Play Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004) in Chrome and Firefox with WebGPU graphics, Web Audio, up to 120 fps widescreen, controller support, free roam and Online races with friends. Fan project, not
A 2D retro platformer adventure where you control PixelDebh to capture and launch enemies, collect retro items, and clear challenging levels. Built with React and TypeScript.
Free for Windows and Linux.
Game page (screenshots, download help, what to do if Windows shows a warning): English · Italiano
The core mechanic of PixelDebh: Retro-Rescue! is the ability to capture enemies. Once an enemy is captured, you can launch it as a projectile to defeat other enemies.
Capture: Get close to an enemy and press the capture button.
Launch: While holding a captured enemy, press the button again to launch it in the direction you're facing.
Double Jump: Press jump again in mid-air to reach higher platforms!
Stun Enemies: Jump and hit a platform from below to stun any enemies walking on top of it, giving you a strategic advantage!
Goal: To complete a level, you must first collect all the retro-gaming items (joysticks, floppy disks and cartridges, then cassettes, arcade tokens, an Atari 2600, an Amiga 500, CRT televisions, CD-ROMs, an NES pad and a Mega Drive console, which arrive a few at a time as the game goes on). Once all items are collected, a goal door at the far right of the level becomes active. Reach the door to advance!
Boss Battles:
Cyclops Frog (Level 4): Face off against a mighty floating frog! It moves unpredictably and launches spinning CD-ROMs. Use your special shooting ability (Left Shift) to win this dynamic encounter. You can aim in 8 directions by holding the movement keys.
LeGallineNellOcchi (Level 7): A surreal giant eye with a chicken for a pupil. It moves in a hypnotic figure-8 pattern and unleashes bursts of egg projectiles. Timing and precision are key to avoiding the spread attacks. Note: For this endurance battle, you borrow extra lives equal to half the boss's health; they are handed back when the boss falls.
CapocciaNelBuio (Level 11): The ultimate boss. Gravity is disabled, turning the game into a space shooter. This giant boss fades in and out of the darkness, teleporting around the arena and launching rapid-fireballs. Activate Rapid Fire mode during this battle!
Features
Infinite Loop (New Game+): Beat the game to enter the next Loop! Each loop increases enemy and projectile speed by 20%. Your score and lives carry over; on the victory screen press Enter for the next loop or Esc to bank your score on the leaderboard.
Vertical Scrolling (v0.3.5): The camera system now fully supports vertical scrolling, essential for the massive new Zero-G Labyrinth level.
The Labyrinth: The last level before the final stage is a real maze in the spirit of the Atari 2600: corridors on a grid, dead ends and loops, built from a fixed seed (mazeGen.ts). The camera is zoomed in (1.3x) on the player so you never see the whole map. Move in four directions with no inertia, collect every item on the map to open the exit, avoid the enemies that patrol the corridors, and beat the countdown (17 minutes at first). The labyrinth is always the same, but every LOOP brings a fifth more walkers and a minute less on the clock. Its exit leads to the final stage.
The Collector's Vault (final stage): Behind the labyrinth's exit the three bosses wait for Debh together, in a museum hall whose shelves are full of giant retro consoles, each with a quarter of the life it has in its own level. Debh moves freely and arrives with all her lives and a shield; the game is won when all three have fallen.
Zero-G Mechanics: The labyrinth, the last boss's arena and the final stage feature gravity-free movement: Debh walks in every direction, up and down included.
Revamped Level Design: Advanced levels (The Gauntlet, The Ascent, The Drop) have been audited and redesigned to provide a fair, populated, and challenging experience.
New: Standalone & Optimized: The game engine has been refactored for maximum performance and is now completely standalone, with no external API dependencies.
Custom Pixel Art Intro: A unique, animated intro sequence featuring a custom pixel-art avatar of the protagonist surrounded by orbiting gaming gear (webcam, cat, phone), set against a synthwave grid horizon.
