Fumes — a free browser arcade road racer
Fumes is a free racing game you play in the browser. No download, no sign-up, no plugin: it is a single page that runs on a laptop or a phone. Overtake traffic on a country road, keep the tank alive, and reach the chequered flag before you run dry.
It is a deliberate throwback to the top-down arcade racers of the eighties — one road, one tank of fuel, and a run that takes about a minute if you drive well. The whole game is one HTML file with no dependencies, so it loads in a couple of hundred milliseconds and works offline once cached.
How to play
On a computer
| ← → | steer left and right |
|---|---|
| ↑ | accelerate |
| ↓ | brake |
| Space | start a race, or retry after one ends |
| P | pause |
| M | mute |
On a phone or tablet
Four thumb pads appear on screen: ◀ ▶ on the left to steer, ▲ ▼ on the right for throttle and brake. Every touch is tracked independently, so you can steer and brake at the same time. Tap anywhere to start or retry, and use the chips in the corner to pause or mute. Portrait works best — the road runs vertically.
The rules
- Fuel is your only life. There are no lives and no health bar. The tank drains as you drive, faster the quicker you go, and when it hits zero the run is over.
- Collect the F cans. They are the only way to top up. Miss too many and you will not reach the flag.
- Crashing costs fuel. Hit a car and you spin out and lose thirteen litres, then respawn blinking and briefly intangible so whatever hit you can clear.
- Kerbs are forgiving, up to a point. Clip one gently and you scrape along and bounce off, losing a little speed. Hit it hard, or arrive sideways, and it is a full crash.
- Oil sends you into a skid. The car slides sideways for about a second and steering barely bites. Do not fight it — ride it out and correct when grip returns.
- Red cars come for you. Rogues run close to your pace and lunge into whatever lane you are in. Commit to a move and you will get past; hesitate and they will pin you.
- Lorries block the late road. Long, slow and they own a lane. They only appear in the last stretch, when the road is busiest.
- Near misses pay. Shave past a car with a few pixels to spare, at speed, and you bank a bonus. It is deliberately hard to earn.
- Drive clean and help arrives. Get most of the way without a single crash and an aircraft parachutes a fuel crate to you.
Tips for a better score
- Speed is a trade, not a setting. Traffic and fuel cans appear per metre of road, so crawling does not thin the traffic — it just burns fuel for the same number of cans. Dawdling will run you dry.
- Take the fuel cans even when the tank looks healthy. They are worth points as well as litres.
- Brakes are strong. Use them when the road closes up rather than trying to steer through a gap that is not there.
- Passing a lorry or a rogue is worth more than passing ordinary traffic.
- A crash-free run is worth chasing on its own — it triggers the airdrop and stamps your result as flawless.
Questions
Is Fumes free?
Yes. It is free to play, with no account, no download and no in-game purchases.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The game scales to the screen and draws on-screen thumb controls on touch devices. Portrait orientation suits it best.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It is a single web page. Open the link and it runs.
How long is a race?
About a minute at speed, and closer to ninety seconds if you drive carefully.
Are my scores saved?
Your best score is kept in your own browser's local storage. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account or leaderboard.
Who made it?
Fumes was built by Amritpal Singh, a DevOps engineer based in Dublin, as a side project. It is written in plain JavaScript on an HTML canvas — no game engine, no libraries, and no image or audio files. Every sound, from the engine note to the finish fanfare, is generated in the browser.