Fourteen columns, eight rows, a paddle that follows your finger, and a wall that answers how you play. Pick the blue you grew up with.
Mood, both ways
The game keeps two numbers with you. Rallies raise its energy. A lost ball lowers its calm. Time brings both back toward the dial you set. Four words name where it is.
- DAWN warming up. Cool colors, a slow major arpeggio, a slightly wide paddle.
- FLOW a long rally. Bright colors, the music opens up.
- RUSH hot colors, raster bars in the border, faster tempo, and in a long rally a second ball.
- DRIFT after losses. The paddle widens, the ball slows, the notes thin out.
Your side is the dial: CALM (no game over. the wall is a place to be); PLAY (three balls, extra balls every 400 points); RUSH (starts hot. leans into the second ball). The game relaxes toward it. The mood tape from your session stays in this browser, and when you leave, the game hands its mood to the town.
Two machines
ATARI 800XL (1983, POKEY). The Graphics 0 blue with a black border and light-blue text. Raw square waves with a noise bite, in the POKEY spirit. A blue READY and a RUN before the wall.
COMMODORE 64 (1982, SID). The blue field inside a light-blue border. A resonant filter sweep on every voice, in the SID spirit. 38911 BASIC BYTES FREE, then LOAD, then RUN.
Nothing is emulated and nothing is copied. The pixel font, the six wall patterns, the music and the palettes were written for this page. Read the research note on both machines, or visit the Death Star BBS, Mike's own Atari 8-bit history.
The rules
Two rows each of red (7), orange (5), green (3) and yellow (1), the 1976 arcade's own scoring. The ball speeds up after the fourth and twelfth hit of a wave and when it first touches orange and red. Three balls; an extra ball every 400 points; no game over on CALM. Six wall patterns cycle, and one spells your machine.
Controls
- Move the mouse or drag anywhere on the field. Tap or click to launch.
- Keys: ← → or A D steer, Space launches, P pauses, F full screen, M sound, C scanlines, 1 and 2 switch machines, 3 turns the dial.
- FULL uses the Fullscreen API. iOS Safari has none for pages, so the stage fills the screen instead; add to Home Screen for the whole display.