🏒 Air Hockey

How to play

You control the red paddle at the bottom of the table and the computer controls the blue one at the top. Push the puck into the goal mouth at the far end to score, and keep it out of your own. There is no serve or turn order — the puck is live from the moment it drops, and it is put back in the centre after every goal.

• Mouse movement — your paddle follows the pointer. It is confined to your own half of the table.
• Drag on a touch screen — moves the paddle the same way.
• New Game button — resets both scores to zero and drops a fresh puck.

Scoring

One point per goal, and the first to 7 wins. A goal only counts through the marked mouth in the middle of each end; anywhere else along that end is a wall and the puck bounces off it. Hitting the puck sends it away from your paddle's centre at a fixed speed, so the direction of your strike matters far more than how hard you swing. The puck also loses a little speed to friction and to every rail it touches.

Tips

• The computer paddle only slides from side to side along its own line. It cannot come forward, so a puck arriving at a sharp angle is one it cannot cut off.
• Strike through the puck rather than at it. Line your paddle centre up behind the direction you want the puck to leave in.
• Bank shots off the side rails work well, because the computer tracks the puck's current position rather than predicting where it will end up.
• Return to the middle of your half after every strike. Chasing the puck into a corner leaves the goal wide open.

Frequently asked questions