Showdown

How to play

Showdown is air-hockey-by-ear. The ball rattles as it rolls; you hear where it is and bat it back, trying to send it into your opponent's goal while guarding your own.

Hearing the ball

• Left / right — the rattle pans across the stereo field. Hard left means the ball is at the left wall.
• Near / far — when the ball comes toward you it gets louder and brighter; going away it gets quiet and muffled. The pitch rises as it approaches (like a passing car).
• Wall bounces — a sharp clack, panned to the wall it hit. Track the ball by its bounces.
• The screen — a short whoosh when the ball crosses the centre line onto your half.
• Too high — a rising whistle means your shot is lofting. Keep it flat or it will hit the centre screen or fly off the table — that hands your opponent a point.
• Your bat — a soft steady tone, panned to where your bat is sitting, so you always know your own position.

Controls

• ← → or A D — slide your bat left and right.
• Space — swing. Time it as the ball arrives for a harder, angled return. (You also block automatically just by being in the ball's path.)
• When serving: ←/→ picks which wall to bounce off, Space serves.
• Esc — pause / quit to menu. R — repeat the score.

Rules

• A goal is worth 2 points.
• You give your opponent 1 point if you hit the ball into the centre screen or knock it off the table (both caused by lofting it too high).
• First to 11, win by 2. Matches are best of 3 sets; you swap ends each set.
• Each player serves twice, then serve passes over. A serve must bounce off a side wall once on its way across.

Settings

Turn the guide tone down as you get used to tracking your own bat.

Press Esc to pause. R repeats the score.

Learn the sounds

Each button plays a cue and says what it means. Headphones recommended.