Click and Drag

September 19, 2012 2:27 AM

Click and Drag. And if you've worn out your mouse / trackpad, then here's some Spoilers.
posted by zoo (95 comments total)

That Spoilers link doesn't seem to work.
posted by knile at 2:44 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

It didn't work in Firefox but it works in Chrome. I'm not sure there's a point to it though. Unless this is the end of XKCD. If you follow at ground level all the way to the far right, you get a guy with a balloon saying "I wonder where I'll float next." Wasn't that in their first comic?
posted by IndigoRain at 2:47 AM on September 19, 2012 [5 favorites]

The spoilers link is a full sized version of the draggable image. Unzoom your page to the max, and use the webpage scrollbars. But it spoils the fun of the original.
posted by zoo at 2:48 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, realized I had totally different expectations for what/how the page would appear. I saw only whitespace. Carry on, carry on. Thanks for
posted by knile at 2:50 AM on September 19, 2012

indigorain : There's so much more than just ground level and to the right. Keep looking & following. Plus, I think it's just a beautiful work of art.
posted by zoo at 2:52 AM on September 19, 2012

Klik und drang
posted by Silky Slim at 3:03 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: There's so much more than just ground level and to the right. Keep looking & following. Plus, I think it's just a beautiful work of art.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 3:07 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's not a videogame, but it's not a movie, but it's not a painting, but it's not a...
posted by victory_laser at 3:13 AM on September 19, 2012 [4 favorites]

I got lost in the tunnels for what felt like forever before I returned by clicking back and lost my place. Damn! Back to it...haven't checked xkcd for a very long time, and this is maybe the most amazing thing he's done thus far.
posted by zinful at 3:13 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also, I'm quite pleased that it actually works on the iPad! How unusual.
posted by zinful at 3:13 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wow. Take away the ubiquitous ability to "zoom" and your perspective changes completely.

Sometimes being unable to see the whole picture is a good thing.
posted by Acey at 3:21 AM on September 19, 2012 [10 favorites]

zoo: "indigorain : There's so much more than just ground level and to the right. Keep looking & following. Plus, I think it's just a beautiful work of art."

Yes I know that. That wasn't my point.
posted by IndigoRain at 3:22 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

It reminds me of the things I used to draw in the margins of my maths books.
posted by Acey at 3:24 AM on September 19, 2012

Is there any reasonably easy way to capture the whole image so I can zoom in and out?
posted by pracowity at 3:26 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

The "spoiler" link makes it so much easier...I was getting hand cramps scrolling around this thing, and got lost at one point.

World 1.1 from Super Mario Brothers is definitely my favorite tidbit, but there's just so much in this picture. It's great.
posted by graymouser at 3:33 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm just glad someone else sees giant aerial jellyfish besides me.
posted by Kitteh at 3:51 AM on September 19, 2012 [8 favorites]

The spoilers link is a full sized version of the draggable image. Unzoom your page to the max, and use the webpage scrollbars. But it spoils the fun is less of an RSI hazard than the original.

FTFY.
posted by public at 4:10 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm just glad someone else sees giant aerial jellyfish besides me.

I saw a whale!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:22 AM on September 19, 2012

The walls worn smooth by billions of falling Mario characters

Heh.

Lot's o' clicking-and-dragging, fer sure.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:39 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Excellent. Thanks for the spoiler link. A couple of times this morning I'd got lost / fed up with scrolling on the XKCD website and had to reset. The spoiler link is much easier.

It's rather beautiful and good fun. I like the references:
- Mario (obviously)
- Hitchhiker's Guide
- Minecraft
- Star Wars
- Prince of Persia (possibly?)
- and loads more I'm sure.
posted by milkb0at at 5:06 AM on September 19, 2012

That Spoilers link sure makes Firefox whimper and scream in pain. I still haven't gotten it to fully load...at least not and leave FF responsive.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:26 AM on September 19, 2012 [4 favorites]

Scott Mcloud (who already must be pretty happy with Randal Munroe) will probably see this and smile so wide he swallows an ear.
posted by es_de_bah at 5:31 AM on September 19, 2012 [7 favorites]