Structured Game Progression: A full adventure across 14 levels: three worlds of three levels and a boss each, then the labyrinth and the final stage with the three bosses together, with a carefully designed difficulty curve. Each standard level is progressively longer than the last, mixing horizontal and vertical platforming challenges.
Gradual Enemy Introduction: New enemy types are introduced gradually, giving players time to learn their patterns:
Globby (Base): The standard ground enemy.
Controls
The keys below are the defaults; every control can be given other keys (two each) in Options > Controls.
Move Left:A or Left Arrow
Move Right:D or Right Arrow
Jump:Spacebar (Press twice for Double Jump)
Capture / Launch:C or X
Shoot (Boss Battles / Zero-G):Left Shift (Hold movement keys to aim in 8 directions)
Pause:ESC (the game also pauses by itself when the window loses focus)
Mute:M
Options (audio, graphics, controls, language, accessibility):O on the title screen and in the pause menu, or from the menus
Gamepad (the standard layout: Xbox, PlayStation and most modern pads; it works in the menus too): A jump (and confirm), X or Y capture / launch, B, RB, RT or LT shoot, D-pad or left stick move and aim, Start pause, B back.
Trophies:T on the title screen and in the pause menu (also in the menus)
Update:U on the title screen when a new version is announced (updates an installed copy, opens the download page for a portable one)
Fullscreen / window:F, F11 or Alt+Enter
Graphics quality:Q switches between High (dynamic lights, bloom) and Low; the game drops to Low by itself if it cannot hold 40 fps
The game opens on half a second of black, then the animated logo of Runtime Multimedia (a TV that turns on and writes the mark; code and score imported from Il Relitto Silente, intro/), half a second of black, the animated intro of the Pixel Debh channel (public/intro/pixeldebh-intro.webm, 28 s, rendered from the Remotion project), a note on how the game was made (the work of the author, with AI as a tool) and then the game's own title. Esc, Enter, Space or a click skip each of them. The title screens carry the credit By Simone Pizzi - Runtime Multimedia.
Development
npm install
npm run dev # Vite dev server
npm test # engine, input and level-data tests (Vitest)
npm run typecheck # tsc --noEmit
npm run build # production bundle (everything is bundled locally, no CDN, works offline)
Desktop app (Tauri v2, Windows and Linux)
The game also ships as a native desktop app (src-tauri/). It needs Rust and the Tauri prerequisites for your OS (on Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools with the C++ workload and WebView2; on Linux: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev and friends).
npm run desktop # run the app in dev mode (hot reload)
npx tauri build --bundles nsis # Windows installer -> src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis
npx tauri build --bundles deb,appimage # Linux packages (build this on Linux)
High scores and settings (mute and volumes) are saved in save.json in the app data folder (%APPDATA%\com.pixeldebh.retrorescue on Windows, ~/.local/share/com.pixeldebh.retrorescue on Linux). In a browser they fall back to localStorage.
Linux packages: .deb, .rpm and an .AppImage. The AppImage bundles GStreamer, which WebKitGTK needs for Web Audio; the .deb depends on the GStreamer base and good plugins.
Linux status: build, tests, launch (fullscreen), keyboard input and save file were checked on Ubuntu 24.04 (WSL2 with WSLg); the WebGL renderer runs on WebKitGTK there, but WSLg has no GPU acceleration (software GL, about 23 fps at 1080p, so the game switched itself to Low quality). It has not been tried yet on a native desktop with a real GPU, and audio has not been listened to. If the window comes up blank (seen with some NVIDIA/Wayland setups on WebKitGTK), the usual workaround is to start it with WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1; that was not needed in the checks above.
The app always starts fullscreen, as a console-style desktop game should. F, F11 or Alt+Enter drop to a 16:9 window (and back) for the current session only; it is not remembered. npm run desktop (dev mode) starts windowed so it does not take over your screen while you work.
