Snake is an original browser take on the game everyone remembers from a one-screen dot-matrix display. The board is 17 columns by 19 rows — 323 cells — and the difficulty is never your reflexes, it is the body you grew: every bite takes another cell away from the space you have left to move in. Two turns can queue up, so one continuous swipe draws a right angle; and following your own tail is safe, because the tail leaves the cell in the same step your head enters it. A standard run lasts about two minutes.

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1. 01

   Swipe in any direction, or press one arrow key. Your first input sets the heading, so any direction works — it is never treated as a reversal.

2. 02

   The first piece of food appears on the line you are already travelling, 4 to 6 cells ahead. Each one is 10 points and one segment longer.

3. 03

   For a right-angle turn, swipe twice: both directions queue and one is spent per step. If the second is the reverse of the first, it is swallowed.

4. 04

   Hitting an edge or your own body ends the run. Wrap mode sends you out the far side instead — but running into yourself still ends it.

5. 05

   Every 5th piece of food speeds you up, and the gauge lights the next slot as a warning first. Relaxed and standard speed up 6 times and cap at the 30th; swift speeds up 5 times and caps at the 25th.

The single most useful habit is to keep your body tidy: hug the edges, fold yourself into parallel runs, and always leave one lane out through the middle. Drawing loose circles in the centre leaves a tangle that is easy to steer yourself into; keep the body parallel so you can still see a lane out before the next turn. Use the queue. Two turns fit in it, so you can draw the whole right angle before the head reaches the corner instead of steering on the spot. Remember the tail leaves first: when you are cornered, running along your own tail is the one line that is always legal. Watch the gauge. The slot after the lit ones brightens on your 4th piece of food as a warning — that is the moment to straighten your route out, not to chase something on the far side. If it feels too fast, switch to relaxed; if it feels slow, switch to swift. Each speed keeps its own best score, so changing never wipes what you already set.

How do you play snake?

Swipe in any direction or press an arrow key to start. After that the snake keeps moving on its own and all you change is its heading. Food is one segment and 10 points; an edge or your own body ends the run. On a phone you swipe the board or switch to an on-screen pad; on a desktop it is the arrow keys or WASD, with Esc and P to pause.

Why did my snake not turn when I swiped?

That swipe may have been read as a reversal. The check is against the last direction already queued, so if you swipe twice and the second is the opposite of the first, it is swallowed. A diagonal cannot be read as a direction either — a small hollow box flashes in the middle of the head when that happens, and straightening the same swipe is enough. You do not have to lift your finger.

Does hitting your own tail end a run of snake?

No. On a step where you do not eat, the tail leaves its cell first, so moving your head into the cell it just freed is legal — a faint afterimage is left there to show it is empty. When you are boxed in, running along your own tail is the only line that keeps you alive.

What does wrap mode change in snake?

With wrap on, leaving an edge brings you back on the opposite side, so the only way to die is to run into yourself. It makes surviving much easier, which is exactly why a wrap run does not record a best score — the two rule sets are not comparable.

Does snake keep getting faster, and how long is a run?

It does not get faster forever. Every 5th piece of food is one speed step: 6 of them on relaxed and standard, capped at the 30th, and 5 on swift, capped at the 25th. After that the speed is fixed and the only thing still rising is how much of the board your body covers. A standard run lasts about two minutes, and scores stay in your own browser.