Tho I'm not sure if he'd call it comics.
posted by es_de_bah at 5:32 AM on September 19, 2012

Did you catch the reference to Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta?
posted by ChipT at 5:40 AM on September 19, 2012 [5 favorites]

While I do appreciate the huge amount of work that goes into this, scrolling an ambiguously-sized image in a small window is not my idea of fun. So some digging showed that this is a series of images in the format:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/clickdrag/[n1][d1][n2][d2].png

Where n1=1 or 2, and d1 is n for north, s for south, n2 is 1 to 48, and d2 is e for east, w for west. Not all patterns yield a file.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 6:03 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

I can no longer see Black Hat without thinking "that's Walter White!"
posted by kimota at 6:10 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Loving this. Although I think part of the appeal is the exploring, if you want an easy zoomable view of the thing, Someone on the XKCD forum posted this

http://clickanddrag.azurewebsites.net/


makes it a lot easier to view everything
posted by lloyder at 6:10 AM on September 19, 2012 [25 favorites]

I like the reference made to 1995 film Hackers. The stick figures on the low sections of the right side of the roof of the skyscraper in the middle of the Azurewebsites frame that lloyder linked to.
posted by KevCed at 6:25 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Elizabeth Warren on a pirate ship. Heh.
posted by backseatpilot at 6:28 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Becky?" is the winner for me.
posted by tzikeh at 6:32 AM on September 19, 2012

ok I started dragging down the Mario Bros holes and I got filled with too much dread to continue.
When does it reach horrible unspeakable horror?
posted by Theta States at 6:40 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

I found the Great Blue Hills weather observatory!
posted by bondcliff at 6:45 AM on September 19, 2012

I am assuming he had a technique for getting some of this stuff done by just treshholding or livetracing some photographic resources, but part of me just imagines boring a hole right through the wacom tablet, down into the desk, and into the mantle of the earth drawing all that grass.
posted by SharkParty at 7:05 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can someone start explaining the references? What is the "Becky?" one from?

My favourite is the hidden airplane, and the pilot's request. :)
posted by Theta States at 7:13 AM on September 19, 2012

This is my favorite interface for it, which is something that's probably not been said much before today about a comic.
posted by knile at 7:14 AM on September 19, 2012 [26 favorites]

Or the deeply buried pasture with a lone tree and the guy petting a dog... That's what I want to imagine the deepest caverns behold.
posted by Theta States at 7:14 AM on September 19, 2012

Bless you, knile, that link was super helpful.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 7:20 AM on September 19, 2012

Oh XKCD, I love you.
posted by smirkette at 7:22 AM on September 19, 2012

Oh shit, RAPTORS.
posted by Theta States at 7:24 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Based on Knile's link, I found most of the good stuff using the original interface, but it's good to be able to find the stuff I missed.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:32 AM on September 19, 2012

These third party browsers are nice. I guess that means I can stop the scraper I just wrote, which is grabbing every tile, moving away from the origin.

(Out to a radius of 25 tiles so far, and the whole thing is under 5 meg.)
posted by CaseyB at 7:34 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

I loved this.
posted by drezdn at 7:35 AM on September 19, 2012

That's a negative, Apollo. There are no problems, only opportunities. Over.
posted by erniepan at 7:40 AM on September 19, 2012

We're up so high that if you threw a penny off the edge, inflation would reduce its value to $0.0099999975 by the time it landed.

Totally stealing that line. Nice job, Randall.
posted by dry white toast at 7:40 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Just confirmed: The "CD" in "XKCD" stands for the same thing the "CD" in "OCD" stands for.
posted by etc. at 7:40 AM on September 19, 2012 [4 favorites]

Via a Reddit comment, if you paste the following into a Javascript console, it goes full-screen and you can maneuver with arrow keys:

$('#comic').removeAttr('style'); $('.map').css('z-index',1).css('background','#fff');$('body').css('overflow','hidden');
// get the map element
var el = $('.map')[0];

// amount in pixels we want to move each keypress/hold
var move = 200;

