Hotlink Typist

The problem

Typing games taught a generation to type without anyone noticing. The obvious rule for one is harsh: a typo costs you the word, or the run. That suits an expert and discourages everyone still learning where the keys are, which is most people who sit down to a typing game.

The rule that solved it

Here a typo does not end anything. It shoves the window you were typing on down the screen and drains your system resources. Pop-up windows tumble down a desktop, you type the word on each one to close it, and your first letter locks onto the lowest window that starts with it. A typo costs 2 resources and pushes the window 18 pixels closer to the bottom. A window that lands costs 12. Each word you close restores 1.5. Accuracy keeps you alive, but a slip is a setback, not a sentence.

The dictionary has its own clock. Every ten words, the year moves on, from 1997 to 2004, and the word list changes with it, from web rings to widgets. Windows fall faster and words grow longer, up to ten letters. Space or Backspace lets go of a word, so a bad choice can be dropped.

What we left out

What we left out was a public leaderboard. Physical keystrokes are not part of the kit’s input log, so a run here cannot be replayed on the server the way a ranked run is checked. Rather than rank scores we cannot verify, Hotlink Typist keeps its high scores on your device.

Try this

Play one run as fast as you can and one run slowly and carefully, and watch the resources meter in each. The multiplier rises every five words in a row, up to five, and every tenth word in a row fires a HOTLINK that closes every window on screen, so a steady typist beats a fast, sloppy one. Watch the word list change as the years roll on.

The maker’s note

Typing games taught a generation to type without anyone noticing. Our twist is that a typo does not end your run: it shoves the window you were on down the screen and drains your system resources, so sloppy hands crash windows instead. Every ten words the dictionary moves forward a year, from web rings to widgets. Physical keystrokes are not part of the kit input log, so scores here stay on your device.

This is the note printed on the game’s own page. The years it was made for are explained in The Early Web Hall.