Brow Beat

Nearly every time anyone writes about Community, the NBC comedy about a group of community college students, some mention is made of the show’s “small but devoted” fan base. Devoted might be an understatement.

In “Digital Estate Planning,” an episode from late in Season 3, the character Pierce Hawthorne (played by Chevy Chase) learns that his deceased father has created a Mario-brother's style video game called “Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne.” The game, Pierce is told by a giant floating digital image of his father’s head, is to be a battle royal for his inheritance between him and his friends. And now, thanks to Reddit, Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne is real.

Reddit user Derferman has been working on an open-source version of the game for a couple weeks now. Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne v0.0.11 is a remarkable real-life recreation of the fictional game. Downloading will let you squash hippies as one of seven characters on the show. The game is available for Mac, PC, and Linux.

Update, Aug. 29, 2012: For the latest version of the game, head to ProjectHawkthorne.com.