful for exploration of the map: I have made a page that embeds hoverboard with a panel allowing you do perform various cheats and tricks. :) http://php.9kv.cu.cc/hoverboard/ 108.162.216.37 21:42, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Me Again: Here's a stitched-together image of the map (taken from reddit) with the areas that you can walk through that are normally black highlighted in red: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pnstn4oam15lvgf/hoverboard-collision-map.png?raw=1 108.162.216.37 22:34, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

The full transcript of the entire comic is now complete 1608: Hoverboard/Transcript.--Kynde (talk) 20:03, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

And I just tried it out to finally get all 169 coins and explorer the entire drawing the true way without cheating, in just 1½ hours: 1608:_Hoverboard/Screen-shots#All_169_coins.

And then later I took the shortest route between coins and finished in less than 25 minutes (see same link as above). Seems like I'm the only one still working to complete this comic... --Kynde (talk) 19:39, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Here is a page with a fully sort-able table of all the links to images: All image links. It includes notes on which images there are people, text, animals, objects of some interest and coins. And it is designed so connecting images can be found by sorting on either locations, general content or the first word in the description. Only 3440 images described. Although more than 1600 of them are completely black and 40 more almost completely black as well as the 800 white. But still there was close to 1000 images left... Enjoy the easy way to find interesting stuff in the images --Kynde (talk) 23:46, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

I got 26 coins and it said "undefined" 108.162.220.227 00:29, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

You are probably using explorer, see the explanation for this above: Messages in Play Area. There even is some examples like this. --Kynde (talk) 14:08, 26 March 2016 (UTC)

Good LORD, why is this still "incomplete"? If you look at the red comments in the table, they are inane and unnecessary. Half of the "Missing Explanation" entries do not even *need* an explanation as the title says exactly what it is. Can we finally close this incomplete explanation?173.245.54.55 14:13, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

  Hi, but what you are saying is that some of the red text is self explanatory. However, some still needs background information. Also, like most comics, things can be read different ways so there can be alternate explanations. If you feel like you need to say something different from the explanation, just edit. There isn't anything that can't be undone with a simple undo here. Dontknow (talk) 04:15, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Under "Coins", the example says that it's a lamp and a broken lamp. Isn't it a beehive and then the remains of a 'stolen' beehive? Bees buzz. 108.162.221.84 13:49, 29 July 2016 (UTC)

When going through tight passages as Gandalf, rapidly changing direction can cause the game to teleport the character to the room of the Star Destroyer containing two characters swinging through the air. This has happened for me in the well, as well as the passage from Elon Musk's lair to the room containing the universal grounding rod.108.162.216.118 13:15, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

It works on iPad now!

Just noticed that it now runs on my iPad, though it lags often and the controls are awful—even if I'm tilting in the same direction, Cueball moves randomly, and sometimes he just flies in one direction, and there's no way to get him to go up or turn around. Then he gets stuck on something and you have to refresh the page... Which is quite annoying when you're looking for a certain image to explain and you have to start over from the play area. Still, it's better than nothing. Herobrine (talk) 03:32, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Actually, no, the title text isn't only visible on unofficial mobile viewers. You can see it at m.xkcd.com, which is very much official. 162.158.126.34 03:29, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Here follows an extensive Latin discussion:

The commentator attempts to explain the motto, "Cur ego committitur dictar latinae."

There is repeated suggestion of 'now' or 'just now' somehow arising from the text. And the commentator makes a beginner's error by suggesting that iustus/justus could be used to mean just as in, just now. English has multiple uses of just - as an adverb speaking about time or exclusivity, and as an adjective talking about right and appropriate. For instance:

Adverb time: "Well that just happened." synonyms: currently, now Adverb exclusive: "Just do it." synonyms: only, merely Adjective: "That was a just choice." synonyms: righteous, appropriate

Iustus (also spelled justus) is a translation of the adjectival form of English just/righteous. So the exmaple the commentator gives: 'Cur ego iustus committitur loquitur.' Would mean: 'Why is the righteous I made to speak.' or, if the adjective is being used as a noun: 'Why am I the righteous/just is made to speak.'

Also, committitur and loquitur in the example are both third person singular, so neither could properly connect to 'ego' (English 'I'). To make sense in the expected way, we would need to put loquo- into the first person singular form at least.

So if the commentator wants to insert the idea of 'just now' or 'currently,' I suggest they use an adverb: 1 recens, 2 jam/iam, 3 nunc, 4 iamiamque/jamjamque 1 recently, 2 now (inprecise), 3 now (this time), 4 now (at once, already, hurry it up man).

