I had a long train ride the other weekend and, with all the commentary around "rail riders" in mind, had the silly idea to build a playable, browser-based game where you get to be one of these esteemed members of our community. 

Play Rail Riders here: https://railriders.freezer.ink/

Game trailers are on YouTube and Instagram, too.

The goal, for one song: get to the rail, defend your spot, get noticed by the band, dose the crowd, snag a poster, all while avoiding security and peeing your pants. All the music is original and 100% made by me, a human, over the last few months.

The game was built by me, with help from Claude, and in Godot, a free, open‑source game engine, and just yesterday I hired an illustrator to create a legit set of characters, sprites, and items (because gen AI art sux, but for a first crack at a beta, it works). Those will be in next week, but in the spirit of the 90s-themed run that's before us, and hoping to get a few beta testers in there to show me what's broken, I hereby invite you all to ride the rail.

A few tips:

• Generally, you want to always be dancing, and especially at the rail where you can rack up Groove points.
• Spins are free and can be used anywhere, but count for points when you're on the rail. If you tap spin three times in a row you get super spin -- but don't land on the stage or you'll get ejected. Wiggles impress the neighbors and slow them down when you're chasing an item, but will cost you points away from the rail. The Worm recharges as you dance and can be used to clear the floor.
• Get noticed by the band and your Groove score skyrockets.
• Bathroom visits clear both your Bladder and Heat scores. Pee your pants and the crowd boots you to the back of the room, and you leave a spot on the floor everyone avoids.
• The band throws out surprises over the course of the round. Balloons help you soar over the crowd -- a good way to get to bathrooms, the merch stand, and back. Give the crowd a sticker and they become your crew for a few seconds, protecting your spot and giving you their Groove points. Tarps hold your spot -- but they'll cost you Heat. Party Supplies doses the whole crowd, and your Groove score rockets. Beers and water help your score but also impact the bladder.

I'm currently building out two-player co-op, but not sure it'll work yet. Feel free to give it a try with a friend once it's in there, but expect bugs. Desktop is best. It does work on mobile as well, but isn't as fun because you can't mash your keyboard and your thumbs might get tired. 

Yes, I realize this is insane. Good luck! Show off your high scores in the thread, and please leave feedback, ideas, criticism, and whatever else you'd like to share here too. Please keep in mind this is beta, and I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just a fan like you, perhaps with a bit more ADHD.

P.S. If you guys actually enjoy this I might fire up a Discord and keep on building it. I'd love to feature more original music from artists in our community, and maybe include real merch someday too.

I have a feeling this will be controversial. In many ways I love where Phish is at right now as much as anything since 2009, but I do have a couple issues. One is that there’s a line (on one side) between a type 2 jam that emerges out of the song you just played where themes/scales from the song you just played constantly shine through even if the recognizable structure has been left behind, and (on the other) playing a song and going straight into unrelated regular-ass major scale jamming, and I feel like more and more they’re landing on the latter. It’s feeling less like a natural flow and more like “well, the crowd wants us to jam so let’s jam” — Carini is a dark song with a dissonant/chromatic chord thing and within like 2 mins of the big MPP jam they’re right back in that same happy sounding electric blues scale that they use for every other jam these days.

It feels like [song][jam], [song][jam], [song][jam] rather than song into natural jam, song into natural jam, etc…I may not be making any sense to anyone but myself but we’ll see. I feel like the Dead always managed to keep it sounding organic even when the expectation of jamming had obviously been established, but it feels like it’s going the opposite way with Phish for me.

Some guy at mpp was apparently pretending to grab my ass . My neighbors told me and said they wanted to kick his ass and proceeded to stand near me cuz he was tall enough to block him . He eventually left after getting in an argument with someone. His energy said “I’m here only for predatory reasons.” Thank you to that couple my bf and I didn’t notice . Also kept hearing some dudes behind me keep saying “her ass is fire” and “I wish she’d take her hair down”. And commenting on everything I did. It was beyond intrusive . Thanks for listening, just wanted to vent!

1/5 by Stella Murphy. 18”x24” screenprint, numbered to 992.
2/5 by Joe Taylor. 18”x24” screenprint, numbered to 993.
3/5 by M Fatchurofi. 18”x24” screenprint, numbered to 994.
4/5 by Kampground Designs . 18”x24” screenprint, numbered to 995.
5/5 by Maarten Donders. 18”x24” screenprint, numbered to 996.

All printed by The Half and Half. Early merch stand will open at Chase Square (at 32nd + 7th) all 5 show days from 2PM-5PM. Most posters will be available at this location early, versus inside. All five available each show day. A very limited number of posters will be available inside the venue at doors alongside merch.

Was in the lawn for both Merriweather N2 & Cuse, & while I may end up relistening to the Carini most, from a a live experience, Cuse is one I won’t forget.

