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A lab for computation and intelligence as material and medium. Run by Manuel and Ramon.

023 · 23 October 2026 · games · shaders · handheld

Lattice Arcade

Twelve game screens drawn entirely in shaders for a two-screen handheld, from a Mode 7 world map to a shattering pause menu, each one playable on a single scrolling page.

Previewin your browser
The racer section: the headline "Faster." smeared by red and white light streaks, beside a handheld whose top screen shows a red car on a road at sunset and whose bottom screen shows a speedometer at 237 km/h and a rev counter

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Twelve kinds of game screen, each one drawn entirely in fragment shaders and playable, on one long page. Every section has a two-screen handheld in it, rendered at the original DS resolution of 256×192 per screen, and a page-sized background that carries the same world past the edges of the device.

  • Twelve screens: a title screen, a Mode 7 world map, an EarthBound-style battle, an inventory, a fighter select, a rhythm game, a scanline racer, a rainy visual-novel dialogue, a pause menu that shatters the frame, a galaxy level select, a game over on fire, and credits with fireworks.
  • Play each one: tap or drag the bottom screen, or use the keys (arrows, X, Z, S, A and Enter). Set a course for the airship, bash an enemy before your HP rolls down, hit notes on the beat, race at sunset.
  • Both screens are one world: the top screen sees your finger through the hinge, the neon floor runs from one screen into the other, and the notes of the rhythm game fall through the hinge to your thumbs.
  • Read how it works: each section explains its top screen, bottom screen and background, and opens its GLSL and the JavaScript that drives it. Some have sliders, such as the airship's speed and the chart's zoom.
  • Detail and pause: a detail menu (sharp, normal, fast) for slower machines, and a button that pauses every screen.

Lattice Rift and Lattice Phantasmagoria, also on this site, are single WebGL instruments and experiments; Lattice Arcade is a gallery of finished-looking game screens in the same two-screen format, written against the same DS screen contract as the DS Shader Sketchbook. Headlines use Google Fonts (Press Start 2P, Anton, Archivo Black, Audiowide, Bungee, Monoton, Pirata One, Playfair Display and others). It needs WebGL.

The full page at the title screen: section index across the top, the chrome headline "Press Start" over a synthwave sun and neon grid, and a handheld showing the logo "Lattice Quest" above a touch-to-start grid
The full page at the title screen: section index across the top, the chrome headline "Press Start" over a synthwave sun and neon grid, and a handheld showing the logo "Lattice Quest" above a touch-to-start grid
The world map section with its source opened: the Mode 7 flight and the sepia chart on the handheld, beside the explanation, the airship speed and chart zoom sliders, and the terrain.glsl and mode7.glsl shaders
The world map section with its source opened: the Mode 7 flight and the sepia chart on the handheld, beside the explanation, the airship speed and chart zoom sliders, and the terrain.glsl and mode7.glsl shaders
The battle: a palette-cycled wavy background behind a one-eyed enemy, with BASH, GOODS, PSI and RUN and a rolling HP counter on the bottom screen
The battle: a palette-cycled wavy background behind a one-eyed enemy, with BASH, GOODS, PSI and RUN and a rolling HP counter on the bottom screen
The battle section's explanation panel with the JS frame() tab open: the per-screen notes, then the code that handles BASH, PSI, GOODS and RUN, the enemy's counter-attack and the rolling HP and PP
The battle section's explanation panel with the JS frame() tab open: the per-screen notes, then the code that handles BASH, PSI, GOODS and RUN, the enemy's counter-attack and the rolling HP and PP
Close-up of the battle handheld: the one-eyed enemy over a psychedelic background, and the command menu with the HP and PP counters
Close-up of the battle handheld: the one-eyed enemy over a psychedelic background, and the command menu with the HP and PP counters
The rhythm game's explanation: notes decided by a 32-bit hash of (beat, lane), PERFECT within 50 ms and GOOD within 130 ms, and what each screen and the background draw
The rhythm game's explanation: notes decided by a 32-bit hash of (beat, lane), PERFECT within 50 ms and GOOD within 130 ms, and what each screen and the background draw
The rhythm game: a note highway from a vanishing point down through the hinge to four coloured pads, with a MISS and a spectrum of bars behind
The rhythm game: a note highway from a vanishing point down through the hinge to four coloured pads, with a MISS and a spectrum of bars behind
The pause menu section with the On Lattice tab open, describing the shatter as a single pass over a texture of the page with a 3×3 Voronoi search, next to the handheld's platformer and HUD
The pause menu section with the On Lattice tab open, describing the shatter as a single pass over a texture of the page with a 3×3 Voronoi search, next to the handheld's platformer and HUD
The level select: planets along a spiral galaxy arm on the top screen and a carousel of world cards with star ratings on the bottom
The level select: planets along a spiral galaxy arm on the top screen and a carousel of world cards with star ratings on the bottom
Close-up of the racer handheld: the red car on the road toward a city skyline at sunset, and the speedometer, rev counter and figure-eight circuit map
Close-up of the racer handheld: the red car on the road toward a city skyline at sunset, and the speedometer, rev counter and figure-eight circuit map
The credits: names leaning back into space on the top screen, "Thank you for playing" on the bottom, and the headline "The end." in gold
The credits: names leaning back into space on the top screen, "Thank you for playing" on the bottom, and the headline "The end." in gold
The top bar with the Detail menu (Sharp, Normal, Fast) set to Fast and the Pause all button, over the title screen
The top bar with the Detail menu (Sharp, Normal, Fast) set to Fast and the Pause all button, over the title screen

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