The People's Republic of What The Heck Is That?

January 2, 2006 10:49 AM

Test your knowledge of world flags. 15 per round, 10 minutes per round. Some clues available, annoyingly addictive.
posted by moonbird (37 comments total)

Great fun!

Did you know that SCOTLAND has two flags. There is the 'Royal Flag of Scotland', displaying a red lion rampant on a yellow background, and the other flag of Scotland is known as the 'Saltire' and consists of a white cross on a blue background.
posted by Leam Srehtorb at 10:57 AM on January 2, 2006

All I know is many of these flags are artistically displeasing. Too many stars, garish tricolors, words written on them …

ooooh. Deja vu.
posted by maxsparber at 11:03 AM on January 2, 2006

It displayed El Salvador to me without the center coat of arms. Monaco was another iffy one, since it's indistinguishable from Indonesia.

Cheat Sheet
posted by gimonca at 11:06 AM on January 2, 2006

well, that culled my artificially high opinion of my knowledge of nations' flags. nice link, thanks.
posted by Busithoth at 11:12 AM on January 2, 2006

Doesn't work properly in my Firefox, still gets the scoring wrong in Safari.

Nice idea for a game, though.
posted by sellout at 11:13 AM on January 2, 2006

I thought I was doing fine, until I got Martinique, which I thought was an integral part of France and used the French flag and the euro. I lost further confidence after British Indian Ocean Territory, too. Pshh.
posted by mdonley at 11:15 AM on January 2, 2006

Should I be worried that the flags are all in .wmf?

Just kidding. KIDDING.
posted by gimonca at 11:35 AM on January 2, 2006

Pshh.

You're bothered because they're not following restrictions you made up?

Every country of the world is represented in this game. Additionally, there are several additional flags and information on specific territories who have their own flag and identity.

posted by languagehat at 11:42 AM on January 2, 2006

It's also displaying Thailand as Costa Rica.
posted by gimonca at 11:45 AM on January 2, 2006

*Wow* I suck. Must go play more, this is truly addictive.
posted by kalimac at 12:01 PM on January 2, 2006

My life is now complete.
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 12:57 PM on January 2, 2006

I believe that technique is known in vexillology as "snakes on a plain".
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 1:02 PM on January 2, 2006

Beta at best. The filenames for the images seem to correspond to the country codes of the flags, which gives you an easy cheat. They should have randomized the names. The flag for Saudi Arabia is sa.gif, for example.

It claimed that Zambia was on the continent of Zimbabwe, and also it reset my score to zero when I missed a bonus question, which was not only arithmetically suspect but runs contrary to my understanding of the term "bonus question".
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:03 PM on January 2, 2006

Despite the flaws, very cool. I really needed a way to learn all the flags, so I can identify which embassy lawns are the safest to spit on while jogging in DC.
posted by footnote at 1:24 PM on January 2, 2006

Yeah, I've been struggling with the big flaw of having your score reset to 0 after 1000. Otherwise. it's giving me a good workout.
posted by moonbird at 1:32 PM on January 2, 2006

posted by isopraxis at 1:36 PM on January 2, 2006

Arrgghh! All those islands!!!
posted by mr_roboto at 1:53 PM on January 2, 2006

One of the bonus questions was "Which American state was formerly an independent republic" and listed both Texas and California as options. It, incorrectly, said California was incorrect.
posted by soiled cowboy at 2:03 PM on January 2, 2006

There's a question about what separates Europe from Africa, but it seems they meant to ask what separates Europe from Asia. The answer it gives is the Ural mountains and river.
posted by H-Bar at 2:15 PM on January 2, 2006

I gave up on it when I noticed it wasn't scoring for me correctly in Safari. And 'Colombia' was misspelled.
posted by salmacis at 2:21 PM on January 2, 2006

Snakes on a plain. Teehee.
posted by Popular Ethics at 2:53 PM on January 2, 2006

Scoring is off for me too. but the game is addictive
posted by darsh at 3:03 PM on January 2, 2006

This is such a great refresher. And I feel you on the score reset Moonbird.
posted by kosem at 3:14 PM on January 2, 2006

And Ukraine is on the continent of Ukraine?
posted by Jikido at 3:31 PM on January 2, 2006

And Ukraine is on the continent of Ukraine?

Perhaps they couldn't decide on Europe or Asia. Eurasia?
posted by Jikido at 3:33 PM on January 2, 2006

Apparently the ruins of Persepolis have been relocated from Iran to Botswana.
posted by H-Bar at 4:11 PM on January 2, 2006

The map is Not Available.
The capital is Not Available.
The continent is Israel.
The unit of currency is New Israeli Shekel.
The neighbors are Egypt.

soo...annoying...
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 4:23 PM on January 2, 2006

Palestine btw
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 4:24 PM on January 2, 2006

Heh, details for Scotland :

The continent is England.
The capital is None.
The unit of currency is the British Pound.
The neighbors are Ireland, & France.

Oh dear.
posted by coach_mcguirk at 4:47 PM on January 2, 2006

I like the clue


The unit of currency is the Moldovan Leu


uhhhhh, Moldava maybe?
posted by Megafly at 4:54 PM on January 2, 2006

Yeah, I had "The unit of currency is the Belizean Dollar". Hmm... I wonder.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:29 PM on January 2, 2006

Also, the emblems ought to be clearer/larger; e.g. for the many flags based on the U.K. Blue Ensign.
posted by lathrop at 5:54 PM on January 2, 2006

Continent of Oceania? This is Canadian geography.
posted by donkelly at 6:49 PM on January 2, 2006

It's also displaying Thailand as Costa Rica.

Thank you for proving that I have not descended into complete dementia.
posted by briank at 7:08 PM on January 2, 2006

Poland


Indonesia

posted by zouhair at 1:30 AM on January 3, 2006

does this work in any browser? I tried firefox and IE, both times I got an error page halfway through the first round.

Warning: mysql_result(): Unable to jump to row 0 on MySQL result index 9 in /home/vhost/www/flag-game.com/main.php on line 521

posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:36 AM on January 3, 2006

Current Score =
Warning: mysql_result(): Unable to jump to row 0 on MySQL result index 8 in /home/vhost/www/flag-game.com/main.php on line 486

It seems to do this to me if I'm actually getting anything right; successfully get a couple of countries and bonuses, then get stuffed. Bah. Also, Persepolis, WTF? And the oldest recorded dog in the world was 29, what does that have to do with ANY kind of geography??
posted by Lebannen at 9:48 AM on January 4, 2006