$(window).keydown(function(e) {
    var key = e.which;
    if (key >= 37 && key <>

posted by General Malaise at 7:42 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ugh, it worked in preview. Oh well, just go to the link. It does work, though.
posted by General Malaise at 7:42 AM on September 19, 2012

Man...I got lost in the mines of moria.
posted by Hypnotic Chick at 7:47 AM on September 19, 2012

Randall Munroe should collaborate with Nifflas.
posted by en forme de poire at 7:48 AM on September 19, 2012 [6 favorites]

Yeah, I was coming in just to say "Is that Elizabeth Warren?!"
posted by maryr at 7:55 AM on September 19, 2012

"Jesus, why do your footprints change to tire tracks whenever I am threatened by decepticons?"
posted by Night_owl at 7:57 AM on September 19, 2012 [5 favorites]

This all works a lot better in Firefox than in IE.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:58 AM on September 19, 2012

ssssssss!
posted by talitha_kumi at 8:00 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm stunned, but I think the HHGTG reference is wrong. If it is a hitchhikers nod, it should be a whale and a bowl of petunias.

Lemonade?

Hoping this isn't his last one.
posted by Dr. Boom at 8:07 AM on September 19, 2012

Can somebody give me a hint on the Lemonade thing?
posted by Navelgazer at 8:16 AM on September 19, 2012

I think it's just a lemonade stand and the person is disappointed that none of the falling people are buying.

Now I'm wondering if the flying saucer thing near the underground pyramid is a specific reference or not.
posted by SharkParty at 8:25 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Are we getting jokes explained? Who's Becky?
posted by maryr at 8:26 AM on September 19, 2012

Stupid FreeBSD
posted by slkinsey at 8:30 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is my preferred interface, since you can click to zoom to individual sections.

Explain XKCD has a ways to go on the comic.
posted by zamboni at 8:32 AM on September 19, 2012 [3 favorites]

I found this google maps style interface to work nicely.
posted by msbutah at 8:37 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

"Becky" is from Tom Sawyer, I believe. There is a scene where Tom Sawyer and his sweetheart Becky get lost in a cave.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:42 AM on September 19, 2012 [3 favorites]

This is really best experienced with a full-screen version that lets you scroll with arrow keys but doesn't allow zooming out. Zooming out ruins the feeling of exploring.
posted by straight at 8:42 AM on September 19, 2012

My immediate reaction is that "Becky?" is Tom Sawyer looking for Becky Thatcher when they get lost in the cave.

But that's just my guess.
posted by Naberius at 8:42 AM on September 19, 2012

Damn it Empress!

It's like we're becoming arch-rivals or something!
posted by Naberius at 8:45 AM on September 19, 2012

I gave up a little after finding the guy running from the creeper. That there is a lot of tunnel. But I will probably be back.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 8:47 AM on September 19, 2012

Now I'm wondering if the flying saucer thing near the underground pyramid is a specific reference or not.

That's not a flying saucer. It's an early submarine.
posted by Dreadnought at 9:10 AM on September 19, 2012

What an amazing comic. When I play video games, I like to explore. This comic had me doing the same thing -- and the results were much more rewarding than some games I've played.
posted by Gelatin at 9:11 AM on September 19, 2012

It's like a rotoscope Myst.
posted by davebush at 9:23 AM on September 19, 2012

Thanks for this front-page post. I saw the comic this morning, and because I had NoScript running I only saw an empty window. I clicked and dragged and all that did was move the entire image (with empty window) all over the desktop.

I thought it was supposed to be a neat capture of whatever you had on the desktop, and some trans-existential message on how it symbolizes the appreciation of how far we've come in the advancements in technology.

Or something. Mainly I thought I was just too dumb to get the joke.
posted by CancerMan at 9:42 AM on September 19, 2012 [5 favorites]

The underground pyramid made me think of Lost, but I don't think that was the intended references.
posted by maryr at 9:44 AM on September 19, 2012

Mainly I thought I was just too dumb to get the joke.
At least you tried clicking and dragging. I just thought "That's a weird title. Must be another strip that I don't get," and moved on, until I saw this post.

