How to play Rapid Roll
The other game from the old Nokia: a ball that drops from ledge to ledge while the ledges climb towards a row of spikes.
- Players
- 1
- What you need
- A screen of climbing ledges
- How long
- A minute to ten minutes a game
What Rapid Roll is
Rapid Roll is a game for one. Ledges come up from the bottom of the screen and climb towards a row of spikes along the top, carrying the ball up with them. You roll the ball off one ledge to drop onto the next, and keep it away from the spikes for as long as you can.
It came on the Nokia 1100 and 1600 beside Snake, and for a lot of people here it was the other game on their first phone. Here it is drawn as a phone can draw it now, with a sky behind it.
Playing it here
- A game waits for your first touch or arrow key, so you can get ready before the ledges move.
- Hold a finger on the table and the ball rolls towards it and stops under it. On a computer, hold the left or right arrow, or A or D.
- Drop from ledge to ledge for as long as your lives last.
Pause, or the space bar, stops the game, and so does opening the menu or leaving the page. A touch sets it going again.
Rolling and dropping
The ball rolls along the ledge it is on for as long as you hold it. When its middle goes past the end of the ledge, it falls, and it lands on the first ledge it meets on the way down.
You can steer while it falls, so a ball dropping beside a ledge of spikes can still be moved onto a safe one. The sides of the screen are walls.
The score and hearts
Landing on a ledge lower than any you have stood on before is worth 10 points. Standing still scores nothing, so the score is how far down you get.
Some ledges carry a heart. Roll over it to pick it up: it is a life, up to five, and worth 50 points when you already have five.
How a life goes
You start with three lives. A life goes if a ledge carries the ball up into the spikes at the top, if the ball lands on a ledge of spikes, or if it falls off the bottom of the screen with nothing under it.
After a lost life the ball comes back on a safe ledge near the middle of the screen. The game ends when the last life goes.
Getting faster
Every twenty seconds the ledges climb a little faster, and more of them carry spikes. However well you play, the climb gets away from you in the end, and the score is how long you kept up.
The game of the day
Each level has a game of the day. The ledges come up the same way for everybody in Nepal, so the screen is the same for everyone, and a new one comes at midnight Nepal time.
Once you have played it, the page opens on a new game instead. Your best score at each level and today's score are kept as your records.
A few tips
- Stay in the lower half of the screen. The higher you stand, the less time you have before the spikes.
- Look at the ledge you are dropping onto before you roll off. A ledge of spikes looks grey with points along its top.
- Do not drop too far at once. Falling past every ledge is a fall off the bottom.
- A heart is worth a detour while you have fewer than five lives.
Settings
The only setting is the level, which is how fast the ledges climb at the start. Today's game or a new one is picked on the game page.
| Setting | Standard | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Level | Easy, slow to start | Medium starts nearly half as fast again as easy, and hard nearly twice as fast. |
Words
- Ledge
- A platform the ball stands on. Green ones are safe.
- Spikes
- The row along the top of the screen, and the points on a grey ledge. Either takes a life.
- Heart
- A life, picked up by rolling over it. Worth 50 when you already have five.
- Life
- One of the balls you have left. You start with three.
Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.