Time Portal

Games

history guessing game

SHOW HN2025

497points
213comments
#74of 3,837 in 2025
Top 2%of 2025 by points

How HN took it

DebatedReal support and real criticism

38 positive, 15 neutral or asking, 23 mixed, 45 critical, out of 121 comments about the project. Thread score +0.01.

Execution: 2 for, 30 againstIdea: 12 for, 7 againstDesign: 4 for, 6 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Fun, original GeoGuessr-like concept

    From 3 comments
    • This is awesome. I had the same feeling I had when I first played GeoGuessr. It's one of the first times I've seen what is obviously AI-generated video used in a super compelling…
      cdjk on HN
    • This is awesome! Definitely some more obscure historical events in there. Agree that the scoring is a bit harsh, especially since the clips are, let’s say, somewhat…
      backprop1989 on HN
    • This was awesome! I think this project is super creative and original. Also, I got top 63%!
      joshdavham on HN
  • Polished UI and UX

    From 1 comment
    • Very polished UI/UX. I'd say this is far closer in similarity to TimeGuessr than GeoGuessr. The only difference is that in TimeGuessr you are guessing a year and a location based…
      vunderba on HN
  • Good use of AI in a learning context

    From 2 comments
    • Nice game!! Well done I think. And another nice example of how AI and generative art can help learn in an interactive way. Event though some pictures are missleading. I guessed…
      0xcb0 on HN
    • https://timeguessr.com/ I really enjoy time guessr! Playing it on the TV with family is fun too.
      ddxv on HN

Objections

  • AI images are anachronistic and historically inaccurate

    From 4 comments
    • The super anachronistic output makes this really difficult. One of the examples was the battle in the war of the roses but all the imagery suggests over a hundred years later.
      bthater on HN
    • yeah it's a cool concept, but knowing what I know about the ability of generative AI to accurately replicate specific moments of history, it falls flat. The whole point of this…
      lukev on HN
    • The picture was clearly based on El Castillo [Temple of Kukulcán, in Chichén Itzá], which is on the Yucatan Peninsula. Note the chamber on top. It looks nothing like the Aztec…
      PeterCorless on HN
    • Brilliant idea but e.g. I got the conversion of the kingdom of Aksum to Christianity and none of the images resemble reality. I think this might work better if you fed the LLM…
      riffraff on HN
  • Scoring is too harsh

    From 4 comments
    • My first reaction is that the scoring is too harsh. I got within 50 years and 100 km and the resulting score is 7,406 / 10,000.
      stingrae on HN
    • Scoring function is unfair. If you get a location wrong with 100 km on a world map or the time wrong by 50 years, score drops like 50%.
      yobbo on HN
    • Love the game but I second improving the scoring mechanics. I was 40 years off and less than 5km from the place and "only" got 7829. Assuming 99% accuracy for location, and based…
      bucketsofthundr on HN
    • Love the concept. Got annoyed with the scoring. I was off by about 200 years and got the country right and only got 2,995 out of 10,000. Felt sad i got such a low score then…
      jimkleiber on HN
  • Dislike of AI-generated art

    From 2 comments
    • Interesting concept, but the use of AI art is personally extremely off-putting. Maybe it works for people who like having everything filtered through a modern cinematic cgi…
      skort on HN
    • I was excited by the title until I saw it was all AI :( It would’ve been cool to collect actual images from history. I’m sure there are 1000s of public domain images that could…
      dartos on HN
  • Some clips are too violent for children

    From 1 comment
    • This is awesome. I had the same feeling I had when I first played GeoGuessr. It's one of the first times I've seen what is obviously AI-generated video used in a super compelling…
      cdjk on HN
  • Scoring can be gamed by re-guessing

    From 1 comment
    • I'm no history buff, so i found it quite fun just as a game. the system is quite easy to cheese by simply going back and re-guessing once you have the answer, was really enjoying…
      ButOneDuck on HN

Requests

  • Fix scoring curve and make it more transparent

    From 3 comments
    • Love the game but I second improving the scoring mechanics. I was 40 years off and less than 5km from the place and "only" got 7829. Assuming 99% accuracy for location, and based…
      bucketsofthundr on HN
    • This is cool, but I'm not sure some of the hints are not more red herrings than anything else. Because AI sort of blends things, the prompt needs to be spot on or, for example,…
      keyle on HN
    • Good call. I should make the scoring more transparent.
      samplank2 on HN
  • Add a PG mode for kids

    From 1 comment
    • This is awesome. I had the same feeling I had when I first played GeoGuessr. It's one of the first times I've seen what is obviously AI-generated video used in a super compelling…
      cdjk on HN
  • Show era markers on the timeline

    From 1 comment
    • This is cool, but I'm not sure some of the hints are not more red herrings than anything else. Because AI sort of blends things, the prompt needs to be spot on or, for example,…
      keyle on HN
  • Use real historical images or paintings

    From 3 comments
    • I was excited by the title until I saw it was all AI :( It would’ve been cool to collect actual images from history. I’m sure there are 1000s of public domain images that could…
      dartos on HN
    • Brilliant idea but e.g. I got the conversion of the kingdom of Aksum to Christianity and none of the images resemble reality. I think this might work better if you fed the LLM…
      riffraff on HN
    • I enjoyed it :) I see a lot of complaints about the ai generation. My 2c would be the photorealistic style is throwing people off a bit. Painting/artistic renderings might do it…
      zild3d on HN
  • Make the game more interactive and infinite

    From 1 comment

Questions

  • Is it open source and can people contribute?

    From 1 comment
    • Great concept. I'm an avid geoguessr and wikitrivia player, you're definitely onto something here. I built a prototype version similar to this called PastPort last year, but I…
      SamPatt on HN
  • Is it being monetized?

    From 1 comment
    • This is killer. Love it! Are you planning to monetize it or keeping it as is?
      voisin on HN

Alternatives named

  • TimeGuessr

    From 2 comments
    • Very polished UI/UX. I'd say this is far closer in similarity to TimeGuessr than GeoGuessr. The only difference is that in TimeGuessr you are guessing a year and a location based…
      vunderba on HN
    • https://timeguessr.com/ I really enjoy time guessr! Playing it on the TV with family is fun too.
      ddxv on HN
  • NYT Flashback quiz

    From 1 comment
    • Cool idea but the AI images are kind of lame. For anyone who wants something like this I recommend NYT's Flashback quiz:…
      kdamica on HN
  • GeoGuessr

    From 1 comment
    • This is awesome. I had the same feeling I had when I first played GeoGuessr. It's one of the first times I've seen what is obviously AI-generated video used in a super compelling…
      cdjk on HN
  • PastPort

    From 1 comment
    • Great concept. I'm an avid geoguessr and wikitrivia player, you're definitely onto something here. I built a prototype version similar to this called PastPort last year, but I…
      SamPatt on HN

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