Oldendaze: Post Age

Two old postcards. One was printed first. Read the picture, the border and the printing, then pick the older one. Get it right and the gap between the cards closes, until a few years are all that separate them.

Oldendaze is a free postcard game for anyone who likes old photographs, history quizzes and the feel of a shoebox of postcards on a kitchen table. Play the pairs run, practise with endless pairs, or take the daily: five postcards to put a year on, with the back to inspect where one survives. No account and no ads.

GUESS THE OLDER

Two real postcards, side by side: which one was printed first? Get it right and the gap between them closes, year by year, until you miss. What you leave with is how fine your eye is: "you can tell apart postcards 12 years apart." Endless pairs too, with nothing riding on them.

GUESS THE YEAR

The daily: five postcards from the archives, 1890 to 1965. You put each one on the slider, the true year lands on the timeline, your years off tumble up, and the reveal names the publisher, the place and the tell that dates the card (an undivided back, a white border, linen, chrome). Then five more, as many times as you like.

ONLINE DUEL

Play a friend by code, or take the next player waiting: the same postcards on both phones, the faster right answer takes the round, and every match earns XP.

8,551 postcards, from 1890 to 1965, every one in the public domain or under an open licence, scanned by the archives that keep them. 400 dailies already dealt.

MORE GAME, IF YOU WANT IT

The pairs run, the daily, both practice modes and the duel are free, forever, and so are the last 7 dailies in the archive. One purchase unlocks every earlier daily and every themed pack, now and later:
• Linen America
• Gruss aus
• Brück & Sohn
• Front & Back

Or take the packs one at a time.

A postcard puzzle for people who look at things: part history quiz, part guessing game, part lesson in how a printed picture gives its age away. The cards come from Wikimedia Commons and the Newberry Library's Curt Teich Postcard Archives; every card, its author and its licence are credited on the game's site.