The dark side of the moon

Cheese Run

You are in the cockpit of a small, badly insured snubfighter, pointed at a moon that is made of cheese. Eighteen thousand units of rock sit between you and the dairy. Three shields, no rebate.

How it plays

Rocks come at you in a widening spread and get faster the longer you last. Hitting one costs a shield, and the third one ends the run where it stands. Shooting a rock pays 140 points, distance pays about 7 points a second, and reaching the moon pays a bonus of 1,200 plus 400 for every shield you kept. Boost roughly doubles your speed while the meter lasts, which is a good way to cover ground and a very good way to arrive at a rock early.

There is no wagering here, no code, no rebate and no fee schedule. It is a canvas, a focal length and a divide by z. The moon is yellow, the holes are holes, and a knowing nod at a certain trench run is as far as the reference goes.

Controls and what the screen shows

Steer the fighter with the arrow keys or WASD, fire the cannons with the space bar, and hold shift for boost. On a touch screen, the pad under the canvas does the same four directions plus fire and boost. The readout above the canvas carries your score, the distance still to run to the cheese moon in units of a hundred, the shields you have left, your best score this visit, and the boost meter. When the run ends, one button restarts it without reloading the page.

Your best score lasts as long as the tab does. Nothing is written to your device and nothing is sent anywhere, which is a low bar that most games do not clear. A screen reader gets the score, the shield count and the result of each run announced as text, since the picture itself is a canvas of moving rock.