splargdrop

“You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes.”

— J.B.S. Haldane, On Being the Right Size

Splarg Drop is a customizable, retro-terminal styled falling block puzzle game built with vanilla JavaScript.

Unlike traditional games in this genre, Splarg Drop features a constant game loop—the speed does not increase as you level up. Instead, the challenge lies in endurance, grid management, and optimizing your playstyle to achieve the ultimate status of "Horse Splashed."

✨ Features

• Audio Engine: Includes a synthesized 8-bit sound engine (using Web Audio API) for retro bleeps and bloops. No external MP3s required.
• Visual Feedback: * Screen Shake: Feel the impact when you hard-drop pieces.
• Phosphor Flash: The screen lights up momentarily when you clear lines.
• Social Sharing: Easily post your "Horse Splashed" high scores to X (Twitter) or copy a result card to your clipboard.
• Constant Flow: The drop speed remains constant throughout the game. You set the pace in the config menu.
• Dynamic Board Sizing: Want a narrow 4-wide challenge? Or a massive 50-wide marathon? The game engine automatically scales the blocks to fit your screen based on your custom width and height inputs.
• Retro Terminal Aesthetic: Featuring a "hollow-block" CRT visual style with a single-pixel border.
• Theme Engine: Includes a retro color picker to tint your monitor (Green, Amber, Cyan, Magenta, White).
• Full Gamepad Support: Plug and play with standard Xbox/PlayStation controllers. You can navigate menus and play the game entirely without a keyboard.
• Zero Dependencies: Written entirely in a single HTML file using the HTML5 Canvas API. No build steps, no libraries.

🕹️ Controls

The game automatically detects connected gamepads.

Action	Keyboard	Gamepad
Start Game	(Click Button)	Start / A
Move Left/Right	Arrow Left / Right	D-Pad / Left Stick
Soft Drop	Arrow Down	D-Pad Down
Hard Drop	Arrow Up	D-Pad Up
Rotate	Q, W	Face Buttons (A, B, X, Y)
Pause Game	Esc	Start
Quit to Menu	-	Select / Back

> Note: When paused, you can use the D-Pad or Arrow keys to adjust the game speed on the fly.

🏆 Scoring System

The game ranks your performance based on the J.B.S. Haldane quote found on the title screen. Your "Game Over" title changes based on your final score:

1. MOUSE SHOCKED (Low Score) - You walked away unharmed.
2. RAT KILLED (Medium Score)
3. MAN BROKEN (High Score)
4. HORSE SPLASHED (Ultimate Score)

⚙️ Customization

On the start screen, you can configure:

• Width: The number of blocks horizontally (Min: 4, Max: 50).
• Height: The number of blocks vertically (Min: 10, Max: 100).
• Speed: The drop interval in milliseconds (Standard is 1000ms).
• Tint: Click the colored squares to change the CRT phosphor color.