Google celebrates Frank Zamboni with fun retro game doodle

Those of you unfamiliar with ice rinks probably have no idea who Frank Zamboni is. If you do have a thing for ice, you probably still don’t know he is but you’ll at least be familiar with the machine that bears his name.

Google is today celebrating the inventor’s legacy with a fun little game that allows you to control an ice-cleaning machine inspired by the Zamboni. The goal is to clean as much of the ice as possible before you run out of petrol. As the game progresses, more and more children scuff up the ice but they also leave rewards on the ice for you to pick up.

The game has a definite retro feel to it, putting us in the mind of the kind of games we used to play on our desktops in the early 90s (Skifree comes to mind, although the doodle is a tad more sophisticated).

Zamboni’s invention, which he originally built on stripped Jeep chassis, transformed surfacing an ice rink from a three-man, 90-minute task to a one-man, 10-minute job.

The innovator also invented machines to remove water and paint stripes from outdoor artificial turf surfaces and roll up and lay down artificial ground coverings in domed stadiums.