You can now play the classic game Snake directly in Bing
Miss playing Snake on your Nokia phone? Don’t worry, you can now experience the nostalgia by just searching for “bing snake” or “snake game” on Bing. A version of the classic will show up directly above the search results.
The addition comes over a month after Microsoft built Pong into its Bing search results page. You can access that game by simply typing “pong” into Bing. Both games will keep track of your score and even let you pause the game with a click.
Bing engineer David Flink announced today’s addition on Twitter, and it was subsequently picked up by multiple Microsoft-focused publications like WinBeta.
The controls are simple: Just use your arrow keys on your keyboard or the four directional arrows if you’re using a touchscreen.
Adding easter eggs like these is a smart way for Microsoft to give Bing a bit more exposure. And unlike other hidden jokes and tricks in various apps or services, these games are actually playable, so chances are you’ll spend more than just a few seconds checking them out. In fact, we suspect the game will be a huge productivity killer in the office, not just today, but as long as Bing keeps it around.
The Snake concept originated in the 1976 arcade game Blockade, and over the years was spun out into a wide variety of implementations. When Snake started coming preloaded on Nokia mobile phones in 1998, the game saw a huge resurgence in popularity as its audience exploded.
Mobile games have of course come a long way since Snake, but what makes this one a classic is that it was challenging and addicting for people of all ages. The Bing version naturally won’t get as big as the game did in the ’90s, but it is a neat way to offer it again to millions of people.
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