1 - About the game
Smashoid 1984 is a classic "bat, ball and bricks" arcade game.
You steer a bat along the edge of the screen, bounce the ball back and smash through a wall of bricks. Miss the ball and you lose a life. It's a simple idea that keeps you saying "just one more level".
Smashoid 1984 brings the look, colours and sound of mid-80s 8-bit home computers back to life, with modern controls that work with a keyboard or a touch screen.
- 100 levels
- Monsters that get in your way
- Power-ups and surprises
- Plays on PC and mobile
- Free, nothing to install
2 - A short history
Bat-and-ball games are almost as old as video games themselves.
- 1972PONG
Atari's Pong: two bats, one ball and the first big arcade hit.
- 1976BREAKOUT
Atari swapped the opponent for a wall of bricks. Steve Wozniak built the prototype with Steve Jobs.
- 19848-BIT HOMES
8-bit home computers were in millions of homes, and Breakout-style games loaded from cassette tape were a staple.
- 1986ARKANOID
Taito added power-ups, enemies and a space setting. Its name is still used for the whole genre.
- 2026SMASHOID 1984
A tribute to that era, now running straight in your browser.
3 - How it's built
Smashoid 1984 is built from scratch for the web: it loads fast, needs no install and plays on desktop and mobile.
- Languages
- TypeScript (strict mode), compiled to plain JavaScript, HTML5, CSS
- Graphics
- HTML5 Canvas 2D at the original 256×192. Every pixel is drawn in code with
fillRect: no images, no sprite sheets, even the 8×8 font is stored as bitmasks. - Sound
- Web Audio API. Every sound effect and every chiptune is synthesised live: there isn't a single audio file. Listen to the tunes
- Libraries
- None. No game engine and no runtime dependencies: the whole game is one script of about 27 kB gzipped.
- Tools
- Vite and the TypeScript compiler for the build, plus automated tests in a headless browser that step the game frame by frame.
- Hosting
- A small static site served over HTTPS, self-hosted by Micca.
4 - About the author
Smashoid 1984 is made by Micca.
One engineer in Tallinn, not a sales department in a fake moustache, coding since 1998, when a 56k modem was a luxury. These days: websites, apps, business systems and, evidently, games about smashing bricks. The grown-up side lives on micca.dev.
Got an idea for something just as fun? Write to me: info@micca.dev
5 - Music
There isn't a single recorded note in Smashoid 1984.
Every tune is stored as numbers in the game's code, the way 8-bit composers did it, minus the shoulder pads. Your browser plays them live on square, triangle and sawtooth waves, while a kick drum and some white noise keep the beat. No band was harmed. There was no band.
So the whole game, all 13 tunes included, weighs about 27 kB: less than the shortest MP3 on this page. A slowly drifting filter also means no tune ever plays exactly the same way twice. Your iPhön can't say that.
Below are the title screen and the ten level tunes. Yes, I had to record them to prove that nothing is recorded.
© 2026 Tunes by Micca