Releases and updates. The Build and release GitHub workflow (.github/workflows/release.yml) never runs by itself: it starts only when you run it from the Actions tab, and builds the Windows installer and portable exe and the Linux .deb, .rpm and AppImage (a draft release by default). The installed game (and the AppImage) look for a newer release on GitHub when the title screen first shows and update themselves with U; the portable exe and the Linux packages only show a notice with the link. How to publish a version, and the signing key it needs: docs/RILASCIO.md.
Rendering is done by PixiJS (WebGL) in renderer/: parallax backdrops per world, dynamic 2D lights (an ambient light map multiplied over the scene, with soft lights on the player, items, enemies, projectiles, bosses and explosions), bloom, GPU particles, and interpolation between simulation steps so motion stays smooth on 144 Hz screens. The existing SVG art is rasterised into textures at start-up. If WebGL is not available the game falls back to the original DOM renderer (components/DomScene.tsx) and says so on screen for a few seconds (F3 shows the reason); adding ?dom to the URL forces it for testing. The desktop app runs with a strict Content-Security-Policy, so Pixi is loaded with its CSP-safe build (pixi.js/unsafe-eval, no eval needed).
The character
Debh is a 2D skeleton (characters/debh/): the head is the one vectorised from the channel logo (headphones, brown bob, the face drawn by hand on top so it can wink, grin and wince), the body is the profile rig from the animated intro. Her parts are baked from SVG into textures at start-up (~90 ms) and assembled by DebhRig in PixiJS; DebhAnimator poses her procedurally from what she is doing, so every move blends smoothly at any frame rate: idle with her gamepad and an occasional wink, a speed-driven run cycle, jump / apex / fall / landing crouch, a somersault on the double jump, carrying a captured enemy, the throw, aiming the gamepad like a blaster in 8 directions (shots leave from the pad), a hurt reaction, and a thumbs-up at the end of a level. In the zero-G stages (the last boss arena and the labyrinth) "zero gravity" means free movement in every direction, not flight: she keeps the same upright idle and run strides, whichever way she goes. She is 122 px tall on screen (was 74), with a 54x90 hitbox; level spawns are shifted so her feet stay where the levels put them. In the labyrinth she is drawn at 80% and collides with a low 44x56 footprint at her feet (the sprite may overhang the walls above her), so there is room to dodge walkers in a 200 px corridor. npm run dev and then /character-sheet.html shows every pose (add ?big=0,3,17 to enlarge some).
The game simulation lives in engine/ as plain TypeScript with a fixed 60 Hz timestep and no DOM or audio access: it emits events (sounds, music, game over) that GameScreen.tsx forwards to the UI and to services/soundService.ts. That is what the automated tests exercise.
Built With
React: For the component-based UI and game structure.
TypeScript: For strong typing and code quality.
TailwindCSS (v4, compiled locally): For styling the UI components. The palette of Tailwind 3 is kept in theme-v3-colors.css so the look did not change.
Vitest: For the engine tests.
License
The game is free to play. The repository has three regimes, chosen by the author (the full split of the folders, third-party notices and the note on AI are in LICENZE.md):
Music, vector artwork and presentation texts:CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: use and adapt them with credit to the author, not for commercial purposes, under the same terms.
Names, logos, app icons and the intro animations (PixelDebh, Debh, Runtime Multimedia, the channel logo, the PixelDebh intro video and the Runtime logo animation in intro/): all rights reserved. A derivative work must remove or replace them and must not present itself as the official game of the PixelDebh channel.
The music was generated with Lyria (Google) and the code, the vector artwork and the animated intro were written with the help of Claude (Anthropic), under the author's direction.
This project is a demonstration of building a simple game using web technologies.
Bomby (Bomber): A static enemy that lobs arcing bombs, controlling areas and forcing the player to stay mobile.
Ghosty (Phaser): A persistent threat that slowly follows the player, passing through walls and platforms.