On the proper translation: Dictus is a noun meaning word or speech, from the verb 'dico.' If you wanted to specifically imply that you were using audible words (rather than writing), you'd use the 'loquo-' base instead of 'dic-.' So dictus and dico (from dic-) mean 'words' and 'I say.' Dicto is a rarer verb meaning I recite, I dictate, I repeat, or something similar. See: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dicto#Latin The principal forms are dico, dictare, dictavi, dictatum. So we talking about a third declension verb, and the base is dicta-. Dictar would be the first person present passive imperfect. Typically that form would mean something like: 'I am being recited.' But since a person (as a physical object) can't be spoken or recited, the meaning is probably: 'I am being caused/made/forced to recite.' The exact nature of 'caused/made/forced' is described by the word, 'committitur.' The committ- base means commit, begin, or make happen. Committitur is the 3rd person (he/she/it) present passive indicative from: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/committitur Meaning: he/she/it is made/forced to. (Has become committed.) So: 'Cur ego committitur dictar latinae' means: 'Why am I being made/forced to recite/dictate in Latin.'

Also, it should be noted that while the Greeks invented many of the types of punctuation we use today, Romans usually only used periods. (And often Romans would use no punctuation at all. Sometimes they even left out the spaces between words.) Point being, the question mark; like the comma, colon, and semicolon; wasn't commonly used until after the introduction of the printing press. So the quote probably shouldn't end with one.

My Latin is rather rusty, so if you have any better suggestions, please send me an email: [email protected]

The Hoverboard comic

1608 Main theme is the Never Ending Story's 'Nothing'

In "The Never Ending Story" the main theme is the whole world is consumed by "The Nothing" which in this comic is the black part. The movie also includes [this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE8mFDabqD0) where the horse is artax(this is already told in the explanation).

So my suggesion is to add the "the nothing" theme at the start of the description.

The paste.click link for the full image is broken, but I do not have a copy of that image. Could someone with the image upload it to Imgur and switch the link? Thank you!

MetroidXK

It seems the original site is down. I wonder if anyone still has a copy of it.162.158.167.6 04:02, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

The volcano lair may be a reference to the podcast Bionic by Relay FM. I don't want to make the edit myself because the idea of Elon Musk (or other CEOs) having a volcano lair isn't super unique, and I'd want confirmation from someone else that this is a good enough connection for a reference. 172.69.48.154 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I'd say it is such a common trope, that it is not a specific reference. Also since this comic is from November 2015, and podcasts have seen their rise in the last few years only, (also they may have existed before 2015) such a reference would definitely need to be sanity checked if it was available before release of the comic. If so it could be given as an example to the trope.--Lupo (talk) 08:11, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

So... I encountered an issue with the comic. Scrolling up I see that others appear to have found this before, where sometimes parts won't load, but I've never seen it this drastically... I left the destroyer, continued jumping until I reached the right side (when Cueball went all the way to the right), and fell, hoping to get down to the stork nest. I fell a minute or more before realizing something was wrong, after continuing to jump up for a long period of time I realized I'd been trapped underneath the ground (which was a smooth surface above Cueball's head). Turning on mewtwo, gandalf and noclip modes allowed me to get back up to the top, but I wanted to see how far down the tiles stop loading- I found it's three seconds in gandalf mode to get from the part under the ground to the bottom part of the volcano lair. Just thought you guys should know -- Anonymous Waste of Time, 2/8/21

Washington Monument

The text for the Washington Monument indicates that the crack might refer to damage from the 2011 earthquake. Is it possible that it instead refers to the fact that the Monument has a clear color change about a quarter of the way up, due to a halt in construction and a change in the source of the marble?

Has anyone else documented that Command + alt + k makes you go up? You keep going until you hit the downward key (which pauses ascent) or you hit the upwards key.

With this edit the explanation was added to the category Category:Pages using invalid self-closed HTML tags. I don’t know how to fix it. —While False (museum | talk | contributions | logs | rights | printable version | page information | what links there | related changes | Google search | current time: 19:17) 16:22, 14 November 2022 (UTC)

Giant octopus "not real" arm

May it be a reference to the 2002 book "L'Oeil de la Pieuvre" ("The Octopus' Eye") by French author Serge Brussolo ? There is a giant octopus in the book, whose arms would fit the definition perfectly. It is a good read, if you are into rather dark science-fiction/fantasy novel series targeting young adults demographics, and therefore I wish not to spoil it. Although there might not be English translations available, if you would like to know the details I can provide in English or in French. There are other obvious and known sources justifying the "not real" arm's appareance in the comic, but in the off chance Randall Munroe read this book, or used the same inspiration as the book's author, I guess that asking ourselves about the possibility does no harm!