Signal Lost

Signal Lost is an Asteroids-style space shooter. You pilot a ship around a stationary orbital station, clearing expanding fields of debris across sequential waves. Your ship uses inertia-based physics. Thrust applies at 0.12 per frame. Drag applies at 0.995 per frame. Rotation moves at 0.065 radians per frame. Momentum carries you past your target if you don't manage it. The screen wraps at all four edges, so debris and your ship can reappear from any side.

Debris comes in three sizes. Large fragments are 40px and worth 20 points. When you destroy them, they split into two medium pieces. Medium fragments (22px, 50 points) split into two smalls. Small fragments (12px, 100 points) disappear cleanly. Each size moves at random speeds between 0.5 and 1.7 units per frame. You can have at most 4 bullets in flight at once with an 8-frame cooldown between shots. Clearing a full debris field takes careful spacing, not just holding fire.

Wave 1 starts with 4 large asteroids. Each new wave adds one more. You carry 3 lives with 2-second protection after each hit. The central station is just a visual landmark. It doesn't collide or interact, but it helps you keep your bearings in the void.

Asteroids was released by Atari in 1979. It became one of the best-selling arcade games of its era. The design was deliberately simple. Vector graphics, a wraparound screen, inertia-based movement, and rocks that split into smaller pieces on destruction. The physics model was unusual for the time. Thrust builds momentum that persists until drag bleeds it off. Players who understood momentum had a real advantage.

The game influenced shooter design widely. Its inertia model reappeared in Spacewar! spinoffs and later in games like Subspace (1997) and various browser entries. Signal Lost keeps the core physics intact and adds the dying station as a visual anchor, giving the debris field a sense of place. The fixed bullet cap and 8-frame cooldown follow the original's design principle. The challenge is precision, not firepower.