SFCave was a simple “cave flier” game that feels like it amounts to a programming exercise in scope. You control a pixel that is pulled downwards by gravity, and by pressing the spacebar you apply an upwards thrust to the pixel. You move forward at a constant rate through a randomly generated cave that gradually gets narrower, until you inevitably die. The pixel leaves a stylish trail behind you.
(image stolen from mobygames)
I’m not sure if this is the first example of this particular micro-genre of game (it had numerous clones), but it’s at least the earliest one I can think of (from 1995, despite feeling like a game concept from the 1970s). In the process of time this game would have genealogical descendants in the form of Flappy Bird clones and endless runners.
Anyhow, I was talking about this with my brother the other day (because he was making a clone as a programming exercise), and that jogged my memory of a particularly interesting clone of it: I had forgotten the name of it, but it had hand-designed levels (no proc-gen) and a Megadrive-style soundtrack (I recall the composer being especially proud of for how closely he matched Treasure’s style).
It was a Flash game, so I eventually found it on the Flashpoint Database under the name Metro.Siberia Underground and, yeah, the music does sound pretty convincingly similar to a Megadrive soundtrack by Treasure (at least by the standards of 2007):
Navigate through three of the Siberian underground systems in this RSSGTG (Retro Soviet Style Gravity Tunnel Game).
A very simple and addicting game inspired by the well known helicopter game, but unlike the helicopter game this game contains do not contain randomly generated levels, so your skill is all that counts.
The game (and editor) was built by me, and the art and music was created by Simon Stålenhag. The game has been played more than 10 million times since it was released in late 2007, and we have released one spinoff of the game called “People in planes”.
(After reading this I was racking my brain for a minute trying to figure out where I recognized the name Simon Stålenhag from, and (besides having his book The Electric State bastardized by the Russo brothers) he contributed to all three SOUNDSHOCK albums.)
The game appears to work perfectly in Ruffle.
