Freight: game rules
Freight
📦 Goal: Freight falls into the hold. Shift and turn every piece so that rows fill up – every full row leaves as a loaded wagon. When the next piece finds no room, the hold is full and the game is over.
🎮 How it works: ← and → shift, ↑ or X turns, Z turns the other way, ↓ drops faster, the space bar drops the piece all the way, C puts it into the hold box. The landing mark on the floor shows where it will set down. On a phone, swipe sideways, tap to turn and swipe down to drop; tapping the hold box swaps. Solo, P pauses.
🪵 Freight: Seven kinds of freight turn up – timber beam, crate, ironware, hay bale, jute sack, barrel and tin can, each with its own shape, grain and mark. Every seven pieces bring each shape exactly once. On the right you see the next three pieces, on the left the hold box: you may swap once per piece.
🚂 Pace: Every 10 wagons the level rises and the freight falls faster. In a race it also rises with the clock: every minute begun counts at least one level, so after 8 minutes it is at least level 9. A piece that sets down stays movable for a moment – shifting or turning buys you a little more time.
🏁 Race: Up to eight players load at the same time, each their own hold, all with the same freight sequence. The list shows how high the freight stands for the others. Whoever's hold is full watches the rest. The race ends after 15 minutes at the latest.
🏆 Winner: Classic is scored in points: 100, 300, 500 or 800 for one to four wagons at once, times the level. The most points win; on a tie, whoever lasted longer. In a race with ballast the last one left in the hold wins; the order of dropping out gives the places, and points only decide when several are left after 15 minutes. Solo, you chase your personal best – only solo runs go on the leaderboard.
Settings & scoring
🪨 Ballast: In a race with ballast, 2, 3 or 4 rows at once send the next rival 1, 2 or 4 rows of scrap – taking turns among everyone still playing. A bar on the edge of the shaft announces it 2 seconds ahead; rows you load in that time cancel as many rows of ballast and send nothing for it. Then the scrap pushes into the hold from below, every row with one gap.
🧨 Dynamite: Every 10 wagons you get a stick of dynamite, two in stock at most. E or the dynamite button blasts away the bottom two rows, ballast included – no points for that. Only in a race with ballast.
⚙ Settings: In a race the host sets the race type: Classic – everyone loads only their own hold, most points win – or With ballast and dynamite (default).
🖱 Controls: The hold has 11 × 18 cells. Solo you pause with P or ❚❚; the first freight only falls when you press a key or choose “Load”. On the phone a key bar can be shown; dragging your finger down drops faster, a quick swipe down drops the piece, ⟲ rotates to the left.
💡 Good to know: Reloading, leaving the race or being offline for more than 15 seconds ends your own run with the wagons loaded so far. In a race the left column shows an opponent's hold from tablet width on – the leader's first, ◀ ▶ switches; on the phone a bar in each pill shows how high that player's freight stands, turning warm from three quarters.
🕹 The lobby is an old arcade cabinet: the seats on the screen, the host's START button on the console; when someone joins, a coin drops audibly. Next to it, once the leaderboard is switched on, hangs a high-score board with the best single run per account – guests are not on it. Solo, “Again” starts without the intro, and “New best” only appears when the old value is beaten.