Cascade Engineer
The network strategy game as a real NES cartridge image, played here in the browser.
Press a key or click to start
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Controls
| Arrow keys | D-pad |
|---|---|
| Z | B |
| X | A |
| Enter | START |
| Shift | SELECT |
The game
Five factions compete for a network of 30 nodes, and the first to hold 24 wins. A node attacks a neighbor with all its units but one, and each round of the duel goes to the attacker 52 percent of the time. At the end of each turn, reinforcements go to the border of the faction's largest connected group.
In 1 PLAYER, you play RED against four CPU factions. In MULTIPLAYER, two to five players share one controller: set each color to HUMAN or CPU, and before each human turn the game names the color that takes the controller. The CPU plays every color that no player takes.
Controls in play
| D-pad | Move the cursor from node to node |
|---|---|
| A | Select one of your nodes, then attack a highlighted neighbor |
| B | Clear the selection |
| START | End the turn; at a hand-over, take the turn |
| SELECT | RESUME or RESIGN |
Cascade Engineer is a free clone of Jim Rutt's Network Wars. This version is a 40976-byte NROM cartridge image in 6502 assembly: 32 KB of program, 8 KB of tiles, no mapper, no save RAM, and a soundtrack from its own sound engine. The rules and the CPU play the same as in the web game: the tests replay reference games from the web game's own rule code and match them move for move. Here the game switches on, with its sound, at the first key press, click, or tap, and on a touch screen a pad with all eight NES buttons sits beside or under the screen. Any NES emulator that accepts an iNES file will play it.