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.

🚨 If the setlist is not refreshing for you, you're probably using the mobile app which isn't great at updating. Close it out and open it again. I am in fact keeping it up to date.

Weather: We move through stormy weather

Wind: Fast enough for you

Set 1 (7:27 - 8:49 PM ET): Turtle in the Clouds (12) ¹ -> Bug (12) -> Seven Below (12) > Ocelot (8) > Mull (10), Sigma Oasis (15) -> Ghost (11)

Set 2 (9:12 - 10:36 PM ET): Sand (18) > Everything's Right (12) -> What's the Use? (7) > Light (15) > 2001 (6) > Blaze On (11) > Prince Caspian (5) > More (4) > Say It To Me SANTOS (5)

Notes

¹ Unfinished, no dance

Show times
Official: 7 PM ET

Links
Official Stream
Set 1 Opener
Set 2 Opener
Poster

Pre-Show Jams

Molly Tuttle - 7/28/24 (Full Show)

The Harder They Come (Full Album)

All at Once (40th Anniversary Remaster) - Full Show (I wrote this!)

Let's have an awesome show 🎶

Can we talk about how transcendent that Ghost was?! The thunder, lightning wind and rain made me feel like a ghost with all my poncho pals⭕️

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.

tonight I spun in circles so hard I conjured up a protective shield that prevented the lightning from hitting us tonight. And it worked

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!

I would have SO regretted it if I didn't go to the show today. The music was awesome, beats were rad but the best part was the people. Met such fun and REAL people and had actual meaningful conversations in between.

I had not listened to any Phish songs before this and going blind was such a fantastic decision. I was fully immersed. Also, didn't know I could dance this crazy XD. Shout out to all the people who made tonight special.

Love you guys!! Phans are awesome!!

See you at another phish concert.

Hope everyone makes it home safely!

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.

Ready and willing #phish

Each night will feature bust outs that were last played in their corresponding year.

Wednesday '92 will have Eliza, Cold As Ice>Baby Lemonade(Ninth Cube doesn't count)>Cold As Ice, and possibly Blue Bayou

Friday 93 will give us Jessica, Leprechaun, Oye Como Va, I Walk The Line, and a stand alone mid random song Vaccum Solo

Saturday '94 options are Take the "A" Train, Midnight Rider, Pig In A Pen, Big Ball Jam, one of the many options off the White Album, and HYHU>I Wanna Be Like You>HYHU, possibly swap IWBLY for Touch Me

Monday '95 will bring back Night Moves, White Rabbit, Gloria (Them), Dave's Energy Guide, something from Tommy, Acoustic Army, a 20 minute Faht jam, and HYHU>If I Only Had A Brain>HYHU

Wednesday '96 opens with Born Under Punches, with some Sweet Emotion, Caravan, Mean Mr. Mustard, a big ol' Vibration Of Life, and a HYHU>Suspicious Minds

NYE run opens up with All Things Reconsidered>Black Eyed Katy

I'm ready to put my life savings on this happening exactly as described.

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.

Tonight’s encoreless show is making me wonder when the last time they played a show with no encore. I was thinking it was Mondegreen day 4, but they encored with Fuego that day. Anyone know?

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.

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.

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.

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.

All of tonight's songs were "newer". Every last one. Def not '92 phish. I think tomorrow is a sparkle, chalkdust, stash, cavern kinda night...

….and blousy britches.