WasThatBefore

Five moments, one column, EARLIEST printed at the top and LATEST at the bottom. WasThatBefore gives the day's puzzle a number and a title, then asks you to drag five cards into chronological order. Each card carries a category tag under it, and the tags cut across subjects rather than staying in one lane: sport, culture, television, history and technology sit side by side on the board, which is what makes the sorting awkward in a good way. A counter under the board reads Attempt 1/3, a mode button sits above it reading Easy mode, and a row of region tabs runs across the top: Global, USA, UK, EU and AU.

1. Region tabs run across the top: Global, USA, UK, EU and AU.
2. Drag the five cards into order between the EARLIEST and LATEST markers.
3. Decide on hard mode before your first guess. The panel says the toggle has to be flipped before you commit anything.
4. Press Lock it in. The counter beside it tracks which of your three attempts you are on.

Three attempts with colour feedback between them turns a sorting puzzle into a deduction one, and that is the whole appeal here. The first lock in is an experiment, the second is arithmetic, and the third is where the puzzle actually gets you. Add the category tags, which deliberately mix a sporting moment with a novel, a sitcom, a hurricane and a spaceflight, and you get a board where no single kind of memory is enough. The hard mode option deserves credit for being a real trade rather than a badge: you give up the colours entirely and get a bigger score if you can hold the whole order in your head.

The rules panel describes it exactly: once you lock in, each card lights up green or red, and you get three attempts in all. So attempt one is really a probe, telling you which cards are already home and reducing the puzzle to a permutation of the red ones. Hard mode removes that entirely, since the panel says it gives no feedback between attempts in exchange for a 1.5 times score.

Easy mode

The default. Cards light up green or red after each lock in, across three attempts.

Hard mode

Toggled before your first guess. No feedback between attempts, and the panel states a 1.5 times score for getting it right.

Region slates

Tabs for Global, USA, UK, EU and AU sit above the board.

Archive

Linked in the footer, alongside About, Privacy and Profile.

• Choose hard mode or nothing before you touch Lock it in. The panel says to toggle hard mode before your first guess.
• Use the category tags. A television premiere or a book publication pins to a period much faster than a sporting moment or a natural disaster does, so sort the tagged easy ones first and slot the rest around them.
• Attempt one is worth spending on information rather than on hope. Green and red on five cards usually leaves only a couple of arrangements standing for attempt two.