Microgic 89

The pitch

MICROGIC 89 is a retro tile puzzle set inside a 1980s microchip. You play BYTE, a courier who has to collect every data chip on the board, unlock the socket they open, and reach the exit before the timer runs out. 50 hand-built levels, each one testing a different machine: sliding ice floors, force belts, teleport pads, cloning machines, trap doors, live bombs and patrolling bugs. Nothing on the board is decoration - if a gadget is there, you have to use it. Every level you clear and every second left on the clock feeds your score, and the global leaderboard remembers who runs the chip best. Play it flat in the classic top-down view or flip to 3D at any time. A full level editor is built in, so you can draw your own maps and play the ones other players have published. Fully localized in 8 languages: English, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, German, French and Japanese.

Controls & how it runs

GOAL: collect every data chip on the board, step onto the socket to open it, then reach the exit before TIME reaches zero. CONTROLS - Desktop: arrow keys or WASD. You can also click and drag toward where you want to go. - Mobile: swipe or drag in the direction you want to move. Pinch to zoom. - P pauses, R restarts the level, and any key clears the level card. WATCH OUT - Water and fire are fatal unless you are carrying the matching boots. - Ice slides you until you hit a wall. Force floors push you along their arrows. - Push a block into water to build a bridge over it. - Coloured doors need the matching key. Bombs destroy whatever steps on them. - Monsters walk fixed patrol routes - wait for the gap, then cross. SCORING - Each cleared level is worth its number x 500, plus 10 points for every second left on the clock. Beat your best time to raise your total on the leaderboard.

Getting a run going takes exactly one press: Press start, up top, and the game boots inside this page — nothing downloads in the background and no form wants your details before the first jump. The cabinet is drawn for a flexible screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Pro tips for arcade cabinets

Treat your first run as a scouting mission. Arcade cabinets hide their cruelty in the second minute, not the first — learn where the difficulty spikes before you start chasing numbers.
Small scores compound. Grab the easy pickups on every pass instead of gambling the whole run on one heroic line; heroes respawn, banked points don't evaporate.
Watch the edges of the screen. In classic arcade design the next problem almost always enters from somewhere you weren't looking — build the habit of scanning the borders.

Microgic 89 — quick-fire questions

Does Microgic 89 cost anything to play?

Not a token. The cabinet is free from the first run to the five-hundredth — no wallet, no sign-up, no toll booth hiding three levels in. The adverts around the page are what keep the floor's lights on.

What sort of game is Microgic 89?

It stands on our Arcade row — that's the family it plays most like. The pitch above is the publisher's own rundown of what it throws at you and what it hands back.

Can I play Microgic 89 on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Microgic 89 is an HTML5 game: hit the start button and it boots on this page, and shutting the tab sweeps the cabinet clean behind you.

Before you wander off

Personal best banked, or still chasing it? Either way the full Arcade row is powered on and waiting — The main floor: 415 cabinets of pure arcade stock — the quick, the loud and the gloriously unfair. If it beeps, flashes and dares you to beat a number, it lives on this row.