[title]
In case you're living under a rock, here's a bit of a New York City history brush up lesson: 58 Joralemon Street is the address of what appears to be a pretty standard townhouse in Brooklyn Heights. Locals know better, though: the destination is actually a facade to an MTA vent that also functions as an unmarked emergency subway exit. If you peek through the crack between the steel doors, you can see the electrical room and a stairway leading to a below-ground tunnel—you can even spot MTA workers hanging out on the stoop sometimes!
Now, the infamous address has turned into an actual video game that we cannot stop playing.
Dubbed "58 Joralemon: The Game," the project is the brainchild of one Ben Tupper, a Brooklyn Heights resident, and you can play right here.
"Fact: There is a house in Brooklyn that is not a house," reads the game's landing page. "The windows are blackened. No one is home. It is a New York City subway vent, disguised as a house. This is 58 Joralemon Street."
After clicking through the next window, you'll be delivered the premise of the game. "There has been a service emergency at the Metropolitan Transit Authority [and] every subway line is experiencing severe delays," reads the screen. "Nobody can figure out what is going on. [...] Except you. Your job is to enter 58 Joralemon, figure out the controls to the system and get the trains back on track."
The game, which took Tupper about three weeks to create on his iPad, is reminiscent of graphic adventure puzzle video game "Myst." Gothamist also reports that the remarkable sound effects that characterize the project "are taken from samples of Tupper's radiator and he composed the rest of the ominous, synth-heavy background music himself as well." Super cool, if you ask us.
"The goal was to be kind of creepy and dripping," Tupper said to Gothamist. "My dad sent me an email back—he's like, yes, after five minutes of playing it, I think I'm gonna go take a leak."
To be totally honest with you, we're still trying to figure out how to actually play the game—which is a nice break from our addiction to Subwaydle, the subway-inspired take on Wordle that we've been playing non-stop.