Grateful Dead Video Game Released on 4/20 Encourages 'Positive Vibes'

It won't be the first time people have played Grateful Dead while puffing and gaming, but the three hippie pastimes have never before been so intertwined as on today, thanks to the launch of Grateful Dead Game: The Epic Tour.

Released very much not coincidentally on April 20, the international pot smokers holiday, the game, created by digital media company Curious Sense, features players moving from one venue to another and uniting to shine the band's "love light" in dark places. The light, considered a "positive vibe" of the group, encourages kindness and partnerships in creating flower gardens.

Duuuude.

"It's a game where the objective is to keep having fun rather than get to the end," Curious Media's Adam Blumenthal says, adding the game doesn't really have a final conclusion or level. Essentially, there's no limit to how, er, high you can achieve.

At the game's site players navigate a white bear through various doors to "find your groove" while the band's music can be heard. "Open your trip where the climate suits your fur," the game says, adding that you should amp up your flower power by scooping up seeds. Gathering a certain number of seeds enables different gateways to open to break on through to the other side.

The bear can also be built in the game to wear different costumes with names like "Turtle Sunrise," "Sister Starlight," "Trucker Tripper," and "Brother Silverapples." The four "dead zones" the bear can travel in are titled "By the Waterside," "the Golden Road," "Silky, Silky, Crazy, Crazy Night" and "Wall of Sound." And unlike other games, it looks like the bear doesn't really die, so there's no fear of its skeleton rising up to play piano.

Fans were asked to select 10 concerts from between 1970 and 1990 to include as part of the game. After 30,000 votes, the gigs were selected and include shows from as early as 1971 to as late as a 1990 show in Albany, N.Y. The "Epic Tour" also has been cleaned up a bit, with no references or visuals connected to the band and drugs.

Although it's too early to tell how popular the "Epic Tour" will be, there are also discussions about similar games for Jay-Z and Jimmy Buffett. A Guns N' Roses game could also be a possibility but given how long it took for Chinese Democracy to emerge, fans shouldn't hold their breath.

In related news, the Grateful Dead archive at University of California-Santa Cruz's McHenry Library will open this Sunday. The University made the initial announcement regarding the archive in 2008. It will be open to both academic researchers and the general public and includes photos, press clippings, business records and correspondence and previously unreleased videos of interviews and television appearances.