Three guys named Chat, Matt & Rob have created The Time Machine, a YouTube-based Choose Your Own Adventure game for the new millennium that tells the tale of three goofy guys and a time machine shaped like a garbage pail.
The premise is simple: A video plays, and as it approaches the end, viewers are given a choice of two options, each of which links to a new video. Choose correctly and the adventure continues; but make the wrong choice, and the trio suffer an untimely end. In The Time Machine, Rob somehow stumbles upon a time-traveling device that looks remarkably similar to a pair of heavy-duty rubber trash pails. Soon after revealing the discovery to his friends Chad and Matt, however, a group of black-suited government agents enters the scene, pursuing them to the time machine and, ultimately, the distant past.
But that’s not all! Vicious zombies, encounters with past versions of themselves and even a sort of parallel universe ass-kicking all feature in the short but entertaining story. Can you get the boys to their meeting on time?
Check out The Time Machine interactive adventure on YouTube or at their own website, chadmattandrob.com, and have a look at some of the more conventional video shorts while you’re there. (Chad Hates Aliens is particularly good.)
