Flip the Switch for 5.5 Seconds | Hacker News Reader

Flip the Switch for 5.5 Seconds

55thegame.com

38 pointsiambateman57 comments

For those wondering:

  setDisplayMessage() {
  switch(true) {
  case(this.difference <=1000):
    return 'Looks like you basically have no idea how long 5.5 seconds is.';
  case(this.difference <=2000):
    return 'I mean, you can do better. :D';
  case(this.difference <=3000):
   return 'You are getting the hang of it. Sort of.';
  case(this.difference <=4000):
   return 'As they say, it could have been worse.';
  case(this.difference <=5000):
   return 'Super close!';
  case(this.difference <=5250):
   return 'DOH! You almost had it.';
  case(this.difference <=5375):
   return 'Great score!!!';
  case(this.difference <=5499):
   return 'NICE!!!';
  case(this.difference <=5500):
   return 'YOU DID IT YOU DID IT YOU DID IT YOU DID IT I CAN\'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!';
  default:
   return 'Aaand just like that, you went over.';
  }

That’s an… interesting usage of a switch block…

elif is for suckers, but a COND by any other name...

    setDisplayMessage() {
        if (this.difference <= 1000) return 'Looks like you basically have no idea how long 5.5 seconds is.';
        if (this.difference <= 2000) return 'I mean, you can do better. :D';
        if (this.difference <= 3000) return 'You are getting the hang of it. Sort of.';
        if (this.difference <= 4000) return 'As they say, it could have been worse.';
        if (this.difference <= 5000) return 'Super close!';
        if (this.difference <= 5250) return 'DOH! You almost had it.';
        if (this.difference <= 5375) return 'Great score!!!';
        if (this.difference <= 5499) return 'NICE!!!';
        if (this.difference <= 5500) return 'YOU DID IT YOU DID IT YOU DID IT YOU DID IT I CAN\'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!';
        return 'Aaand just like that, you went over.';
    }

elif is for suckers indeed

You got 5.577 seconds. Aaand just like that, you went over. come on, that's fairly close, much closer than the "super close" ones..

Reminds me of this reaction timer thing I made a while back with an arduino (it was mostly to try and 3D print 7 segment displays and learn how to drive them): http://dusted.dk/pages/reactionTimer/

It's the opposite idea, it counts down, then waits a random amount of time before turning on the led (indicating you should press the button). It was fun to see at the office, after a while, people got pretty good at it.. since they figured it would wait no longer than 10 seconds, they started getting perfect and near-perfect scores, not from actually reacting to the LED, but by being more and more "armed" for clicking as time went (because, the longer time passing, the more likely it will light up _now_).

What I found was a positive correlation between the elapsed time before LED-on and timing-precision.

That slow flip on animation drives me nuts! It should be skeuomorphic all the way and flip on instantly.

I thought this was deliberate as a heartbeat control

Does everyone else picture a watch or clock hand ticking in their head, counting 1 by 1? I got 5.45ish pretty consistently. Reading other scores here, it's pretty amazing we're as good at this as humans.

I use a vocal click like a metronome, three clicks to a second. Can do it with my mouth closed, of course. Got 5.3 seconds.

The bulb flickers at about 1/3 of a second in my browser.

That’s clever, never thought to use anything faster than a second for mental counting.

I pulled up a metronome web app in another tab and set it around 23 bpm. And it still took me about an hour to hit 5.5.

I count 1-one thousand 2-one thousand

As a child I was taught to count out 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand... I used a clock to set my cadence the same day that I received this instruction, and I've recalibrated a couple of times since. 5.25 first try. 5.44 second try.

I wonder if it's universal to feel time moves faster because your perception of a unit gets slower, and when it runs slower than observable time you wonder where time went.

In school we did this at relaxation in gym class, lay down and count to 60 and sit up, and I did it at 59.

Now when trying to play this game I noticed that 5 seconds in my head is consistently 5.8s (+/- 20ms). I just need to flip the switch at what I think is 4.74s.

Project creator here…thanks to everyone for playing! The comments were fun to read.

This project was built yesterday out of frustration…I’ve been working on big projects [1] with long deadlines, and it feels so hard to make something people like and want to use.

