Ants (1998)

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ANTS
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💡 Tip: Turn your phone sideways for a bigger picture
🎮 How to Play & Controls

🎯 How to Play

  • Goal: get the most points by getting food. Send your ants to food: they pick it up and carry it home to your anthill, one piece at a time.
  • Score: yours is at the top of the screen, the other players' at the bottom. When the clock reaches 0:00 the highest score wins.
  • Power-ups dropped by special flowers give an ant a special power (see below); an ant holds one at a time.
  • Alone in the browser: there are no computer opponents (the original had none). To play against friends, use the desktop version over a network.
  • Help: F1 or the Help button shows the original's quick help.
  • Picture: 16:9 by default; Classic 4:3 is the original's picture. Choose it under the game (the game restarts), or add ?aspect=4:3 to the address (?aspect=16:9 for the wide one). ⛶ Fullscreen makes the picture as big as your screen allows.

🖱️ Mouse

  • Select: left click an ant. Shift+click adds or removes one. Drag a box (more than 4 px) to select your ants inside it.
  • Order with a left click: ground = move, food = harvest and carry it home, another player's ant = attack.
  • Right click: a move for groups, workers and combat ants; a single powered ant uses its special power. It acts when you release the button.
  • Buttons left of the Status box: Move, and for a powered ant Use Special Power. Click one, then click the target. Stop (on the right) halts the ants.
  • Minimap: hold the left button on it to scroll the map; right click sends your selected ants there.

🗺️ Scrolling

  • Edge scrolling: move the pointer to the edge of the map: an arrow shows and the map scrolls. Options → Map Scroll Rate sets the speed.
  • Minimap: hold the left button on it and the view follows the pointer.
  • Jump to an ant: Ctrl+N / Ctrl+P select the next / previous ant and scroll to it; Ctrl+H selects your anthill.
  • Zoom: the mouse wheel (a trackpad's two-finger scroll or pinch) over the map zooms in and out towards the pointer: 0.5×, 1× (the original's picture) and 2×; the middle button goes back to 1×. In an online match you can zoom in but not out: it would show more of the map than the other players see.
  • As in the original, nothing scrolls with the keyboard: arrows and WASD do nothing.

⌨️ Keyboard

  • Hold Ctrl (the Control key, on a Mac too):
  • A select all your ants • S stop the selected ants
  • L show / hide hit-point numbers
  • O options • Q quit dialog
  • Esc deselect • F1 quick help
  • Chat: just type; Enter sends. F9–F12 send the four quick chat texts (edit them in Options).
  • Setup screen: ↑ / ↓ pick the map, Enter or S starts, Q or X leaves.
  • Browsers keep some Ctrl shortcuts for themselves (Ctrl+N opens a window on Windows and Linux); the on-screen buttons always work.

🐜 Special Powers

  • An ant that picks up a power-up gets its power. Select the ant, click the special power button (or right click), then click where to use it.
  • Bomber: plants a bomb, or puts out one of yours. A bomb goes off when an ant walks onto it.
  • Fire ant: builds a wall of fire (about 3 minutes, not on mud) or puts one out.
  • Swimmer: swims, and builds or demolishes mud mound bridges on water.
  • Thief: steals food (up to 50 points) from another player's anthill.
  • Combat ant: hits hard (it throws its victim four tiles) and attacks enemy ants near it by itself.

📱 Touch & Mobile

  • Tap acts like a left click: select, move, harvest, attack.
  • Special powers: tap the special power button, then tap the target (there is no right click on a touch screen).
  • Minimap: press and drag on it to scroll the map.
  • Fullscreen: tap ⛶ in the header; landscape works best.
  • The keyboard shortcuts need a keyboard.