Scorched Earth, in your browser

A free, from-scratch browser version of the classic 1991 artillery game. Pick your angle, set your power, allow for the wind, and try to land a shell on the other tanks before they land one on you. Every hit pays; spend it in the armoury between rounds, and dig, roll, burn and nuke your way to being the last tank standing.

How to play

← →

Turn the barrel

↑ ↓

Set the power

Space

Fire — or aim with the mouse and click

[ ] or 1–9

Choose a weapon

S

Raise a shield, if you bought one

M · F

Sound on or off · fullscreen

Between rounds each player gets a turn at the armoury: ↑ ↓ to choose, Enter to buy, Tab when you are done. The wind changes every round, and so, now and then, do the edges of the battlefield: usually a shell that leaves is gone, but some rounds have walls that stop it, walls that bounce it back — sometimes harder than it arrived — or no edge at all, so it comes back in on the far side.

Playing with friends

Hot seat is two to eight players taking turns at one keyboard. Online, one player hosts and sends each of the others a short invite code by whatever chat you already use; they send a code back, and you are connected. The game runs directly between your browsers — there is no account, no download and no server in the middle.

Weapons

Missiles and nukes. Rollers that run downhill until they reach a tank or the bottom of a valley. Diggers that tunnel straight down. Funky Bombs, MIRVs and the Death's Head, which split apart in mid-air. Napalm that runs downhill and burns. Riot bombs that blast away ground rather than tanks. Tracers to find your range, shields to soak up a hit, and parachutes for when the ground is blown out from under you.

Credits

Scorched Earth — The Mother of All Games was written by Wendell Hicken and released for MS-DOS in 1991 as shareware. This is an independent tribute, written from scratch. It uses no code, artwork or sound from the original, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by its author.