Arcade · August 8, 2026

How to play the games in the notch

Open Games from home. Thirteen titles sit in the arcade. Each one starts with a short how-to. Esc backs out to the hub. Pointer and a few keys are enough. Nothing here is a daily, and nothing here needs a leaderboard account.

Noggin Run

The smile runs. Little notches slide in. Jump them.

  1. Tap the field, or press space / up arrow, to start and to jump.
  2. Some notches fly. Wait, then jump so you pass under them.
  3. The run speeds up. One hit and it’s over. Best score stays on the card.

Noggin Flap

Same smile, in the air. Tap to climb. Gravity does the rest.

  1. Tap or press space / up to flap. Each tap is a short lift.
  2. Thread the gaps. Hitting a pipe, the floor, or the top of the sky ends the round.
  3. Don’t hold the key. Short taps keep the smile in the gap.

Five Letter

Guess a five-letter word. Six tries. No daily lock. Play as many as you want.

  1. Type five letters, then return to submit. Delete backs up.
  2. Green is the right letter in the right spot. Gold is in the word, wrong spot. Dim means it isn’t in the word.
  3. A new round starts when you finish. Streak counts wins in a row.

Noggin Pong

You on the gold paddle. An NPC on the white one. The ball is a dot. First to 5.

  1. Pick Easy, Medium, or Hard. That only changes how well the NPC tracks the ball.
  2. Move the pointer up and down. Your paddle follows. Arrow keys do nothing.
  3. Easy is meant to lose. Hard still can. After a match, play again or pick a new difficulty.

Noggin Blocks

Pieces fall. Fill a whole row and it clears. Stack to the top and you’re out.

  1. Left / right (or A / D) move. Up or W rotates. Down soft-drops.
  2. Space slams the piece down. Tap the board to rotate while a piece is falling.
  3. Clear rows for points. The next piece sits in the sidebar. Speed creeps up as you clear more.

Noggin Stack

A slab slides over the tower. Tap to drop it. Whatever sticks out gets cut.

  1. Watch the moving slab. Tap (or space) when it lines up with the one below.
  2. A flush drop keeps the full width and scores extra. A miss trims the slab. Miss entirely and the tower topples.
  3. Each drop gets a callout from the notch (Insane!, Meh.., By a thread) based on how tight the stack was.

Noggin Reflex

Wait. Then hit GO. That’s the whole game.

  1. Tap once to start. The field says Wait. Do not click yet.
  2. When it flips to GO, tap as fast as you can. Time is in milliseconds. Lower is better.
  3. Tap during Wait and that’s a false start. Tap again to retry.

Noggin Tic-Tac-Toe

Three in a row. Red is X, blue is O. Play a friend at the same Mac, or pick an NPC.

  1. Pick Local, or Easy / Medium / Hard NPC, then Play. Local is two people at the same Mac. Red goes first.
  2. Tap an empty square. Against an NPC you are red. Easy mostly guesses. Medium can miss a block. Hard always takes a win and always blocks.
  3. Three in a row wins. A full board with neither is a draw. Play again keeps the mode. Mode goes back to the how-to. Wins against the NPC stay on the card.

Noggin CPS

Clicks per second. Pick a length, then mash.

  1. Read the how-to, then Play. Choose 5s, 10s, 30s, 1m, or 5m.
  2. The first click starts the clock. Keep clicking the field until time runs out.
  3. Score is clicks divided by the length. Best is saved per length. Tap again to retry that length.

Noggin Snake

Google’s snake, in the notch. Eat apples. Grow. Don’t hit a wall or yourself.

  1. Tap Play on the how-to. The snake starts moving right.
  2. Steer with arrows or WASD. You can’t reverse into yourself. Eat a coral apple to grow and score.
  3. Hitting a wall or your tail ends the round. Best is apples eaten. Play again skips the how-to.

Noggin Color Patterns

A Simon-style memory game. Watch the colors. Tap them back.

  1. Tap Play on the how-to. Four pads light in a sequence. Watch first. Don’t tap yet.
  2. When it says Your turn, tap the pads in the same order. Each round adds one color.
  3. A miss ends the run. Best is the longest sequence you repeated. Play again skips the how-to.

Noggin Blackjack

Beat the dealer to 21. Buy in from $100 to $1000.

  1. Pick a buy-in, then Play. Bet with the chips and tap Deal.
  2. Hit, Stand, or Double. Ace is 1 or 11. Dealer stands on 17. Blackjack pays 3:2.
  3. H hits, S stands, D doubles, Return deals or goes to the next hand. If the bank hits $0, buy in again. Best bank stays on the card.

Noggin Stack4

Connect four. Drop discs down a column. Red vs blue. Noggin alternates the turns.

  1. Pick Local, or Easy / Medium / Hard NPC, then Play. Local is two people at the same Mac. Red drops first.
  2. Tap a column to drop. Four in a row (across, down, or diagonal) wins. Against an NPC you are red.
  3. Keys 1–7 pick a column. Left and right move the cursor. Space drops. Wins against the NPC stay on the card.

Games is a module. If the arcade is missing from home, tap + and add it back.

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