Tunnel B1

Want to race through a tunnel so narrow you can barely fit? Tunnel B1 is straightforward action fun from the mid-nineties that you can knock out between two cups of coffee. Nothing complicated here — you're in one long tunnel, you need to dodge it, and go as fast as you can manage.

The game works on a first-person perspective. You see the tunnel from below, like it's rushing straight at you. Your vehicle moves left and right to avoid the walls and various obstacles hurtling closer. Controls are dead simple — arrow keys and you're good. No story, no bonuses, no power-ups, no complexity. Just tunnel, speed, and reflexes. The longer you stay without crashing, the more points you rack up. That's it.

The graphics are primitive, even for 1996 they wouldn't rank among the best — square, simple shapes, thematically colored tunnel walls. The sound is pretty grim, that head-spinning feeling you get when you're watching the same movement rhythm for too long. But that's exactly where the charm lies. The game doesn't try to be anything more than it is. It's not trying hard, it's not bloated. It simply works.

Mechanically it's the kind of machine you'd find in every computer club — pure high-score chase. It's fun for a bit and then you're over it. Obviously it's aged, these days it looks like something that could run on a calculator. But that was the era — these simple things had their appeal precisely because they were simple. There was nothing in them that could disappoint you, because the game promised nothing it couldn't deliver.

Today you'll try it because it's free, in your browser, and you've got five minutes to kill. It's not for anything more than that and you don't need to be into it. But if you're curious what PC gaming looked like when computers were just learning to entertain, Tunnel B1 is worth a visit. Nothing more, nothing less.