Neon Snake

A turn you pressed is a turn you get

Nearly every bad browser Snake breaks in the same place, and it is not the graphics. You flick left a fraction of a second before the corner, the game is still between two cells, and the press is thrown away. You die holding a key you definitely pressed. Neon Snake buffers two turns and applies them the moment the snake reaches the next cell.

The buffer refuses opposites. Heading right, you press left and nothing is stored — the snake carries on. Two quick presses that would fold it back through its own neck are impossible, because each is measured against the one before it. Turn down then right, as fast as you like; turn right then left, and the second never happens.

It crosses six cells a second at level one and fourteen by level sixteen, sliding between cells rather than jumping.

What each of the three boards is really asking

Classic is the honest one: the border kills, so the skill is refusing to be walked into a corner. Wrap removes that pressure — every edge is a door — and the danger turns inward, because a long snake can bite itself from a direction you were not watching. Maze is Classic with furniture: five walls at level one, eleven by level seven, never touching each other or the border, which is what guarantees a route exists. The field is redrawn at every level, so the layout you learned is thrown away five pellets later.

Choose with the buttons here, or press 1, 2 or 3; M cycles. Best scores are kept separately, because a Wrap score and a Classic score are not the same achievement.

The pellet maths, and why the bonus is worth the detour

A normal pellet pays 10 at level one and five more per level above it, so level six pays 35. Five pellets finish a level, and a level raises the speed — and in Maze lays a new field. Because the level sets both the clock and the payout, the same pellet is worth nearly four times as much at level fifteen as at level one.

The cyan bonus pellet turns up every three to five pellets and pays five times the normal rate — 50 at level one, 150 at level five. It lasts seven seconds and flashes for the last two and a half, and it does not count towards the level, so five bonuses in a row leave you still at level one with a pile of points. That is the reason to cross the board for one.

The cells that kill you are the ones you have already left

Your body is solid, with one exception. The tail cell is vacated on the same tick the head reaches it, so chasing your own tail is free — you can loop it forever. It stops being free the moment you eat, because eating means the tail does not move that tick and you are one cell longer than the hole you were fitting into. Most deaths between level five and level ten are exactly that: a tight loop that was survivable right up until the pellet inside it.

From level five a magenta obstacle joins the board, one more per level up to four. It steps every third of a second, so it is slower than you, and only its cell matters: it kills your head. Give it room — the cell it takes next is not always the one you predicted.

Questions that turn up after a few deaths

Can I turn twice between two ticks?

Yes. Two turns are held at once, the first applied at the next cell and the second at the cell after it, so a two-cell hook goes round a corner without waiting. A third press in the same window is dropped: a longer queue would let you plan a whole route and spend it all at once.

What happens if I press the opposite direction?

Nothing. A reversal is refused when you press it rather than stored, so the snake carries on and cannot be folded back through its own neck later. To go back the way you came, turn once and then turn again — two cells of hook, not an instant U-turn.

Where did the bonus pellet come from, and why is it flashing?

It appears every three to five normal pellets and lives for seven seconds; the last two and a half are the flash. It pays five times a normal pellet and does not count towards the next level, so it is worth crossing the board for.

Why did the maze change while I was still playing?

A level ended. Maze lays fresh walls every time you finish a level, and no wall is ever placed on the snake or within a cell of another, so the new field cannot seal off a region. A block you had learned to turn around can still be somewhere else two seconds later.

Does a moving obstacle kill me if it touches my tail?

No. Only the head counts, in both directions: an obstacle landing on your head kills you, and your head moving into an obstacle kills you. The rest of the body passes under it, so keep the head clear.

Why the input buffering got more care than the artwork

I wrote the turn queue first and drew the board afterwards, because the failure mode of a bad Snake is not that it is ugly — it is that it argues with you about what you pressed. Every shape here is a rectangle, and there is no music and no powerup. The only thing that had to be right was the half second between seeing the gap and being in it.