On the map
The stages run in story order. Each one is a painting on the easel, a set of Blender models in front of it, and a road built from a little script of ramps, walls and houses. Lantern locations are behind the spoiler tags.
- Act I: The Midnight Ride Old North Church · Charlestown Neck · Menotomy Road · Lexington Belfry · Road to Concord · Lexington Green at Dawn
- Act II: The Long War Concord North Bridge · Breed's Hill · Delaware Crossing · Valley Forge · Saratoga · Yorktown
- Finale: Declare It Independence Hall
- Fever Dreams: After the Ride Main Street Parade · Iron Horse Express · Moon Map · The Sun · Dinosaur Dash · Rainbow Road
Act I: The Midnight Ride
The night Paul Revere rode, told road by road, from the church steeple in Boston to the green at Lexington at dawn.
Old North Church
In the game
The first stage. Revere rides from the North End to the wharf through narrow streets, under the steeple with its two lanterns. Call at the houses to wake the North End, hop the hitching rails, and jump the last ramp off the dock.
What happened here
Christ Church, now called the Old North Church, has the tallest steeple in Boston. On the night of 18 April 1775, the sexton Robert Newman and John Pulling Jr. climbed it and hung two lanterns. The signal told patriots across the river in Charlestown that the British Regulars were leaving Boston by water, across the Charles River, and not by land over Boston Neck.
The lanterns were not a message to Revere. He already knew. They were a backup, in case he was caught before he got out of town. Revere then rowed across the river in the dark, past the warship HMS Somerset.
Charlestown Neck
In the game
Revere is on a borrowed horse, and two officers are on his tail. A chase stage: the officers ride up from behind, and a well timed turbo past them knocks them out of the saddle. Mud, a ford and a ditch jump stand between you and the Medford road.
What happened here
In Charlestown, Revere borrowed a horse from Deacon John Larkin. Just past Charlestown Neck he saw two British officers on horseback waiting under a tree. One rode out to cut him off. Revere turned his horse and galloped toward Medford by another road. The officer got stuck in a clay pond.
Menotomy Road
In the game
The stage about waking people up. Farmhouses line the road. Every family you rouse lights a lamp and sends a minuteman to ride with you. A plank bridge falls in behind you, so do not stop on it.
What happened here
In Medford, Revere woke Captain Isaac Hall, who led the town's minutemen. From there he warned "almost every house" on the way to Lexington, as he later wrote. Menotomy is the old name for the town of Arlington.
Revere did not shout "The British are coming!" Most colonists still thought of themselves as British. The words he remembered using were closer to "The Regulars are coming out."
Lexington Belfry
In the game
Ring the bell. The belfry stands beside the road halfway through the stage. Call beside it and the bell rouses every house on that stretch at once. Crowds gather on the green.
What happened here
John Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying at the Hancock-Clarke house, the parsonage in Lexington. Sergeant William Munroe was on guard outside and asked Revere not to make so much noise. Revere answered, "Noise! You'll have noise enough before long. The Regulars are coming out!" William Dawes arrived about half an hour later by the land route.
The Lexington belfry rang the alarm that night to call the militia to the green.
Road to Concord
In the game
Dawes and young Doctor Prescott ride with you. Stone walls cross the road in every lane. A patrol waits in the dark, and another comes up behind. This is the stage for clean riding: one wipeout and the third star is gone.
What happened here
After Lexington, Revere and Dawes rode on toward Concord. They met Dr. Samuel Prescott, a young doctor riding home late, who joined them. In Lincoln a British patrol stopped them. Prescott jumped his horse over a stone wall and got away through the woods. He was the only one of the three who reached Concord. Dawes escaped too, after a bluff. Revere was captured.
Lexington Green at Dawn
In the game
The Regulars march onto the green at sunrise. Lines of soldiers fire volleys into marked lanes. Watch the red warnings at the side of the screen and change lanes before the smoke.
What happened here
The British released Revere near Lexington without his horse. He walked back to the parsonage and helped John Lowell, Hancock's clerk, carry a trunk of Hancock's papers out of Buckman Tavern. As they crossed the green, the Regulars arrived. Captain John Parker's militia stood on the green. A shot rang out, no one knows from where, and the British fired. Eight colonists were killed.
