About the game
Tanks on a hilly landscape take turns picking an angle and a power and firing. Wind drifts the shot. The shop sells everything from a plain shell to a weapon that rearranges the whole map.
The direct ancestor of Worms and of every mobile artillery game since. Up to ten players on one keyboard.
Controls
- Left / Right — angle
- Up / Down — power
- Space — fire
- Tab — change weapon
The version in short
- Year: 1991
- Genre: Artillery / turn-based
- Size: 0.6 MB, loaded once
- Controls: keyboard, or on-screen buttons on a phone
How this runs
The game runs through a DOS emulator inside your browser: the emulator, the files and your saves all stay on your device and nothing reaches our server. The emulator, the licensing and what to do about a black screen are explained on the retro games section page.
FAQ
Is this the actual 1991 release?
Yes, these are the original Scorched Earth files, not a remake or a port. The emulator runs them the way they ran on a machine of that time.
How big is it and what loads?
The game archive is 0.6 MB plus about two megabytes of emulator. It loads once — after that the browser keeps the files cached and the next launch is instant.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. On-screen buttons appear under the screen: a d-pad and actions (Space, Tab, Esc). Presses go straight into the emulator, exactly like a real keyboard.
Are my saves kept?
They are, but only in this browser on this device — they are written inside the emulator. A different browser or a cleared cache means starting over.
