A small boat in the middle of a dark field. Logs drift in from every side, split when a flare hits them, and come back around the edge you watched them leave by. Nothing slows down unless you make it.
Mood, both ways
The game keeps two numbers with you. Hits raise its energy. A collision lowers its calm. Time brings both back toward the dial you set. Four words name where it is.
- DAWN warming up. Cool colors, the heartbeat slow, four logs.
- FLOW a long run of hits. Brighter lines, the heartbeat opens up.
- RUSH glow on every line, a faster heartbeat, more logs on the next field, and the tide bird comes often.
- DRIFT after a loss. The logs slow, the shield lasts longer, flares come faster, the sound thins out.
Your side is the dial: CALM (no game over; a collision resets you with a shield); PLAY (three boats, an extra boat every 2000 points); RUSH (starts hot, leans into the bird and the extra logs). The game relaxes toward it. The mood tape from your session stays in this browser, and when you leave after a game, the game hands its mood to the town.
Two machines
ATARI 800XL (1983, POKEY). Lines in the Graphics 0 light blue on a night version of its blue field, a black border. Raw square and noise voices, in the POKEY spirit. A blue READY and a RUN before the water.
COMMODORE 64 (1982, SID). Lines in the C64 light blue on a night version of its 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 log outlines, the heartbeat and the palettes were written for this page. Read the research note on Asteroids and its home ports, play Breakwater, the first game in this row, or visit the Death Star BBS, Mike's own Atari 8-bit history.
The rules
A big log is 20, a medium 50, a small 100, the tide bird 200, the arcade's own numbers. Big splits into two medium, medium into two small, small is gone. Clear the field for 100 and the next one brings a log more. Up to five flares in the air, four shots a second at most. Three boats; an extra boat every 2000 points; no game over on CALM.
Controls
- Touch: the left third of the water turns the boat left, the right third turns it right, the lower middle pushes, and a tap in the upper middle fires. The field names the zones the first time you play.
- Keys: ← → or A D turn, ↑ or W pushes, Space fires, 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.