Video of snake crawling across a wall sends the internet on a nostalgia trip about a classic game
Long before games such as Candy Crush or Pokemon Go went viral on smartphones, Snake used to be the most addictive way to spend time on feature phones. This is why many of those who grew up in the 2000s got a taste of nostalgia when the US National Park Service's official X handle @NatlParkService shared the video of a Sonoran Mountain kingsnake showing off its climbing skills on the side of the visitor center at Coronado National Memorial in Arizona.
The wall has gaps between the red bricks that the snake used with expertise resembling the beloved mobile game that originated in the late 90s'. Netizens flooded the comment section with nostalgic remarks on the snake. One user @ashtheattorney wrote: "The generational divide is between the people who get this joke and those who don’t," while @pinkprincessin1 remarked, "I am watching my love for national parks, architecture, and gaming all come together, in one. All thanks to a nope rope."
The official X handle of the national park also provided further details about the snake in a follow-up post that read, "The Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake is a medium-sized snake with red, white, and black bands. It is non-venomous, but it’s a mimic of the Coral Snake which hells keep potential predators at bay." The Nevada Department of Wildlife shared that the "habitats of this snake are primarily rocky, montane, and often near streams or springs. They prefer wet areas near surface water and vegetation."
If it runs into itself, game over. pic.twitter.com/RbG6NmMYNP
— National Park Service (@NatlParkService) April 29, 2024
Props to the poster of this account. You are hilarious and its always good for a smile.
— Kyle C (@BelleauKadesh81) April 29, 2024
As for the game, it had gained popularity as one of the few games in earlier models of mobile phones that gave people a reason to use their phones for something other than simply making calls and sending text messages. The games became an instant source of entertainment with a challenging element to keep users engaged.
Even though Snake found its overwhelming popularity after being launched with Nokia 6110 models, the game was first created as a concept in 1976 under the name of "Blockage" and was a monochromatic two-player arcade game developed by a game development firm called Gremlin Interactive, as per It's Nice That. According to the Daily Mail, the fan-favorite game was introduced to the Nokia phones in 1997 and for those who don't know, the game has a simple concept that allows the player to control a serpent that picks up pieces of food, all the while avoiding obstacles that included biting its own tail and hitting the edge of the screen.
According to the Microsoft Devices Blog, the game was adapted for Nokia devices by Taneli Armanto, a design engineer for the user interface software. By 1998, Nokia 7110 owners were able to play a local two-player version using their phones’ nifty infra-red connections. As mentioned in Medium, the current world record for the highest score in Snake is held by Danish player Morten Kjærgaard Pedersen, who scored 9,254 points. Pedersen achieved this feat using a Nokia 3310 mobile phone, a classic model that was popular in the early 2000s.