Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#31

Post by traceroute66 » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:18 PM UTC

adamlynch wrote: post #25

traceroute66 wrote: post #20

Fun, but you know what would be really cool ? A Blue Book mode. For those unfamiliar Blue Book refers to test "runs" done by London taxi drivers when they do The Knowledge[1]. It would be fun to be given, say "Australian High Commission, WC2 to Paddington Station, W2" and have to place multiple pins on the map and then graded on your result. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my4lDxOCCyg

So is the goal is to mark the route you would take? Sounds interesting. Semi-related, it could show you two pins and ask you how long it would take to drive between them at a given time of day. It would compare your guess to Google Maps or similar.

> So is the goal is to mark the route you would take? Sounds interesting.

Basically yes, the Blue Book works on turns so you would mark the turns.

So for the example I gave above (Australian High Commission - Paddington) you might mark the turns:

      ALDWYCH
      CATHERINE ST
      RUSSELL STREET
      DRURY LANE
      HIGH HOLBORN
      PRINCES CIRCUS
      ST GILES HIGH STREET
      EARNSHAW STREET
      NEW OXFORD STREET
      OXFORD STREET
      GT PORTLAND STREET
      MARGARET STREET
      CAVENDISH SQUARE
      HENRIETTA PLACE
      MARYLEBONE LANE
      WIGMORE STREET
      DUKE STREET
      MANCHESTER SQUARE
      MANCHESTER STREET
      GEORGE STREET
      EDGWARE ROAD
      HARROW ROAD 
      HARROW ROAD ROUNDABOUT
      BISHOP'S BRIDGE

> between them at a given time of day

Yes, I guess it could give you extra points for choosing less busy routes during rush hour.

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#32

Post by adamlynch » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:18 PM UTC

worstestes wrote: post #29

Hey Adam! This is awesome! Have you ever considered using something like MapLibre as an open source alternative to MapBox?

I wasn't aware of it, thanks. I didn't use Mapbox originally but I had to switch after the OSM no-streets tiles were discontinued. I'll look into it!

https://github.com/adam-lynch/back-of-your-hand/issues/15

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#33

Post by adamlynch » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:21 PM UTC

traceroute66 wrote: post #31

adamlynch wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is the goal is to mark the route you would take? Sounds interesting. Semi-related, it could show you two pins and ask you how long it would take to drive between them at a given time of day. It would compare your guess to Google Maps or similar.

> So is the goal is to mark the route you would take? Sounds interesting. Basically yes, the Blue Book works on turns so you would mark the turns. So for the example I gave above (Australian High Commission - Paddington) you might mark the turns: ALDWYCH CATHERINE ST RUSSELL STREET DRURY LANE HIGH HOLBORN PRINCES CIRCUS ST GILES HIGH STREET EARNSHAW STREET NEW OXFORD STREET OXFORD STREET GT PORTLAND STREET MARGARET S…

Thanks for explaining!

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#34

Post by robbedpeter » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:26 PM UTC

adamlynch wrote: post #8

lwkl wrote: post #6

This is crazy hard it covers my whole city and parts of the metropolitan area. I guess you will have to play this a lot to get any good at it if you are living in a medium sized city in central Europe. :) Edit: I think you should be able to make the radius a little bit smaller or add an option to choose from different radii.

Great feedback, thanks. I also considered factoring in street length for difficulty modes. My dad has gotten a perfect score a couple of times. Cork isn't huge but that's still very difficult. He's a human map

Also, your dad is 99% of the way to having an enormous "memory palace" if he's got all of Cork memorized. All he needs to do is imagine a walk between any two points in Cork, then imagine the things he wants to remember at different places along that journey, such as at every intersection. To recall, simply imagine repeating the journey, and the remembered items will be at the intersections. Digits of pi or the order of a deck of cards are a good way to test it, and the cards bit is great for pub tricks and free beers.

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#35

Post by zamfi » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:28 PM UTC

adamlynch wrote: post #27

ape4 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Using Firefox on Windows laptop, FYI.

Thanks. It's a third-party server-side API I use so it would be just based on your ID address I think. You can go here to see where it thinks you are: https://cloudflare-pages-geolocation.pages.dev . However, this can change if you reload it minutes apart or if you turn on/off WiFi, etc. It's not 100% reliable

I was also started in Cork in-game, while this link showed me the right location.

I think your integration may have a bug?

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#36

Post by adamlynch » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:37 PM UTC

piceas wrote: post #3

Neat. Unfortunately appears to be limited to streets in your local area. I hoped/expected a list of interesting destinations in the area such as art installations, parks, or even popular restaurants etc.

Thanks for the feedback! Will look into it

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#37

Post by hirundo » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:38 PM UTC

What you get if you live in the boonies:

"There aren't enough streets in this area. Please select somewhere else"

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#38

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:40 PM UTC

patrickwalton wrote: post #4

I can't seem to get it to my area. It's in Ireland and I can't find an option to make it go anywhere else.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#39

Post by pivo » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:41 PM UTC

I failed completely because in my selection (US: Boston/Cambridge) there are multiple streets with the same name like Broadway and First Street, and I always picked the wrong one.

Re: Show HN: A game that tests how well you know your local area

#40

Post by adamlynch » Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 3:44 PM UTC

zamfi wrote: post #35

adamlynch wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. It's a third-party server-side API I use so it would be just based on your ID address I think. You can go here to see where it thinks you are: https://cloudflare-pages-geolocation.pages.dev . However, this can change if you reload it minutes apart or if you turn on/off WiFi, etc. It's not 100% reliable

I was also started in Cork in-game, while this link showed me the right location. I think your integration may have a bug?

Maybe. It uses the geolocation information Cloudflare provides. In general, it isn't extremely accurate and it doesn't always return the same location, so this doesn't surprise me too much.

If it consistently works in one and not the other (at the same point in time), then the only difference I can think of is that Back Of Your Hand uses their "edge handlers" / "functions" and I made that other URL with their "workers". Hmm.

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Maybe I could inform the user somehow when it cannot find a location at all. I really want to avoid a browser popup asking for the user's location though