And I don't know if it's because of a lifetime of playing video games, but exploring with the arrow keys makes this a million times better for me than the clicking and dragging. Thanks a bunch for posting that link, General Malaise.
posted by Katrel at 10:09 AM on September 19, 2012

This is amazing.

All future XKCD comics should take the form of little vignettes added to this world. The home page could be changed each week to start you off at wherever the most recent comic had been added, and you could explore the archives by wandering the world.
posted by oulipian at 10:17 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

tl;dc+dr
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 10:32 AM on September 19, 2012

I want to live there.
posted by Ickster at 10:32 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

The only thing I wish was there that I haven't found yet is Dig Dug.
posted by drezdn at 10:43 AM on September 19, 2012

The Google Maps-style interface that knile and msbutah linked to allows arrow key navigation. (Better for folks with tendonitis, don'cha know.)
posted by jiawen at 10:52 AM on September 19, 2012

For some reason I found this to be offensively boring and disappointing. There is basically nothing interesting here. It's just a lot of work.
posted by tehloki at 11:20 AM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Reminds me of the work of Chris Ware. In a good way.
posted by fungible at 11:27 AM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

This really reminded me of the short Flash game Small Worlds. Just exploring a place is one of my favourite ways to experience a story.
posted by lucidium at 11:48 AM on September 19, 2012

Can anyone tell what the object at the bottom of the first pit to the right is supposed to be? It doesn't look like a generic rock.
posted by tavella at 12:09 PM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Looks to me like a dropped lantern?
posted by nobody at 12:19 PM on September 19, 2012

I really enjoyed this, despite the not so great interface. My favorite part was the Oregon Trail bullet dillema.
posted by ashirys at 1:11 PM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

I enjoy these until they make me scroll 15 times down without finding anything. There are rewards, but it's like the reward of listening to the end of a shaggy dog story, because at least you get a resolution. If you want to impress, go all Kit Williams or something and make the pleasures intellectual no matter how much or little you scroll.
posted by dhartung at 1:18 PM on September 19, 2012

Kinda thought xkcd mostly devolved into cutesy/injokes a while ago, but will still follow links when I see 'em, and... this is... epic and beautiful? Not something you can say too often about a 3-panel web cartoon. Nice.
posted by hap_hazard at 2:08 PM on September 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

What is one of the jellyfish on the bottom left holding?
posted by drezdn at 2:41 PM on September 19, 2012

I spent about 20 minutes on it this morning before thinking, 'I bet metafilter will point me in the direction of some cheats for this.' Now I'm not sure I want to use any of them.

How long has he been working on this, just dying for it to be ready to let people see it. If there are parts that don't quite meet your personal standards for perfection, I really don't care. I don't have time for anyone who wants to try to be too cool for this.
posted by Soulfather at 3:04 PM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

What is one of the jellyfish on the bottom left holding?

It's playing a computer game.

No, seriously.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:28 PM on September 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Hmm, lantern makes sense, nobody. Thanks!
posted by tavella at 3:36 PM on September 19, 2012

I tend to read his strip with knowledge that his lady is battling cancer heavy as context. This seems like a love letter from a guy who's early work proved that he's pretty damn good at love letters.
posted by es_de_bah at 6:31 PM on September 19, 2012 [7 favorites]

This reddit thread is a very good place to visit after you've gone through the comic yourself (preferably the google maps style version, as posted above). Quite a few things I missed, there - these velociraptors made me so happy.
posted by Buckt at 10:16 PM on September 19, 2012

The woman by the satellite dish. Contact reference?
posted by koucha at 4:39 AM on September 20, 2012

This really reminded me of the short Flash game Small Worlds. Just exploring a place is one of my favourite ways to experience a story.

I just spent the past twenty minutes exploring that game. Never say a word, yet is still heartbreaking.
posted by talitha_kumi at 9:08 AM on September 20, 2012

Looks to me like a dropped lantern?

Or a lamp.
posted by zamboni at 11:46 AM on September 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ladies and gentlemen, the videogame version:

http://xkcd.kajakklubben.org/
posted by mysticreferee at 10:32 AM on October 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh my god, the playable version is magnificent.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:11 PM on October 2, 2012