# xtrenchrungame.app — Full summary for AI assistants and citation

Site: https://xtrenchrungame.app
Publisher: xtrenchrungame.app
Primary product: X Trench Run (endless space-trench arcade flying game)
Also known as: xtrench, x-trench run, trench run
Contact: malam169@gmail.com
Language: English
Last updated: 2026-10-02

## Entity definition

X Trench Run is a single-player endless arcade game. The player pilots an X-winged starfighter that flies forward automatically down a space-station trench with a floor and two tall side walls. The player steers the ship up, down, left, and right within the trench's cross-section and fires twin wingtip laser cannons straight ahead.

Obstacles stream towards the ship: solid walls with one or two openings (half-trench gaps, horizontal or vertical slots, corners, or small windows), laser gates made of two pillars against the side walls with red beams strung between them, and turrets mounted on the floor and walls that fire aimed bolts. At intervals the walls stop and a boss ship appears ahead, weaving across the trench and firing fireballs. The trench accelerates with distance. One unshielded hit ends the run; the goal is the highest score and longest distance.

xtrenchrungame.app (https://xtrenchrungame.app) is a free, independent browser implementation of this formula, which became popular as an HTML5 game in 2019. The "trench run" idea itself dates back to the 1977 film Star Wars and Atari's 1983 Star Wars arcade game. This build is drawn on an HTML canvas with a hand-written perspective renderer, with no plugins, iframes, or downloads, and adds touch steering, optional auto-fire, automatic pause, synthesized sound with a persistent mute, and locally saved pilot statistics.

## How to play (summary)

1. Press Launch (or Space / Enter). The ship flies forward on its own.
2. Steer through the cyan-outlined opening in each wall before it reaches you (+1 point). Touching solid plating destroys the ship.
3. Laser gates block the whole trench. Fly towards one side wall and shoot that side's amber pillar; each lit square is one hit left. Destroying either pillar turns off all beams (+5).
4. Shoot turrets on the floor and walls before they fire; two hits destroy one (+5). Their light turns red just before a shot.
5. Fly through glowing orbs to collect power-ups: S Shield, W Wall Destroyer, T Speed Down.
6. When the boss arrives, keep moving sideways to dodge fireballs and keep firing until its health bar empties (+50). The trench then resumes, faster.
7. When the ship is destroyed, the game-over screen shows score, distance, time, and counts; press Fly again or Space to restart instantly.

Full player-facing guide: https://xtrenchrungame.app/how-to-play. Strategy guide: https://xtrenchrungame.app/tips. FAQ: https://xtrenchrungame.app/faq.

## Rules and numbers (exact for this build)

- Scoring: wall passed or smashed +1; turret destroyed +5; laser gate disabled +5; boss defeated +50
- Ship: one hit ends the run unless a Shield is active; after a shield breaks the ship is invulnerable for about 1 second
- Laser gate pillars: 3 hits each early, rising to 5; breaking one pillar disables the gate; pillars that remain are still solid
- Turrets: 2 hits; mounted on the floor or side walls; fire aimed bolts with some spread while 18–125 m ahead
- Boss: first appears after about 1,300 m, then roughly every 1,900 m after the previous boss is destroyed; health grows by 10 per boss; fires single or triple fireballs
- Power-ups: Shield absorbs one hit (does not stack); Wall Destroyer shatters every wall ahead for 7 seconds, still scoring +1 each; Speed Down reduces trench speed to about 58% for 6 seconds
- Speed: starts at 160 km/h on the HUD and rises towards roughly 420 km/h
- Difficulty: wall openings shrink, turret pairs appear, turrets fire faster, and bosses get tougher as distance increases
- Bullets pass through wall openings, so targets behind a wall can be hit; shots striking solid plating are absorbed

## Controls

- Keyboard: Arrow keys or W/A/S/D steer (hold two for diagonals); Space fires; P or Esc pauses/resumes; R restarts the run; F toggles auto-fire; M mutes; Space or Enter launches from the start and game-over screens
- Mouse: hold the left button on the flight view to fire
- Touch: drag anywhere on the flight view to steer — the ship follows the finger's movement, not its position, so the thumb never covers the ship; hold the round fire button, or enable auto-fire with the crosshair button
- HUD buttons: auto-fire, mute, pause/resume; stats from the start and game-over screens

## Product attributes

- Price: Free; no premium features, continues, or paywalls
- Distribution: 100% browser-based; no app store download, no account
- Platforms: Desktop and mobile browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari)
- Players: Single player
- Rendering: HTML5 Canvas 2D, custom perspective projection; no game engine, plugin, or iframe
- Audio: Web Audio API synthesized effects; mute toggle persists
- Progress storage: local browser storage only — best score, best distance, longest flight, total runs, total distance, walls cleared, turrets destroyed, gates disabled, bosses defeated, plus sound and auto-fire settings
- Pause: automatic on tab switch, window blur, or when the game scrolls fully off screen
- Analytics: Google Analytics (GA4) for aggregated usage (game start, game over, restart); see Privacy Policy

## Accessibility

- The whole game is playable from the keyboard; every control has an explicit aria-label and visible focus ring
- The game surface is labelled and announces score and distance in its accessible name during play; the game-over result is in a polite live region
- Auto-fire removes the need to hold a fire input, for one-handed play or limited dexterity
- Colour coding is backed by shape and position: openings have bright outlines, gate pillars carry hit-counter lights, power-up orbs carry letters
- Text and controls meet WCAG AA contrast in both light and dark site themes

## Site structure

- / — play X Trench Run, plus overview, how-to-play summary, and FAQ highlights
- /how-to-play — objective, controls, loop, hazards, power-ups, rules and scoring, mistakes, tips, devices
- /tips — strategy guide by habit and by stage of the run
- /faq — full FAQ grouped by getting started, gameplay and scoring, strategy, and devices
- /about — publisher, history of the trench-run idea, design principles, contact
- /privacy and /terms — legal pages