Tennis

What it is

Tennis is one of our own arcade games: a teal court, a magenta paddle on the left, an orange one on the right and a small amber ball. The mode screen offers a first-to-seven match against the computer at easy, normal or hard, a daily rally, or two players on one keyboard. In the daily rally the computer never misses, everyone gets the same returns that day, and the score is how long you keep the ball alive.

How to play

Pick a mode, press space to serve, and move your paddle with the arrow keys, W and S, or by dragging on the play area on a phone. Every return makes the ball a touch faster. Catch it on the tip of your paddle, marked by light marks, for a power shot, faster and flatter. In two-player, the left paddle uses W and S and the right one the arrows. The computer scored on us right after the first serve.

What makes it different

The daily rally turns a two-minute paddle game into something you can compare. The computer returns everything and the pattern is the same for everyone that day, so your longest rally is a fair number to send to a friend, and you can try as often as you like. Beaten computer levels are ticked off on the mode screen, and the power shot adds a gamble to every return: aim too far out and the ball slips past you.

Why it is on Bored

We built it because the paddle game is the shortest route from bored to not bored, and the daily rally gives it a reason to come back. It lives in Mini games, where five minutes is the brief.

Tips

• Wide angles beat the easy and normal computer, they react late and drift to the middle
• Against hard, stay near the center and expect power shots back
• Power shots come off the last few pixels of the paddle, the marks show where
• In the daily rally a steady center hit is safer than a gamble

FAQ