The game Jangaron is based on the light cycle sequence of the 80s movie
Tron
which has inspired many computer games before. So why another one?
Because Jangaron runs in almost any browser without any plug-in,
so it can be played anytime, anywhere!
It is completely written in JavaScript and uses DHTML only.
You can even play Jangaron from your browser cache when
you are offline.
As far as I know, it is the first pure-DHTML game with fast, scalable 3D graphics,
not using the canvas element like
Canvascape,
but css border slants.
Even the Flash version
of the Tron light cycle race shows only a 2D view of the game!
The game has been tested on Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3.1, and
Opera 9, all on Windows. If you play Jangaron
successfully with any other browser or operating system or experience any problems,
please let me know. You can reach me by e-mail
or at my blog.
But action speaks louder than words, go ahead and try it yourself!
End of line.
In Jangaron, each player rides a colored light cycle on the grid.
The light cycles leave walls behind and can turn 90 degrees left or right.
The objective is to make your opponents hit a wall while avoiding them yourself.
You can accelerate to as fast as you like (and can cope with!), but the lower limit is 25.
All human players, called users, and some computer players (programs) have a view port
that shows a 3D view from the perspective of their light cycle.
The head-up display at the top of each view port shows all player's names on a
background with their color, the number of wins (last survivor of a game) and deaths (crashes).
For the player owning the view port, additionally, the current speed, the current coordinates
and direction are shown.
The game is over when there is only one or no player remaining or when the last user has
died. In the latter case, one of the remaining programs is chosen as the winner randomly.
If there is one survivor, her or his win count is increased.
Edit, add, and remove user or program players, enter names, choose colors.
Every user has her or his view port, programs may be watched by checking the "View?" checkbox.
The total number of players is limited to six, the total number of view ports to four.
To assign keys for a user, click on or tab to the key column and simply press the desired key.
Safari Users: Note that you cannot click on the key column, but have to use tab, and
the browser option to "focus every object on the Web site using tab" must be switched on.
Opera Users can only assign keys by clicking on the key column, not by using tab, since
Opera seems to never focus hyperlinks on tab (correct me if I'm wrong).