Blit Racers

About the game

Blit Racers is a small top-down racing game made for the 32blit, the open-source handheld console from Pimoroni, by Shane Powell. It is a homebrew game: an independent developer wrote it for the device and released it under the MIT licence, and here it runs in your browser with no changes to the game. The author describes it as a tabletop racer, and its tracks are exactly that: little cars racing round places that are huge for them and ordinary for us.

You drive a tiny open-wheel car against three computer-controlled ones. The view is from above and follows your car. There are two tracks. The first is a kitchen table, with a checked tablecloth, small round bits scattered across it and a giant red fruit sitting in the middle, and the edge of the table is a real edge: drive over it and the car falls off and is put back on the track. The second is a bath tub, a long winding course through the foam with a rubber duck beside the water.

Playing it here

Click Play, press Z on the title screen and choose a difficulty with the up and down arrows: on Easy the other cars run at half speed, on Medium at four fifths, and on Hard at full speed. Press Z again, pick a track with the left and right arrows (the preview shows the course) and press Z to go to the grid. Three lights count down at the top of the screen, and the race starts when they go out.

A race is three laps. Cars have to pass the checkpoints in order, so cutting across does not count as a lap. When you cross the line for the third time the result screen shows your place and the time of each lap, and Z takes you back to the title. The game does not save anything, so you can leave whenever you like and nothing is stored.

The game is still labelled as a work in progress by its author, so expect rough edges: it has a small number of tracks, no music, and no sound at all in this version.

Controls

Tips

Lift before the corners. You only accelerate while Z is held, so letting go of it before a tight corner is the way to slow down.

Walls slow you down. Touching an obstacle halves your speed, so a clean line beats a fast one on the kitchen table.

Start on Easy. On Easy the other cars run at half speed, which leaves you time to learn each track and its checkpoints.

FAQ

Does it save my progress? No. There are no saved times or records, only the lap times of the race you have just finished.

Can I race a friend? No, it is a single-player game against three computer cars.

What is a 32blit? A small open-source handheld with a 320×240 screen, a D-pad and four buttons that anyone can write games for. The games run on the device or, as here, on a computer.