Frank Zamboni's 112th Birthday Is Celebrated With Google Doodle

On Wednesday, Google published perhaps the sleekest Google Doodle yet.

The search giant is celebrating the birthday of Frank Zamboni, creator of (what else?) the Zamboni ice-smoothing machine, with an 8-bit video game on its homepage.

The world's first "ice resurfacing machine" was invented by the Los Angeles-based mechanic for his family's skating rink. It quickly became a hit at hockey matches, cutting the once labor-intensive job of ice resurfacing from an "hour-and-a-half" of work for a shoveler to a matter of minutes, the Washington Post notes.

His machine has become such a part of hockey culture that in 2009, Zamboni was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall Of Fame, despite never having played a professional hockey match.

The celebrated Mr. Zamboni would have turned 112 today.

While Zamboni's machine may have sped up hockey games, the Doodle in honor of him will slow down your workday. In the game featured at google.com, the player drives a Zamboni to sweep the ice's surface after skaters scuff it up, taking care that fuel doesn't run out and avoiding obstacles like the ever-treacherous banana peel.

If you'd like to eat up even more time, click through the gallery of other Google Doodles below.