Twenty-four by thirty-two cells, a strand that grows with every plankton, rocks spelled from a pixel font, and a mood that the game and you keep together. Pick the blue you grew up with.
Mood, both ways
The game keeps two numbers with you. Every plankton raises its energy, and an unbroken run raises it faster. 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, a slow major arpeggio, the strand's bands hold still.
- FLOW an unbroken run. Bright colors, the bands start to cycle, plankton worth half again as much.
- RUSH hot colors, raster bars in the border, faster ticks, and a golden plankton worth triple that speeds you up when you eat it.
- DRIFT after collisions. The ticks slow, the rocks thin on the next stage, and the next strand starts shorter.
Your side is the dial: CALM (no lives; a collision trims the strand back to its start length); PLAY (three lives, one more every third stage); RUSH (starts hot, leans into the golden plankton). 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). 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 water.
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 palettes and the mood model are shared with Breakwater, the first cabinet in this row; the grid, the rock patterns, the music and the sounds were written for this page. Read the note on Nibbler and the home-computer snake listings.
The rules
The strand swims one cell per tick and turns at right angles. Each plankton adds one segment and ten points times the stage number. The frame is the wall; the wall, a rock or your own strand costs a life. A stage is cleared at a target length (twelve on the first, four more on each after), and the next stage stands a new rock pattern: open, posts, bars, nameplate, reef, gates, counter. The nameplate spells your machine and the counter spells the stage. Three lives, one more every third stage, no lives at all on CALM.
Controls
- Swipe anywhere on the field to turn; keep your finger down and swipe again to turn again. Tap to start.
- Keys: arrows or W A S D turn, Space starts, 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.