RISOCAST · guess the year
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Guess the Year

Hear a clip. Say when it came out.

Guess the year10 clips

A thirty-second clip and one question: when did this come out? No sleeve, no title, no artist. All you get is the sound. Put the handle on a year and lock it in, and everything is revealed.

Dead on is 100, and the points fall away the further out you are: steeply at first, then gently. Twenty years out is still worth something, so a rough guess always beats no guess and no round is ever a write-off.

Who you are

No account needed to play in a room. This is kept on this machine.

Join a room

5 letters from whoever opened the room — or paste their link straight in here.

About this game

What this is

A free music release year game, played in the browser with nothing to install. A thirty-second clip starts, and the only question is when did this come out? There is no title, no artist and no sleeve while the answer is open: all you have is the record.

That is the whole of it, and it is a different skill from naming a song. Production dates music: the drums, the reverb, how the vocal sits, how loud the master is. You can place a record you have never heard.

How a round works
  1. 1 · Listen. The clip plays on its own. The sleeve stays covered.
  2. 2 · Place it. Drag the handle along the timeline to the year you think it came out, and lock it in.
  3. 3 · See it. The record is revealed with its year and your score. In a room you also see where everybody else landed on the same timeline.
Scoring

Dead on is 100. From there the points fall away with every year you are out: steeply at first, then gently, so a wrong decade still counts for something and no round is ever a write-off.

years out0135102040
points10092786643194
Playing with friends

Open a room and send the link. Everybody hears the same clip at the same moment, and no guess is visible until the round closes, then they all land on the timeline together and you can see who was nearest.

Nobody needs an account, and a latecomer can join a game already running. When the deck is finished you can deal another, and it will not repeat a song the room has already had.

Questions
Is Guess the Year free?
Yes, and there is nothing to install. Playing on your own needs no account at all; a live room only asks for a name to put beside your guesses.
Can I play with friends?
Yes. Open a room, send the link, and everybody hears the same clip at the same moment. Guesses stay hidden until the round closes, then they all land on the timeline together with the answer.
How many people can be in a room?
It is built for the size of group that would actually play together: a handful of friends on a call or in a chat. Everybody guesses independently and the standings update as answers come in.
How does the scoring work?
Dead on is 100 points. From there the score falls away with every year you are out, steeply at first and then gently: about 92 for one year, 78 for three, 66 for five, 43 for ten. It never quite reaches zero, so being in the wrong era still beats not answering.
Do I get to see the title and the artist?
Not while the answer is open. All you get is the sound; the sleeve, the title and the artist appear the moment you lock in. Knowing the song is a different game from placing it, and this is the second one.
What happens if I run out of time?
Whatever the handle is sitting on gets sent. A rough guess is always worth more than no guess, so the clock answers for you rather than scoring you nothing.
What songs come up?
Decks are drawn from the Risocast catalogue, one song per artist, and deliberately spread across decades rather than taken evenly: otherwise most rounds would land in the last ten years. The timeline runs from the 1960s to the present.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The timeline, the handle and the room screens are all built for touch, and a room is just a link: whoever you send it to can open it on anything.
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