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Neon Starfighter a retro arcade game
A game we advised on for fun: Neon Starfighter
16th May 2025
I really enjoyed advising on this game as it took me back to the 80s.
Every coder has a soft spot for the arcade games they grew up with, and Neon Starfighter is our love letter to that era. We advised on this retro shooter just for fun, and it runs entirely in your browser with nothing to install. Click the link above, turn the volume up and prepare to save humanity.
The mission
Bio-mechanical entities are invading your dimension, and you are the last pilot standing between them and Earth. You start with three shields, and every collision with alien biomass drains one. Lose them all and the mission is over.
The game is split into three levels of increasing difficulty, each with its own colour scheme and soundtrack. Level one eases you in with standard enemy units dropping towards you. Level two unleashes faster viral entities that weave across the screen in sine wave patterns. Level three throws in organic bots that loop backwards in retrograde spirals, which is every bit as confusing as it sounds. To keep you on your toes, enemies can also vanish down a glowing plughole and zip across the screen to reappear somewhere new.
The boss
Survive all three levels and the real fight begins. A huge rotating boss fades into view, with spinning, twisting segments and a health bar that takes 25 direct hits to empty. It fires spreading fans of missiles at you while it moves, so dodging matters as much as shooting. Destroy it for a 500 point bonus and a well-earned victory screen.
Controls
- Move: arrow keys or A and D
- Fire plasma: spacebar
- Pause: Esc
- Menus: arrow keys and Enter
How does scoring work?
Your kill count rewards you for surviving into the tougher stages. Every enemy destroyed earns 10 points multiplied by the level you are on, so a kill on level three is worth three times as much as one on level one. The boss pays out 20 points for every hit that lands, plus the 500 point bonus for finishing it off, so a clean boss fight can make or break a high score.
Making the top pilots table
The top pilots table holds the eight best scores. Earn a place and the game asks for your three-letter call sign, entered arcade style just like the cabinets of old, before saving it with the date. Scores are stored in your own browser, so the table becomes a running rivalry between everyone who plays on the same machine.
Tips for new pilots
- Keep moving. Shields do not recharge, so every hit you avoid counts for the rest of the game.
- Watch for the plughole. When an enemy starts to swirl away, it is about to reappear somewhere else, so be ready to change direction.
- Learn the level three loops. The retrograde bots double back on themselves, so fire where they are going, not where they are.
- Dodge between the fans. The boss's missiles spread out as they fall, leaving gaps you can slip through if you stay calm.
Can I play on a phone or tablet?
Neon Starfighter was designed for the keyboard, just like the home computer games that inspired it, so a laptop or desktop gives the best experience. Grab a keyboard, find a quiet ten minutes and see how far you can get.
Under the bonnet
The whole game is drawn on a single HTML5 canvas using plain JavaScript, with no game engine at all. Neon glow effects, particle explosions and spark trails are all generated in code, while volume sliders let you balance the music and sound effects. Your best runs are saved to a top pilots table in your browser, so there is always a score to beat.
Each frame is timed against a 60 frames per second target, so the game runs at the same speed whether your computer is brand new or getting on a bit. Five separate music tracks cover the menu, each of the three levels and the boss fight, switching automatically as you progress.
If you enjoy seeing what a browser can do, try our Mandelbrot and Julia set explorer or learn how 3D scenes are built in animating a cube in Three.js. And if you have a more serious project in mind, our custom web application development service brings the same skills to business.
