Bowling Alley

Bowling Alley is cosmic bowling night in a browser tab. The lane runs away from you in glossy maple, the arrows and the gutters glow, a mirror ball throws spots down the boards and a pixel scoreboard hangs over the pins. Position the ball across the approach with a drag, then swipe up to throw: how fast you swipe sets the power, which way it points sets the line, and how much the swipe bows sets the hook. A dotted arc shows the line your throw will take, so you can see the ball skid through the oil and turn hard on the dry back end before you let go.

The pins are simulated, not scripted. Each one is a weighted body with a height model, so it topples, sweeps its neighbours over as it goes down, ricochets off the kickback plates and comes back onto the deck. Hit the pocket flush at a good angle and the head pin goes left into the 2 and the 4 while the ball carries on through the 3, the 5 and the 9 — the chain reaction that makes a strike. Come in light and you will leave the 4 pin, the 7, or a split the game will name for you. Three lane conditions change how far the ball turns: oily runs long and straight, medium is the house shot, dry grabs early and hooks hard. Six balls sit on the return rack, from a ten-pound ball that bends a long way to a sixteen-pounder that hooks less and drives straight through the rack.

Play ten frames on your own, hand the phone round in pass and play for two to four bowlers with their own names, or take on the computer at Easy, Steady or Sharp — Sharp lives in the pocket and shoots its spares. Strikes, spares and the tenth-frame bonus balls are scored properly, doubles and turkeys get called out, and a perfect game gets the treatment it deserves. Your best game and your recent scores are kept in your browser. Touch, mouse and keyboard all work: arrows move the ball, A and D add hook, hold Space to charge the throw, P pauses and M mutes.