ARCADE // AUTO-FIRE // SIDE-SCROLLER

NEON RUNNER

A retro auto-fire side-scrolling shooter. You never press fire — your gun shoots anything in range. Move, jump, duck. That is the entire control scheme.

▶ PLAY NOW ★ STAR ON GITHUB Download for Windows (.exe) Download for Android (.apk)

Free & fully offline — nothing to install. The Android .apk is sideload-only (allow installs from unknown sources).

One HTML file · no install · works offline once loaded · MIT licensed

SINGLE HTML FILE NO INSTALL WORKS OFFLINE KEYBOARD CONTROLS MIT LICENSED

01 // WHY IT SLAPS

Built like an arcade cabinet, shipped as one file

Everything below is inside a single self-contained HTML document. No bundler, no framework, no network calls at runtime.

AUTO-FIRE COMBAT

Your gun fires itself. Keep moving and the shots keep coming — positioning, not mashing, is the whole skill.

ONE HTML FILE

Grab index.html, double-click it, play. Zero dependencies, no build step for players, nothing to install.

PLAYS OFFLINE

Once the page has loaded there are no network calls. Perfect on a plane, on a train, or on terrible hotel Wi-Fi.

REBINDABLE KEYS

Arrows or WASD out of the box, and every action can be rebound from the in-game Controls screen.

CHASE THE HIGH SCORE

Chain kills for score multipliers, survive the waves, and try to beat the best run. Old-school leaderboard pressure.

MIT LICENSED

Fork it, remix it, ship it. The full source lives in the repo and the licence is permissive.

02 // HOW IT WORKS

Move, jump, duck — the gun handles itself

Neon Runner strips the shooter down to movement. You have no fire button to press: weapons auto-target and auto-fire at anything in range, so every second is spent reading the level and dodging.

Run left←A

Run right→D

Jump↑W

Duck / slide↓S

Jump / confirmSpaceEnterZJ

PauseP

Back / cancelEscBackspace

Pick an upgrade card←→Enter

Between levels you choose from upgrade cards — crit chance, coolant, boost jets and more. Keys are fully rebindable from the in-game Controls screen; on phones, on-screen touch controls appear automatically.

03 // GALLERY

Straight from the cabinet

Real frames captured from the running game — gameplay, upgrade cards, and the controls screen.

Neon Runner gameplay: neon mountains, auto-firing player, score 049530 and chain multiplier — Gameplay — auto-fire in full flow, chain multiplier climbing

Neon Runner upgrade card screen showing Crit Chip, Coolant and Boost Jets — Level 3 upgrade cards — crit chip, coolant, boost jets

Neon Runner controls screen listing rebindable keys — Controls screen — rebind any action to any key

Neon Runner loadout screen — Loadout — see what your run has built

READY PLAYER ONE? THE CABINET IS ALREADY ON.

▶ PLAY NOW

04 // GET STARTED

Playing takes one click. Hacking takes one clone.

There is nothing to compile and nothing to install — the built game is a single HTML file you can open straight from disk.

STEP 01

JUST PLAY

Hit PLAY NOW and the game runs in your browser. That is the whole onboarding.

STEP 02

RUN IT LOCALLY

Download index.html and open it. It runs offline, from a USB stick if you like.

STEP 03

BUILD FROM SOURCE

Clone the repo, edit files in src/, then rebuild the single-file game.

# clone the source
git clone https://github.com/drsamonline/neon-runner.git
cd neon-runner

# play immediately — no build needed
open index.html

# or hack on it and rebuild the single HTML file
npm run dist      # bundles src/ into index.html
npm test          # runs the CI harnesses

05 // FAQ

Questions, answered

What exactly is Neon Runner?

A retro auto-fire side-scrolling shooter. You control movement only — run, jump and duck — while your gun automatically fires at enemies in range. It is delivered as one self-contained HTML file.

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs in any modern browser, desktop or mobile. You can also download the single index.html and open it directly from your filesystem.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Once the page has loaded, Neon Runner makes no network calls — all art, sound and music are generated at runtime. Close the Wi-Fi and keep playing.

Can I use the keyboard?

Absolutely. Arrow keys or WASD to move and jump, Space/Enter to confirm, P to pause, Esc to go back. Every action is rebindable from the in-game Controls screen.

Is there a high score to beat?

There is — the game tracks your best run and shows a live score with chain multipliers as you take down enemies. Chasing that number is half the fun.

What is the licence?

MIT. Fork it, remix it, ship your own version — the full source is in the GitHub repo.