Stop what you’re doing and make URLs shoot lasers and flip tables

23 Feb 2015

One web developer has made arguably one of the best uses of ASCII web links the internet has ever seen, allowing you to play games and flip tables, but your internet search history might hate you.

The animations were created by developer Glen Chiacchier who, through his website glench.com, allows you to visit each link that changes the URL to create mesmerising links that show gif-like images of characters flipping tables, a shark swimming in the ocean, a plane flying through the sky or watch as two hashtags play a game of Pong.

As highlighted by The Verge, Chiacchier’s design even allows the person visiting the page to play a side-scrolling game to shoot down on-coming quotation marks and apostrophes in what is a surprisingly addictive game.

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Of course, don’t expect to be able to chart your high score but as he warns on the rather simple web page, it’s best to play around with his creation in Firefox or Chrome but be warned, prolonged use could leave your browser in a rather unwanted state.

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Just a minute’s use can fill your search history with each individual frame, which will not only make it a little overwhelming to search through but could even lead to your browser eventually crashing.

This can be avoided, though, by going into incognito mode on your browser so you can rest easy and not break your computer.

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All gifs via Prosthetic Knowledge

Coding image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com