Act II: The Long War
The ride is over. The war has started. Six stages follow the news from Concord to the surrender at Yorktown.
Concord North Bridge
In the game
Spring, at last. A long bridge, a ford, and coins in arcs over the ramps. The militia comes down the hill as you cross.
What happened here
The militia on the hill above the North Bridge saw smoke rising from Concord and thought the town was being burned. They marched on the bridge. The British fired, and the militia fired back. In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson called it "the shot heard round the world" in his poem "Concord Hymn."
Breed's Hill
In the game
Charlestown is burning. Warships in the river fire broadsides into marked lanes. A cannon pad halfway through throws you a long way. Land it.
What happened here
The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought mostly on Breed's Hill, next door. Colonial troops dug a redoubt overnight. The British took the hill on the third attack, but lost more than a thousand men killed or wounded. The famous order "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" is credited to William Prescott or Israel Putnam, but no one is sure anyone said it. British ships shelled Charlestown, and the town burned.
Delaware Crossing
In the game
Israel Bissell rides this one. The river is full of ice. Jump floe to floe, and do not fall in. Snow blows sideways the whole way.
What happened here
On Christmas night 1776, George Washington took about 2,400 soldiers across the icy Delaware River in sleet and snow. They marched to Trenton and surprised the Hessian garrison the next morning. The password that night was "Victory or Death."
Valley Forge
In the game
Supply crates sit in the road. Smash them open to feed the huts. Log huts, snow and a parade ground.
What happened here
The Continental Army spent the winter of 1777 to 1778 at Valley Forge. Food and clothing were short, and about 2,000 soldiers died of disease. In February 1778, Baron von Steuben arrived and began drilling the army. It left in June a much stronger force.
Saratoga
In the game
Jack Jouett rides the ridge road through autumn woods. Dragoons patrol ahead and chase from behind. Low branches in every other stretch: tuck.
What happened here
British General John Burgoyne marched south from Canada in 1777. After two battles near Saratoga he was surrounded, and he surrendered his army on 17 October 1777. The win helped convince France to join the war on the American side.
Yorktown
In the game
The siege lines. Ships fire from the river, guns fire from the redoubts, and a barricade blocks the road. The hardest stage of Act II.
What happened here
American and French armies trapped Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, while the French fleet blocked help from the sea. After a three-week siege, Cornwallis surrendered on 19 October 1781. A story says the British band played "The World Turned Upside Down" at the surrender. It may not be true, but it is a good story.
Finale: Declare It
One stage. Philadelphia, the bells, and every window lit.
Independence Hall
In the game
The finale. Fireworks, crowds, bells, and windows to light. Call at each house to put a candle in the window.
What happened here
The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776, in the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall. A year later, Philadelphia celebrated the first anniversary with bells, bonfires, fireworks and candles in the windows.
Fever Dreams: After the Ride
The bonus roads from the 8-bit original, repainted. None of them happened. All of them are fun.
Main Street Parade
In the game
Floats roll down the road in the lanes. Candy rains from the floats. Catch it.
Meanwhile, in the real world
It never happened in 1775. It happens every Fourth of July.
Iron Horse Express
In the game
A steam locomotive runs beside the road. Beat it to the station.
Meanwhile, in the real world
Revere died in 1818, long before the railroad crossed the plains. The first transcontinental railroad was finished in 1869.
Moon Map
In the game
Low gravity. Every jump goes a long way. Saucers drift over the road and beam you up if you let them.
Meanwhile, in the real world
Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquility on 20 July 1969. No horses were involved.
The Sun
In the game
The road is plasma. Vortices fling you forward. Flares land in marked lanes.
Meanwhile, in the real world
The surface of the Sun is about 5,500 degrees Celsius. Bring water.
Dinosaur Dash
In the game
Asteroids hit the road and bounce the whole world. Long necks bend down into the lanes.
Meanwhile, in the real world
The Hell Creek Formation in Montana holds some of the last dinosaurs before the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous.
Rainbow Road
In the game
The secret stage. It opens when you have all thirteen colony lanterns. Your horse grows a horn and the road goes up.
Meanwhile, in the real world
Thirteen colonies, thirteen stripes, thirteen lanterns.