55thegame was intended to just be a fun distraction and nothing else.

It was really encouraging to see people enjoying the game, so thank you. :)

[1] For what it’s worth the big project is moneyhabitshq.com.

Third try got 5.504.

First two times I was early and I realized even with foreknowledge I count off the first second way too fast (Chinese birthday syndrome)

There was a much more intersting version of this on the strangely awesome game show Solitary ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_%28TV_series%29?wprov... ) where they had people get in a "coffin like" box and try to come out after exactly one hour, closest one won.

I wonder if this is in any way a useful skill.

5.517 on third try. That is when you call it good enough.

Haha, 5.525 here, I'll take that and leave before I get too hooked

This is mysteriously compelling.

Heh, thanks.

But why 5.5? I think 2*pi would be a better target.

Next up…6.28 variation

Are you recording the results? Would be super cool to see a distribution of people's first attempts.

Ia the timing really accurate?

Tried with a metronome and it seems a bit off every time

(Firefox on Android, could be a security thing)

Update: maybe this? https://hackaday.com/2018/01/06/lowering-javascript-timer-re...

I get a "nice!" result wih 5.383, but with 5.545 I get a negative comment like "oops you just went over"

Seems to be using "The Price Is Right"[1] rules where going over disqualifies a win.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Price_Is_Right_(American_g...

That's some great game design. Of course in hindsight it's "doh, anyone could do this", but no one did. Simple rules, easily understandable goal, minimal interaction. Now, fast, mobile 0.99$ release and rake in those dollars.

> Now, fast, mobile 0.99$ release and rake in those dollars.

Obviously, a free, ad-laden mobile games with cooldown lock in-between the button press is the way to go. Skip the cooldown by buying some credits / coins / gems. Also, sell some button skins for more profits.

Evil, but unfortunately true.

I like that it makes you estimate half a second rather than a while integer.

One way I manage to consistently get a close score was to count numbers as quickly as I could and see how many I would need to count to get to 5.5s and got mighty close a few times.

I had more success with counting to 11 (in half seconds) 5.502 was my best there

5.499 that’ll do it for me :))

Got 5.555 on my second try. This is objectively a better score. I won the game.

OP here. True story…It was almost called 5555thegame but that felt too confusing.

I feel like you won, anyway. ;)

This gave me a perfect 5.5s

(() => { document.querySelectorAll('.switch')[0].click(); setTimeout(() => document.querySelectorAll('.switch')[0].click(), 5499); })()

First try:

> You got 5.523 seconds. Aaand just like that, you went over.

I think that is good enough.

Got it on my third try counting Mississippis: https://i.imgur.com/CzUQpX3.png

OP here…congrats! =D

Thanks for playing.

So I started flipping the switch on and off as fast as I could for 5.5 seconds and getting the error message over and over. ;-)

omg I am #1 in the world. Got 5.5 on a third try

I suspect in about 5.5 hours from now someone will post a one-liner js that automates this.

document.querySelector('div.button').click(); setTimeout(() => { document.querySelector('div.button').click(); }, 5500);

=> tweak the 5500 to your fitting

>You got 5.518 seconds. Aaand just like that, you went over.

on an another second try:

>You got 5.482 seconds. NICE!!!

Is there a way to bypass even trying and write a high score to their API?

You got 5.503 seconds. Aaand just like that, you went over. oh well

5⃣.4⃣4⃣7⃣

I got 5.447 seconds on my first try in 55thegame.com

And I’m going to quit while I’m ahead!

5.496 checking in

Hey 5.496 this is 5.504, hows it goin' down there?

5⃣.5⃣9⃣3⃣

I got 5.593 seconds on my first try in 55thegame.com

5.20x first try. This could get addictive!

5.198, meanwhile my first was 2.5 hahaha

Got. 5.501. And it went over like that.

I resent that 5.501 is a possibility.

5⃣.5⃣

I got 5.5 seconds on my sixth try in 55thegame.com

---------

Came here expecting to see more wins... I'm surprised! Oddly, I'm not seeing three digits of precision in my browser though, so maybe something isn't quite right over here.

Almost

5⃣.5⃣1⃣2⃣

I got 5.512 seconds on my twelfth try in 55thegame.com

5.559s on first try

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