Wordle was the game of 2022. It was easy to learn and—sometimes—almost impossible to solve. That viral phenomenon caused all kinds of alternatives to appear, and the original ended up being bought by The New York Times.
Its success went even beyond the mythical Flappy Bird, and now we have a new candidate to take over from these occasional games. His name: Chronophoto.
The mechanics of the online video game are simple: the game shows you a series of five photos that were taken between 1900 and 2022, and you have to guess the year in which they were taken. To do this you will simply have to move a bar that allows you to choose that year, after which you can send (submit) your answer.
The game awards points for how close you are to the exact year the photo was taken. The closer you get to that year, the more points you get for each photo. If you guess the exact year, you get 1,000 points, for example.
If you fail for too many years, you get zero points. After finishing with the photos, the application shows you a summary with the points obtained for each photo and your final score.
The game does not require prior registration: once you connect to the page you can start playing without further ado. It is completely free and (at the moment) there are no ads shown in the game, something really surprising in these times and much appreciated.
The photos shown can show more or less recognizable historical moments, but also totally everyday situations. In the latter, the clues can come from fashion, the cars or the objects that appear in each image, while the historical scenes allow the shot to be brought closer.
At the moment it is not known who created this simple and unique game: on the official website there is no information about it and only a support email address appears to contact that person.
Several people must have written complaining that the photos had been taken in another year from the one shown, because the author’s only request is precisely that those who detect any impression write him a message.
The game is really addictive, and its simple operation – the games easily last a minute – makes you want to try again to try to beat your record. The variety of images, tones and situations are so curious that this becomes a fun way to explore our recent past.