During Sigma Oasis, everyone saw the storm coming in from over the lake & it brought an awesome energy…and when the storm arrived, it wasn’t just rain…it was a real thunderstorm during ghost…actual electricity in the air. Will remember that ghost forever. Unreal timing with it.

Set 2 didn’t disappoint either. Strong everything’s right jam. What’s the use. Energy during 2001 was nuts…and while the end isn’t how it wasn’t drawn up…after trey made the announcement they were going to get shut down anytime…it felt like an encore & they went hard for the time they had. Great frenetic energy in the moment.

A+ live experience.

Let the boys play, y'all expect too much. Type 2 type O+ who gives a hoot. If you don't like how they're playing, miracle your ticket, or just don't buy them in the first place. Jeesey Pete, we're lucky they still play under such scrutiny.

….and blousy britches.

I can’t stop thinking about the 40ish minute Carini we saw the other night. They kinda toned it down and the jam almost started to get a little stale for about 15-20 minutes in the middle but man did they find themselves for the last 10-15 minutes. The jam started out pretty standard and then they fell apart into the weird aimless ambient depths they often find themselves in and built it back up into to that raging crescendo. It was just beautiful. The moment they dropped back into Carini, Merriweather damn near exploded. Also, there was a Let It Grow tease which is so cool.

I fucking love this band. Thats all.

It’s time for MPP to get a 3-night run. Reason number 1 is that it’s the closest venue to my house. Reason number 2 is that it’s a great place to see Phish. Reason number 3 is that it’s the closest venue to my house.

It was a marathon not a race...

A moment of appreciation for a fun stranger on the lawn Mike's side:

I had a pack of glowsticks for over 3 years that I kept forgetting to bring. Finally remembered last night. At one point I turned to my friend and said "fuck we didn't even use the glow sticks". Literally minutes later they break into 2001.

So we're loving it and throwing them, reeling in the serendipity of the timing. This woman further down on the lawn started collecting all of the ones we threw and then threw them back to us. We grab them and throw them back to her. We went back and forth 3 or 4 times. It was hilarious, fun and good vibes all around.

So thank you stranger lady for being silly and fun with us. I feel like there are a lot of negative vibes about crowd interactions lately. We had to move around a bit to find a decent vibe last night. But that whole interaction turned it around and reminded me why I love phish so much.

hey everyone! tonight’s my first phish show ever, in doing so I want to commemorate the occasion with a poster! what time should I aim to hit msg for a poster? I am trying to get to the early merch onsale, but if I am unable to snag one there what time should I head inside msg

dudes at shows have been catching a lot of strays lately in this subreddit and getting lumped in with a couple bad eggs. I just want to say dudes rock and I appreciate ya

In terms of chord progressions, have they done anything that wasn't I IV, i IV, I VIIb, or i VIIb? I've listened to about half of tour, and I keep hearinf Page play the exact same chord progressions after every key or stylistic change, every jam is one of those four 2-chord progressions on an endless loop.

Has there been any (type 2) jam where a significant amount of time is spent outside of those four progressions?

Day dreaming about what the 92’ show is gonna be like

First show back in 11 years, and I know it wasn't most people's highlight. I thought the 7 below jam was sweet, Mull was bumping, that ghost was magical seeming to sync up with mother nature. You'll never hear me complain about What's the Use or 2001. The trip was short, but its worth it and I'm glad I came along. I'll be back, though probably not as soon as I'd like, it certainly won't be another 11 years.

I am so excited for the 1992 theme tonight. Hoping for secret language making a return and lots of rarities. I was at Syracuse last night and loved it, noticed it was 3.0 era dominate setlist which I enjoyed, but that means they are saving the 1.0 tunes for this 5 night run. Running on zero sleep for the past 36 hours or so from traveling nonstop via Greyhound to Syracuse and now Amtrak to MSG. Gotta catch em’ all.

The part where Trey says "I am warming up a bit" is supposed to be one of those parts where we all cheer and go crazy, like the "play a bad guitar" line in Lovin' Cup

I don't know why you guys aren't doing it. We've gotta get with the program here.

While streaming the Syracuse show last night Trey seems to go into a giggle fit at the start of Everything’s Right/end of Sand.
What’d we miss?? Wrong answers gratefully accepted!!

I travel mostly solo to these things. It's been a long lifetime of trying to convince people close to me that this isn't just a drug thing. I don't have a crew that I get together with. But I always appreciate seeing you guys around. I hope you don't mind me. Receiving love through osmosis around you all. These four gentlemen were having a tender moment during prince caspian in syracuse.

Don't change my mind.

Last night was a lot of fun! It wasn’t the best show I’ve seen, but it was maybe the best crowd experience I’ve ever had at a Phish show. You people were great! Old friends reunited, happy to see each other. Chompers chomping at an appropriate volume (and talking about Phish, not their work/marriage/kids/health, etc!!!) Everyone dancing and having fun!!! Kim and Chris, you guys rock! I would gladly dance next to you folks at any show! If you were in section 310 last night I just want to say thank you! You all made my night. ❤️