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The Arcade

Retro games rebuilt for the browser. No downloads, no accounts, no ads — just the kind of thing that used to eat your afternoons.

Pick your cabinet

Best scores are saved on this device only.

Dust Off

lander

Bring the lander down slowly on a lit pad. The narrow pads pay more, and fuel is the only clock.

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Fence

territory

Claim ground by drawing into open space and coming home. You can only be caught while the line is unfinished.

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House Call

action

A spray can, a house full of rooms, and spiders that come down on threads. Clear the room, then out by the door.

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Kings Row

checkers

Checkers by the English rules: captures are compulsory, and the far row crowns a king. Play the CPU or a friend on one screen.

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Lamplight

maze

A maze in the dark. Find three lanterns, then the door, while something you cannot fight walks the corridors.

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Last Line

dots and boxes

Dots and boxes. Draw the fourth side of a box and it is yours, and you go again. Play the CPU or a friend on one screen.

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Launch Window

word

Guess the word before the fuel runs out. Six wrong letters and the launch is scrubbed; three rockets a game.

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Loading Bay

puzzle

Push every crate onto a mark. You can push, and you can never pull. Eight bays, each scored against the fewest moves possible.

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No Crossing

duel

Two riders who never stop, and every inch they pass becomes a wall. Play the CPU or a friend on one screen.

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Say Again

memory

Four panels and a sequence that grows by one each round. No reading, no reflexes, only remembering.

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Six Cities

defence

Nothing to shoot at, only something to protect. Open the sky ahead of each missile; the score is how long you held.

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Soft Focus

hidden picture

A shape hidden in a field of dots. Look through the picture until it lifts out, guess it between yourselves, then reveal it.

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Sorted

puzzle

Two loops of beads and a turntable between them. Turn the loops, spin the middle, and get every bead home to its own colour.

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Two Hills

artillery

Two tanks, two hills. Angle, power, wind, fire, and the ground gives way where you miss. Play the CPU or a friend on one screen.

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Wings Level

tilt maze

A tilt maze. Hold the phone level and roll the ball home past the holes. On a computer, the arrow keys tilt the board.

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Fan page: Command & Conquer

Red Alert 2 and Renegade, two games I still play online, and where to play them today.

Read the fan page

How these are made

Each game is a self-contained page that runs in your browser. The write-up for each one — design choices, what was hard, what was fun — lives in Writing.

Read the build notes