Rotate Cups

The pitch

This is a rotation physics puzzle game where you control the angle of cups to try to get the balls to roll into specific cups. Rotate cups clockwise or counterclockwise as needed to turn the clear cups into ramps guiding the ball down the level. Place at least one ball in each of the blue cups. In this game you have to get all the balls into the blue cups lower down the screen. Larger blue cups can hold more than one ball in them. If there are multiple smaller blue cups you must get a ball into each of them. Levels are not timed & you can both rotate as many times as you like & pause as many times as you like. You can skip intermediary cups. On most levels you typically want to use all the cups on the way down, but if you are struggling to do so you can bump a ball off the outside of a cup or skip a cup entirely & it won’t harm you in the least provided your balls eventually get into the blue cups. Some levels have a long reach you have to make the ball roll. On those levels sometimes a somewhat rapid cup spin toward the destination is enough, but in some cases you have to do that rapid spin as the starting point & then slightly spin back quickly right as the ball is leaving to give the ball a bit more lift.

Controls & how it runs

Desktop: Use your mouse left click button to select on the screen & drag your mouse to rotate the cups. Drag left or down to spin clockwise. Drag right or up to spin counterclockwise. Touchscreen devices: Tap the screen with a finger & drag your finger across the screen to rotate cups clockwise or counterclockwise.

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 portrait (upright) screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. This cabinet stands tall: it was built for portrait screens, so a phone held upright gives it the frame it wants — though it will squeeze politely into any window. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Pro tips for skill cabinets

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. On skill cabinets the players topping the table are rarely the quickest clickers — they're the ones whose movements never need correcting.
Miss on purpose once. Deliberately failing an easy section teaches you the timing window better than ten passes you fluked through with your eyes half closed.
Change one thing per run. If you adjust your whole approach after every failure you'll never learn which adjustment actually worked — isolate the variable, then commit.

Rotate Cups — quick-fire questions

Does Rotate Cups 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 Rotate Cups?

It stands on our Skill 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 Rotate Cups on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. This cabinet stands tall: it was built for portrait screens, so a phone held upright gives it the frame it wants — though it will squeeze politely into any window.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Rotate Cups 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 Skill row is powered on and waiting — One hundred and seventy games that grade your hands, not your luck. Skill cabinets are where 'I almost had it' turns into one more run, and then somehow into twelve.