Free and open source

There is no button for up: you flap.

Two directions, a flap and a shield. The faster you flap the higher you go — and on contact the higher spur wins. The spur is the dash ahead of the nose. Below there is molten metal.

CategoryGames

Open the app Source code

Why a second game

One rule, and you watch it happen.

The apps we publish share a technical constraint rather than a subject: they run on the machine of whoever opens them and send nothing anywhere. A game demonstrates that to everybody who will never open a file of measurements.

Here the game has one rule and it fits on a line: when two riders touch, the one whose spur is higher stays airborne and the other does not. Everything else — the inertia, the ledges, the metal on the floor — exists to make being higher at the right moment difficult.

Flight works the way a flapping machine flies: there is no command for up, there is the rate at which you flap. It is the mechanic that makes the genre recognisable, and it is also why it takes ten seconds to learn and rather longer to master.

What it does

You fly by flapping: no key climbs on its own, and holding one down counts as a single flap.
On contact the higher spur wins. Level with each other and both bounce away.
Seven ledges across six heights, and the two lowest are short: between them there is nothing but molten metal, so flying low is a choice and not a rest.
The field wraps horizontally: leave on the right and you come back on the left.
Whatever you unseat leaves a cell: collect it once it has touched down, or it hatches and comes back a class higher.
A fire shield that burns whatever you touch, however you touch it: three seconds, and back after ten.
Waves with rules of their own — cells only, survival, team, duel — announced as they begin.
Two things come out of the molten metal when you take too long: a claw that grabs whoever flies low, and a fireball spat into the air that comes down wherever you left it room.
A high score table, counters and a coin slot as on an arcade cabinet, with the scores kept in this browser and exportable.
Sound generated by the browser, with no audio file to download.
Two play on one keyboard, or one on the keyboard and one on a gamepad, and the keys can be changed if yours will not take the combination.
After the first visit it works with no connection, in Italian and English, with light and dark themes, and installs as an application.

What it does not do

It sends nothing anywhere: no account, and no score on a server of ours.
There is no worldwide high score table, for the same reason.
Two players need a keyboard or a gamepad: four thumbs do not fit on a phone.
There are no purchases and no advertising.

In brief

Status

Finished: waves, score, lives, high scores and sound are all there. That each of the first sixty waves can be emptied is verified by a check that lives in the code, not by eye.

Controls

A and D to turn, W to flap, S for the shield — or press the field on the side you want to go, and every press is a flap. The keys can be changed.

Data

Stays on your computer. After the page has loaded the app makes no network requests.

Two players

On one keyboard, or with a gamepad. Not on a phone.

Screen

Fixed, with no scrolling. On a phone it wants to be held sideways.

Content

There is fighting. Whoever loses burns and sinks into the molten metal, and the fire shield sometimes takes a head off, blood and all. It is all drawn in large pixels, but it is worth knowing before handing it to a child.

High scores

They stay in this browser, on this computer, like a cabinet's. You can export them to a file and put them back elsewhere.

Sound

The browser generates it as you play: there is no audio file to download. It switches off from the bar at the top.

Offline

After the first visit it works without a connection.

Languages

Italian and English, following the browser's language.

Licence

Apache-2.0. The code is public and reusable, including commercially.

Version 1.5.0Updated 27 August 2026Licence Apache-2.0Source code

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Why is there no button for up?

Because that is the mechanic. Your height depends on how fast you beat your wings, so hovering is something you are doing rather than a state you are in. With a key you could hold, the height rule would become trivial — and the height rule is the only rule there is.

Is this a port of an existing game?

No. It is an original game, written by us, in the tradition of the flying-joust arcade games of the early 1980s. The mechanics of a genre appear in dozens of games and belong to nobody; the map, the numbers, the artwork and the code are ours, and no third-party name or mark appears here.

Why is the high score table not shared?

Because a shared table needs a server to receive the scores, and these apps do not have one. It is the same choice that makes the game usable with no connection and no account.

Can two people play?

Yes, on one keyboard or with a gamepad. The two sets of keys sit far apart because many keyboards will not register too many keys held at once, and if yours will not take the combination you can remap them.

What changes from one wave to the next?

The number and class of the enemies, which ledges are there, and every so often the rule itself. A cells-only wave has nothing in the air: they are all on the ground and they hatch if you leave them. A survival wave pays whoever finishes it without dying. With two players there is also the duel, the one moment when hitting the other player is worth points. Whichever it is, the wave says so as it begins.

Does the coin do anything?

Two things. It is the gesture a browser requires before it will let any sound out, so the game needs no “click to enable audio” banner pasted over it. And it counts the games played on this machine, which is the one number a cabinet always knew about itself. Coins are unlimited.

Can I take the high score table away?

Yes. From the table screen you export a readable JSON file and import it wherever you like. With no server that is the only copy there is, so it is worth doing before you change computer or clear the site's data.

Need something that runs locally?

If you have a case where the data must not leave the machine using it, tell us about it. A person from the team replies, not an automated message.

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