Sprint orienteering is a sport of seconds, and success demands lightning-quick decision-making. Here is one way to hone that skill from the comfort of your living room. Route Choice Game is a free Finnish on-line game that you can use to practice identifying the shortest route choice, as quickly as possible, in sprint O. You can find it at https://routechoicegame.com/login.php

The program controls are all in Finnish, but the key steps are easily mastered (see the appropriate translations below). The following description is taken from the developer’s website.

Instructions

The user is shown a simple urban-style course leg with two possible routes: go right or go left. The player must choose the shorter route, and the goal is to make the best route choice quickly, as often as possible. After you make your choice, the program displays the two possible routes (green line for the shortest route; red line for the longer route) and reports whether you chose the fastest route (oikein! = correct! Vaarin! = wrong!). It also shows the percent difference between the two choices, and tells you how long it took you to make your choice.

The Route Choice Game is first and foremost a competition against yourself. Your goal is to be able to improve your success rate, and to reduce the time you use for making the route selection. You can also compare your own performance to other players around the world.

There is a finite number of different terrain layouts in the game (they will apparently be further developed), but in the current model, the size of the elements and the positions of the controls will vary in a random fashion, creating up to billions of different challenges. Note that within the set of route choice problems, a small fraction will offer route choices that are both roughly equal.

Route selection can be made by clicking on the buttons on the screen, or by pressing the right / left edge of the map (on a touch screen) or by using the 1 (right) / 3 (left) keys. Once you have made a choice and seen the result, the next challenge can be downloaded by clicking on the map, or by clicking the button again or using the R key.

Handy Translations From Finnish!

Kirjaudu sisään = Log in
[You first have to set up an account.]
Rekisteröidy käyttäjäksi = register as a user
Unohditko salasanasi? = Forgot your password?
Anna pelaaj = Let’s play! (aka ‘Instructions’)
Pelaaj = play
Tilastot = statistics
Peli = game
Uudestaan = next
Lyhyempi = shorter

Pidempi = longer