Hidden Object Game!

August 23, 2022 10:27 PM

Long long ago, before the search for things buried in images proliferated on mobile platforms, there was this classic early example. A true test of your observation skills, it will keep you going for some time. The editor of this image has cleverly hidden within it a can of Spam. Can you find it? It has stymied tens of thousands of searchers for over twenty years. Good luck to you, internet user, and find that spam!
posted by JHarris (25 comments total)

The joke (yes it is a joke) is a bit ruined these days, now that people's screens are relatively much longer. Back around the time of its birth, this is more what the page would have looked like.
posted by JHarris at 10:40 PM on August 23, 2022 [9 favorites]

I was all ready to call you out on being totally inaccurate -- "Sure, you'd see less of the screen, but you wouldn't see that much less of the screen" -- so I fired up photoshop and created a period-accurate scale depiction and...

Man, you were right, you couldn't see jack when that page was first hosted!

(Also, don't miss the Help page. It's very helpful.)
posted by Bugbread at 11:56 PM on August 23, 2022 [7 favorites]

If you can't see the image, turn off your Spam filter
posted by chavenet at 12:49 AM on August 24, 2022 [45 favorites]

Man, you were right, you couldn't see jack when that page was first hosted!

Wow, seeing that Netscape browser window gave me the weirdest sensation of falling through time. I had such an overpowering feeling of nostalgia, just wow.
posted by Literaryhero at 1:52 AM on August 24, 2022 [10 favorites]

Before you leave the page, be sure to click someplace outside the can in the image.

This is the earliest version of the page on the Internet Archive, from 2001. The images are broken in it, but the text notes that it had already been around for years at that point, with over 1.3M hits.

I was amazed to see that, while it has been mentioned in comments before, it doesn't seem like Find The Spam has ever hit the front page. I am happy to rectify this oversight.
posted by JHarris at 2:33 AM on August 24, 2022 [6 favorites]

Ah! Takes me back. I remember sending emails to folks to establish cross-site links. No search engines quite yet. Like the universe just after the Bang, while it was still opaque to light.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:49 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Wow, seeing that Netscape browser window gave me the weirdest sensation of falling through time.

One summer I read every Philip K Dick book and by August it was all that feeling, all the time.
posted by sixswitch at 4:16 AM on August 24, 2022 [7 favorites]

Metafilter: I've been looking for that spam over TWO WEEKS now!! WHERE THE HELL IS IT??????
posted by NoMich at 4:17 AM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

Well this was a nice pleasant chuckle to start the day!
posted by obfuscation at 4:26 AM on August 24, 2022

I don't know if it's funnier on the old browsers where it's more hidden or the modern one that instantly shows it.
posted by Jacen at 4:50 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I've always disliked find-the-thing puzzles because after about 2 minutes I go, you know, I don't even care about finding this thing, why am I here, and quit. So this is perfect for me because I can solve it in under 2 minutes.
posted by JanetLand at 5:07 AM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

A relic of the days when the web wasn't dangerous to your mental health.
posted by tommasz at 6:40 AM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

I don't see any unsolicited bulk email in that image. Maybe it's hiding behind the canned pork?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:52 AM on August 24, 2022

It's behind the moose.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:15 AM on August 24, 2022 [5 favorites]

I finally found it after 7 years. Had to brag about it and leave a note.
posted by schmudde at 7:31 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Since August 2004, you are the 220,327th person to find the spam!
posted by jazon at 7:45 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

....328
posted by clavdivs at 8:02 AM on August 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

But.... what if I don't like spam?
posted by I-Write-Essays at 8:26 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'll have your spam. I love it!
posted by Naberius at 8:42 AM on August 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I expected the "spam has also found you" text to reveal client IP address, browser cookies, etc.
posted by panglos at 8:45 AM on August 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

For those of you using a text-only browser, here is the non-graphical version of Find-the-Spam.

now there's some nostalga bait.
posted by Dr. Twist at 12:25 PM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

But.... what if I don't like spam?
posted by I-Write-Essays

Well... there's always rat cake, rat sorbet, rat pudding or strawberry tart.
posted by Splunge at 1:23 PM on August 24, 2022

So... Can someone tell me why I've been seeing "if you can spot the encabulator in this picture you're smarter than a donut" crap all over my Google feed for the past few months? Is this algorithmic Bader-Meinhof of something I've just been blind to for years, or is there some new scam doing the rounds?
posted by regularfry at 12:20 AM on August 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

Stared at it for hours, and just as I drifted into sleep, a can of SPAM dropped out of the phone screen onto my face. Fully awake now, with a black eye, frying up sliced SPAM.
posted by othrechaz at 4:08 AM on August 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

But where is the moose!
posted by Omnomnom at 11:15 AM on August 29, 2022