Girder Climb is an original browser platform game about getting to the top of one screen. There is no camera and no hidden stretch: four girders stack up the frame, every floor has three ladders, and the workmate you came for is standing on the top one. A demolition arm at the summit keeps lowering steel drums; they roll along a girder, tip over its end onto the floor below, and so the lower you are the more of them there are. A drum never blocks you, it only hits you — walk into it and jump and it passes under your feet, but one rolling the same way you are can never be jumped, only avoided. Climbing needs no aim: stand anywhere near a ladder mouth, hold up, and you snap to its centre. A hit only sends you back to the start of the floor you are on and costs you nothing in score. Three lives end the run. Rescue the workmate and the next level adds drums that leave a girder early, ladders you cannot climb, and braziers that kill on contact; from level 4 it stops getting harder.

One screen was the whole building. Drums came down floor by floor, you shuffled along the steel and picked your gap upward — this is the screen people crowded around in an arcade, watching someone else play. No tutorial, no saves, every piece of information already in front of you, and the only question was whether you dared walk straight at the thing rolling towards you. The moment it clicked was not learning to jump; it was realising that standing still means never getting over it.

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【街】 The coin arcade · 1988–2000 →

1. 01

   Tap the playfield to start. On a phone the cross pad at the bottom left walks you left and right; on a keyboard use the arrow keys or A and D.

2. 02

   Stand near a ladder and hold up to climb, hold down to go back. You do not have to line up with the ladder — get close and you snap to it — and stepping off sideways needs the key held for a moment, so a shaky thumb will not drop you.

3. 03

   The big key at the bottom right jumps; on a keyboard use space. Jumps only start from the ground: pressing again in the air does nothing.

4. 04

   Walk into a drum before you jump it. Standing still does not work, because the two of you close far too slowly; walking the same way as the drum is worse still, and the answer there is to walk away.

5. 05

   Pick up the wrench and you get 5 seconds where hitting a drum breaks the drum instead of you, and each one scores.

6. 06

   Touch the workmate on the top girder to clear the level. Esc or P pauses, and the pause panel holds all four switches: mode, mute, low flicker and less motion.

Walk first, then jump: a drum is only jumpable while it is coming at you, so when one rolls in from the right, hold right into it and then tap jump. Waiting for it where you stand does not work.Do not aim at ladders: getting near the mouth and holding up snaps you to the centre, so there is nothing to gain from nudging left and right first.Let the same-way drums go: when you and a drum travel the same direction you close at only 4 sub-units a frame and no jump is long enough. Walk the other way and let it tip off the end.Every floor pays 50 the first time: climbing the same floor again in the same level pays nothing, so go up for all four first and think about coming back down afterwards.The wrench is worth a detour: it always sits within 2 columns of a ladder mouth, and for 5 seconds hitting a drum scores instead of costing a life. It is the only offensive move in the game.A hit costs one floor: you reappear at the start of the floor you were on with 1.5 seconds of invulnerability, so climbing is cheap to attempt. What is expensive is stalling on the bottom floor until the bonus timer is gone.Read broken ladders early: two rungs missing and red ends. Standing in front of one and pressing up only raises your arms while a drum closes in.

How do you play a ladder climbing game on a phone and on a keyboard?

In Girder Climb you work your way from the bottom left to the top girder and touch the workmate to clear the level. On a phone the cross pad at the bottom left walks and climbs and the big key at the bottom right jumps; on a keyboard the arrow keys or A and D walk, up and down climb, space jumps, and Esc or P pauses. Direction and jump can be held at the same time, so running and jumping feels identical on touch and on keys.

How do you jump over the barrels rolling down at you?

Walk into them first. In Girder Climb you move at 11 and a drum at 7, so only walking towards it closes the gap fast enough; from frame 3 to frame 22 of your jump your feet are above the drum, which gives you at least 6 frames of take-off timing rather than a single frame. Standing still does not work because you only close at 7 and the overlap lasts far longer than the jump. A drum going the same way as you has no solution — walk the other way instead.

Do you have to line up with the ladder to climb in a retro platform game?

Not here. Girder Climb gives every ladder mouth a 72 sub-unit snap window: stand anywhere near it, hold up, and the character slides to the centre before climbing, so your thumb never has to aim. Pressing sideways on a ladder needs 6 frames held before you step off, so a shaky thumb will not drop you. The only ladders you genuinely cannot use are the broken ones: two rungs missing, red ends, and pressing up just raises your arms.

Does getting hit send you back to level 1 or reset your score?

Neither. A drum or a brazier only sends you back to the start of the floor you are on. The level number, the score and every floor bonus you already earned all stay, and you reappear with 1.5 seconds of invulnerability so the same drum cannot take a second life immediately. The run ends when all three lives are gone, and the summary panel's play-again button puts you straight into a clean new run in one tap.

What is the difference between site mode and arcade mode?

Three things only. Arcade mode costs a life for a drop over 384 sub-units, costs a life when the bonus timer reaches zero and then resets it, and keeps its own best score. Site mode does neither of the first two, which makes it the better place to learn the climb and the rhythm of the drums. Switching applies from the next run, so changing it mid-run never affects the run you are in — that is what the key's second line means.

What does the wrench do and how long does it last?

The wrench is the only offensive move in the game. There is one per level, always within 2 columns of a ladder mouth, and picking it up gives you 5 seconds in which hitting a drum breaks the drum rather than you, scoring 30 each time. It changes neither your jump height nor your walking speed, so holding it never makes the rest of the controls feel unfamiliar; when it runs out the countdown bar in the HUD empties and disappears.