PriceWarp
Read an old receipt of real prices and slide to the year it came from.
Every day: A Daily Challenge of old store receipts picked from the date, the same set for every player, with a score out of the maximum, a shareable result and a streak. New puzzle: Midnight, your local time.
PriceWarp is a daily history guessing game about prices. Each round shows a store receipt of real products and prices, such as a new home, a month's rent and a postage stamp, and you slide to the year you think it is from. The Daily Challenge is the same for everyone each day, and an Endless mode keeps going.
About PriceWarp
PriceWarp, by ZucchiDev, casts you as a time-travelling shopper. Each round prints a receipt with a handful of items and what they cost in one year of the last century: a Lamborghini Countach, the median new home, average monthly rent, a year of college tuition, a postage stamp. The prices come from real historical data, including the US consumer price index and the FRED database.
You move a slider to the year you think the receipt belongs to and submit. A guess within two years counts as correct. You have three guesses per receipt, and an early correct guess scores more: 5 points on the first try, 3 on the second, 1 on the third. Receipts mix easy and hard items, so a single giveaway price can anchor the whole guess.
The Daily Challenge picks its receipts from the date, so everyone plays the same ones that day. At the end you see your daily score and can copy a result with a coloured dot for each guess: green within two years, yellow within five, red further out. A streak counts the days in a row you have played. Endless mode draws random receipts for as long as you like.
It is a light way to get a feel for inflation and for how the cost of everyday things has moved, and it plays on phones and computers in the browser.
How to play PriceWarp
- Open pricewarp.com and choose Daily Challenge.
- Read the receipt: each line is a real item and its price in one year.
- Move the slider to the year you think it is and press Submit Guess.
- Land within two years to score; you get three guesses per receipt, worth 5, 3 and 1 points.
- Finish the day's receipts, then share your result or keep going in Endless mode.
Screenshots
Tips
- Anchor on the item you know best, such as a postage stamp or a gallon of gas, and adjust from there.
- Housing and tuition rose much faster than many goods, so weigh them carefully against cheaper items.
- A guess within two years scores, so aim for the middle of the range you believe rather than an exact year.
Questions
Is the PriceWarp daily the same for everyone?
Yes. The Daily Challenge picks its receipts from the date, so every player gets the same ones that day.
How close do I have to be?
Within two years of the real year counts as correct.
Where do the prices come from?
From real historical price data, including the consumer price index and the FRED database.
Is PriceWarp free?
Yes. It plays free in the browser at pricewarp.com and on itch.io.
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