Arcade High Score Leaderboard: Compete for the top score! If you make it into the top 5, the game features a fully immersive highscore entry screen where you select your initials by scrolling through the alphabet, just like on a real arcade cabinet. The leaderboard is pre-filled with default scores.
Arcade-Style Attract Mode: The title screen simulates a classic arcade cabinet, automatically and seamlessly alternating between the "Character Parade" intro and the high score leaderboard. The player can press Enter on either screen to start the game. The chiptune theme plays continuously throughout, creating a fluid attract mode experience.
Dynamic Background Music: A track for each world (Adventure, Industrial, Ethereal), one for each of the three bosses, and one each for the title screen, the leaderboard, victory and game over. The music is loaded from public/audio/music/ (see docs/MUSIC_BRIEF.md); a track without a file falls back to a short built-in loop, so the game is never silent.
Continue, level select and difficulty: the game saves where you were at the start of each level ("Continue" in the title menu takes it up again, trophy counts included); the levels you have reached can be started again from the level select (practice: no leaderboard, no trophies); Easy (5 lives, slower enemies, weaker bosses), Normal and Hard (2 lives, faster enemies, tougher bosses) are chosen in Options > Game.
English and Italian: the whole interface is in both (the arcade shouts, level and boss names and the HUD labels stay in English); the language follows the system until you choose one in Options.
Trophies: 22 trophies in four kinds (normal, rare, hard and completion), from clearing level 1 to beating the final stage without losing a life. A banner with a jingle announces each one in the game; T opens the full list on the title screen and in the pause menu. They are saved with the other settings (save.json in the desktop app). A run played with test tools switched on earns none.
Any screen, any refresh rate: the simulation always runs 60 steps a second and the picture is interpolated between steps, so a 144 Hz screen shows smoother motion of the same game; the canvas follows the window (4K, high pixel density, F11) up to 1.5x the 1920x1080 stage.
A scenery for every world: the neon city of world 1, a refinery in the smog for world 2 (cooling towers, smokestacks, gantries, glowing furnaces), floating islands, crystals and a ringed planet under an aurora for world 3, and a ruined citadel under a cracked blood moon for the bosses (renderer/worldArt.ts, drawn on the canvas at double size and shown at half so it stays sharp on big screens). The five enemies are drawn in HD vector with shading and rim light, in three readable states (normal, purple when held, dizzy when stunned).
Chain of K.O.s: defeats that follow each other within four seconds build a chain: every third one raises the multiplier of the points (x2, x3, x4, up to x5). A COMBO pill in the HUD shows the chain and the time left on it; a hit breaks it.
Boss phases: below half of its life a boss attacks and moves faster, and faster again below a quarter; a "PHASE n!" banner says so.
Enemy tells: Hoppy crouches before it jumps, Bomby swells before it lobs a bomb, the frog and the eye light up before they fire, so every attack can be read.
Guide arrow: when only three collectibles are left and the nearest is far, an arrow at the edge of the screen points the way (Options > Game, can be turned off).
Springs and moving platforms: green spring pads throw Debh about 650 px up (twice a jump) and lifts and ferries carry her across the sky. They only lead to optional shelves with a power-up (levels 3, 5, 7 and 9), never to something the level needs.
Dynamic Arcade-Style Intro: A vibrant, animated intro sequence to welcome players.
Unique Boss Encounters: Multiple bosses with distinct AI behaviors (Random Float vs Figure-8 vs Teleport/Fade) and attack patterns.
Classic 2D platforming action with a consistent pixel-perfect look
Vast, horizontally scrolling levels with a dynamic camera system
Immersive parallax background for a sense of depth
Special power-ups: Speed Boost, Shield, and the powerful Super Throw!
Chiptune sound effects and jingles synthesised by the code itself (pulse, triangle and noise channels, audio/), with an audio settings panel (O: master, music and effects volume, mute)
