The Average Shoveler

December 7, 2005 8:09 AM

The Average Shoveler Strange retro snow shoveling game style rss news stream [flash]
posted by srboisvert (18 comments total)

By the time this thing loads, scientists will be doing Carbon-14 dating on my shroud to see if I really existed or not.
posted by Gator at 8:18 AM on December 7, 2005

Boring.
posted by jsavimbi at 8:21 AM on December 7, 2005

*Yawn*
posted by redbeard at 8:26 AM on December 7, 2005

The music is cool. But it's not very fun or informative.
posted by goatfish at 8:27 AM on December 7, 2005

I'm more of a first-person shoveler. It's what I do well.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:28 AM on December 7, 2005

And their flash detection sucks. Not usable in linux.
posted by Kickstart70 at 8:29 AM on December 7, 2005

I do not understand the purpose of this game. Is there a goal?
posted by jacquilynne at 8:32 AM on December 7, 2005

Thumbs up! I like to immerse myself in strangely pointless virtual environments with random shoveled images and literal non sequitur news quotes. For two minutes, anyway. Of course, I am an Average Shoveler.
posted by kozad at 8:39 AM on December 7, 2005

jacquilynne - "Average Shoveller" is a variation of the old Netomat interface, which presented random content and images from different websites in a mosaic pattern. At least, that was prior to Netomat's current incarnation as a hipster portal. The digging action in the "game" obtains news "scoops", while conversations with animated characters are analous to chatworthy headlines.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:43 AM on December 7, 2005

Oh, yeah - the opening music appears to be from one of Gabriel Yared's film soundteacks. As to which piece is in question, or for any clues to the hip-hop tune which appears later, I'll defer the deerstalker cap to the other members of the MeFi Detective Squad.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:49 AM on December 7, 2005

Gator, ten merit points for you. :)
posted by bullitt 5 at 9:05 AM on December 7, 2005

Hmm, stuck in the oil. Thoughts? There's no way I'm waiting for this to load again.
posted by Four Flavors at 11:06 AM on December 7, 2005

I think the appropriate descriptor for this game is retroesque as opposed to retro--it is so bloated with content that the actual retro gear that the graphics parrot wouldn't have a prayer of actually running it.
posted by illovich at 11:55 AM on December 7, 2005

Atari2600 graphics, minimal gameplay, no instruction (as to your goals).

I think there's some political statement in there. All news is cultural snow, or something like that. I ended up stuck in that pool of oil, and I couldn't get out. That was the final straw.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:34 PM on December 7, 2005

Lucille, God gave me a gift. I shovel well. I shovel very well.
posted by Sticherbeast at 12:39 PM on December 7, 2005

Pull my finger, Sticherbeast!
posted by Gator at 12:52 PM on December 7, 2005

The arabesque music in the begining led me to expect a much better game.
posted by Citizen Premier at 3:54 PM on December 7, 2005

strange is right. neat idea, though.
change snow to mud and RSS political sites.

but that'd still be boring, probably.
posted by Busithoth at 7:48 PM on December 7, 2005