A retro style game console with several game cartridges

Over the last several weeks, between client work and another soon-to-be-revealed project, I’ve been getting back in touch with my creative, playful, experimental side. In an effort to get some web development practice and see what I can build, I’ve been creating some web-based toys and games.

Many of them are inspired by things in my past, pages from the rest of my personal website, or just things I thought would be fun to create. I’ve always been interested in games and puzzles; I spent hours playing Microsoft Adventure and pretty much anything on our Intellivision once we got our first console.

Things to look at

  • Aquarium: feed the fish, tap the glass, add a few new friends, and turn the lights down.
  • Formicarium: a pixel ant farm. Drop in some food and the colony gets to work. It keeps digging while you’re gone.
  • Weather Globe: a Kansas City snow globe. Shake it. Sometimes a storm rolls through, and sometimes a twister.
  • Tacet: this page was intentionally left blank. Mostly.

Things to play

  • Atomic Skyway: retro-future hover racing.
  • Order Up!: a diner pinball table, all chrome and neon. Spin the order wheel, cook up tickets on the grill, start a Lunch Rush, and get your initials on the chalkboard. Play after midnight and things get a little strange.
  • Bready or Not: the diner’s back kitchen. Stack the tallest sandwich you can before three things hit the floor and the health inspector shuts you down. There’s a Deli menu and a vegetarian Garden menu.
  • Hat Trick: my favorite hats finally get some use. Toss them onto the coat rack. The boater flies like a frisbee, the bowler goes where you point it, and the stocking cap does whatever it wants. Every hat that lands makes Grampa’s handlebar mustache a little more magnificent.
  • Trickster: a handheld electronic game from 1978 that never was. Nine light-up buttons, five games, and a coyote that cheats. Remember the coyote? This is that one. Catch it in the act and press HOWL.

Things to make

  • Fridge: word magnets on a neglected fridge. Write something. The leftovers want out. Watch the door.
  • Brick Box: snap pixel bricks together, knock it all over, share what you built.

Things that are a little odd

  • Interface: the helm of a deep-space hauler. Flip the switches, read the crew logs, talk to the ship’s computer. Don’t trust the ship’s computer.
  • Infinite Monkeys: a typing pool of monkeys banging away at typewriters, checked against the complete works of Shakespeare. Everyone who visits shares the same record. How much Shakespeare can they type?
  • The Waiting Room: take a number. Fill out the forms. Your number will be called. Eventually.
  • Shortwave: an old radio in a dark kitchen. Tune through the static and you’ll find somebody reading numbers. Everyone listening hears the same ones at the same time. I won’t say more than that, except: if you like a puzzle, keep your eyes open in the other toys.

Why

Building these games and toys has been a great way to stretch out my web development muscles and create something for myself, building something just to build it — no deadlines, no agenda. Literally Something Out of Nothing — exactly what this site is all about. I’ve been giggling a lot as each one is born and I start to share them with people. They make me happy; I hope they bring you the same joy and make the world a little bit less stressful.

How

I had help building these from Claude, an AI coding assistant, which turned my ideas into working code. The ideas, names, stories and decisions are mine, along with a lot of playtesting and “no, try it this way.” I also recorded my own voice reading numbers for Shortwave, with help from a friend for the second voice.
Nothing in the playground is generated art or borrowed sound. The pixel art is drawn with code, and every beep, bell, sizzle and jukebox tune is synthesized in your browser as you play. The names, characters and stories are all original.

Every toy can be played with a keyboard, and most work with a screen reader. And yes, the Shortwave numbers really do decode, and the keys are hidden around the playground.

If you’d like something playful like this for your own website, a game, a toy, or an interactive surprise for your visitors, that’s the kind of thing Two Bit Consulting does too.

There will be more. If you find a bug, get a high score you’re proud of, or just have a favorite, I’d love to hear about it.
Go play.