Novarian

Novarian is an original arcade shooter built for muhamad.org — a loving, from-scratch homage to Solarian II, Ben Haller's 1990 Macintosh shareware classic that ate many an afternoon back in the day. All of the code, pixel art, and bleeps here are original; only the spirit is borrowed.

How it plays

Your ship follows the mouse — hold the button to autofire (or use the arrow keys and space). The enemy fleet swirls in rotating rings around the center of the screen, and every so often something peels off and dives straight at you. Attackers are worth roughly triple points, so the brave eat better.

• Shield — hold right-click (or ↓) to raise it. It blocks everything and drains while raised; it refills between stages. In SIMPLE mode the shield just absorbs hits on its own.
• Presents — shoot the supply wren crossing the top and catch what it drops: SPEED, TWIN, THRUST, AEGIS, TRIPLE, and the LASER — a sustained beam that sweeps with your ship and melts whole columns.
• Bonus — each stage's bonus ticks away while you dawdle and is banked when you clear it.
• Challenge rounds — every third stage or so, a no-fire bonus round. Hit 75% for a present; 100% for glory.

Sixteen stages stand between you and the end. A sullen moon guards the halfway point — and it wanes through real lunar phases as you hurt it, getting faster and angrier the thinner it gets. What waits at stage 17 is considerably less calm.

Modes & scores

CLASSIC is the game as intended; SIMPLE is friendlier (auto-shield, gentler pacing, generous presents). Each mode keeps its own high-score board, saved in your browser — your board is yours alone. Runs must start from stage 1 to be ranked.

The title screen keeps a secret or two. The bestiary (press ?) knows more than it lets on.