
Airmash – a game that refused to die - janwillemb
https://www.janwillemboer.nl/blog/posts/2019-11-airmash-history/
======
RisenTide
Since Airmash was released on HN, this is as good as any place to put out a
message for the original developer -- we love your work! Is there any chance
we could continue it more officially in your stead?

There have been a ton of ideas floating around in-game since almost forever. I
think by now most of them appear at [https://github.com/airmash-refugees/game-
ideas/issues](https://github.com/airmash-refugees/game-ideas/issues) .

The biggest issue is that no free frontend exists, and even if it did, some
aspects of reimplementing both backend and frontend have interesting problems,
such as in the functions to calculate trajectories and the data they use.
There is no way to replicate the original Airmash without preserving almost
exactly this code. It would be amazing to receive your blessing at least to
borrow these aspects.

\-- (every Airmash addict ever, especially those racking up hours almost every
day even after the official server died)

~~~
SubiculumCode
I second this call!

------
airmashonline
For anyone who wants to play, Airmash lives on at
[https://airmash.online](https://airmash.online) and
[https://starma.sh](https://starma.sh)

It's been a great community effort in keeping it alive, thank you to everyone
who has contributed!

~~~
molmalo
Nice seeing this here!

Also: [https://starma.sh](https://starma.sh) for the Starmash version :)

~~~
therein
Hey bombita, /dev/null over here. :)

~~~
molmalo
Hey dev! I had fun playing for a while today, and I saw several players of old
playing! And even enjoyed a CTF match =) It was a very nice and nostalgic day!

------
chewzerita
HN hug of death!

Archive link:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191130223010/https://www.janwi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20191130223010/https://www.janwillemboer.nl/blog/posts/2019-11-airmash-
history/)

~~~
janwillemb
I totally admit I wasn't prepared for this. Mirror here:
[https://github.com/spatiebot/airmash-
history/blob/master/REA...](https://github.com/spatiebot/airmash-
history/blob/master/README.md)

~~~
your-nanny
thank you for writing this history up. I am a regular but never really got
involved in the effort to revive (except to announce it's return 10 months ago
on HN)--I didn't really know the story.

------
gadgetoid
Oh boy, this was an addiction. Just the right mix of classic -
Subspace/Continuum - gameplay with the ease of access of a browser game. It
felt good to play a game I was half decent at, too. Wrote a Python API,
started a Discord server and then life got in the way. Good times, though!

Edit: It’s a little dead these days, but-
[https://discord.gg/cPVDwRa](https://discord.gg/cPVDwRa)

------
dang
The original Show HN was
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15892066](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15892066)

------
mkoryak
this reminds me of subspace. another game that refused to die and was
maintained by players. except this happened before waaaaay before git was a
thing, around 1998.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubSpace_(video_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SubSpace_\(video_game\))

I played this game for 8+ hours per day in middle school and high school and
it was a major reason for me not getting into any good schools. It was worth
it.

~~~
sv123
Subspace was so awesome, and playing airmash had a very familiar feel to it.

------
tqkxzugoaupvwqr
I assumed the game’s author got a contract and was busy working on a new game.
That he was never heard from again makes me sad. I truly hope he lives a happy
life. If you read this: Thank you for this great game!

------
janwillemb
Site down, there is a mirror here: [https://github.com/spatiebot/airmash-
history/blob/master/REA...](https://github.com/spatiebot/airmash-
history/blob/master/README.md)

~~~
codetrotter
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191130205446/https://www.janwi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20191130205446/https://www.janwillemboer.nl/blog/posts/2019-11-airmash-
history/) works as well.

------
xwdv
Can someone explain the appeal of the game? Seems like a pretty basic air
shooter, not sure why it became a cult classic.

~~~
gadgetoid
Easy to learn, hard to master, as simple as opening a browser tab to get it up
and running. It was a perfect storm of tight gameplay and low barrier to
entry. I also suspect many people hadn’t come across a game like this before-
I can’t even name a multiplayer top down shooter like this save for Continuum.

~~~
molmalo
I guess for many of the players of old, it was because of the community, that
was comprised mainly of HN folks. So, the chat was very nice and interesting.

------
TeMPOraL
Oh, Airmash, fun as ever. It was our go-to office game for months after
initial HN release. When it disappeared, I ended up switching to surviv.io
(another thing I _think_ was announced on HN). Now with Airmash back, I don't
know what to play anymore :(.

------
vijay_nair
yutru here; I ran into Raste earlier on EU CTF and was wondering how that
happened... now I know : )

Thanks for making this post Jan, I hope it brings some of the old timers out
of hiatus and back into the game for a second inning. Had some great memories
with them, like watching aimbot and bug, two players who knew one another from
their Subspace days back in their teens, come together once again after all
these years apart to carry the red flag to victory; detect and xyz
aggressively spamming south entrance of blue base in preds giving me hell on
defense; the whole bot-based shenanigans with blankspace dude; Dr.Pepper
posting absolutely ginormous guides on how to play on our reddit then getting
angry in the comments; sniper and his kid doing a father-son combo sweep of
the map; that one epic 5-hour game last February when spy had to infitrate
blue team to act as a decoy to finally end the ordeal and many, many more...
the whole thing was a riot and a half. The past couple of years was roller-
coaster ride personally but Airmash and the often lovely, sometimes crazy,
players were the one constant in my life the entire time. You guys are
fantastic.

Thanks to yourself, Bombita, Steamroller, gadgetoid and Nuppet for not only
keeping the game alive in (nine|five)sigma's absence but even chaperoning it
to a better place.

Shout out to Rockzone for being the first one to mentor me in the ways of
Airmash. Miss you buddy. Also miss (North|South|Undead) Korea who taught me
base defense... notice me sempai! Shout out to xplay and secvtor, my good
friends who are still playing; please don't quit guys, the game will truly be
dead for me then : ) Shout out to Moz (I see you working on Notable now, all
the best mate :)), Apathy, Praise kek, Maximus, Azimuth, Banmeplz, Fallen,
Memer, Benderovec and Marshan, you guys were good players and great company,
hope you can swing by sometime. Last but not least, shout out to aimbot who
spent an hour of his valuable time teaching me two things: 1. don't oversteer
and 2. be orthogonal to missile path to evade. After two years of play I'm
still nowhere as good as you'd expect me to be but my k/d has more than
doubled from 0.8 to 2 and I'm doing better than ever.

Here's to many more years... pew pew!

~~~
RisenTide
Happy birthday Vijay!

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sweettea
I love airmash. I am so glad it didnt die. A great community and a good game.

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airfoil
Love Airmash. I started playing it again on Thanksgiving day after being away
from it for over a year and it's been a blast!

------
EamonnMR
I remember when Airmash was posted as a Show HN. It was fun and far more
performant then it had any right to be.

------
numlock86
Link is literally exhausted.

------
umen
Great story ..

Is there any more web games communities like this game?

------
armaxt
Detect, xplay, Moz, xyz, praise kek, yutru, those were the days

~~~
your-nanny
Detect and xplay and yutru are there now. Still devastating the restof us
paeons.

