SYSTEM

RETRO SCI-FI TERMINAL: MOBILE

A single HTML file that boots like hardware from 1983, rebuilt for phones and touch.

Four live pages, a settings menu, procedural planets, radar contacts, and full-screen alerts. Nine color themes, from phosphor green to amber to a red alert. Swipe between pages, tap the panels to scan and ping, swipe up on a planet to roll a new world. No install, no build, no server. Open it and it is running.

▸ CONTROLS

Swipe ◀ ▶Change page
Tap footerJump to a page directly
Tap ♪Mute / unmute audio (footer, right of the page buttons)
☰Open settings (top bar, right side)
!Trigger an alert
⟳Reboot the system
Tap radarFire a radar ping
Tap planetRun a planetary scan
Swipe ↑ planetRegenerate the planet
Tap waveformTrigger a waveform wobble
MMute / unmute (keyboard)
EscOpen / close the settings menu
RReboot the system (keyboard)
ARegenerate the planet (keyboard)
← →Change page (keyboard)

▸ COLOR THEMES

The whole interface changes color, not just the text. Panels, planet, radar terrain, and every glowing element follow the active theme.

GREENClassic phosphor terminal
AMBERWarm monochrome, TNG-style
BLUECool scientific readout
WHITEClinical, medical-panel bright
REDAlert-bridge red
VIOLETDeep lavender with pink accents
CYCLESlowly crossfades through all six base palettes on a loop
AUTOHolds each palette for a tunable stretch, then blends into the next
REBOOTPicks a fresh random palette every time the system reboots

CYCLE and AUTO have their own sliders for hold time and blend time, so you can set the whole thing to drift through colors over a couple of minutes, or snap between them fast. REBOOT pairs well with the automatic reboot cycle, so every crash-and-recover feels like a fresh machine coming online.

Theme planet color. By default, planets pick their color from their biome (oceanic worlds are blue, volcanic worlds are red-orange, and so on). Flip the PLANET USES THEME COLOR toggle in the Colors tab to override that, and every world will render in whatever the current theme color is. Switch themes and the planet follows along instantly.

▸ SETTINGS

Tap ☰ in the top bar, or press Esc. Press Esc again or tap the X to close. Four tabs: Display, Events, Colors, Controls.

  • Display: scanlines, vignette, and grid background toggles
  • Events: alerts on/off, ambient scan toggle, alert rate, alert duration, reboot rate, and scan rate sliders
  • Colors: nine palettes, auto-theme hold and blend sliders, and the planet-uses-theme-color override
  • Controls: full touch reference and a page list, right there in the menu

▸ FOUR PAGES, ALL ALIVE

RADARBig tactical display with procedural terrain and hostile contacts, plus a scrolling SYS LOG, a status port grid, and six live gauges underneath
ORBITALA procedurally generated planet with rings and sites, next to a two-column planetary readout, a live TOPO MAP with an ABC/123 grid, and a square HEX MONITOR
WAVEA waveform that drifts between calm green and agitated orange, a rolling line array, and gauges plus a SYS LOG
ALLEvery major widget at once, arranged for the small screen

▸ AMBIENT SCAN

Planet and radar do quiet sweeps on their own when nothing else is happening. The planet gets scanned by a red ring that sweeps top-to-bottom and reveals new sites; the radar fires contact pings that spawn fresh suspicious blips. Rate is tunable in the Events tab, or you can turn it off entirely.

▸ ALERTS

Full-screen warning overlays fire every few minutes: LOW OXYGEN, HULL BREACH, REACTOR OVERLOAD, FIRE DETECTED, and four more. Each one hits the terminal log and plays a descending three-note tone.

▸ BOOT SEQUENCE

On cold start the terminal boots straight from the power icon: OVERALL and LOADING bars fill while fake system files tick past, the icon fades from red to amber to the current theme color, then it types out a BIOS checklist and hands off to the OS. On reboot, a CRT collapse plays first, then the power-icon boot follows, then the BIOS text. Same on demand when you tap ⟳.

▸ NOTES

  • Runs entirely in the browser. No server, no install, no build.
  • Uses Web Audio for the hum, tones, and glitches. Tap once to enable, then use the ♪ button in the footer or M to mute.
  • Settings and theme are saved between sessions when you run the downloaded file. The in-browser embed may not remember them on Safari and Firefox.
  • Designed for phone screens and touch input. Landscape works best.
  • Best viewed fullscreen.
SINGLE HTML FILE  ·  VANILLA JS  ·  CANVAS 2D  ·  WEB AUDIO  ·  MOBILE
Published 12 days ago
StatusReleased
PlatformsHTML5
Authorophidic
GenreSimulation
TagsAtmospheric, Retro, Sci-fi, screensaver
AI DisclosureAI Assisted, Code

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